January 2019
Migrants in Germany
A “river of migrants” moved to Western Europe and especially Germany in Fall 2015. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Afghanis, and Iraqis left Turkey’s western coast by inflatable boat for nearby Greek islands, and traveled north through Greece, Serbia, Hungary before arriving in Austria, Germany, and Sweden. The EU’s Dublin Regulation required migrants to apply for asylum in Greece, the first safe country they reached, but the bankrupt Greek government allowed migrants to pass through.
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AEWRs for H-2A Workers rise in 2019
The US Department of Labor published Adverse Effect Wage Rates for 2019. AEWRs are the minimum wage that must be paid to H-2A workers and US workers employed alongside them, and are based on USDA's Farm Labor Survey that asks employers to report the average hourly earnings of their field and livestock workers.
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California Cannabis after 1 Year
California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana with Prop 215 in 1996, which gave people suffering from cancer and other diseases the "legal right to obtain or grow, and use marijuana for medical purposes when recommended by a doctor." California did not regulate cannabis production for medical marijuana extensively, but federal drug laws continue to classify marijuana with heroin, imposing a minimum five-year prison sentence on growers of more than 100 plants and prohibiting marijuana from moving legally across state lines.
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GCM Approved in Morocco and Endorsed in New York
The UN's Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), which includes 23 objectives to improve the management of international migration, was approved by 164 of the UN’s 193 member states in Marrakesh, Morocco in December 2018, and then formally adopted by the UN’s General Assembly in New York (refugeesmigrants.un.org). Austria, Australia, Israel, Hungary and other East European countries, as well as the US, did not sign the GCM.
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Government Shutdown over Border Wall Funding
One of candidate Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises was to build a wall on the Mexico-US border, and one of President Trump’s first executive orders directed the Department of Homeland Security to plan for a wall on the Mexico-US border. DHS in 2017-18 commissioned several prototypes of the wall, and improved fences and walls on the 700 miles of the 2,000 mile border that already have barriers aimed to deter the unauthorized entry of people and vehicles.
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