MetaFilter posts tagged with emigration

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (In Patagonia)

Len — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:08:46 -0800

A few years ago, Gruff Rhys, lead singer of fabulous Welsh pop oddballs Super Furry Animals (Cymraeg/English) set out to make a film about the search for his uncle, a 1970s Argentinian pop star called René Griffiths. The result is Separado!: part travelogue, part music film, and part history of how a small band of idealists set out to establish a Welsh colony in the Argentinian part of Patagonia. The settlement was the idea of Welsh Congregationalist minister Michael D Jones (pic of his fabulous beard here), and the first settlers left Liverpool, bound for Patagonia, on a rickety tea clipper called the Mimosa in May of 1865. 153 passengers were aboard – including the Rev. Abraham Matthews, whose family travelled on this ticket. The Mimosa landed at Puerto Madryn and over the subsequent decades, its passengers and their descendants established a thriving Welsh community in the Chubut River valley. The settlers had been promised that Patagonia was much like lowland Wales, but they soon found it a harsh and unforgiving environment. Despite this, the colonists built both churches and what may have been Argentina's first system of artificial irrigation, as well as towns like Trelew and Gaiman, many of whose Welsh shops and tea houses survive to this day. (Small gallery of contemporary Gaiman and surroundings here.) Glaniad – a joint Welsh/Patagonian project – has original documents relating to Welsh emigration to Patagonia, including printed material extolling the virtues of the settlements, the culture of the settlements, and the everyday working lives of the colonists.

The Flickr Page of the UN Refugee Agency

Kattullus — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:23:33 -0800

The United Nations Refugee Agency has a Flickr page with nearly 3000 photos neatly sorted into over 150 sets, most often by country, though sometimes by other themes, such as photos taken by refugee children, life in a refugee camp and mixed migration. There are also news sets, sorted by month. Some of the countries featured are ones that many associate with humanitarian disasters, Timor-Leste, Iraq and The Democratic Republic of Congo, but there are also photosets from countries that few associate with refugees, Panama, Hungary and France.

"This is an imaginary land"

Kattullus — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:27:04 -0800

Border Stories is a series of short documentaries about life on the US-Mexican border, none longer than 6 minutes. The subjects are: drug addicts on the border (warning: graphic images), electronic music group Nortec Collective, hospital costs of fence jumpers, lonesome Minuteman, Mexican emigrant safety patrolman, ranchowners whose land is an immigration throughway, US-raised 18 year-old sent back to Mexico, virtual vigilantes, two old men provide water in the desert, dangers of journalism in Ciudad Juarez, graveyard of US tires in Mexico, drug ballads, hardened border policy hurts cross-border community, another cross-border community fears closing of footbridge, working illegally in Laredo, mayors of the two Laredos, migrants' safe house, hand-pulled ferry, dentistry in Nuevo Progreso, Brownsville high school teacher protests border fence, golf course with the border on three sides & fishermen on the mouth of the Rio Bravo. Border Stories also has a blog about immigration issues.

The Vanishing Irish

homunculus — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:11:32 -0800

Ghosts of the Faithful Departed. Irish photographer David Creedon's pictures of dilapidated houses in rural Ireland abandoned during the mass emigration that took place between 1949 and 1989. [Via]

"Everything is determination. I know with time things will be okay."

rom1 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:21:42 -0800

Kingsley's crossing: the excruciating journey of a man seeking a better life. "Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's willingness to abandon everything—his family, his country, and his friends—in the hopes of finding a better life abroad. Award-winning French photojournalist Olivier Jobard documents the passage."

Calling all Americans!

Eideteker — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:36:00 -0800

Why not celebrate our Independence Day with the violent overthrow of the government? Some say they want a revolution, others would rather secede. Should we stay or should we go?

Leaving the Islands

thisisdrew — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:12:49 -0800

Springdale Arkansas is now home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the Marshall islands. ...They all spoke so highly of Springdale and how great it is to work the overnight shift in a chicken factory in the Ozarks. What a strange irony that everyone I knew in Arkansas considered paradise to be on South Pacific islands, with no schedule and great fishing. ..Articles by Christopher Leonard and photos by Benjamin Krain

Could Tucker be right?

purephase — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 07:06:40 -0800

Canada's "Brain Drain" has been a growing concern among Canadians for a number of years. There are a number of reports (PDF) indicating that an increasing number of "highly skilled graduates in fields such as health, engineering and natural and applied sciences" have been heading south for work. There are guides to assist, first hand accounts, and even profiles of people who have left.

Riotous Littleport

plep — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 07:48:07 -0800

Riotous Littleport. The deportation of an English village to Australia. BBC article with links to other interesting articles on immigration and emigration on the page.

Betrayed by Europe: An Expatriate’s Lament

Asparagirl — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 01:33:33 -0800

Betrayed by Europe: An Expatriate’s Lament Journalist, novelist, and translator Nidra Poller, an American ex-pat who has been living in Paris with her family since 1972, writes in the latest issue of Commentary about her painful decision to leave her adopted homeland for the US. The main reason? Poller and her family are Jewish and scared for their lives. Her poignant essay is not just another report on the disturbing levels of anti-semitism in France or yet another French Jew abandoning the country for safer turf, but an examination of the power of hope (and inertia) in our lives, even when intellectually one sees no reason for hope: I'm being treated to a poignant lesson in European and Jewish history. The 30's: why did they stay? Why didn’t they run for their lives? Couldn’t they see what was happening? I see before me a vivid demonstration of the deep roots we dig to make our lives bloom, the intricate biology of a human life, irrigated with the lifeblood of a community, inextricably connected to a society, born of life to give life to keep life alive. Leaving is not packing up and tipping your hat goodbye. It is tearing live flesh out of a living matrix. A powerful and disturbing testimony.

America....love it or leave it?

gimonca — Sat, 19 Jul 2003 19:54:34 -0800

America....love it or leave it?

Then Leave!

synecdoche — Tue, 01 Apr 2003 09:46:50 -0800

Don't like the US? Then Leave! Somebody posted this to a newsgroup I read from time to time. Evidently, if you sign an agreement to leave the US for a year, you'll get a portion of what has been donated to the website (currently $53).