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Hungary responded to the migrant crisis by erecting strong border fences on its frontiers with Serbia, which is entirely outside the borderless European Union (EU), and Croatia, which is inside the bloc but not yet included in its passport-free Schengen zone.

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The government is now upgrading these defences, which haveslashed illegal migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands and saved the country billions of forints. It is also recruitingan extra 3,000 border guards. But the prime minister warned 462 new recruits that we cannot afford to sit back during anoath-taking ceremony on Tuesday.

We have gained time between two major attacks, he declared. The storm has not yet passed, but has only subsided temporarily.

Orbn believes the country must take advantage of the current lull to reinforce its physical defences and bolster its border guard force, sending a clear message to illegal migrants.

If the world sees that we can protect our borders, if they see that the reinforced Hungarian border fence is impenetrable, and that we continue to insist on upholding our laws and we do not waver for a second then nobody will attempt to come to Hungary illegally, he said.

While spokesman Zoltn Kovcshas previouslyassertedthe fences are ultimately protecting the European Union, not Hungary, the prime minister warned that the Central European state should not expect outside support.

We can only rely on ourselves, he said, telling listeners that Brussels bureaucrats would only make our job more difficult.

Orbn contends the migrant crisis will remain on the agenda until people everywhere realise that migration is the Trojan horse of terrorism. He told the recruits they were the defenders of both freedom for Hungarys present and hope for Hungarys future.

We Hungarians want a Europe in which we can live our own Hungarian lives. In the Hungary that we want, security is the foremost concern.

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Hungary Migrant Crisis: 'The Storm Has Not Yet Passed We Are Under Siege' - Breitbart News

By sheer chance, or perhaps premeditation, Mohsin Hamid's new novel, Exit West, grapples with two great global catastrophes of our time: the migrant crisis and spread of terror. While both themes have immense dramatic potential, the plot remains disappointingly thin, the central characters just stopping short of coming alive in their full human complexity.

Like Hamid's previous novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Exit West is set in an unnamed city in the subcontinent, under siege from an outfit like the Taliban or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). To curb the people's resistance, the militants indulge in unspeakable atrocities, leaving "bodies hanging from street lamps and billboards like a form of festive seasonal decoration."

Under these inglorious circumstances, Saeed and Nadia meet at an evening school, though they don't fall in love at first sight. Saeed is a sweet-tempered youth, almost docilely good-natured, while Nadia is fiery and rebellious, having left the security of home. Straddling a bike, she drives it across the city wearing a burqa so that men "don't fuck" with her. She smokes pot on her terrace, smuggles Saeed into her flat in a burqa, and has steelier nerves than him in the face of adversity.

READ: Why You Must Read This Novel About Two Girls Who Join The ISIS

But trouble pours into their lives soon. Saeed's mother has her head blown off in a freak gun battle, war breaks out shortly, rations become scarce and the sight of the dead on the streets as common as the living. Desperate for an exit, Saeed and Nadia buy a passage to another country from an agent, though they cannot persuade Saeed's father, broken by grief, to leave with them.

Hamid's writing is spare, unadorned to the point of severity, which may give the impression that one is reading the outline for a novel rather than its fully-fleshed form. He introduces brief digressions perhaps by way of complexity, opening up windows to happenings in other cities of the world in the US, Japan, Australia or Austria though these never add up to a sub-plot. Such fragments fit into the overall design of the dystopia he creates, but don't feel strictly germane to the progression of the master narrative.

The veneer of dystopia Hamid creates is understated, like his language, though its real-life correlation is too horrific for it to go unremarked. When Saeed and Nadia flee their country, like millions of refugees, they don't take a perilous journey by boat or other means rather, they pay the agent to walk through one of the mysterious, but ubiquitous, doors that have popped up in their city. Think of the magical door in Narnia or Alice in Wonderland or even the teleportation scenes in the popular TV series Fringe.

Such doors may be a familiar trope in assembly-line dystopias, but their parallel in the real world in incidents where millions have perished while fleeing oppressive regimes, lost their families or drowned in the seas are too wrenching to be turned into as seamless a transition as Hamid describes.

While Saeed and Nadia struggle to build their lives from scratch in places they find themselves in from the Greek island of Mykonos to the city of London to Marin Country, California their opponents, "the natives", are mostly portrayed in broad strokes, as a conglomerate of evil and desperation.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid had succeeded in conveying the predicament of an outsider in a foreign land with nuance, showing up the politics of everyday life with an acute sensitivity. While he left behind the warmth of humanity in his first novel Moth Smoke, to my mind his best till date, he created a nexus of ideas in his more cerebral later fiction.

In spite of opening Exit West with two characters who absorb the reader's attention, Hamid quickly divests them of their humanity. This is not to say Saeed or Nadia becomes cardboard characters far from it but the spark they ignited in our minds at the start goes off halfway through the reading.

Perhaps this is Hamid's way of signalling their gradual disintegration as the life they had envisioned falls apart, a diminishing of their persons as immigrants in hostile societies. But he is also unable to resist the Dickensian urge to give us a glimpse into their lives years ahead an unfortunate device that heightens the shallowness of his character-building.

(Exit West is published by Hamish Hamilton, hardback, 232 pages, 599.)

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How Not To Write About The Migrant Crisis And Changing World Order - Huffington Post India

Families affected by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 live in temporary tents. Climate change is set to drive more people from their homes in the future, but the world is ill prepared to deal with climate migrants, say experts. Image: ADB, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Nearly 15 million people worldwideapproximately the population of Cambodiawere forced from their homes in 2015 by weather-related disasters, including violent storms, floods and landslides.

As climate change intensifies, those numbers will rise. Not everyone will end up resettling elsewhere, but a large, undetermined number of displaced people are already becoming environmental migrants, defined by the International Organization for Migration as people who are obliged or choose to leave home due to sudden or progressive environmental changes that adversely affect their lives.

Climate change is one factor in the rising numbers of these displaced people, but the associated crisis is where many of these people live. Up to 650 million people live in areas that will be submerged or exposed to chronic flooding by 2100. The majority of people facing such threats make their home in Asia and the Pacific, the worlds most disaster-prone region, which is acutely exposed to the impacts of climate change.

Sea level rise, one of the most destructive climate change impacts, poses an irreversible threat to coastal communities and island states. Nine of the 10 countries with the largest number of vulnerable people living in low-lying areas are in Asia. In the Pacific, climate change threatens to literally redraw the map.

Entire countries and cultures on the small states in the worlds largest body of water confront an uncertain future. Australian climate researchers have identified five small reef islands in the Solomon Islands that have vanished over the past seven decades, and six other islands that have lost much of their land to the sea.

Receding shorelines have wiped out two villages, forcing residents to higher ground.The isolated nation of Tuvalu, just 2m above sea level, appears to be the country most threatened by climate change. Peak tides have reached as high as 3.4 meters.

The international community has awoken to the human toll of environment-related displacement, and to the likelihood that climate change will exacerbate these conditions. In 2015, governmental delegations from 109 countries endorsed the Nansen Protection Agenda for people displaced by disaster and climate change, and the Platform for Disaster Displacement has been established to implement this agenda.

More than 20 events discussing the link between climate change and migration were held during the COP22 meeting last November in Marrakech, Morocco.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change called for the creation of a task force to develop ways of avoiding or minimizing human displacement caused by climate change. This was a significant advance, and it is important that the task force be formed, funded, and become active as soon as possible.

It has been given less than two years to deliver recommendations applicable at subnational, national, regional, and international levels, and to identify legal, policy and institutional challenges, as well as good practices and lessons learned.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific are already bolstering their defenses against environmental threats, and preparing for displacement in areas that are no longer safe to inhabit. The Peoples Republic of China, Papua New Guinea, and Viet Nam have relocated communities that face flood risks.

Bangladesh, long accustomed to cyclones and extensive flooding, has signed an agreement with the Netherlands to reclaim land by using sediment flowing through the countrys rivers, creating resettlement areas for people displaced by river erosion.

In Mangoroco, a village in Iloilo province in the Philippines, a sea wall built by residents saved many lives when Typhoon Haiyan hit the area in 2013. Kiribati has adopted a migration with dignity policy to create opportunities for those who wish to emigrate abroad now and in the near future.

With planning and investment, some migration can be averted or postponed. In other cases, migration should be promoted as a practical way of adapting before its too late.

A 2012 ADB study recommended that countries conduct national assessments of natural disaster risks, calling for strengthened disaster risk management through better early disaster warning systems and improved design of post-disaster sheltering plans.

Theres also a need for social protection and jobs for those who remain behind in vulnerable areas. Governments can support development initiatives driven by the communities themselves, as well as skills training and alternative livelihood programs.

They can invest in climate-resilient sustainable infrastructure and basic services in migrant-receiving cities, using hazard maps to guide future resettlement plans, and consulting with local communities in the construction of storm-resistant homes.

Environmental migration should be systematically addressed in strategy, policy, and planning documents on climate change, such as nationally determined contributions under the COP process, as well as in country development plans and disaster risk reduction strategies.

With planning and investment, some migration can be averted or postponed. In other cases, migration should be promoted as a practical way of adapting before its too late.

What should be avoided, however, is inertia. Better policies, strong leadership, rigorous scientific research, and international cooperation will help vulnerable communities make informed choices about their future rather than let climate change decide for them.

Bart Edes is Advisor, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department; Head, Knowledge Sharing and Services Center, Asian Development Bank. This blog first appeared as an article in Asian Geographic magazine and is republished from the ADB blog.

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Heading off a climate migration crisis in Asia - eco-business.com

Society

16:10 09.03.2017(updated 16:14 09.03.2017) Get short URL

"When I came toEurope I had lost everything, I had gone fromworking ina Five Star hotel inDamascus, the capital ofSyria, totraveling formonths onend toreach safety inGreece," Mohammad told Sputnik.

Mohammad Al-Masri is a refugee fromSyria; he left Damascus and traveled toTurkey in2015 alongwith millions ofothers, ashe manged tosurvive the perilous journey bysea toGreece. He then ended uptraveling toa small village inthe Netherlands called Ter Apel, fromthere he went onto Amsterdam.

Recalling the time inSyria when he watched the Egyptian movie Hammam inAmsterdam, Mohammed felt likehe knew the city even beforehe arrived.

"After watching that film, I felt likeI knew the place already. It was home tome," Mohammad told Sputnik.

It was atthis stage that he made contact withartists and entrepreneur Teun Castelein, founder ofRederij Lampedusaboat tours. Mr. Castelein had the idea ofbringing awareness tothe plight ofrefugees and decided torun boat tours withrefugees asthe guides, asit was the easiest way tomake a statement and tobring awareness tothe issue ofimmigration.

The result was the resurrection oftwo boats, namedHedir and Meneer Vrijdag, once used totransport refugees toEurope fromTurkey.

"We have all read inthe media aboutrefugees, they were painted ina dark light, however I saw it asa huge humanitarian issue and I felt I had todo something; it had a very personal agenda. I have an entrepreneurial spirit and that is how the idea came about," Mr. Castelein told Sputnik.

The tour group will run daily cruises fromApril, each lasting one hour and costing US$20 per person. They will take passengers throughthe city's world-famous waterways.

Mr. Castelien hopes that the boat tours will bring tothe forefront the plight ofrefugees and migrants inEurope, inwhat he considers a bold statement aswell asan artistic outlet.

"If you put one ofthese boats ontothe canal, what will happen practically withyour audience? The easiest way tomake a statement is toput it inyour face," he said.

Mr. Castelein and Mohammad are now friends, united bya common cause and spurred onwith the aim ofachieving a better tomorrow.

"We are all friends so, we do not want tomake them [refugees] outto be victims likethe rest ofthe media. The boats are a symbol ofbeauty. The history ofour city has been one ofmigration, great philosophers, writers and artists have all been immigrants," Mr. Castelein told Sputnik.

For Mohammad this journey is more thana boat tour, it's aboutraising awareness and being inclusive.

"I hope that people living and visiting the city will see that it is all aboutinclusion and that it is far better tohave an inclusive society then one which aims toexclude," Mohammad told Sputnik.

These boat tours are just the start ofMohammad's new life, he has dreams ofone day owning his own hotel, a social enterprise project which will allow every person staying todo so forfree.

Link:
Dutch Boat Tours With Refugee Guides Put a Human Face on Europe's Migrant Crisis - Sputnik International

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According to figures compiled by the German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) and reported byWelt, between 2005 and 2015 some 3.8 million non-Europeans came to Germany. The migration statistics, which counted individuals fromAsia, Africa, America and Oceania who registered themselves as long-term residents of Germany as opposed to mere tourists, didnt include another four million individuals living in Germany from other European Union nations.

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The 3.8 million surge in new arrives in the decade leading to 2015 was nearly twice as high as the less than two million who came in the last decade of the Cold War between 1980 and 1990, when West Germany was pursuing a deliberate policy of welcoming Turkish guest workers. Although the scheme had initially intended to see the workers return home to start new lives in Turkey with money they had saved from high German wages, in reality the majority stayed.

Today Turks are the second largest group in Germany after Germans themselves.

The makeup of migrants coming to Germany in the 21st century is not only greater in number, but more diverse. While in the 1980s the vast majoritywere Turkish with the next nearest being citizens from the USA, today the largest group are Syrians, followed by Turks, Americans, Chinese, Indians, Afghans, and Iraqis.

Of all the groups represented in the highest inflows, only arrivals from the United States have remained reasonably stable in the intervening 25 years. Americans, like migrants from other wealthy nations like Japan and some EU countries only live in Germany briefly for professional reasons before going home, according to the report.

Of European migrants to Germany, counted in a separate figure of over four million who presently live in the country, amajority of around four-fifths are from Eastern nations likeRomania, Poland, Bulgaria, and Croatia.

Overall, individuals who are migrants or have a migratory background either from other EU states or the rest of the world make up one-fifth of all people living in Germany today. This figure rises to one thirdwhen only children under ten are counted, pointing toward a sharp and sudden demographic change looming that could see the face of Germany radically changed in coming decades.

Leading just to 2015, and with the official 2016 migratory figures not expected for months, these statistics do not yet include the record-breaking influx of people to Germany from the migrant crisis, which in just two years could easily have outstripped all migration to the nation in the 1980s.

The sudden surge of immigrants to Germany has not come without unrest. As reported by Breitbart London in November, global polling found that Germans had the highest level of concern about immigration and extremism of any country worldwide.

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At Nearly Four Million, Immigration to Germany in 2000s Near Double 1980s Turkish Surge - Breitbart News