Kith & Kin: a recurrent issue

[davidbfpo]

A short article by a British Yemeni student, which opens with:

The Yemeni diaspora in the UK, which has taken an active role in co-ordinating international action, encapsulates this phenomenon. The Yemeni diaspora has historically reflected divisions and phenomena present in Yemen, including the tension between North and South Yemen and the lack of women in community leadership roles. The Yemeni revolution challenged many of these deeply engrained norms and customs, and has, in turn, impacted the diaspora. All in all, the Yemeni revolution has been a positive force in the Yemeni diaspora, uniting, empowering and mobilizing the community to engage with policy makers and high-level UK government officials to voice its concerns and opinions about UK-Yemen relations.

Link:http://muftah.org/the-yemeni-revolut...SGAmCE.twitter

The author contends that the Yemeni community is uniting, as an observer this was sometimes hard to discern, even when meeting with the UK Ambassador to Yemen - who was on a tour of the communities in the UK.

[davidbfpo]

WoTR has an article on India's growing presence in the Middle East, notably the Persian Gulf region, which has some fascinating snippets, but I will cite the first passage which is relevant here, with my emphasis:

There are over 6 million Indian citizens working in the Middle East. That is more than the population of Finland. This provides some context as to why India has now actively started to build its relations further with the region. It also raises the question as to why it has waited for so long to do so.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2014/04/ind...-persian-gulf/

Elsewhere I have seen articles on the deaths amongst construction workers from the sub-continent on building for the World Cup in Qatar 2022; concern being expressed, not as I recall by their home governments. Here is one BBC report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26482775

[davidbfpo]

Recently I read an article on traders from the Congo (DRC) in China (PRC), which came as a surprise, as it referred to a few thousand.

According to a Wiki piece there are:

According to a local newspaper report in 2008, the number of Africans in Guangzhou had been increasing by 30-40% each year, and formed the largest black community in Asia....from Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Liberia nd the DRC....

Academics have attempted to estimate the size of the population. Huang Shiding of the Guangzhou Institute of Social Sciences in 2007 estimated the number of permanent residents of foreign nationality (six months and above) to be around 50,000, of which some 20,000 are of African origin. Roberto Castillo, a graduate student researching Africans in Guangzhou, estimated in 2013 fewer than 10,000 Africans residing in Guangzhou and 20-30,000 Africans travelling through Guangzhou at any one time. Castillo cautions that firm numbers are difficult as many Africans in Guangzhou are in constant transit so the concept of residence in this context is different from the usual understanding

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africans_in_Guangzhou

Apparently there are 300-500k expats in Shanghai, mainly from Taiwan and Asia. Plus a large number of students, many from the USA. They mainly live in one side of the city, alongside their Starbucks and the like.

[davidbfpo]

An Indian columnist on India's dependence on remittances:

Between 2001 and 2012, they remitted $339.3 billion. This was more than the total foreign direct investment flow into India during 2000-2014 which was only $326,509 million according to our commerce ministry.

I note he cites the Phillipines too:

Their 10.5 million overseas workers, including 1.074 million “irregular” workers, remitted $20 billion during 2011. This is 11.17 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP).

Link:http://www.asianage.com/columnists/o...t-out-mind-047

[Dayuhan]

An Indian columnist on India's dependence on remittances:

Back when I was spending a lot of time in that region I used to often not the peculiar symbiosis between the determined socialism of Kerala and the capitalist bastion of Dubai. Kerala's much-praised educational system produces quantities of graduates who can find no work in Kerala, so they end up filling Dubai's huge demand for mid-level bureaucrats. Not sure either could survive without the other.

I note he cites the Phillipines too:

I found that Philippine languages grease the wheels as effectively in the Middle East as they do in the Philippines, maybe more so. Speaking Tagalog in a hotel, restaurant, or shopping mall in the Middle East can get you a pretty amazing level of service.

The Gulf pattern seems to be that Filipinos are preferred for jobs involving face to face contact with customers, Indians dominate the back offices. Laborers are from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Technical expertise comes from Americans and Europeans, with a growing Korean and Chinese presence.

Of course Filipino workers are all over the world, not just the Middle east, less sure about the Indians on that score.

[davidbfpo]

The protests in Hong Kong have not appeared here (yet), but their impact is way beyond the special administrative region (SAR) as this Canadian article explains:

Because there are 300,000 Canadian citizens (most of Hong Kong origin) living in Hong Kong, and about 500,000 people of Hong Kong descent living in Canada, we have a big stake in the events playing out in Hong Kong.

Link:http://www.asiapacific.ca/canada-asi...-uncertainties

[davidbfpo]

A strange tale:

After Speaker John Boehner tapped him (Representative Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) as House Intelligence chairman in January, Nunes was in a better position to directly challenge the Pentagon. He set his sights on relocating the Joint Intelligence Analysis Center (JIAC), an “intelligence fusion center” that Congress approved for construction at U.K. airbase RAF Croughton.

Link:http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...air-force-base

Update June 2016:

The US is moving forward with consolidating its transatlantic intelligence analysis operations within a planned Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex at RAF Croughton..

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rce-leave-vote