Great Inventors ~ Migrants Making America...

R.I.P. Nicholas Winton ~ Rescuer of WWII Kids++

Sad to hear Sir Nicholas Winton has passed in his sleep at 106 years. He's one of the few who acted -- both at-scale and by-all-means-necessary -- to save children, mostly Jewish, caught up in Nazi craziness in the early phases of WWII.  And he did so quietly -- and quasi-legally -- but totally morally.  Unsung, he, with the help of his own mother, and colleagues Beatrice Wellington, Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and others in Prague, managed to organize the rescue of several trainloads totaling 669 children destined for Nazi concentration camps. A last train was stopped by the next escalation in fighting -- most (if not all) those ~200+ children died.  No one knew any of this until pretty recently.  Beyond his WWII efforts, he also cared about the elderly and infirm, setting up homes to support those in need.  And most recently, his story has been shared widely.  All together, Winton was a truly extraordinary and epic hero!

Desperate Flights ~ Refugee Flows Globally...

Sergio Peçanha and Tim Wallace in the NYTimes visualize Around the Globe, a Desperate Flight From Turmoil...

Migrant Flows ~ Plotting Source & Volume Into US

Ria Misra at io9 spots The Last 200 Years Of U.S. Immigration in One Chart by Natalia Bronshtein of Insightful Interaction...

Profitable Migration ~ Studying Remittance Capital

Michael Clemens at the Center for Global Development says It’s Time to Learn More about How Poor Families Use Migration...

"Remittances are huge -- about triple the size of foreign aid flows. That’s a big opportunity for development. But much of the research on remittances focuses on why they are primarily spent on consumption, and how governments and NGOs can get people to invest remittances. [...] Remittances are not a windfall like lottery winnings. For many low-income families, they are a return on investment. Migration is one of many financial tools they juggle to smooth income and consumption. Migration often involves a family member moving to access a different labor market, and that household is investing in an asset, bearing up-front costs for uncertain future benefits. Remittances therefore are part of the family’s [ROI]"

Fantastically important to study more! See further research.

Coordinated Migration ~ FB on Human Relocation

Thanks to the DM's Ellie Zolfagharifard for spotting How Facebook reveals human migration...

"Facebook data scientists recently compared users’ hometowns with their current residences to uncover the top 10 cities that had coordinated migrations -- or the movement of large numbers of people from one place to another. The top destinations were found throughout the world in countries that are rapidly urbanising. In these areas at least 20 per cent of the population of one city had moved to another city. [...] ‘We believe that these migrations have cultural and political motives, on top of economical ones,’ said Facebook. [...] According to this data, countries such as India, Nigeria, and Turkey are becoming increasingly urban, with many people moving from rural areas into large cities such as Hyderabad and Chennai in India and Lagos in Nigeria. For most of the cities on the top 10 list, the megacity migrations are coming from within the same countries."

Death Map ~ Humane Borders, Better Future?

The Guardian's Edward Helmore writes that 'Death map' of deserts aims to save lives of desperate Mexican migrants...

"...over the past decade, more than 2,000 corpses, often desiccated, with the bones scattered by animals, have been recovered [...] Humane Borders is one of several groups working to reduce the number of migrant deaths. Yet even as the numbers of Mexican -- and increasingly Central American -- migrants attempting the hazardous crossing appears to have declined, the number who die trying remains troublingly consistent.The crossing to America is simply becoming more dangerous. [...] a new project known officially as The Arizona OpenGIS Initiative for Deceased Immigrants -- Younglas call it the "death map" -- may begin to reduce the deaths and help families of the missing recover the bones of their members."

P.S. Weaponized Drones for the Border Patrol will not help.

Diaspora Networks ~ Mapping Migrant Clusters

The Economist Daily Chart spotlights Indian & Chinese diasporas...

"Where are the world's biggest Chinese and Indian immigrant communities? More Chinese people live outside mainland China than French people live in France, with some to be found in almost every country. Some 22m ethnic Indians are scattered across every continent. Diasporas have been a part of the world for millennia. But today their size (if migrants were a nation, they would be the world’s fifth-largest) and the ease of staying in touch with those at home are making them matter much more. No other social networks offer the same global reach—and shrewd firms are taking notice..."

Plus related Economist article on The magic of diasporas notes...

"Immigrant networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them. [...] Diaspora networks -- of Huguenots, Scots, Jews and many others -- have always been a potent economic force, but the cheapness and ease of modern travel has made them larger and more numerous than ever before. [...] These networks of kinship and language make it easier to do business across borders. They speed the flow of information. [...They] also help spread ideas. Many of the emerging world’s brightest minds are educated at Western universities. An increasing number go home, taking with them both knowledge and contacts. [...] Diasporas spread money, too. Migrants into rich countries not only send cash to their families; they also help companies in their host country operate in their home country. [...] Rich countries are thus likely to benefit from looser immigration policy; and fears that poor countries will suffer as a result of a “brain drain” are overblown. The prospect of working abroad spurs more people to acquire valuable skills, and not all subsequently emigrate. Skilled migrants send money home, and they often return to set up new businesses. One study found that unless they lose more than 20% of their university graduates, the brain drain makes poor countries richer."

CITIES ~ SciAm on Better, Greener, Smarter...

Excellent to see Scientific American's CITIES special issue on better, greener, smarter future conurbations! Since half of humanity is already urbanized and we're adding a Manhattan per month to this population, the opportunities and challenges of future cities are of paramount importance. Also stay tuned for our new Urban Ventures class at MIT (and Living Labs sister offering!)

Dangerous Passage ~ Mexico's Migrant Gauntlet

Nicholas Casey writes in the WSJournal about the horrors as Migrants Fall Prey to Mexican Gangs on Way to the U.S...

"Kidnapping Central American and Mexican immigrants is one of the latest rackets of Mexican organized-crime groups, which are expanding beyond drugs into pirated DVDs, illegal alcohol sales and business extortion. Just this year, more than 4,000 immigrants have been rescued by the Mexican army and federal police from their captors, according to government statistics. Because authorities say only a fraction of those kidnapped are ever rescued, the figures suggest that gangs kidnap tens of thousands of migrants each year. The victims, almost always headed to the U.S., are captured by gangs where they are ransomed back to relatives, forcibly recruited as workers or sometimes sold into prostitution."

This is seriously not good. Migrants are among the most vulnerable and yet ambitious of humanity and deserve special favor and protection. We ought to do and be better here.