A new report by GloMHI Members Dr. Uttam Bajwa and Dr. Denise Gastaldo along with Dr. Erica Di Ruggeiro explores the rapidly growing gig economy and reveals new insights on how online platform-mediated work has the potential to transform the future of work and health in Canada and internationally.

In the context of the rise of digital platform businesses, “gigs” are short-term, temporary contracts that are typically low paid and provide no training, health, or retirement benefits. More and more Canadians are participating in the gig economy, a trend with significant health implications, especially related to precarious work and income insecurity –major predictors of disease.

According to the report, Towards an Understanding of Workers in the Global Gig Economy, measuring the size of the gig economy is challenging because the work is largely invisible and not captured by existing labour market statistics and economic indicators.
 
The report provides frameworks for approaching gig worker vulnerabilities, underscores the importance of exploring the knowledge gaps, and the need for further research on the social, economic, and health implications of gig work.

The Guardian reports that Amber Rudd has quit her position as home secretary after "repeatedly struggling to explain her role in the unjust treatment of Windrush generation migrants."

In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister Theresa May, Rudd stated she is resigning because after reviewing the officials advice, she now agrees that she should have been "aware that the Home Office had targets for the removal of illegal immigrants." 

CNN reports the story of Nikolle Contreras as she attempts to cross into the United States for the third time, but her first since she came out as a woman. 

Contreras first tried to cross the border in 2016 and then again again in 2017 by swimming across the river from Mexico. But she almost drowned and ended up in a coma for two days. She was then detained and deported back to her home country of Honduras where she decided to live as a transgender woman openly. She soon realized she needed to depart Honduras as it is "one of the most dangerous countries in the world for transgender people."

"Discrimination because of my sexuality, lack of work, discrimination within my own family for being gay and worse, for being a trans person," she said. "It's very, very difficult." 

Contreras is one of the 25 transgender and gender nonconforming people who have joined a caravan of Central American migrants attempting to cross through Mexico to the United States border. 

A new UNHCR Report, Desperate Journeys, offers a brief overview of trends of movements by refugees and migrants to and through Europe in 2017. It also calls attention to various important protection challenges related with these desperate journeys and concludes with recommendations.

The report notes that sea arrivals to Italy, majority from Libya, have decreased greatly since July of 2017. “Journeys to and through Europe for refugees and migrants remain fraught with danger,” said Pascale Moreau, Director of UNHCR's Europe Bureau.

The documentary "My First 150 Days" follows the Banico family, newly arrived from the Philippines, in their first 150 days in Toronto. Melona Banico left her rural village and family behind nearly a decade ago when she departed for Canada. The documentary highlights the family's emotional journey as newcomers on a foreign land. 

The Challenging Migrant Detention Conference is happening on June 19 -21, 2018 in Montreal, Canada.

The conference will draw on experiences of detention and resistance in multiple countries, and discuss strategies to challenge migrant detention, including research, litigation and community mobilization.  
 
Speakers include:
François Crépeau, McGill University, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants; Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard University; Mary Bosworth, University of Oxford; Jean-Nicolas Beuze, UNHCR; Guglielmo Schinina, IOM; representatives of the International Detention Coalition, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, End Immigration Detention Network, and many others 
 
Topics include:
·         Detention of children 
·         Migrant voices: former detainees speak out
·         Mental health impact of immigration detention
·         Migrants’ experiences at the US/Mexico border
·         Resistance to deportation and detention in Israel, Italy and Greece
·         Fortress Europe: From the Balkans route to Mediterranean hotspots
·         Detention of migrants in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Australia
·         Racialization and Othering in the detention process
·         Innovative judicial remedies, from habeas corpus to Charter damages
·         Strategies for minimizing immigration detention in Canada

Register at:
http://www.sherpa-recherche.com/en/partage-des-savoirs/colloques-2/
 

A new report released by the World Bank, titled "Groundswell-Preparing for Internal Climate Migration", highlights how without immediate global and national climate action, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America will have over 140 million people move within their countries’ borders by 2050.

The report shifts the focus from cross-border migration to internal migration. It focuses on three case studies: Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Mexico.