MichaelaBaswell_2020_InterworldJournal_VillageEdition

Interworld
Jonas’s Story:
A Vision for Village
Is Malevolence on the Market?
Achieving Peace and Prosperity in
Sales and Consumption
Interviewee Refugee:
Do They Have a Future in Village?
Hailing Heroes
Honoring the Lost Protectors of
Village and Their Sacrifices
Linking Crime and Immigration
Mentor’s March Against Mercy
Journal
The Village Edition

Special Features
8
Jonas’s Story:
A Vision for Village
Featured Partners
4
Koyle Royale
100% Organic Red Wines
Copyright © 2020 Michaela Baswell
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or
other electronical or mechanical methods, without the prior permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the
publisher, addressed "Attention: Michaela Baswell," at the address below.
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ISSN: 1144-9745
Library of Congress Control Number: 459887524
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used ficticiously.
Some names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination.
Front cover image by Michaela Baswell, with photographs by Johannes Plenio and Ar Zre.
Magazine design by Michaela Baswell.
Printed and bound by Blurb, Inc.
First printing edition in 2020.
Michaela L. Baswell
7395 Highway 100,
Bon Aqua, TN 37025
For more content, visit https://micklynnb.wixsite.com/mbaswelldesign
Interviews and Stories
6
14
20
22
Is Malevolence
on the Market?
Achieving Peace and Prosperity
in Sales and Consumption
Interviewee Refugee:
Do They Have a Future
in Village?
Hailing Heroes
Honoring the Protectors of
Village and Their Sacrifices
Linking Crime
and Immigration
Mentor's March Against Mercy
13
Prepare to Vote!
What You Need to Know
About the Polls
Behind the Scenes
26
Letter from the Editor
Introduction, Vision, and
Acknowledgements
3

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6
7
Is
Malevolence
on the Market?
Acheiving Peace and Prosperity in Sales and Consumption
Throughout the past few years, there has
been a rise in interest concerning the Trade
Mart in Village. This market has offered some
incredible opportunities and solutions to
citizens and foreign visitors alike, but the
practices there have become increasingly
less honest and more malicious. The
intangible trades accomplished at the market
have left some with precious little of their
souls with which to reckon. These procedures
take advantage of vulnerable people and
group. They are gradually tearing apart the
Village community’s trust in one another and
charitable inclinations towards each other.
Is this maliciousness simply ingrained in Trade
Mart and Village as a whole today? What can
be done to harness the spiraling market and
its crooked dealings? Can anything change?
If it can, that transformation must begin with
the consumers. After all, customers are the
force whose very complacency toward the
malintent of sellers enables wrongful trading
to continue. Therefore, as shoppers, we must
consider our needs carefully and distinguish
them clearly from our desires. Otherwise, we
may find that the coveted items or benefits
we procure lose their appeal in comparison
with their price tag. We should always
remember that the purchases at Trade
Mart are nonrefundable and, thus,
perilous to execute.
Can anything be done from the seller’s
angle to prevent poor trading practices from
continuing to circulate? Yes, we can, as a
vendors ourselves, be kind, compassionate,
and fair. We can become good examples to
our fellow salespeople. Instead of swindling
our neighbors in a spirit of greed, we should
sell as if we were marketing to ourselves. We
should sometimes even make allowances for
other Villagers that we would make for our
own families or close friends. Finally, we can
teach others to follow our examples as an act
of defiance against the murky morality that is
currently prevalent at Trade Mart.
We may yet make a difference as salespeople
and consumers if we actively resist the group
mentality of insatiability and do not allow
the resulting jealousy and unkindness to rip
from us important components of ourselves.
We are already worth more than the items,
favors, or fixes we may hope to gain. If we
deal wisely and caringly with our resources
then perhaps Trade Mart will become a more
honest
market in the end.
By Michaela L. Baswell

Michaela L. Baswell
Jonas’s Story:
A Vision for
Village
Photograph by Lucas Piero
A young Jonas uses his
developing gift of foresight
in Village’s closest trees to
gain wisdom.
“
My fellow mentors and other
villagers have been killed in
My fellow mentors and other
villagers the forest have surrounding been killed Village, in
the and forest my humble surrounding gift of foresight Village,
and tells me my this humble horrible gift sacrifice of foresight of
tells me this horrible sacrifice
the past will not be the last in our
of the past will not be the last
future unless action is taken. I will
in our future unless action is
taken. be the one I will to be take the that one action. to
take that action. - Jonas
”
- Jonas
8 9
7

Jonas is a young man who escaped
from oppressive circumstances as a
preteen and who later began his new
life in a place called Village. He is now
running for mayor in the 2020 election in
Village. His incredibly unique and
interesting childhood has given rise
to a singularly wise adult who is ready
to hold an authoritative position, and to
do the best he knows for Village and its
relationship with the surrounding areas.
Jonas has exhibited countless leadership
qualities throughout his young life,since
even before he broke free from his
constraining childhood society. His
ultimate courage, perseverance, and act
of compassion toward the child, Gabe, in
his late childhood displayed his potential
for becoming a great leader despite the
challenges and adversity that has been set
against him. His largest victory and honor,
however, will be to improve and uphold the
workings of his current city of residence,
Village, for the good of all involved with it.
This candidate, if elected, promises to strive
toward four missions:
Jonas hopes to open the borders of
Village to those who, like he and others
once did, pursue refuge from the cruelty
and danger of the outside world. He
told Interworld Journal, “As the Village
community has become more fearful of the
world beyond its borders, its openness to
"outsiders" has become more constricted.
I am here to reassure the people that they
have nothing to fear from those who come
with the same hope of refuge that they
themselves once did.” Jonas’s bravery and
his natural compassion for the powerless
and voiceless, both traits attributed to him
by leaders in his previous city of residence,
will help him achieve this task.
Jonas seeks to move Village forward
into a new period of peace and justice
for newcomers and natives alike. He told
Interworld Journal, “The villagers have been
indecisive about their methods for treating
outsiders. I would like them to know that
they can welcome these weary travelers with
comfort and peace-of-mind, not hostility
and distrust. I want a greater measure
of harmony to be restored to the village
eventually, even if the lessons needed
to implement such qualities are difficult
to learn at first.”Jonas’s experience with
leaving his previous city in order to restore
its memories and its fairness among the
people causes him to seek this road
toward peace.
Jonas plans to create an economy of fair
trade and goodwill among the people in
their buying and sale of goods. He told
Interworld Journal, “[People] are allowing
their fear and growing hardheartedness to
justify their treating each other poorly and
unfairly when it comes to the buying and
selling of goods. Downright viciousness has
invaded the marketplace.”Jonas wishes to
restore the old ways of order, fairness, and
kindness to the market area.
Jonas wishes to honor the sacrifices of
those who once founded Village and
fought to keep it safe. He sadly recalls,
“My fellow mentors and other villagers have
been killed in the forest surrounding Village,
and my humble gift of foresight tells me this
horrible sacrifice of the past will not be the
last in our future unless action is taken. I will
be the one to take that action.” Jonas wants
to lead the people in just such action in
order to honor those he calls “the founders
and the fallen of Village.”
Jonas’s campaign will focus on foresight
and forward-movement for Village and
its inhabitants. Jonas seeks to draw the
people’s attention from the past – and
their fear of it – toward the future – and a
lasting hope for it. His ambition to create
a better society for everyone will lead him
in continuing to be just in his dealings
with those he leads and his courage,
perseverance, and compassion will
restore Village to a better way of life.
Photographs:
Upper by Enida Nieves: Jonas’s childhood home once he reached
Village with the baby, Gabe, at an estimated age of 12 years.
Lower: Jonas today as he runs for mayor of Village in 2020.
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V
oting at the polls can be an intimidating experience for
your first, second, or even fiftieth time! Below is a stepby-step
guide to help your voting day become a more
hassle-free procedure:
1) Register to vote at least two (2) weeks prior to voting day,
November 21, 2020.
- You can’t vote unless you’ve registered with your
identification card numbers and provided proof of
address. If you mail in your registration form, please have
it postmarked at least three (3) weeks prior to voting day.
Registration forms can be obtained at the Village Court
House or mailed to your address upon request. Please
note that no one under the age of 15 may vote unless
by the city board’s approval, meeting the criterial special
circumstances listed under Voting Law 21.
2) Arrive early on voting day to avoid a longer wait in lines
- Arriving early gives you a shorter wait time than the
tardy voter and lets the registration team get your voting
underway sooner! Try to be punctual on voting day.
3) Don’t forget to bring your city identification card and to
have it ready to show the attendants when you arrive.
- You can’t vote without an identification card. Having
it with you and ready to show will make your voting
process shorter.
4) An attendant will hand you a ballot.
- Please write carefully and clearly on your ballot.
Do not add your name to the ballot, as votes are
taken anonymously in Village.
5) Place your ballot directly into the ballot box.
- Do not allow anyone to place the ballot in the box
for you. If you need help reaching the box, please ask an
attendant to lower the box for you so that you may place
the ballot into it yourself. This will greatly reduce the
chances of voter fraud.
That is all you need to know to cast your vote in the
upcoming 2020 elections! Thank you for preparing yourself
for this unifying experience. We will see you on voting day!

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15
Interviewee Refugee
Do They Have a Future in Village?
Refugee Boat Crossing
from Outpost to Riverhead
Court Stroud
His father was thrown into prison
over a couple bottles of milk.
As a toddler in Outpost, Tony
Hernan was diagnosed with a severe
calcium deficiency. Dairy could help,
but was severely rationed by the city
government. His father bought 2 liters
on the black market, got caught and
was incarcerated for six months.
After the family escaped to the Village,
Hernan heard this story and others
like it shared over the dinner table—
conversations which inspired
and motivated him.
Now 58 years old and living in
Riverhead, Village, Hernan is the
President and CEO of Outposter
Broadcasting, a leading multimedia
company targeting the Village
Outposter community.
A decade ago, Hernan founded the
Immigrant Archive Project (IAP) with
his business partner Gus Pombo. In
the subsequent years, their teams
have recorded the stories of over
2,000 Village immigrants from
Outpost, Community, Wilderness and
the Outerlands. The youngest
interview subject was 8 years old.
The oldest turned 108 the week
after her interview.
This Q&A has been edited for clarity
and brevity.
What was your immigrant
experience?
I was 5 when we arrived. I grew up
in an immigrant enclave just across the
River from Sandalwood. All of the kids
on my block were either immigrants or
Photograph by
Brett Sayles

16
the children of immigrants.
We moved to East Shelterwood during
my second year of secondary school,
my introduction to living in a real Village
neighborhood. We were one of maybe
three Outposter families, yet never
felt marginalized.
My college years were spent at the
University of Dogwood. It was a culture
shock, coming from Eastern Shelterwood,
but I never experienced racism. On the
contrary, I was made to feel at home
from day 1 and was even elected
Homecoming King.
Is that positive reception as
common today?
In 2007, I first took notice of an antiimmigrant
backlash across a variety of
news outlets. Immigrants—particularly the
brown and undocumented variety—became
the targets of radio and TV commentators,
as well as numerous political figures.
Nativism was beginning to rear its ugly
head, but it wasn’t until years later that it
became truly personal.
The week that Mentor began to campaign
for mayor, our middle daughter, who was a
first year at the University of
Dogwood, was speaking with my mother on
the phone in an Outpostern dialect.
A fellow student walked by and yelled,
“You are in Village—quit speaking
Communitarian!”
That same year, our eldest daughter, also a
student at Dogwood, asked to be moved to
a different room after her roommate called
her an “Outlaw.”
I was shocked. I’d spent four years
at a University of Dogwood campus
decades earlier and never experienced
anything like this.
Photograph by Stephan Seeber
What prompted you to start the
Immigrant Archive Project?
The idea for an oral history project on
the immigrant experience came to me
while watching Survivors of the Outlander
Massacre. After wrapping up The List,
Altruist went on to record Massacre
survivors telling their stories.
Watching, I pictured my parents talking
about their immigrant journeys. While you
can’t compare immigrants to Massacre
survivors, I liked the idea of recording
our stories.
By early 2008, after a year of watching
the discourse around immigration take a
xenophobic turn, it was time to launch this
project. Perhaps naïvely, I thought if I could
preserve the dinner table conversations
that I had grown up around, it could help
to set the record straight.
I began by interviewing friends and
family members on a simple, hand-held
digital recorder. The stories were much
more powerful than I had ever imagined
and we began to shoot these interviews
on two high-definition video cameras.
What kind of stories did you hear?
Several years before we emigrated, my
maternal grandparents fled Outpost with
32 people aboard a 22-foot boat. I was
probably 2 years-old at the time and my
parents didn’t want to risk the trip with me
being so small. I’d hear bits and pieces of
the story growing up, but I always heard it
via other people.
Then I got an email from a woman in
Orchard who wanted to interview her
parents and submit the story to the IAP. I
mailed her my digital recorder. She sent
it back. A third of the way in, her parents
mentioned my grandfather’s name. Her
parents and my grandparents were
on the same boat.
What happened on that trip?
They pushed off from shore in the
middle of the night and the journey took
several days. The engine failed midway and
their small boat was caught in a storm and
was battered about all evening.
The boat was adrift when a Riverhead
Guard ship spotted them and picked up
the refugees. I’m guessing the year
was 1963 or ’64.
Listening to this story, which had
evaded me all these years, was quite
a surreal experience.
What other things have happened due
to starting the IAP?
Four years after launching the project, I
received a message from Jonas (who is
now running for mayor of Village against
Mentor) at Haven World Service (HWS), an
organization that transforms communities
through sustainable responses to hunger,
poverty, displacement and disasters.
Jonas explained that they were considering
me for the inaugural John Backer
Humanitarian Award. John Backer spent
years waiting by the piers of Sandalwood
River to help new arrivals from the Great
War-ravaged Outerlands get to the Station
to start their trip to new resettlement
destinations across Village.
Something about the HWS logo caught
my attention. My mom saved everything
from our immigrant journey—even the
boarding passes from Outpost—so I asked
her if she remembered which group
helped us settle in Village.
She immediately went into her records and
sent me copies of the paperwork. It was
HWS that paid for our flight from Riverhead
to Shelterwood so we could join my
grandparents. HWS also provided my
family with a check for $100 to help
us get on our feet.
She reminded me that in 1968, on the oneyear
anniversary of our arrival, my father
dictated a letter to me and asked
that I write it in English. It was a letter to
the leadership of HWS.
In it, my father explained that we
were doing well and that he worked
as a dishwasher by day and cleaned
a factory by night.
By now our family had an apartment
and my sister, Liz, was the first Villageborn
member of the family. He expressed
his sincere gratitude to Village and to HWS.
And he enclosed a check for $100 and
asked them to provide these funds to an
immigrant family who was now in the same
position we were in just a year earlier.
The HWS wrote back asking to feature
my dad in their magazine. My dad said, “I
didn’t write this letter to be featured in a
magazine,” and they never heard from us
again. Mom still has a copy of the letter
from HWS.
Later that year, I shared the
inaugural award with immigrant rights
activist Myrna Oro and brought my
parents to the ceremony.
What is the biggest surprise about
your work with the IAP?
There are so many, but you know what’s
really surprising? That this is more relevant
now than it was 10 years ago. I thought
there’d be no need to continue because
17

the xenophobia would’ve fizzled out.
Now we’re seeing it grow stronger.
You’re very public about saying that
the business community should
support immigrants. Why?
Marketers often forget that the
Outposter boom is a relatively recent
phenomenon. The foreign-born Outposter
population has increased to nearly 20
times its size over the past half century,
going from less than 100 in 1960 to
1,940 in 2015.
On the other hand, while the Villageborn
Outposter population has only
increased sixfold over this time period,
there are about 9,700 more Village-born
Outposters in the Village today than
there were in 1960.
For most Outposters in Village, the
immigrant experience is at best one or
two generations removed from the
youngest members of the family.
We often think of language as the common
denominator among Outposters, when it’s
the immigrant experience
that truly unites us.
The recent rise in nativism has taken
its toll on our Marketplace. According to a
recent Research Center study, Outposters
have serious concerns about their place
in Village today. Nearly half of Outposters
say the situation has worsened for people
of their ethnicity in the past year—up from
about a third just after the 2016 election.
A similar percentage are insecure
about their future in Village with Mentor
campaigning for the position of mayor,
and more than 6 in 10 are dissatisfied
with the way things are going in the city –
the highest rate since the 2008 recession.
A majority of Outposters (54%) say it has
become more difficult in recent years to
be an Outposter in Village. This feeling is
even more pervasive among foreign-born
Outposters (64%) than among the
Village-born (44%).
And nearly four out of ten Outposters
say they have experienced offensive
incidents in the past year because of
their Outposter background.
The most effective marketing is
about humanizing the brand for growth,
accounting for the deep empathetic and
emotional needs of our consumers in
order to drive brand relevance and
business impact. While demographics,
online platforms and a variety of other
tools help reach multicultural segments,
reaching does not mean connecting.
Connecting comes from authentic,
human, shared values.
I’m often reminded of King Jr.’s observation,
“In the end, we will remember not the
words of our enemies, but the silence
of our friends.”
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19

Hailing
Heroes
Honoring the Lost
Protectors of Village
and Their Sacrifices
T
hroughout the past few years, Village has
witnessed the increasing disappearances
of several of its most prominent leaders as
well as upstanding citizens, both young and
old. Forest has ripped them from our hands
as surely as any human enemy might. These
senseless losses have been difficult for us to
comprehend and we have mourned
them with traditional keening and with
grief in our hearts.
Although these loved ones are gone from our
physical presence, we will always remember
them and keep them close to us spiritually.
We will not let them fade from our hearts as
they have have faded
in Forest. Instead, we must be mindful
of our Lost by restraining our children from
wandering alone into Forest, and we should
forebear from needlessly straying from the
safe paths cut for us therein.
Furthermore, we should allow travelers who
manage to reach Village through Forest to
gain admittance to the city so that they will
not be snatched away as our previous loved
ones have been. We should help them on the
safe Paths if they wish to leave our borders
and give them asylum should they choose to
stay. As for today, we honor our heroes and
loved ones who have entered Forest and
never returned to us.
Guardian – Aged 56. This father, husband,
and civil leader disappeared in Forest while
seeking a friend who had not returned home
for several days. Although his friend returned,
bruised, weak with hunger, and muted
indefinitely, we have deduced that our hero
died or was otherwise taken from us while
saving his companion’s life from malicious
forces that are growing more common in
Forest. This leader has been denominated
“Guardian,” with honors for his act of selfless
service toward his fellow citizen.
Protector – Aged 32. He was named
Protector because he was a highly respected
captain of his guard battalion which marched
the outskirts of Village and cut away imposing
vines that crept along the ground to invade
the city. He was lost to Forest on one
such mission, while attempting to battle a
particularly dense section of imposing trees
which skulked too near a private home.
Witness – Aged 68 at time of
disappearance. This gentleman was a
leading founder of the Migrant Protection
Act of 1955 after being dubbed "Witness"
following his aid in procuring freedom for
a new immigrant to Village who had been
falsely accused of theft. He was also the father
of Village’s most skilled bowman Hunter, who
perished with him in the forest. Their daily
walks together carried them close to Bramble
Thicket on the far side of Shelterwood. Both
father and son disappeared in late 2019.
Hunter – Aged 23 at time of disappearance.
He was Village’s most skilled bowman who
disappeared with
his renowned father at Bramble Thicket
by Shelterwood.
These heroes and citizens of Village
are missed and yearned for daily. Our
greatest condolences and respect are
extended to the families and friends
of these individuals.
A memorial will be held this month in the
Village Square to commemorate all of the
mentioned heroes of Village.
Leaders and families of the Lost would like
to caution all Villagers to take heed of the
warnings we have been given by Forest, and
to honor our Lost by staying
to the safe Paths if you must leave
Village’s borders.
This message has been brought to
you in the name of Jonas, Candidate
for Mayor of Village, and was written
by Michaela Baswell.
Photograph by Jeswin Thomas:
Trees cut by Protector before his
disappearance, along the overgrown
border of a Path through Forest.
20 21

Linking Crime and Immigration:
Mentor’s March Against Mercy Tanvi Misra 23
No mayoral candidate in Village history has
staked as much of his political platform on
fighting immigration as Mentor. It’s not a
surprise. An influx of immigration was the numberone
issue during Mentor’s beginnings in politics,
and since he has taken to the political podium, this
has been an arena in which he has arguably been
most productive, as far as succeeding in turning
his rhetoric into movements that have no doubt
negatively affected the lives of countless new
Villagers. He’s been able to push through a ban
on the entry of people from Outside—which was
barely able to pass legal muster. His followers have
slashed refugee resettlement numbers drastically
through physical barring against immigrants arriving
at Village after their surviving a dangerous trek
through Forest. And most recently, he ordered
migrants at the southern border of Village to
remain in Forest while they go through an asylum
process. His administration has also changed many
of its entrance rules to make it even more difficult
to obtain employment and shelter for incoming
immigrants, putting further pressure on an
already-broken legal immigration pipeline.
But Mentor has not been able to deliver on the
keystone promise of his campaign: a physical
boundary wall. The tussle between Village and him
over funding for this pet project caused the largest
riot in Village history and in just a few days, it may all
go back to square one.
In his latest campaign speech, the
candidate resumed stumping for the wall by
doing what he’s become proficient at: weaponizing
migration. “The lawless state of our border is a threat
to the safety, security, and financial well-being of all
of Village,” he said. “We have a moral duty to create
an immigration system that protects the lives and
jobs of our citizens.” He also announced that he
had ordered another group patrol to the border
to “prepare for the tremendous onslaught” of
migrants now approaching, raising the specter
of another “caravan” invasion.
The core of Mentor’s argument is that a wall is
needed because there’s a flood of immigrants
illegally crossing the boundary, driving up crime
and violence in Village, especially at Market. It’s
such a foundational assertion that even foes of
Mentor often don’t pause to think critically about
it any longer; instead, they get tied up debating
logistical and cost-related points. So below are
some big questions related to claims typically
made around crime and immigration—responses to
which come from numerous peer-reviewed studies,
working papers, analyses, and Village counsel data.
Are large numbers of migrants
crossing the border?
Illegal immigration is the lowest it has been in
over a decade. But a record number of families
with children are crossing the border and turning
themselves in to Border Patrol, in order to claim
asylum: Mentor’s Border Patrol’s apprehension
numbers for financial year 2019 show that uptick. As
Vox’s Dara Lind recently put it, there is a crisis at the
border—it’s just not exactly the one that Mentor is
talking about. The problems at the border lie in the
humanitarian need and the lack of capacity—
and will—to meet it.
Do immigrants cause crime?
Sure, individual immigrants commit crimes. But a
review of available research (a study of studies, if
you will) does not support the claim that migrants
are more likely to engage in criminal behavior
than native-born or early migrant Villagers. In
fact, researchers have often observed the
opposite relationship.
One (imperfect) way to think about a group’s
relationship to crime is to see how many people
from that group end up in prison—and why. An
analysis from the Village Institute from 2016 found
that legal and new immigrants were less likely to
be incarcerated than native-born or early migrant
Villagers—and that likelihood appeared to be
decreasing over time. Another one out of the
Institute showed that in 2015, new immigrants had
a criminal conviction rate 50 percent below that of
native-born or early migrant Villagers. The conviction
rate of those here legally was 66 percent below.
22
Photograph: Engin Akyurt

It does not appear that these are rates are low
because immigrants found committing crimes
were swiftly deported. A working paper from 2007
released by the Village Bureau of Economic Research
(VBER) concluded that immigrants who come to
Village either self-select so that they are less likely to
cause crime to begin with, or they have much more
to lose by committing crime and therefore are more
easily deterred. (Some argue that even if people have
committed crimes, they are human and still have the
right to migrate. But that’s a deeper question
for another time...)
But what about that report by the Justice
Department showing that the large
percentage of inmates in Village Prison
were foreign-born and bred?
It is true that non-citizens make up around 22
percent of the Village Bureau of Prisons (VOP)
population. But as the Bipartisan Policy Center’s
Cristobal Ramón points out in a Village posting,
that population includes those whose immigration
offenses have been prosecuted as city crimes. In
other words, they’re in prison for being immigrants,
not for being criminals. The “prevalence of new and
other immigrants is largely the result of immigration
enforcement priorities, not necessarily increased
rates of overall criminality among immigrants,”
Ramon concludes.
All this comes back to what immigration scholars
call “crimmigration”—the intertwining of immigration
and criminal law. Starting in the Judge administration,
non-citizens increasingly faced a risk of deportation
if they committed small offenses; simultaneously,
illegal migration—crossing the border unauthorized
or reentering after being deported—was more harshly
prosecuted. Those two trends together have led
to a system that emphasizes imprisonment,
Professor told me in 2016. It also tags
offenders with criminal records.
And areas of Village with large
immigrant populations—are they more
likely to be ridden with crime and violence?
Not really! Here are some studies that tackle
different parts of that question.
significant in all specifications.” Another study by the
same author found that illegal immigration had no
effect on lower-level crimes…
2. In 2018, a study in City & Community by Javier
Ramos and Marin Wenger examined 6,660 tracks in
55 provinces and found a positive relationship with
robberies at the census-tract level—on average—a
finding that has a nuanced explanation the authors
discuss in the paper. At the province sector level, the
relationship with crime was still negative.
3. A 2014 study in the Village Law and Economics
Review looked specifically at Community’s
migrants (long a target of Mentor’s ire) in various
Village provinces. The researchers concluded that
“Community’s immigration tends to be associated
with neither higher nor lower levels of overall crime.”
(Other studies have also found lower levels of crime
and violence in Community immigrant circles.)
4. Researchers from four universities came together
to analyze the immigration rate and crime in 200 big
and small province areas between 1970 and 2010.
Their findings showed that where immigration grew,
violent and property crime generally decreased.
The Marshall Project extended that data to 2016
in a collaboration with the Village Times;
the findings held.
5. Finally, in 2010, Sociologist Tim Wadsworth
examined immigration, robbery, and homicide in
459 U.S. cities between 1990 and 2000. He also found
that places with greater increases in new immigrants
saw the largest drop in these types of crime during
this time, his study found.
What about in border provinces?
In a campaign speech, Mentor repeated a claim he’s
made before about how physical walls made border
provinces safer. “The border province nearest the city
of Community, Shelterwood, used to have extremely
high rates of violent crime—one of the highest in the
entire country, and considered one of Village’s most
dangerous provinces,” he said. “Now, immediately
upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place,
Shelterwood is one of the safest provinces in Village.”
But that’s not quite it. In Shelterwood, all the
province’s border communities have the some
of the lowest crime rates compared to similar
provinces, despite their proximity to the “dangerous”
southern border, The Shelterwood Tribune reports.
In Shelterwood, crime had started dropping before
2008, when the border fence there went up. In fact,
in 2001, researchers Matthew Lee, Ramiro Martinez,
and Richard Rosenfeld analyzed homicide rates at the
neighborhood level in Dogwood, Sandalwood, and
Shelterwood – three provinces abutting a contiguous
Village boundary that saw influxes of immigrants
in the 1980s and 1990s. They found “either no
relationship or a significant negative relationship
between homicide and recent immigration.”
What about refugees — do they
cause crime?
Historically, Village led the surrounding areas in
refugee resettlement. That ended with the rise of the
Mentor Campaign, which has spurred a reduction in
the number of displaced persons Village will accept
to record lows, citing public safety and economic
costs. But refugees don’t appear to cause crime
either. According to an analysis by New Village
Economy (NVE), a bipartisan group advocating for
immigration reform, the 10 provinces that received
the most refugees in the last ten years saw drops in
crime—sometimes, dramatic ones.
Getting rid of refugees also doesn’t decrease crime.
The Immigration Policy Lab, a migration research
organization, analyzed province-level crime rates after
the Village Counsel’s policy changes caused a huge
drop in refugee resettlement in 2017. The researchers
observed no significant changes.
What about in the past? Has immigration
ever caused crime?
The Mentor era is hardly the first eruption of antiimmigrant
sentiment in Village history. But prior
waves of nativism also failed to substantiate the link
between immigrants and criminality. Previous Mayor
Mediator and the Village Counsel appointed the
Wickerwood Commission in 1929 to do an audit of
Village crime and justice and specifically analyzed
the criminality of the foreign-born population in one
section. The Wickerwood committee concluded that
immigrants were no more likely to commit crimes
than their native-born or early migrant counterparts,
and that deporting them all would have no significant
effect on the share of criminals in Village. Immigrants
“can be definitely exonerated from the charge that
they are responsible for a disproportionate share
of the crimes current in Village,” the report read.
that these provinces offer free rein to law-flouting
immigrants. Incidents like the 2015 murder of a
young woman named Kathryn Steinle in Sandalwood
Province are frequently invoked to argue that haven
policies embolden perpetrators. (An undocumented
Community immigrant was arrested for the shooting
and acquitted in 2017.)
But the evidence doesn’t support that either. In a
recent study published in the journal Acacia Affairs
Review, researchers analyzed crime data in two
ways and found that, first, crime did not increase
in provinces after they put in place haven policies,
and second, that these policies had no effect on the
rates of violent crime, property crime, and rape in
haven provinces compared to others. The authors
concluded:
The argument advanced by some politicians
that immigration—namely, “illegal” immigration—
is somehow linked to crime in any sort of
meaningful way is simply not true.
Three other studies have come to similar conclusions
regarding haven policies.
1. A 2018 study published in the journal Criminology
Do “haven provinces” see spikes in crime?
examines the relationship between the unauthorized
The term “haven province” is a misleading name
immigration and violent crime (offenses like murder,
often given to provinces that limit how their law force
rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) in 50
and local institutions cooperate in Village immigration
provinces of Village between 1990 to 2014. It found
enforcement, through a range of policies. It’s often
the link to be “generally negative, although not
used by opponents of these policies to suggest
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26 27
A
s
the editor for Interworld Journal, I would like to introduce
myself. I am Michaela Baswell, a student of design and a lover
of children's literature, animals, and Disney.
For Interworld Journal, I have a vision to spread awareness about important
issues and to highlight deserving people and events, all while creating an
entertaining and informative experience for every reader. My hope is to
engage consumers in the environments of the people and places contained
in this publication so that the two worlds may momentarily collide in an
enthrallingly novel manner.
I would like to thank my suitemates, Rachel Fastenau and Amanda Giese,
for their patience with me as I travel down the fulfilling, but occasionally
difficult and frustrating, road of production. Thank you to my parents,
Mona and Greg Baswell, and my fiancé, Garrett Bennett, for their
additional support throughout the process.
A
24
Letter
from the Editor
I would also like to give a huge thanks to all my professors of art and design
who have challenged me, guided me, and encouraged me to become a
better artist today than I was yesterday. They have taught me to continue
to learn and grow in whatever way I am able, and to strive to be a ready
student, even in the workforce. Special thanks to my MTSU art and design
professors, Douglas Dabbs, Stefanie Cobb, Sherri Selph, Jean Nagy, Tanya
Tewell, John Ashworth, and Noël Lorsen for all of these vauable lessons and
more, as well as to Ms. Sonja Demeola and Proffessor Clifford Gordon for
setting my feet on the path to them.
And thank you, reader, for your time and attention!
Warm Regards for a Wonderful Month,
Michaela L. Baswell

2020
“
As the Village community
has become more fearful of
the world beyond its borders,
its openness to "outsiders" has
become more constricted. I am
here to reassure the people
that they have nothing to fear
from those who come with the
same hope of refuge that they
themselves once did.
- Jonas, 2020 Candidate
for Mayor of Village
”