The Roosevelt Institution
The Challenge: consider how various levels of governmnet can ensure that migraiton is beneficial to everyone it affects
Important
Progressive: accomplishing this challenge will contribute directly and specifically to the progressive values embodied by Roosevelt's Statement of PrinciplesMeaningful: our contribution to this challenge will produce a real change in the lives of our fellow human beings. One can imagine a world in which the challenge is solved, and such a world is better than the one we live in today.
Relevant: the challenge is relevant to the social contract project that Roosevelt has embarked upon
Progressive: Migration, as a political issue, is rapidly evolving. As we have seen in recent US history, its magnitude is constantly reshaped by economic ebbs and flows, changes to natural landscapes and resource availability, and political conflict and violence. This summer’s intense congressional debate over various nuances to proposed immigration legislation evinces this issue’s capacity to reshape debate along political cleavages that challenge strict partisanship. It is because the issues sparked by migration are too new to have been fully debated that fresh ideas will have such great impact. Unlike issues that have stagnated along strict partisan lines, a challenge on migration would offer Roosevelt the freedom to conceive progressive ideas from its own angle.
Meaningful:
About three percent of the earth’s population migrates across international borders each year. Immigration now accounts for over 60% of US population growth. Thus, innovative migration policy has the potential to touch the lives of hundreds of millions of individuals. Moreover, as political campaigns in the US heat up, as well as the general immigration debate in Congress, politicians will become more and more receptive to pragmatic immigration policy over the next 18 months.
Relevant:
Political debates over migration are rooted in issues of citizenship. economics, and nationality. Such issues are central to the evolving role between individual and government, and thus highly relevant to Roosevelt’s Social Contract project.
Innovative
We're looking for policy challenges where innovation is needed: where there isn't already a clear solution or best practices, but solutions can be developed creatively. Our goal is to develop options, not to lobby or advocate for a solution that is already known or to debate among several yes or no outcomes or pre-defined policy choices. Other organizations do the important work of debating and lobbying, that's just not our place in the process.Typically if you're looking at a standard policy debate you can apply what's known as the "Roosevelt Reframe" to develop new strategies to advance shared values. So rather than "should we engage in race-based affirmative action in college admissions" to which the potential answers are "yes" and "no", you can ask "how do we make our colleges more diverse", a goal we hope is shared by those on both sides of that debate.
Migration can be addressed by engaging causal factors in sending countries or effects in receiving countries; by framing it as an economic matter, a legal matter, or a people matter; by focusing on domestic migration or international migration. Because of this, as well as its constantly evolving manifestations in the U.S. political sphere (as previously mentioned), there is vast room for innovative ideas.
Feasible
Approachable: given the level of research and discourse already available and given who else is working on the issue, college students with a range of experience levels and with varied types of expertise can contribute meaningfully to the debate and are likely to think of good ideas. We don't want something so technical only engineering majors can contribute to it, or something that is already dominated by another think tank or advocacy organization.Practical: the challenge is stated as a specific, measurable, and achievable goal, incremental progress toward which could be made by chipping away at the problem at various levels of government. The statement is not too broad or too narrow. One good way to make sure something is a good policy challenge rather than a debate or advocacy problem is to think of what sorts of innovative ideas might be produced for the 25 ideas publication series on that topic.
Possible issues for Migration:
-Domestic Issues
-Economic challenges faced by migrant families in the U.S.
-Is there a perfect Migrant Worker program? What would such a program look like?
-Relationship between migration and social services (is increased immigration the solution to the Social Security crisis? or do migrants drain social services?)
-Education
-Education gaps
-First generation black (Hispanic or African) migrants outperform Black Americans on average. Yet first generation non-black Hispanics (i.e. most Latin Amerians) are outperformed by native born students of the same ethnicity. Why do these disparities persist among various ethnic groups? Is it a function of social capital among different groups, or can it be addressed by altering K-12 education systems in the U.S.?
-Schools that work for first generation children
-School systems that cater to migrant parents
-Jobs
-What are the different relationships between immigration and job availability?
-The majority of illegal immigrants, let alone immigrants in general, no longer work in the agricultural sector- what are the effects of this urban immigrant shift?
-Issues of voting
-The role of race/ethnicity in districting (think LA): Various ethnic groups are advantaged and disadvantaged by different districting plans. What should the goal of districting be? How should our districts change in light of demographic shifts due to migration trends?
-Voting systems (how many candidates per district, how to tally votes, how to determine victors): Various voting systems (winner-take-all, at large, collective voting) assist and hinder the chances that various ethnic groups have of attaining adequate political representation. In what instances might we reconsider the voting systems we use? (This is an area of huge importance and relatively little discussion)
-Voting eligibility
-Some cities in New York and Illinois have extended the right to vote to non-citizens in certain elections, especially local or school board elections. What are the pro’s and con’s of such policies?
-In general, what questions does migration raise about who should have a say in determining political representation?
-Domestic Migration
-Urban sprawl in the U.S.
-will regionalization save U.S. cities that are being spread too thin by urban sprawl?
-urban sprawl as a matter of environmental sustainability
-the relationship between urban sprawl and public education
-Rural-to-urban migration in developing nations (which accounts for most of the world’s human migration)
-what policies will make the migration process easier for migrant families?
-what policies will ease the burden on overstressed cities?
-Northeast to Southwest migration within the US (again, huge issue, relatively little work done here)
-How can northeastern cities reduce population losses? Or can they be restructured to thrive with smaller populations?
-What are the implications for US politics and voting systems (think congressional representation and the Electoral College)
-International Issues
-How should international migration be regulated?
-By individual nations or collectively (e.g. maybe migration should be addressed in FTA’s)
-How might an international regulatory organization be run? What role would countries like the US play in its functioning?
-What are the effects of quotas? How should they be determined? Do they work?
-What would the benefits be of a G-8 type committee?
-Economic issues of international migration
-Remittances
-the Tobin Tax (huge potential for Roosevelt to work off of this)
-Forced Migration
-Refugees: Who counts and who doesn’t? How much responsibility does the US have for the world’s displaced people?
-Child trafficking, sex trafficking
-Is it best to address the issue in the sending country?
-and/or the receiving country?
Live it. Love it.
Important issue, especially considering Congress' continued failure to come up with comprehensive immigration reform.