WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “xenophobia” from China to Japan and India is hobbling their growth, as he argued that migration has been good for the US economy.
“One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at a Washington fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong.”
The International Monetary Fund forecast last month that each country would see its growth decelerate in 2024 from the year prior, ranging from 0.9 percent in highly developed Japan to 6.8 percent in emerging India.
They forecast that the United States would grow at 2.7 percent, slightly brisker than its 2.5 percent rate last year. Many economists attribute better-than-expected performance partly to a migrants expanding the country’s labor force.
Concern about irregular migration has become a top issue for many US voters ahead of November’s presidential election.
Biden, who has condemned the rhetoric of his Republican opponent Donald Trump as anti-immigrant, has worked to court broad economic and political relations with countries including Japan and India to counter China and Russia globally.
Biden blames China, Japan and India’s economic woes on ‘xenophobia’
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Biden blames China, Japan and India’s economic woes on ‘xenophobia’
- Concern about irregular migration has become a top issue for many US voters ahead of November’s presidential election
Australia hits Afghan Taliban officials with sanctions, travel bans
- The Taliban has said it respects women’s rights, in line with its interpretation of Islamic law and local custom
- The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that enabled it to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, targeting the oppression of the Afghan people,” Wong said
SYDNEY: Australia on Saturday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan’s Taliban government over what it said was a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in the Taliban-run country.
Australia was one of several nations which in August 2021 pulled troops out of Afghanistan, after being part of a NATO-led international force that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban for two decades after Western-backed forces ousted the Islamist militants from power.
The Taliban, since regaining power in Afghanistan, has been criticized for deeply restricting the rights and freedoms of women and girls through bans on education and work.
The Taliban has said it respects women’s rights, in line with its interpretation of Islamic law and local custom.
Wong said in a statement the sanctions targeted three Taliban ministers and the group’s chief justice, accusing them of restricting access for girls and women “to education, employment, freedom of movement and the ability to participate in public life.”
The measures were part of a new Australian government framework that enabled it to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban, targeting the oppression of the Afghan people,” Wong said.
Australia took in thousands of evacuees, mostly women and children, from Afghanistan after the Taliban retook power in the war-shattered South Asian country, where much of the population now relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
