Canada's western provinces used to be a sleepy extension of our own agricultural inland. Now a boom has Canada looking for faster ways to bring in skilled immigrants to help with all the work.
The UW Center for Human Rights and immigrant community advocates at OneAmerica charge that Latino groups live in a climate of fear produced by racial profiling and other Border Patrol practices.
A coalition of local and global health groups have banded together to bring the lessons they've learned in developing countries to south King County, where the health index is as bad as Nairobi.
The notion of a "suburb" is history. Diversity, greater density, more shopping and transportation choices are all part of the new identities of the communities around Seattle.
Welcome to Kent, frontline for the forces transforming America's suburbs: poverty and hardship, global diversity, and exciting new energy and innovation.
Welcome to Kent, frontline for the forces transforming America's suburbs: poverty and hardship, global diversity, and exciting new energy and innovation.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sues a series of Northwest employers for letting foremen harass and assault immigrant workers. Civil rights attorneys say abused farm and janitorial workers are just starting to come forward.
Tale of two Seattles: Poised between the very different worlds of Queen Anne and Southeast Seattle, our bipolar correspondent discovers what a difference a neighborhhood bar can make.
A program started in the first Bush administration is supposed to create jobs. To a supporter of manufacturing and export jobs, the fed effort looks like a real threat to Seattle's economic base.
A new immigration reform bill was outshined this week by its 300 amendments. Some of the amendments include: punishing South Korean immigrants until South Korea buys more U.S. beef, and an amendment that requires a familly of four to make more than $94,000 a year. This reform could cost more than $6 trillion dollars, a report says.
NEW YORKER
David Brooks: what opponents of immigration reform really fear
"First, immigration opponents are effectively trying to restrict the flow of conservatives into this country. In survey after survey, immigrants are found to have more traditional ideas about family structure and community than comparable Americans. They have lower incarceration rates. They place higher emphasis on career success. They have stronger work ethics. Immigrants go into poor neighborhoods and infuse them with traditional values."
The Tea Party types in the party thought Mitt Romney was going to win. Seriously, right up to the day of the election. The loss has forced many to reconsider some of their views. And the other side became more sophisticated.
SLATE
Ross Douthat: A dissent on the rush to immigration reform
"The bill has been written this way because America’s leadership class, Republicans as well as Democrats, assumes that continued mass immigration is exactly what our economy needs.... Is there any reason to be skeptical of this optimistic consensus? Actually, there are two: the assimilation patterns for descendants of Hispanic (particularly Mexican) immigrants and the socioeconomic disarray among the native-born poor and working class."
"The big picture is that immigration is a good thing for the American economy, and, judging from our analysis, a good thing for metros in particular, being associated with higher wages, higher incomes, and more high-tech industry, among other things."