On Shifting Ground

While many of us are able to shelter in place through the pandemic, immigrants are disproportionately on the front lines, working essential jobs such as nurses, EMTs, home health aides and doctors. About 27,000 of these healthcare workers are adult children of undocumented immigrants that are authorized to work under an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Their future hangs in the balance as they await a US Supreme Court ruling on whether the Trump administration can legally end the program. And, for the many foreign born health workers, who have legal documentation, their ability to send remittances to families in their home countries has been compromised by the pandemic.

On this week’s episode, we hear from immigrant healthcare workers, journalists and representatives from non-profits who are fighting for workers’ rights. 

If you appreciate this program and want to support the work we do, please sign up for a World Affairs membership. Your donation enables us to serve the public and high school students and connect them to critical global issues – engaging and informing them along the way.

Direct download: 04_27_20_Undocumented_Essential.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 11:26am PDT

While many of us are able to shelter in place through the pandemic, immigrants are disproportionately on the front lines, working essential jobs such as nurses, EMTs, home health aides and doctors. For the many foreign born health workers, who have legal documentation, their ability to send remittances to families in their home countries has been compromised by the pandemic.

On this week’s episode, we hear from:

Rosalie Villanueva, nurse in Galveston, Texas

Jason DeParle, New York Times Global Poverty Reporter and Author of A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century

Host: Ray Suarez

Producer: Teresa Cotsirilos

Senior producer: Jarrod Sport

Executive producer: Joanne Elgart Jennings

If you appreciate this program and want to support the work we do, please sign up for a World Affairs membership. Your donation enables us to serve the public and connect high school students  to critical global issues.

Direct download: 04_24_20_Rosalie_Journey.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 7:01pm PDT

How will we navigate a historic global recession? On this week’s episode, Financial Times US editor-at-large Gillian Tett talks with Markos Kounalakis about how this economic breakdown might unfold in the next few months. Next, New Yorker executive editor David Rohde talks about his new book IN DEEP, which investigates whether there really is a “deep state” controlling parts of the US government. He examines whether President Trump’s belief in the “Deep State” impeded the administration’s Coronavirus response. And last, filmmaker Jun Stinson and founder of Futbolistas 4 Life, Dania Cabello, join us to share their story of uplifting a community of undocumented youth in Oakland through soccer.

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Direct download: 04_20_20_Economic_Future_Deep_State.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 7:15pm PDT

Around the world, governments are limiting freedoms by requiring people to stay home and prohibiting large gatherings. Though many of these actions are necessary, authoritarian regimes are using the pandemic as an excuse to abuse their power. In Egypt, for example, many citizens are encouraged to shelter in place, yet the realities of the outbreak are being censored. Also of concern is an economy that’s largely dependent on the informal sector, making social distancing a luxury. Now that large gatherings are prohibited in most countries, causing huge economic losses, cultural practices are also being disrupted. Will sports games continue without audiences? This week on WorldAffairs, we talk about how journalism, sports and religion persist through a global crisis.

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Direct download: 04_10_20_Pandemic_Power.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 6:35pm PDT

Now that the global economy is mostly on hold, the demand for oil has dropped dramatically, destroying the market and threatening countries whose economies depend on selling it. Saudi Arabia and Russia have been engaged in an oil-price war to keep the markets in their favor. Saudi Arabia saw another economic loss when the kingdom decided to limit access to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Meanwhile, violence in some of the most at risk countries rages on. In Yemen, preventable diseases like cholera already threaten people with limited access to healthcare and basic necessities. Would a global ceasefire help war-torn countries like Yemen manage their coronavirus outbreaks? On this week’s episode, we talk with experts from around the world about Yemen, oil and Saudi Arabia.

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Direct download: 04_04_20_Saudi_Arabia-Oil.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 1:00am PDT

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