19 March 2019   Leave a comment

The speaker of Britain’s House of Commons, John Bercow, threw a monkey wrench into Prime Minister May’s plan for a third vote on her agreement with the European Union on the terms of Britain’s exit from the Union. Bercow ruled that the agreement, which has been defeated twice in the Parliament, cannot be resubmitted unless it is “substantially” changed. It is high;ly unlikely that May could secure substantial revisions before the deadline date of 29 March. The options for May now seem to be: 1) terminate the current Parliament and call for a new Parliament, in which case the EU agreement would be new business; 2) accept the deadline and endure a “no-deal” Brexit; 3) try to pass an deadline extension without any clear sense of when another agreement can be forged, an outcome that would give the 27 members of the EU heartburn. Stay tuned.

The Pew Research Center has conducted a survey in the 18 countries which are the top destinations for migrants to determine sentiments toward immigration. In the majority of cases, most citizens view migrants favorably, believing that immigration strengthens the country. According to the report:

“In 10 of the countries surveyed, majorities view immigrants as a strength rather than a burden. Among them are some of the largest migrant receiving countries in the world: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia (each hosting more than 7 million immigrants in 2017).

By contrast, majorities in five countries surveyed – Hungary, Greece, South Africa, Russia and Israel – see immigrants as a burden to their countries. With the exception of Russia, these countries each have fewer than 5 million immigrants.

Meanwhile, public opinion on the impact of immigrants is divided in the Netherlands. In Italy and Poland, more say immigrants are a burden, while substantial shares in these countries do not lean one way or the other (31% and 20% respectively).

The US admits about 18% of the world’s migrants, followed by Germany and Russia, each with 5% of the world’s migrants.

Posted March 19, 2019 by vferraro1971 in World Politics

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