FinPol Digest

 On January 26, the European Union's ministers of migration met to examine visa limitations, improved coordination among member states, and ways to facilitate the repatriation to their home countries of more persons who do not have access to refuge in Europe. Three years after the EU's 27 member states decided to restrict visas to nations that are not cooperating in returning their citizens, only Gambia was formally penalised. Two EU officials claimed that while comparable actions were suggested by the EU's executive European Commission toward Senegal, Bangladesh, and Iraq, coordination with Dhaka over returning refugees has improved. Eurostat figures, however, show that in 2021, the EU's overall percentage of effective returns remained at 21%. "This is threshold member states perceive to be unacceptably low," said one EU official. Immigration is a very touchy political issue in the bloc. Instead of rekindling their bitter disputes over how to divide the obli...

During Queen Elizabeth II's long reign, significant portions of the world rebelled against British dominance, yet after her passing, a few kingdoms that were imposed by the British are still in place in the Middle East. They have endured decades of conflict and unrest and are now regarded as bulwarks of authoritarian stability. Hereditary rulers were mostly unharmed when public upheavals broke out across the region a decade ago during what was known as the Arab Spring, toppling administrations with anti-colonial foundations. Although the era of gunships and imperial pomp may be passed, the region still has strong financial and emotional ties to England. King, sultan, and emir students attend Sandhurst's Royal Military Academy. The richness of the Gulf Arab sovereign states has altered London's skyline. King Abdullah II of Jordan has ties to Britain on both a personal and cultural level being the son of a British mother. During World War I, Jordan's ruling Hashemites, wh...