According to this article by the Washington Post, President Trump set the annual national refugee cap at a historic low of 18,000 people. A federal appeals court unanimously decided to block President Trump’s policy allowing state and local government officials to refuse to resettle refugees in their jurisdictions.

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the administration’s policy undermines the national resettlement program created four decades ago by Congress. Lawmakers deliberately required federal officials to “consult” with state and local leaders, but chose not to require their approval or consent to allow refugees within their borders, the court said." 

This article in the Guardian describes the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on California's farmworkers. The Latino workforce have contracted Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of other residents. A study from the University of California, Berkeley, published Wednesday, is the first to explore the prevalence of infection rates among the workforce putting food on tables across America.
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"The study surveyed 1,091 farmworkers from mid-July through the end of November in the Salinas Valley, home to more than 50,000 agricultural workers. Key findings include that 13% of these workers tested over this five-month period tested positive. Comparatively, just 5% of all Californians tested came back positive."

The PEGASUS Institute is hosting a webinar on December 2 at 7 pm EST as part of their virtual event series. The webinar will focus on what a humanitarian response will look like in a post-COVID-19 world.

The event speaker will be Dr. Paul Spiegel, who is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health and Professor of Practise in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he lectures and undertakes research in humanitarian emergencies. Previously, Dr. Spiegel was the Deputy Director of the Division of Programme Support and Management at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Register here.

This article in the New York Times highlights that undocumented pregnant women are risking their health by postponing prenatal care and giving birth in their homes as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. 

​"When President Trump unleashed his crackdown on immigration, people without legal status scrambled to erase the traces of their existence to avoid being swept up. They stayed home to hide from aggressive new street arrests. And thousands dropped out of welfare programs to steer clear of a policy that posed a less visible threat. Under an expansion of the limits on “public charge,” the administration said it would withhold legalization for undocumented immigrants who had used certain public benefits."

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is hosting a webinar on November 16, 2020, from 12-1:30 pm, North American Central Time. The webinar will be focusing on COVID vulnerabilities and the plight of migrants, from pre- to post-pandemic. The speaker will be Ronald Labonté, Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity Professor in the School of Public Health and Epidemiology - University of Ottawa. This webinar is organized as one of the building-up events towards the 4th Annual Conference on Migration and Health which will be held as a virtual event on March 22-26, 2021.
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 Register for the webinar here.


 

The Brooklyn Community Bookstore is hosting a virtual event on Oct 27, 2020, with Dean Spade, author of the book Mutual Aid, and Whitney Hu, organizer and founder of South Brooklyn Mutual Aid.

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. Dean Spade's book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity. ​

In this article by The Guardian, migrant workers highlight the exploitation and poor working conditions they face as they pick food from Spain's Plastic Sea.

Workers employed by Spanish food companies connected to UK supermarkets have claimed they don’t have electricity, running water, sanitation, and sufficient personal protective equipment.

“The pandemic has exacerbated the unacceptable conditions facing migrant workers and the Spanish government must urgently act. But two-thirds of all fruit and vegetables consumed across Europe and the UK come from these greenhouses and all the companies and retailers up these supply chains have a responsibility to these workers as well."