Free Republic

He lived in New Jersey his entire life. He was born there in 1932, grew up there, and worked his entire adult life there. I’m sure he planned on dying there. After a few years living in a rental apartment after a stint as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he took the plunge with his young bride and purchased his first and only home, for $32,000, back in 1961 in northern New Jersey. A high-school history teacher, he coached varsity basketball and worked night and summer jobs to support his growing family. Twenty-plus years later, he became the...

Hungary has decided to build a temporary fence on the border with Serbia as fast as possible to stop the flow of illegal migrants, the foreign minister said Wednesday. 61,000 migrants had entered Hungary this year, nearly all by crossing Hungary's southern border with Serbia. Most of those who request refugee status in Hungary quickly leave for other destinations in western Europe, like Austria, Germany and Sweden. Refugees can be returned to the EU country where they first made their asylum request. Refugees registering for asylum in Hungary had already likely passed through Greece first, so they should be sent...

Denmark's opposition parties have beaten the ruling coalition after a close general election. With all mainland votes counted, the centre-right group led by ex-PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen beat PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt's centre-left coalition, although her party is the largest. Ms Thorning-Schmidt has now stood down as Social Democratic Party leader. The right-wing, anti-immigration Danish People's Party will become the second-largest in parliament. In a victory speech just before 01:30 local time (23:30 GMT), Mr Rasmussen - who led the country between 2009 and 2011 - said: "Four years ago, we returned the keys to the PM's office. I said that...

Hundreds of migrants brought to Italy after being rescued at sea camped on streets near Rome's Tiburtina train station and gathered in Milan's main terminal on Thursday, making a brief stop on their journey to northern Europe. At Tiburtina, migrants from Syria, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia were among those resting in the shade under olive and fig trees. Children played in the supermarket nearby, and dozens napped on cardboard under an overpass. Italy is struggling to handle the summertime surge in migrants, with thousands rescued at sea each week and more than 50,000 so far this year. Almost 2,000 have...

Utah, Texas, and North Dakota, where taxes are low, are the most economically vibrant states in the country, according to a new report. The high-tax states of New York and Michigan rank at the bottom. Additionally, the report found, millions of people left highly-taxed states for low-tax states between 2003 and 2013. The 8th edition of Rich States Poor States, an annual report released by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on Wednesday, found that 1.5 million people left New York between 2003 and 2013, the largest exodus of any state. California came in second by that indicator, with 1.4...

Oregon holds on to its title as “Top Moving Destination” and continues to pull away from the pack, while the Northeast loses residents for the third consecutive year. Those are the key findings from United Van Lines’ 38th Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ migration patterns state-to-state during the course of the past year. The study found that Oregon is the top moving destination of 2014, with 66 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound — that’s a nearly 5 percent increase of inbound moves compared to 2013. Arriving at No. 2 on the list was...

View Data Table This graphic shows the 10 largest state-to-state migration flows in and out of California for the period 1955-1960 compared to that of 1995-2000. In the late 1950s, the largest flows involving California were all inflows to the state, generally from states in the Midwest or Northeast. This pattern contrasted with the flows in the late 1990s, where nearly all of the largest migration streams involving California represented out-migration to other states.

Migration, the mass movement of communities for natural, economic, political, religious reasons or because of oppression, dates back almost as far as the history of mankind. It is certainly a difficult thing to leave the land where one was born and is familiar with and to move somewhere entirely different. Forced relocation is the most ruthless and painful form of migration. World history is full of stories of forced migration in which millions of people were obliged to leave their homes and live in places they had never been before. The violence and troubles suffered by these people forced from...

Intermanager and the European Community Shipowners’ Association are saying that it is unrealistic for merchant ships to continue to bear the burden of conducting large-scale rescues of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

Top U.S. counterterrorism officials say they worry a potential terrorist could be hiding among refugees who are looking to come to the United States after escaping the brutal war in Syria. "It's clearly a population of concern,” the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Nicholas Rasmussen, told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, went further, saying it would be a “huge mistake” to bring refugees from the conflict to the U.S. – even as an estimated 4 million children, women and men have been forced to flee Syria and another 7 million have been...

We've had a lot of media comment about the bad effects of Obama's executive orders admitting millions (yes, millions) of illegal immigrants and giving them welfare, Social Security, driver's licenses and a path to citizenship. Like many Americans, I realized the importance of this when thousands of unfamiliar people from a foreign country, without any advance notice, appeared in my community. Then I attended an education conference where the asylum racket to admit millions of foreigners (long ignored by the media) was described by a knowledgeable speaker, Ann Corcoran. She started by asking questions of her audience. Did you hear...

~snip~ "We know there are doubts, questions across the community," French President Francois Hollande said Monday. "I will not just let what was said in Israel pass, leading people to believe that Jews no longer have a place in Europe and in France in particular." French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Monday the government would defend French Jews against what he described as "Islamo-fascism." "A Jew who leaves France is a piece of France that is gone," Valls told RTL radio ~snip~ German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that her government will do everything possible to make sure Jewish sites...

With a degree from the prestigious HEC Paris business school, five years at a global consulting firm, and a three-floor “dream apartment” in the French capital’s 10th arrondissement, Mickael Nadjar had a comfortable and prosperous life in his native France. Four years ago, he left it all behind and headed for Tel Aviv. While he initially came to lead a business project in Israel, Nadjar ended up staying because he was tired of the daily frustrations and slights endured by practicing Jews in France. After the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket this month, Nadjar says,...

After the most recent terrorist attacks in France I began to see articles about how Jews were fleeing France and Europe for Israel. The question is.. how does the movement of the Jewish Population correspond to end times related events? More than 5,000 Jews left France for Israel in 2014 Ukrainian Jews head for Israel. The Bible States.. There will be a mass return of Jews to the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3; Isaiah 43:6; Ezekiel 34:11-13; 36:24; 37:1-14).

(English translation) The Puerto Rican exodus is at its height. And to judge from Transport Statistics Bureau data, over 72,000 Puerto Ricans left the island during the first 6 months of 2014, El Nuevo Día reports. This number is triple what was recorded for the same period in previous years. For example, over 24,000 people left Puerto Rico during the first 6 months of 2013. According to demographer Judith Rodriguez, the numbers are alarming and prove what was suspected, namely that Puerto Rican emigration to other places in search of a better quality of life is increasing at a huge...

Mercedes-Benz USA is expected to announce it will move its headquarters to the Atlanta area from New Jersey, ending a more than 40-year connection to the state where it employs about 1,000 people. The announcement could be made as soon as Tuesday, according to two people briefed on the matter. Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG DAI, +0.70% , has been based in Montvale, N.J., since 1972. Reports of a possible move first surfaced in December.

This, from Reuters, tells you everything you need to know about Europe's continued descent into depression: According to German officials, Merkel felt betrayed by Draghi's speech at a central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August in which he pressed Berlin for looser fiscal policy to stimulate the economy. Her entourage is also deeply skeptical about Draghi's plan to buy up asset-backed securities (ABS) and covered bonds in the hope of encouraging commercial banks to lend. Most of all, politicians in Berlin worry that if this scheme doesn't work, the ECB president will be tempted to launch full-blown government...

Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, has claimed British towns are being “swamped” by immigrants and their residents are “under siege”, in an escalation of the emotive language being used by Tory ministers calling for a renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with Europe. In terms reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s, he said on Sunday that in some areas of the UK, large numbers of migrant workers and foreign people claiming benefits should be subject to some form of restraint – or risk dominating the local population. “In some areas of the UK, down the east coast, towns do feel...

Jennifer Philips has been in America only three days, and she's already calling it home. The 21-year-old left Liberia last week and with it childhood memories of civil war and, more recently, horrific images of dead bodies in the street from the worst ever outbreak of Ebola. Her father, Barhyeau Philips, welcomed her Saturday at the Quad-City International Airport and brought her to his Rock Island home. "I'm here to live," she told the Quad-City Times on Monday. After waiting four years for a visa, Jennifer's journey began Friday at the airport in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. From there she...

The number of Cubans heading to the United States has soared since the island lifted travel restrictions last year, and instead of making the risky journey by raft across the Florida Straits, most are now passing through Mexico or flying straight to the U.S. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol figures show that more than 22,000 Cubans arrived at the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada in the fiscal year that ended last month. That was nearly double the number in 2012, the year before restrictions were lifted. The changes in Cuban law eliminate a costly exit visa and make it...