Cool graph on global migration flows and more...

Just a few links, mostly on migration:

• Global migration in two decades: This study has been out a while, but if you have not seen this nice graphic presentation on global migration flows by a group of Austrian geographers/demographers, here is the link. There is so much to talk about in this graph that it deserves its own post. It did first strike me how little within-migration East Asia and South Asia have. Then I quickly realize that the massive rural-to-urban migration in China and India is probably not counted in the data as they are domestic. Apparently there's always limitation, even to some of the most impressive data.
• Ecuador's "free" border: A report by the Atlantic Magazine on the new immigration policy in Ecuador. A bold (politically calculative?) initiative to not require visas has interesting implications. What kind of migrants does this new policy draw? Asylum seekers, human trafficking, and drug cartels?
• Central American migrants: I read Joe Klein's well-written op-ed on the recent influx of Central American migrants in the Time Magazine over the weekend. It's a call for bold political leadership, which I am not sure if it is coming in this case. On the same subject, New York Times has a special report. I love these how these works explore the complexity behind this issue.
• School segregation: on the educational front, PBS recent aired the new Frontline documentary Separate and Unequal. It discusses the issue of persistent school segregation by focusing on a political campaign to carve out part of Baton Rouge and incorporate a new town. This type of movement has been going on for decades, but now here's a documentary that'd be useful for teaching undergraduate students.