Winning Blog Post and Honorable Mention

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to the United Kingdom for winning our blog post competition! We would also like to recognize Indonesia for their stellar post by giving them honorable mention. Thank you so much to everyone who participated. I emailed back suggestions and comments so let me know if you have any questions.

See you in two days (SO SOON ALREADY <3)
Michelle

Blog Post Winner: The United Kingdom
         The United Kingdom believes that it is crucial to take into account an immigrant’s skill level
when applying for visas, but its importance cannot be the same for all visas nor is it always necessary.
When applying for a tourist visa, for instance, skill level is irrelevant since the person would not be
allowed to work nor invest in the UK . Overall, the United Kingdom realizes that financial ability, talent and language proficiencies should be crucial components of people looking to emigrate on work and student visas. Refugees and asylum-seekers are of course on a different spectrum due to their circumstances and reasonings behind seeking a new country to call home.
        As of June 2018, the net migration rate was 273,000, and the majority of immigrants applied for a student visa . The most common student visa, the general student visa (Tier4), requires the student to be sponsored by a university and be certain to attend the university in question . So in a way, talent is required as British universities are the amongst the world's most prestigious, but it is required as potential talent in the path of education that they might pursue. By requiring a sponsorship to be granted a visa, we are able to ensure that only the brightest minds are able to attend. This is facilitated with an online application process and a mandatory interview. This ensures that applicants are guaranteed entry not solely based on their academic abilities, but also on their character.
Students, though, are by far our largest pool of applicants for immigration, amounting to 200,000
in 2017, compared to 50,000 for skilled workers . Skilled workers mostly come from the European Union, amounting to 70% of EU migrants, whereas they only make up 30% of international migrants. Both apply for a Tier2 visa rather than the Tier4 visa of general students. Skilled workers have to show financial proof that they will be able to support themselves once living in the United Kingdom.        In essence, the applicant needs to be paid at least £30,000 a year, which is £3,000 more than the national average income of £27,000 for British nationals . It can be as high as £41,500 for long-term staff, and as low as £23,000 for recent graduates . We want to see proof of financial independence to ensure that the newcomers will not become destitute, which would make it harder on the person themselves and would cause additional strain on their relatives . While skilled workers have to show their salaries as well as their bank statements, students only have to prove that they will be adequately supported financially. All of this is, of course, in addition to their skills and work abilities, and language fluency and passport
validation.

Honorable Mention: Indonesia
           The government and people of Indonesia believe that a brain exchange is necessary for
continual success. As delegates from a nation suffering from human capital flight, the burdens
associated with this issue have greatly impacted Indonesia. Our nation experiences a net loss of
0.67% of the population every year. To remedy this, Indonesia highly prioritizes skilled
immigrants. Because approximately 50% of Indonesians work “informally” in the agricultural
sector, there is an unemployment rate of 6.2%, and over 90% of our citizens work in the
unskilled labor sector. Therefore, the government attempts to screen potential immigrants based
on their ability to boost our developing economy. Our government authorizes immigration only
for positions that require qualifications, work experience, and skill sets not easily found in the
domestic labor market. Indonesia encourages immigration for any person that would be able to
contribute to our economy. For example, anyone who receives a foreign pension of over $25,000
a year and is older than 55, can automatically obtain a retirement visa. As Indonesia is
recognized as a developing nation, it is our government's belief that unskilled immigrants should
be allocated to nations better equipped to accommodate them. Historically, Indonesia has
suffered from the effects of unmoderated migration. In 1975, 200,000 Indo-Chinese people
immigrated to Indonesia. Indonesia was promised by the UN that complete resettlement would
be finished by 1979, but over 40,000 of those original immigrants still reside in our nation today.
We do of course sympathize with asylum seekers and refugees, but we do not consider that
settlement in Indonesia would be setting them up for success; Indonesia is a transition point
between nations. Indonesia can temporality harbor refugees, but as stated by the Indonesian
immigration ministry: “Indonesia perceives itself as a transit and not a destination country and
therefore does not provide permanent refugee protection.” The government of Indonesia often
seeks to help resolve conflicts and shortages at the source, by providing aid to the nations from
which refugees are fleeing, for instance: Afghanistan and Syria. We believe that it is more
important to provide assistance to nations directly, helping to alleviate the issues that force
refugees from their home countries. A large influx of low skilled immigrants would be
detrimental for Indonesia’s economy as the amount of job competition would increase
exponentially and would increase the appeal of skilled natives seeking jobs abroad, and therefore
amplifying Indonesia’s “brain drain” difficulties. As a result of historical conflicts, economic
vulnerability, and the prevalent and detrimental impacts of the brain drain, Indonesia prioritizes
immigrants based on skill, not need.

A Guide to Conference Preparations

Hello - Ryan here! In the event you would like to better equip yourself with knowledge on conference preparation and proceedings, I have outlined the resources available to you through learn.bmun.org. Our Learn site offers you an opportunity to understand how and what to prepare prior to debate as well as refresh yourself on important aspects of parliamentary procedure. Below I will highlight which sections in particular are useful as we move closer to March 1, and which provide detailed references to important aspects of conference proceedings.

If in need of research tools, utilize the Research tab under 'Conference Prep,' which details some basic, but key aspects of your country. This tab features many guides to aspects of conference, including building a country profile, understanding and developing solutions for your topics at hand, and determining country policy and stance, among others. In addition, under the Position Papers tab, if you wish to revise your position papers prior to committee, you can learn more about their structure and expectations, as well as glean from sample papers. And, to contextualize and cement your findings and understanding of the topic, look to the Binder tab for some ideas about what to include in a comprehensive research binder for in-conference assistance.

If in need of practice or a greater understanding of conference proceedings, the 'In Committee' section of the site offers this and more. A general outline of standard BMUN procedure is given in the first tab, though more detailed explanations and tips for speeches, caucusing, and resolutions/amendments are provided in tabs below as well. If you are interested in alternative procedures that exist at our conference, a tab here also outlines how to approach these formats. Finally, tabs are offered that cover our conference policies on awards and more, as well as effective use of diplomacy in committee.

Thanks for being involved in your preparation for BMUN LXVII; we cannot wait to be audience to the wonderful ideas you and your peers will put forth!

Rural vs Urban Brain Drain

Hi all!

Hope everyone is excited for conference! As the first committee session approaches, I just wanted to hopefully help spark some creative juices for your Topic 2 solutions.

Recently, Jem Spectar wrote an opinion in the Washington Post (linked at the bottom of this blog post) about bridging the rural-urban gap in the United States. For those of you who are unaware, the rural-urban gap even in a "developed" nation like the USA mirrors a lot of the same situations covered when we discuss the flight of human capital internationally. Compared to metropolitan areas, rural areas are characterized by problems such as "loss of manufacturing jobs, rising poverty, opioid abuse, blight, insufficient capital, anemic investment..." and much more. And just as how some skilled workers flee their country of origin because of political instability, wars, violence and poverty, Americans are also leaving rural areas, which only further exacerbates many of the issues mentioned above.

I'd definitely encourage everyone to read the article yourselves, but Spectar's main point was to bridge this divide not with traditional government growth programs, but instead by spreading digital literacy. He argues that unlike traditional infrastructure (which rural areas do need as well), things like broadband internet and digital programs can be set up at a much quicker pace. With rural digital growth, rural Americans will be able to access valuable resources like basic coding education, vocational training, and much more. He believes that this can have the potential to transform these areas - to turn these impoverished areas into America's new tech hubs, sparking further economic growth and reinvestment.

That being said, be cautious about directly applying this idea to our committee. While Google may want to spread gigabit fiber and hold free coding bootcamps for rural Americans, they may face a lot more difficulties doing the same in a nation that doesn't even have consistent access to clean drinking water. So think about how you could resolve those inconsistencies.

WaPo Opinion:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/20/want-close-americas-rural-urban-divide-digital-infrastructure-is-key/?utm_term=.534ee6eaa378

Multilateral Aid Reviews

This is an interesting analysis on ways the United States can make its foreign aid more efficient. Although this is tailored to the U.S., I think this report is applicable to potential solutions for our first topic. It recommends for the U.S. to assess its aid through conducting a multilateral aid review, which they refer to as MAR in the article. A multilateral aid review is a way for donor nations to assess the efficacy of their aid. Brookings suggests that MARs should be made to analyze the degree in which the donor nation’s interests are represented in multilateral aid organizations. Understanding their position relative to the aid their giving in a quantitative way would prevent aid from being cut off due to populism.

Although this might be a little hard to understand, they are recommending for donor countries to do more data analyses on their contributions to multilateral funding organizations (like the Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank, the World Bank, etc.). By assessing the development impacts that these institutions in which donor countries are a part of, they can better target the aid they are giving—both as a state and multilateral effort. This can also increase communication between development agencies so that efforts don’t overlap.

Here is another article explaining the findings of a multilateral aid review done by the Department for International Development in 2016.

Blog Post Competition

Hello Delegates! 

I wanted to announce our blog competition. While we will not be counting this for committee points, we believe this will be a great way for you to engage with the material we post about and show off your writing skills before committee starts. We will post the winning blog post as a featured post on this blog! 

Submissions are due by February 24th at 11:59PM. Please email submissions to mmclean@bmun.org in PDF format only.

The prompt is below: 
Read this article from the economist  and respond to the following question. 

Should countries consider an immigrants skill level when talking about immigration? If so how? Make sure to note if your country does this and if it is effective or not. 

Please respond in 250-500 words. The best submissions will use multiple sources and cite them. If you cannot open the article go into incognito mode. 

Looking forward to your submissions! 
Michelle 

Aid Dependency in Africa

Hello all!

In the topic synopsis, we discussed the history of foreign aid and also brought up some case studies regarding aid dependency in post natural disaster situations. Today I want to delve a little deeper into the precarious situation that many African countries find themselves in, and recent developments that could both help and harm their economic situation.

Although you should definitely shy away from making monolithic generalizations, a lot of metrics point to Africa as one of the most impoverished continents. Five out of the world's top ten poorest countries are in Africa, and most nations are plagued with corruption, human rights abuse, and general resource mismanagement. In light of all these issues and regime change, many African countries find it difficult to make notable improvements for their citizens through traditional government programs.

One proposed solution to address the continent's poverty is less political in nature. Activists and policy makers, drawing upon economic theory, are pushing towards free trade as a finally effective solution. In the age of increasing globalization and rapid removal of trade barriers, experts wonder if Africa can finally connect with the rest of the world and make use of its wealth of natural resources. Just last year, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, covering over 1.2 billion people, was signed into effect.

We'll leave it up to you to research and draw your own conclusions about the viability of this idea, but one world power that certainly supports this idea is China. African nations received $124 billion in Chinese loans across the last sixteen years or so. In September of 2018, Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion in financial support, and even Chinese private companies continue to invest their own money into the region.

Is China seeking to only exploit Africa's rare earth minerals to propel its own economy forward? Will all these resources end up reducing poverty, or once again locking nations into a cycle of overdependence and poverty? Should the other world powers follow China's suit?

some links to read:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/25/africa-needs-access-markets-not-dependence-aid-britain-can-provide/

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2018/09/06/figures-of-the-week-chinese-investment-in-africa/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/03/29/the-countdown-to-the-african-continental-free-trade-area-starts-now/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7b786f81b82e

Examining an Unconventional Cause of Human Capital Flight

Hello - Ryan here! More conventional sources of brain drain have become clear over the course of the last century, though modern examples of such exodus have challenged what researchers believe to be basic causes for this phenomenon. Thus, this post will look at understanding a recent case of human capital flight and what unconventional settings provided for this emigration. By analyzing these new sources, delegates can relate their own countries' economic and political positions to such results, and can understand what brain drain may mean for their own nations' prosperity.

The recent unfolding of Britain's decision to pull out of the European Union lends credence to the growing sentiment of ethnonationalism in many MDCs, and led many British professionals to follow more incentivizing economics in other European nations. Writer Edoardo Campanella of the Business Times compares this impending crisis to the 1685 exodus of Huguenots from France, drawing similarity in the economic impacts that may result. In the case of the Huguenots, these workers pursued tax breaks and other forms of economic benefits after religious discrimination in France. How Brexit differs from this case is the source: Campanella underlines that this example is the first time "a catastrophic loss of human capital [has occurred] during a period of peace and prosperity."

This unique case of brain drain stems from the growing ethnonationalist movement in Europe - one that rejects the incoming low-skilled migrants of Eastern Europe and elsewhere for more domestic, intensive economic development - and puts into question how else such a movement can impact more developed countries influenced by ethnonationalism. As delegates, it is important to consider not only how this modern topic affects potential resolutions in committee, but also what sentiment for ethnonationalism can mean for your own countries as well. Brain drain can have multiple impacts on multiple nations, yet it is disquieting that such a process can occur in such a time and place as modern Britain.

To read more about Brexit's callback to Huguenot exodus, find Campanella's article below: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/the-catastrophic-costs-of-a-brexit-brain-drain

Learn more about other modern examples of brain drain below:
https://www.thoughtco.com/brain-drain-1435769