Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has called on Turkey to stop its military operation in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin, saying it will only result in more deaths on both sides.  M Iran, Turkey and Russia are involved in peace negotiations to end the seven-year civil war in Syria [AFP] In a wide-ranging press conference […]

Gravity appears to be no match for Russian cosmonauts and their American and Japanese counterparts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Roskosmos / Youtube The shuttlecock was seen zooming back and forth a spacious ISS module, in a match between a duo consisting of a Russian cosmonaut and American astronaut and a duo of a […]

Italy’s foreign minister called on Tuesday for action on migration to stem populism and racism ahead of a general election in which far-right parties are forecast to perform strongly. Italy’s Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP “We have a duty to reassure our citizens, in order to fight populism and racism and safeguard popular […]

A day after the Indian Army vowed to avenge the killing of four soldiers by Pakistani forces, the neighbouring country’s Defence Minister, Khurram Dastagir, warned India of a “response” in case of a “misadventure” by it. “They (India) may have the right to start a misadventure but the right to respond, at what level and with what magnitude will […]

UN war crimes experts said on Tuesday they were investigating multiple reports that bombs allegedly containing banned chlorine have been used against civilians in the Syrian towns of Saraqeb in Idlib and Douma in eastern Ghouta. UN war crimes experts said they were investigating reports that bombs allegedly containing banned chlorine were used against civilians. […]

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday that he will sign a contested Holocaust bill into law, despite protests from Israel and the United States, and will refer the text to Poland’s constitutional court for possible changes. © Gali Tibbon, AFP | This file photo, taken on January 17, 2017, shows Polish President Andrzej Duda […]

Birth rates in Norway were 4.2 percent lower in the first three quarters of 2017 than in the same period during the preceding year, newly published figures show. File photo: Frank May / NTB scanpix The figures were registered by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration based on numbers of people receiving state welfare support […]

Israel has started issuing deportation orders to African migrants, giving them 60 days to return to their home countries or opt for an unnamed safe haven. Those failing to meet the deadline risk being sent to prison. © Amir Cohen / Reuters Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority delivered the first batch of notices Sunday, telling […]

The lawyer representing a man accused of injuring six in a shooting spree targeting immigrants has said the level of solidarity for the shooter is “alarming”. A handgun is pictured in the back seat of the suspect’s car. Photo: Giuseppe Bellini/AFP Suspect Luca Traini, 28, made a fascist salute after the drive-by shooting, which he has […]

About 8,000 thousands protesters scream, “Hire Koreans,” at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul last year. / Korea Times photo by Jung Min-ho In many developed nations, liberals tend to be more supportive of immigration. But in Korea, it is the opposite.  In June last year, the liberal Korean Confederation of Trade Unions led 8,000 construction workers in a protest in Seoul against the increasing number of foreign workers. And four years ago, the country’s first lawmaker with an immigrant background, Jasmine Lee, came from the right-wing party, not the liberal one, reflecting an important first step towards multiculturalism in the government.  Many of these liberal immigration opponents are low-skilled workers, who complain about immigration’s negative effects, such as wage depression and intensifying job competition. However, the reasons Korean conservatives are in favor of immigration are less clear.  “Immigration has always been an issue that has split conservatives. On the one hand, most conservatives represent nativists and nationalist constituencies that don’t like immigration. On the other hand, they represent businesses that want labor,” Margaret Peters, professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, told The Korea Times.  In most advanced nations, globalization means businesses no longer have to worry about immigration because they can move their factories to other countries with cheap labor. This means conservatives in the West can now represent nativists without losing business support.  “But in Korea, there are still a large number of manufacturers producing goods at home who need labor. They are the ones that are pushing conservative parties to bring more foreign workers,” Peters said.  But this trend may not last as was the case for many countries in the West.  “In the past in the United States and Western Europe, attitudes toward immigration did not fit so clearly on a left-right axis. The left was divided between organized labor, which largely opposed large-scale immigration as appears to be the case in Korea,” said Louis DeSipio, political science professor at University of California, Irvine. But liberals in these regions have come to recognize that they can grow politically if they embrace immigrants and their children. Meanwhile, on the right, social conservatives, who fear the cultural change immigrants might bring, have come to dominate right-wing agenda over the business community, he noted.  “So, the positions on immigration have come to a clearer left-right divide,” he said.  Antje Ellermann, political science professor at the University of British Columbia, agrees that Korean liberals, over time, will also embrace them as members of the society.  “As countries open themselves up to immigration (which usually starts out in the form of economic immigration), trade unions initially tend to oppose foreign worker recruitment for obvious reasons, including wage depression. But the unions tend to adopt pro-immigration attitudes, in part because of their support of worker/immigrant rights, but also because they can boost their membership base by accepting foreign workers,” she said.  In the long run, Ellermann reckons Koreans ― both on the right and left ― will accept more immigrants. “But looking at the case of Germany, which in the postwar period had a similarly ethnically closed understanding of citizenship, it took over half a century. And it’s still in progress,” she said, indicating that Korea will eventually experience such changes.  As Korea’s birthrate ― around 1.2 per woman ― remains among the world’s lowest, some scholars say this change may occur much faster in Korea than it did in the West.  […]