minorities | Christina Felschen

minorities | Christina Felschen

Tough selection, soft landing: Is Canada’s immigration policy as good as its image?

Translation of my German-language radio documentary (19mn), broadcast by Deutschlandfunk (German public radio) on Nov 23, 2021 >>

Canada opened its borders to people of all nationalities in the 1960s, provided they had the right qualifications. The German government is discussing whether this could be a model for them. But critics say Canada’s often idealized immigration system is classist and encourages exploitation.

How Clearview is Helping the Trump Administration Target Undocumented Immigrants

published on the NUDGED blog, March 14, 2020 >>

A small US company sells an app that could end our ability to walk down the street anonymously. Its clients include authoritarian states and US immigration authorities. Jacinta Gonzalez, an organizer with the NGO Mijente, spoke with us about why this puts the 11 million undocumented people in the United States at even greater risk of deportation.

The Techie Resistance

Published on the NUDGED blog, March 6, 2020 >>

Dirty data, greed for profit, and a lack of diversity in the tech sector: There are many reasons why algorithms discriminate. But lawyers, regulators and, most importantly, critical techies have begun to push back against AI’s destructive potential. Will human intelligence win?

Undocumented – and indispensable

published in German by ZEIT ONLINE on February 28, 2017 >>

Harvest workers, nannies, craftspeople: Eleven million people live in the US without papers, nothing goes without them. Trump wants to deport them anyway. A life full of fear.

A treasure in the forest

documentary published by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe >>

Until recently, the only people who came into Jomi Pacharin’s remote mountain village were vendors and debtors. Doctors, teachers and government officials never set their foot here, they find the trail too arduous; hence many Paharia die from malnutrition and preventable diseases. When local helpers of the German NGO Welthungerhilfe first came to their village, Jomi and her neighbors stayed inside, full of suspicion – until they realized that these strangers would not take their belongings but offer something.

Donald Trump’s best bodyguard

published in German by ZEIT ONLINE on Jan, 23, 2017 >>, translated into English by Watching America >>

Political experience, determination, respect in Congress. His vice-president, Mike Pence, brings what Donald Trump lacks. Politically, he is at least just as extreme.

“A different America”

translation of a feature published November 12, 2016, by ZEIT ONLINE >>

In Oakland thousands take to the helicopter lit streets each night since the election, protesting hate crimes and a police state. But the demonstrators are also at odds with each other.

Delhi/ Dhanwe, the right to be alive

Multimedia feature for the NGO Welthungerhilfe, published with the Global Hunger Index on October 11, 2016 >> or >> Ideally watch it on a large screen, Pageflow is very limited on mobile phones!

India has 84 dollar billionaires, but they don’t contribute much to reduce the country’s life-threatening poverty. India also has laws which guarantee the poorest the right to be alive, but they are not well implemented in the villages. However, in remote Jharkhand, 1,000 women stand up against this injustice. They search for 1 kg of rice per person that did not reach them. But they have more on their mind than just grains – they demand respect.

Identities for sale

published in May 2012 in the book “Peace with the Earth”; deutsche Version hier >>

Sumatra and Papua are paradises for certain investors. The indigenous villages aren’t prepared for corporate deception strategies. Now that Sumatra’s rainforest is mainly destroyed, corporations have a go at Papua. Meet a village whose entire land has just been leased to the sugar industry. Or sold? No villager knows for nobody was able to read the contract.