Where will you send me?

Yesterday at a conference on the urban repercussions of migrations, the mayor of Medellin said something I've heard talked around before, but never put so succinctly: "Hemos aprendido a vivir con la violencia -- eso nos permite vivir, pero tambien perpetua la violencia." (We have learned to live with the violence -- this permits us to live, but it also perpetuates the violence." -- Sergio Fajardo Valderrama.

The contrast between the effects of migration patterns on Barcelona and Colombian cities was striking. Joan Cloas, Barcelona's mayor, spoke of the jobs immigrants came to fill, Spain's low low birthrate, and economic growth. In short, good times. For Lucho (Bogota mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon) and Fajardo, however, the news was mostly grim. Millions of new city dwellers over the course of a few short years, the near impossility of predicting future displacements to the cities, the lack of services, ongoing violence in the informal communities where those displaced by the conflict settle, etc etc etc. But Lucho was, in the words of a friend, "cantankerously hopeful."

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Two intiatives connecting Colombians "in the exterior" with Colombians at home:

• Conexion Colombia
• Sos Paisa (Medellin)

NYT series about asylum seekers:

COURTS CRITICIZE JUDGES' HANDLING OF ASYLUM CASES
By ADAM LIPTAK (NYT)
Published: December 26, 2005

Federal appeals court judges around the nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration judges this year for what they call a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions in asylum cases.

In one decision last month, Richard A. Posner, a prominent and relatively conservative federal appeals court judge in Chicago, concluded that ''the adjudication of these cases at the administrative level has fallen below the minimum standards of legal justice.''

Similarly, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia said in September that it had ''time and time again'' been forced to rebuke immigration judges for their ''intemperate and humiliating remarks.'' Citing cases from around the country, the court wrote of ''a disturbing pattern'' of misconduct in immigration rulings that sent people back to countries where they had said they would face persecution.

And from squattercity a post about displaced people living in Bogota occupying homes.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005 Last week, 300 families made homeless by the long-running war in Colombia took over 163 partially-built houses in Western Bogota, according to this short dispatch on americas.org. The homes have been unfinished and unoccupied for six years. Nonetheless, the police have surrounded the community and reportedly prevented a water truck from entering and blocked neighbors from bringing food to the squatters.