Tag Archives: Economics

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

U.A.E. News | Visitors & Religious Minorities

Dubai food courts open for non-fasters during Ramadan, easing restrictions for non-Muslims and non-observants
  • While eating in public during the day is criminalized in Dubai during Ramadan, food courts have been given the legal option to cover their entrances and open their services in designated areas to those not fasting.
  • The allowance is particularly welcome by tourists visiting Dubai’s sprawling malls, now able to eat in one of the Mall of the Emirates’s food courts and the Dubai Mall food court.
  • In addition, non-fasting Muslims including children and those abstaining for health purposes are able to access the designated eating areas.

Read the full story from the Khaleej Times at Yahoo! News Maktoob.

(Image Credit: via Yahoo! News Maktoob)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Spain News | Gay Men

A decade after same-sex marriage legalized in Spain, couple faces ongoing familial insecurity as legal challenges to their parental rights continue
  • The couple had twins via surrogacy in 2013, but Spain’s National Institute of Social Security (INSS) denied one of the fathers’ request for leave benefits specifically due to the method of conception.
  • The administration argued that surrogate parenting is excluded from leave benefits for fathers because it entails none of the burdens that childbirth, adoption, or foster care do.
  • Two years later, a court sided with the new parents, ordering the INSS to pay the couple the withheld benefits, and after an appeal led to an additional ruling in favor of the couple, the INSS is appealing to the Supreme Court.

«Está claro que yo no he parido ni adoptado a mis hijos, pero ¿cómo vamos a conciliar nuestra vida familiar y laboral? ¿Pretende el INSS que renuncie al cuidado de mis hijos o que renuncie a pagar mis facturas e hipoteca?»

Translation: “It’s clear that I haven’t given birth or adopted my sons, but how are we going to reconcile our family and work life? Does the INSS expect me to give up caring for my sons or give up paying my bills and mortgage?”

Read the full story at La Verdad (in Spanish).

(Image Credit: Pablo Sánchez/AGM, via La Verdad)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

South Africa News | Black Women

IBM South Africa launches new program devoted to entrepreneurship and STEM education for black South Africans
  • The IBM South Africa Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Equity Equivalent Investment Programme will devote millions of South African rands to skills education, financial and professional development support for small and medium-sized businesses, and the construction of a new research hub in Johannesburg.
  • The program is focused on supporting information, communication, and technology entrepreneurship and business development in South Africa’s black communities, particularly among black women.
  • The program’s academic components will support undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral students through scholarships, internships, and supplementary courses and projects.

“The equity equivalent programmes are expected to contribute towards the achievement of enterprise creation and development, foreign direct investment, accelerated growth and development of black rural women and youth, sustainable growth and development, human development with focus on education and skills development, infrastructure investment with an emphasis on developing the country’s research and development infrastructure.”

Read the full story at SAinfo.

(Image Credit: IBM photo, via SAinfo)

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Greek Immigrants

As financial crisis looms, Greeks escape to Australia
  • Tens of thousands have immigrated to Australia in search of opportunity after Greece’s financial collapse has left families in economic ruin.
  • The immigration wave is the largest from Greece since its civil war in the 1940s, which sent more than 150,000 to Australia’s shores.
  • Melbourne, the city with the largest Greek population outside of Europe, has already seen overcrowding and a tightening job market, which could hamper opportunity for arrivals.

“I feel like I’m on a lifeboat and seeing the Titanic sink. … I’m relieved but my people are still on that ship.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Melanie Burton/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Global News | International Visitors

Global “voluntourism” industry sparks concerns among researchers, humanitarian organizations for lack of regulation and sustainability-mindedness
  • One researcher indicates as many as 10 million are spending $2 billion each year to participate in service-oriented travel programs.
  • With no regulatory agency setting quality standards for organizations, there is limited accountability for projects undertaken, which can include quality-sensitive work like construction projects, childcare, and education.
  • Critics warn that the focus on altruism rather than skill can have negative economic impacts on destinations despite good intentions, with short-term, profit-driven solutions displacing long-term strategies for sustainable development.

“There’s this idea that is in-built in voluntourism that we in the West have the knowledge and the skills to make a difference, we have a right to make a difference. … It doesn’t even matter if we’re unskilled, it’s just the good will that matters because we’re somehow bonding anyway.”

Read the full story at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

(Image Credit: Aly Song/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Israel News | Immigrants

Immigration to Israel from Russia and former Soviet countries up sharply this year
  • As of June 1, approximately 5,904 have arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union, an increase of 56.94% from 3,698 during the same period in 2014.
  • 2,990 have immigrated from Ukraine, an 85.25% increase from 2014 and more than the total number of 1,982 from 2013, the year before the Ukrainian conflict began.
  • Ongoing violence in Ukraine as well as the Russian economic downturn have been credited as contributing to the jump in immigrants.

Read the full story at The Times of Israel.

(Image Credit: Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90, via The Times of Israel)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Canada News | Minorities

Toronto government works to boost proportion of minority-led and diverse businesses receiving government contracts
  • The city council has begun rolling out a social procurement framework for business development, which could lead to a policy in which one of three short-listed bids for city contracts would be from diverse or minority-led businesses (including those identified as immigrant, racial/ethnic minorities, women, and/or gay or lesbian).
  • In 2012, 7% of bidders were minority-led or -controlled and received C$339 million in contracts, while in 2013, 5% were and received C$434 million.
  • The city and business leaders acknowledge that the highest hurdles facing minority business owners are lack of awareness about minority-friendly programs, aversion to working with the government because of perceived rigidity, and self-selection out of the contracting process from fear of lacking necessary connections.

Read the full story at Inside Toronto.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Dominican Republic News | LGBT

Dominican Republic organization works with government and community to promote tourism and economic empowerment for LGBT community
  • The Center for Integrated Training and Research (COIN) has roots in the three-decade fight against AIDS in the Caribbean.
  • The organization now focuses on economic empowerment , through which it has worked with government and travel industry officials and offered community workshops through its program ProActividad.
  • Out U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James “Wally” Brewster and his husband have worked to support the country’s LGBT community despite opposition in the conservative, Catholic-predominant country.
“We are all looking for the same thing: To eliminate negative things in order for us to build something positive.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
(Image Credit: Michael K. Lavers/Washington Blade)
Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Tensions increase between West African pastoralists and the nations they migrate through as conflict alters movement routes
  • As threats from Boko Haram alter their routes from the Sahel to coastal countries, nomadic Fulani and Tuareg herders find their practices in conflict with farmers and environmentalists in Ghana.
  • The pastoralists contribute to deforestation and other forms of land disruption as they clear areas for their livestock to graze, disrupting agricultural economic activity and increasing farmer insecurity.
  • Environmental officials propose designating land for herders and educating them in sustainable land-management practices and economic diversification will be necessary to prevent long-term environmental destruction and secure long-term livelihoods for the nomadic communities.

“They move because their environment is not good for them and their animals. What do you do if you have hundreds of cattle and have nothing to feed them?”

Read the full story at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

(Image Credit: Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters)

Age, Nationality + Migration
Venezuelan youth and young adults look to emigrate as their country’s economic crisis deepens
  • One in four Venezuelans between the age of 15 and 29 have indicated a desire to leave the country, with 29% hoping to move to the U.S., 18% to Spain, and 9% to Colombia.
  • Skyrocketing inflation has made renting an apartment or buying a car next to impossible.
  • The government has created programs to address the lack of mobility, but skeptics observing the current political situation expect to find better prospects elsewhere.

“Recovery is going to take years, no matter who is governing. At the end all the politicians are alike.”

Read the full story at Fox News Latino.

Nationality + Migration
Google VP has high praise for Russian engineers, while domestic Russian firms lament lack of resources
  • Mohammad Gawdat, Google’s VP of Business Innovation at Google X, calls Russians Google’s best engineers at economic forum in St. Petersburg.
  • According to Gawdat, Russians account for 25% of Google’s engineers.
  • Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, however, says that domestic companies are suffering as tech profits and talent head overseas.

Read the full story at Meduza.

Nationality + Migration
German couple starts roommate-matching service for refugees in the country
  • In late 2014, Jonas Kakoschke and Mareike Geiling started Flüchtlinge Willkommen (Refugees Welcome), a platform where Germans can advertise open rooms in their homes available to refugees.
  • Provided for a set period of time, the room advertisements are reviewed by local NGO partners to find a suitable match and is provided free of charge to refugees, financed by either local governments or microfinancing.
  • So far, 52 matches in 11 towns have been made, with the service having recently expanded to Austria as well.

“We are not like the solution for many thousands of people. …We are more like an experiment and a political statement to say, ‘Hey, there are people here who want to welcome other people in a positive way.’”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Facebook photo, via BuzzFeed)

Gender, Health + Ability
Redesigned U.S. $10 bill to feature woman historical figure and new tactility
  • The currency redesign will be the first to include a female figure on a major U.S. bill denomination.
  • The Treasury Secretary has called on the public to offer its opinions on who should grace the bill using the hashtag #TheNew10, with the only stipulations being that the figure not be alive and should represent American democracy.
  • The redesigned bill will debut in 2020 and will also be the first to include tactile features so as to be distinguishable to blind people.

“We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I’m proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman.”

More on this story at CNN.

Gender, Nationality + Migration
Qatar Airways under fire for gender-discriminatory policies, including pregnancy discrimination and freedom to marry
  • The UN’s International Labor Organization has ruled that the state-funded airliner discriminated against women through contracts statements indicating it could terminate their contract should they become pregnant.
  • Employees also had to seek permission from the company for a change in marital status and could only be accompanied to the airport by a male if he were her father, brother, or husband.
  • Comprising 80% of the airline’s cabin crew (of which 90% are foreign workers), women remain vulnerable to discriminatory employment practices carried out under threat of deportation.

“This decision is a game-changer. …A year ago we put Qatar and Qatar Airways in the dock and today it has been proved that we were right to do so. The changes made to the rules for staff failed to fool the ILO. Now the airline must make them for real. It’s time to make Qatar Airways free from fear.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Gender
The U.N.’s safe cities initiative integrates women’s safety into development projects globally
  • The cross-sector “Safe Cities Global Initiative” aims to stem sexual violence and harassment of women in urban spaces through infrastructure and program development.
  • In Delhi, mobile app Safetipin crowdsources safety reviews of public spaces and integrates GPS for personal tracking and security.
  • Projects have sprung up in other cities as well, including Cairo, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, and Kigali in Rwanda.

“Unsafe public spaces limit women’s and girl’s life choices. This daily reality limits their freedom to participate in education, work, recreation, and in political life.”

More on this story at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.