Tag Archives: articles

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • “This article examines the concept and colonial reality of the British Mediterranean through the imperial network of trade and migration from and to areas under British political and/or economic control. The hybrid identities of many citizens in the colonial Mediterranean can best be seen in the perception and reality of the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean as cosmopolitan. The article also argues that the role and experience of these migrants as intermediate groups was determined by the form of rule British colonial authorities imposed in each dominion.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    The Roma constitute the largest ethnic minority in the European Region. The many policy initiatives designed over the past two decades to tackle their adverse social conditions in Central and South Eastern Europe, where the Roma population is concentrated, have had limited success. This paper reviews what is being done to improve the health and social situation of Roma communities in the Region and identifies factors that may limit the effectiveness of these policy initiatives. Strong political commitment, measures to overcome prejudices against Roma, inter-sectoral policy coordination, adequate budgets, evidence-based policies, and Roma involvement can be identified as key preconditions for improved health outcomes and well-being. However, developing a sound evidence-based approach to Roma inclusion requires removing obstacles to the collection of reliable data and improving analytical and evaluation capacity. Health policies seeking to reduce health inequalities for Roma people need to be aligned with education, economic, labour market, housing, environmental and territorial development policies and form part of comprehensive policy frameworks allowing for effective integration.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    Countries bordering the Mediterranean are part of a major migration system. The aim of this study is to assess the main access barriers to immunization of mobile populations in the region and propose an action based framework to decrease health access inequalities.

    A survey on formal and informal barriers to immunization among mobile communities was conducted among public health officials formally appointed as focal points of the EpiSouth Network by 26 Mediterranean countries. Twenty-two completed the questionnaire.

    Thirteen countries reported at least one vaccine preventable disease (VPD) outbreak occurring among mobile populations since 2006 even though their legal entitlement to immunization is mostly equivalent to the general population’s. Informal barriers, particularly lack of information and lack of trust in authorities, and disaggregation of data collection are the major issues still to be addressed.

    Mediterranean countries need to fill the gap in immunization coverage among pockets of susceptible individuals in order to prevent VPD outbreaks. Having for the most part ensured free entitlement, introducing more migrant friendly approaches, increasing information availability among mobile communities, building trust in public health services and disaggregating data collection to monitor and evaluate service performance among mobile groups are key aspects to address in the region.
    Keywords

    Transients and Migrants;
    Mediterranean Region;
    Health Services Accessibility;
    Immunization;
    EpiSouth”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract
    Background

    Data on the health of migrants, including on health determinants and access to health services, are an essential pre-condition for providing appropriate and accessible health services to this population group. This article reviews how far current data collection systems in the European Union (EU) allow to monitor migrant health.
    Methods

    We searched the academic literature using PubMed and reviewed the results of recent EU-funded research projects on migrant health.
    Results

    Most EU member states lack information on the health of migrants, limiting the possibility for monitoring and improving migrant health. National death registers allow for disaggregation according to migrant status in 24 of 27 EU member states. Registry data on health care utilization by migrant status are available in only 11 of 27 member states, although in most cases this only covers secondary and not primary care. Only few countries collect large-scale survey data on migrant health and health care utilization.
    Conclusion

    Many EU countries need to step up their organizational and regulatory efforts to monitor migrant health if the current lack of data on migrant health should be overcome. This could be done through the inclusion of improved questions on migration in existing data collection processes.
    Keywords

    Migration;
    Migrant;
    Data collection;
    Health information;
    European Union”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “There has been growing international attention to migrant health, reflecting recognition of the need for health systems to adapt to increasingly diverse populations. However, reports from health policy experts in 25 European countries suggest that by 2009 only eleven countries had established national policies to improve migrant health that go beyond migrants’ statutory or legal entitlement to care. The objective of this paper is to compare and contrast the content of these policies and analyse their strengths and limitations. The analysis suggests that most of the national policies target either migrants or more established ethnic minorities. Countries should address the diverse needs of both groups and could learn from “intercultural” health care policies in Ireland and, in the past, the Netherlands. Policies in several countries prioritise specific diseases or conditions, but these differ and it is not clear whether they accurately reflect real differences in need among countries. Policy initiatives typically involve training health workers, providing interpreter services and/or ‘cultural mediators’, adapting organizational culture, improving data collection and providing information to migrants on health problems and services. A few countries stand out for their quest to increase migrants’ health literacy and their participation in the development and implementation of policy. Progressive migrant health policies are not always sustainable as they can be undermined or even reversed when political contexts change. The analysis of migrant health policies in Europe is still in its infancy and there is an urgent need to monitor the implementation and evaluate the effectiveness of these diverse policies.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The paper analyzes public policy and public opinion responses toward immigrants in Germany and Japan, two countries whose immigration policies have relied on blood purity (jus sanguinis). The paper retraces the rationale for jus sanguinis and contends that it was adopted at the turn of the century in both countries out of political convenience. The principles and goals of immigration policies are compared cautioning that better principles must not mean better outcomes.

    It is reiterated that Germany has made a politically motivated move away from the ethnic monocultural concept, whereas Japan still hangs on more or less to the old model of silent and subtle assimilation. The more dissuasive Japanese model of tight immigration control, deportation and monocultural assimilation isthen compared to the more permissive German immigration model. A comparison of identity discourses in the form of Japanese Nihonjinron and German Leitkultur shows that both countries struggle with identifying and asserting their core values and that this has a negative impact on integration issues. The paper concludes that Germany has failed to bear the full consequences of its ambitious plans by taking into account the values, beliefs and worldviews of its immigrants, whereas Japan continues to treat immigrants as temporary guests denying any need for long-term integration.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article focuses on the repercussions of work and employment in low-status jobs upon the collective organization and representation of immigrant workers. The microsociological analysis is focused on the case of Bangladeshi immigrants in Athens, specifically how far the frame of their employment affects their participation in the immigrant work association Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers’ Union of Greece, as well as in Greek trade unions. Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that Bangladeshis are supported by friendly relations in search for solidarity, they develop individualistic behaviors, and they find alternative solutions for survival and protection.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article focuses on socioeconomic differences by nativity and ethnicity within New York’s Black and Latino populations, an often overlooked topic since race tends to overshadow other differences. For these populations, it examines how the foreign-born fare vis-à-vis their native-born counterparts, and how immigrant ethnic groups compare with each other. Groups bring with them varying levels of human capital, and organize their households so as to maximize their strengths. The diversity of immigration to New York helps highlight how myriad ethnic groups integrate into the New York economy and provides important context for the provision of services to immigrant groups.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article examines the relationship between different aspects of family life and acculturation attitudes among adults of the four main immigrant groups in the Netherlands. The focus is on the importance of early parental practices and current (national and transnational) family relationships for the attitude, first, towards socio-cultural maintenance and, second, towards socio-cultural adaptation. The results show that family life matters for both attitudes, but more strongly for the endorsement of socio-cultural maintenance. Family contacts and support are positively related to the endorsement of socio-cultural maintenance but not to the attitude towards socio-cultural adaptation. Growing up with loving and supporting parents is associated with a more positive attitude towards socio-cultural adaptation. In addition to, and independent from, the individual’s language proficiency, immigrants within families who speak Dutch more often have a more positive attitude towards socio-cultural adaptation and a lower endorsement of socio-cultural maintenance.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper examines the institutional logics of migration policy making at local city level, comparing four Danish municipal approaches. Using a theoretical framework on political opportunity structures, policy frames, and institutional logics, the paper argues that divergences between national and local level can be explained not only as an unsuccessful transposition of nationally formulated policies, but also as an outcome of divergence in alternative and competing policy frames, political rationales, and institutional logics. Investigating factors such as size, economy, and organizational structure, the paper offers three interrelated explanations for divergences between national and local level and between different local approaches. The paper argues that the difference in national and local level political opportunity structures makes a difference; that ideas diffused from outside the national context can inform local-level policy making; and that policies are situated within and adjusted to the broader cultural economy and city branding as part of competition between cities.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The topic of regularization of immigrants has occupied a position high on the agenda in Spain and elsewhere. In this paper, we contribute to this particular issue by providing an evaluative case study in Spain using administrative data from the Province of Barcelona from 2005 to 2009, which allows survival analysis, the follow-up of migrants’ trajectories after regularization and the examination of the hazard of lapsing back into irregularity. Our analysis reveals critical differences on the effectiveness of two pathways to earned legalization in Spain as a policy: the 2005 Normalisation and the Settlement Program in full operation since 2006.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In this study, we examined origin, destination, and community effects on first- and second-generation immigrants’ health in Europe. We used information from the European Social Surveys (2002–2008) on 19,210 immigrants from 123 countries of origin, living in 31 European countries. Cross-classified multilevel regression analyses reveal that political suppression in the origin country and living in countries with large numbers of immigrant peers have a detrimental influence on immigrants’ health. Originating from predominantly Islamic countries and good average health among natives in the destination country appear to be beneficial. Additionally, the results point toward health selection mechanisms into migration.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This study examines whether previous findings of an immigrant schooling advantage among Blacks in the United States reflect a declining significance of race in the enrollment patterns of immigrants’ children. Using data from the 2000 US census, the study finds that, despite their advantage within the Black population, the children of Black Africans are collectively disadvantaged relative to the children of White Africans. Disparate enrollment trajectories are found among children in Black and White African families. Specifically, between the first and second generations, enrollment outcomes improved among the children of White Africans but declined among Black Africans’ children. The results also suggest that among immigrants from African multi-racial societies, pre-migration racial schooling disparities do not necessarily disappear after immigration to the United States. Additionally, the children of Black Africans from these contexts have worse outcomes than the children of other Black African immigrants and their relative disadvantage persists even after other factors are controlled.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The geography Mexican migration to the U.S. has experienced deep transformations in both its origin composition and the destinations chosen by migrants. To date, however, we know little about how shifting migrant origins and destinations may be linked to each another geographically and, ultimately, structurally as relatively similar brands of economic restructuring have been posited to drive the shifts in origins and destinations. In this paper, we describe how old and new migrant networks have combined to fuel the well-documented geographic expansion of Mexican migration. We use data from the 2006 Mexican National Survey of Population Dynamics, a nationally representative survey that for the first time collected information on U.S. state of destination for all household members who had been to the U.S. during the 5 years prior to the survey. We find that the growth in immigration to southern and eastern states is disproportionately fueled by undocumented migration from non-traditional origin regions located in Central and Southeastern Mexico and from rural areas in particular. We argue that economic restructuring in the U.S. and Mexico had profound consequences not only for the magnitude but also for the geography of Mexican migration, opening up new region-to-region flows.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In this study, we compare labor force outcomes of the two largest immigrant communities in Spain (Moroccans and Romanians) before the economic crisis hit. We are interested in understanding if and how gender influences the labor force outcomes (wage per hour, labor force participation, and unemployment rate) of these two immigrant groups. Our analyses show that, overall, gender is an important variable on Spanish labor market, but it affects differently the two groups. There is a male job market and a female job market for both Romanian and Moroccan immigrants, with men earning significantly higher wages than women. However, while for Moroccans, working women differ significantly from men in terms of demographic characteristics, Romanian women and men have similar demographic characteristics and comparable levels of labor force participation, but differ in terms of wage levels.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “We examine the utilization of remittances for expenditures associated with development, specifically children’s education. We use household-level data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS II, 2003–04) to separate remittance effects from general household income effects to demonstrate the migration–development relationship reflected in child schooling investment. We find that family-household remittances are spent on education of children, but the expenditures are disproportionately for boys’ schooling. Only when girls are members of higher-income households do greater schooling expenditures go to them. This gender-discriminating pattern at the household level contrasts with the call for universal and gender-equal education.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Surveys in emergency settings are important for the accountability of food aid. Four household surveys conducted between 1994 and 1997 measured the performance of the Bosnia food aid programme, covering a random sample of clusters in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republica Srpska. The team calculated coverage, exclusion and inclusion errors, programme misses, and under-supply. Despite intended universal coverage from 1994–96, 15, 19, and 31 per cent, respectively, did not receive food across the three-year time frame. Households categorised as vulnerable were somewhat more likely to receive food. Programme misses were rare, whereas under-supply fell from 30 per cent in 1994 to four per cent in 1997, as the availability of other food increased. Extrapolation suggested that 61 per cent of the food distributed did not reach households. The programme introduced priority categories for targeting in 1997, yet nearly one-half of the highest priority households did not receive food. Incomplete coverage and weak targeting were related to political constraints.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “ABSTRACT. New nationalism differs from classical nationalism in terms of its content and focus. Whereas classical nationalism distinguishes itself from other nation-states in defining its national identity, new nationalism distinguishes the ‘native’ national identity from that of its current and prospective citizens of migrant origin. The terms of integration thus become conditions of membership in the national community. Citizenship and integration policies emerge as central arenas where the discourse of new nationalism unfolds. This study looks into the discourses of cultural citizenship by studying the content of the official ‘citizenship packages’ – materials designed to welcome newcomers and assist them in their integration – in three Western European countries: The Netherlands, France and the UK. What images are depicted of the nation-state and the migrant in citizenship packages, and (how) do these images freeze the nation?”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract: Community archives play an important role in heritage and cultural wellbeing but the quality of care they receive and their accessibility vary greatly. This paper presents the results of research which investigated the factors required for maintenance of community archives and how well a selection of New Zealand archives exhibited them. The results showed that many of the factors required for maintenance are interrelated and interdependent but that some have a particularly strong impact on the maintenance of the archival records and the evidence they contain. Based on these results and factors, possible strategies for enhancing the future sustainability of community archives are proposed. Edited version of a paper presented at A sense of place: local studies in Australia and New Zealand conference Sydney 5-6 May 2011.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In this article, I map the diverse allegiances and changing conceptions of home expressed by British Ugandan Asians. Drawing on in-depth interviews, I situate the analysis within the wider literature on diaspora, belonging and home. By revealing their different trajectories of belonging, I challenge much of the current literature on the South Asian diaspora, which focuses on connections to India as the principal homeland. Their complex relationship to Britain in the aftermath of the expulsion provides an alternative insight to previous research, which has stressed their commitment to the UK. I trace how they constructed their sense of ‘home’ in Uganda, how their forced migration transformed this and how they responded to their contested and multiple belongings. The respondents’ emphasis on their previous attachments to Uganda helps to challenge stereotypes about South Asians in Uganda and can partly be seen as an attempt to reclaim their place in Uganda’s history.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The study investigated factors associated with internalising emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents displaced during the most recent Chechen conflict. A cross-sectional survey (N = 183) examined relationships between social support and connectedness with family, peers and community in relation to internalising problems. Levels of internalising were higher in displaced Chechen youth compared to published norms among non-referred youth in the United States and among Russian children not affected by conflict. Girls demonstrated higher problem scores compared to boys. Significant inverse correlations were observed between family, peer and community connectedness and internalising problems. In multivariate analyses, family connectedness was indicated as a significant predictor of internalising problems, independent of age, gender, housing status and other forms of support evaluated. Sub-analyses by gender indicated stronger protective relationships between family connectedness and internalising problems in boys. Results indicate that family connectedness is an important protective factor requiring further exploration by gender in war-affected adolescents.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “ABSTRACT  In recent years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has attempted to go beyond its role as a provider of relief and basic services in Palestinian refugee camps and emphasize its role as a development agency. In this article, I focus on the Neirab Rehabilitation Project, an UNRWA-sponsored development project taking place in the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el Tal and Neirab in northern Syria. I argue that UNRWA’s role as a relief-centered humanitarian organization highlights the everyday suffering of Palestinian refugees, suffering that has become embedded in refugees’ political claims. I show that UNRWA’s emphasis on “development” in the refugee camps is forcing Palestinian refugees in Ein el Tal and Neirab to reassess the political narrative through which they have understood their relationship with UNRWA. [humanitarianism, development, UNRWA, Palestine, refugee camps]“

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Abstract:

    Immigrant citizenship rights in the nation-state reference both theories of cross-national convergence and the resilience of national political processes. This article investigates European countries’ attribution of rights to immigrants: Have these rights become more inclusive and more similar across countries? Are they affected by EU membership, the role of the judiciary, the party in power, the size of the immigrant electorate, or pressure exerted by anti-immigrant parties? Original data on 10 European countries, 1980–2008, reveal no evidence for cross-national convergence. Rights tended to become more inclusive until 2002, but stagnated afterward. Electoral changes drive these trends: growth of the immigrant electorate led to expansion, but countermobilization by right-wing parties slowed or reversed liberalizations. These electoral mechanisms are in turn shaped by long-standing policy traditions, leading to strong path dependence and the reproduction of preexisting cross-national differences.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Much research has shown human rights treaties to be ineffective or even counterproductive, often contributing to greater levels of abuse among countries that ratify them. This article reevaluates the effect of four core human rights treaties on a variety of human rights outcomes. Unlike previous studies, it disaggregates treaty membership to examine the effect of relatively “stronger” and “weaker” commitments. Two-stage regression analyses that control for the endogeneity of treaty membership show that stronger commitments in the form of optional provisions that allow states and individuals to complain about human rights abuses are often associated with improved practices. The article discusses the scholarly and practical implications of these findings. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article analyses the discursive construction of solidarity regarding immigration and integration in two European countries: Spain and Denmark. The study is based on interviews with representatives of 10 Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and it focuses on the affective and evaluative dimensions of language aimed at achieving alignment with civil society. The analytical approach combines Positive Discourse Analysis and Appraisal Theory, since these perspectives deal from a discourse analytic point of view with social change promoted by community and interpersonal relations. The discourses on solidarity are framed with reference to their respective national policies and debates. Therefore, different approaches exist between the two countries, albeit that all the NGOs aim to show new dimensions of integration in order to promote empathy towards immigrants. The goal of the NGOs is to contribute positively to social change and combating the current unfair situation. In the article it is argued that solidarity is built on affect and evaluative language at the national level, challenging in this way dominant policies on immigration. Furthermore, the findings show that a European discourse which would be able to solve contradictions related to the scope of human rights, politics of asylum and inclusion of irregular immigrants is still missing.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Much of the interest and research on migrant remittances in the past have been concerned with the monetary value of such transactions and their macro-economic implications for the sending countries. It was only in recent years that research has focused on the social impact that remittances have for migrant workers and their families and communities of origin. We discuss some of the conceptual and methodological issues that such research poses in Asia, where a policy of temporary labour migration is widely practised by host governments. We call for greater attention to be paid to the sending, receipt, control and use of remittances as integral to the social process of remittance transfers. We recommend the adoption of existing social research methods such as multi-site and mixed-method designs, both-ways surveys and longitudinal work. We also stress the need to view remittance transfer as a gendered process. The reconfiguration of such research, we argue, will give rise to a sociology of migrant remittances.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “On Tuesday, October 25, 2011, at 5:30 p.m., about 200 adults, an even mix of blacks and whites, filed under an art deco marquee and into the lobby of the historic, newly renovated Grand Theatre in Frankfort, Kentucky. Among many amiable conversations along the way, there was a sense of collective excitement, and perhaps some cautious anticipation, about what would be presented and discussed. A majority of attendees had personal connections to the general topic “Cultural Life of African-Americans in Frankfort” and to the specific topics presented in the three oral history efforts brought together in the symposium.

    Michael Fields, a Grand Theatre board member, welcomed the audience and introduced oral historian and former Kentucky Historical Society assistant director James Wallace, who then introduced the three presenters:

    Sheila Mason Burton, associate editor of Community Memories: A Glimpse of African American Life in Frankfort, Kentucky (Kentucky Historical Society, 2003)

    Doug Boyd, PhD, author of Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community (University Press of Kentucky, 2011)

    Joanna Hay, filmmaker of Stories from the Balcony (Joanna Hay Productions, expected release in 2014).

    Each of these projects deserves its own media review, but this review will maintain broader focus on the symposium as a whole.

    Sheila Mason Burton presented first on Community Memories, a book that was published as a result of an oral history and photograph collection project and exhibition. Burton was associate editor, with senior editor Dr. Winona L. Fletcher who was seated in the audience. With audio playback and a slideshow on the theatre’s big screen, Burton demonstrated how the Frankfort African American community in which she grew up dealt with social problems caused by urban renewal, such as displacement and relocation. She emphasized the main idea behind … “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Approaching an Auschwitz Survivor and The Wonder of Their Voices both make important and unique contributions to Holocaust and trauma studies. They are also fascinating reads. Alan Rosen, professor of literature at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Israel, gives a captivating historical account of the pathbreaking work of psychologist David Boder, who in 1946 lugged what then was a state-of-the-art portable wire recorder and dozens of carbon-wire spools to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, to interview concentration camp survivors and other “displaced persons.” Boder was likely the first to record the voices of the war survivors, just one year after their liberation. While many other journalists and scholars conducted interviews with survivors, no audio recordings are known to exist prior to Boder’s collection. The recordings in themselves constitute a unique human and scholarly legacy, having only resurfaced in the 1990s. Boder also left transcripts, translations, and some publications, which are not well known even among experts. In uncovering his work for the broader audience, Rosen interweaves several dramatic tales: Boder’s life, his recording expeditions, and the difficulties he faced in trying to publish and archive this unique legacy.

    Jürgen Matthaus, director of Holocaust Studies at the National Holocaust Museum, offers another unique contribution to Holocaust studies: a “first attempt at a multilayered analysis of a single body of survivor testimony by different scholars” (1). The subject is the testimony of a single survivor, Mrs. Helen “Zippi” Tichauer. Interestingly, Mrs. Tichauer also links the two books: Boder first interviewed her in 1946, and the five scholars in this volume explore her narrative from biographical, historical, sociological, pedagogical, and testimonial perspectives over many years. Both books are hard to put down, not only because of the poignancy of their subject matter and smooth writing but also because of the … “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In different ways, these four books represent how Palestinian oral history is breaking new ground while continuing to document the nakbah (what is known as the catastrophe, the displacement of the indigenous Palestinian Arabs with the formation of the state of Israel on May 15, 1948).1 The works under discussion highlight the emergence of a new generation of Palestinian scholars as well as the central role that women are playing in redefining Palestinian oral history. Notably, that includes Palestinian women who are citizens of Israel.

    Despite some commonalities, these four books also diverge from each in their agendas, their uses of oral history, and their writing styles. For example, while both Esber and Matar are presenting Palestinian history, they tell that history quite differently. Using extensive documentary sources for the period leading up to the formation of the Israeli state in Under the Cover of War: The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians, Esber uses oral history quotes from refugees to flesh out written archival sources by documenting the lived nakbah experiences of refugees.

    By contrast, Dina Matar’s What It Means to be Palestinian has both a longer historical sweep and presents a “personal history of Palestinians in their own words” (1). In other words, oral histories are the heart of her book. Like the cumulative impact of Studs Terkel’s oral histories in Working, these relatively short narratives resonate with meaning. Kassem, too, focuses on meaning in Palestinian Women: Narrative Histories and Gendered Memory, using interview excerpts to illustrate how narrators shape their stories and the language they use.

    It is more difficult to characterize the anthology Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel, edited by Kanaaneh and Nusair, because of the wide variation in both the disciplinary perspectives of the essays and … “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The introduction to Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration sets the stage for the study of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo’s immigrant community, its connection to Detroit, Michigan, and its impact in the economy of San Ignacio in the state of Jalisco. It provides the reader with an introduction/preface to the Catholic Church and its role in the recognition of immigrants (los hijos ausentes) while also serving as a summary of historical works by sociologists, economists, and Chicano historians who have shown the differences of Mexican immigrants in the Southwest. The author credits those who have done work on the Midwest, particularly Gabriela Arredondo. Gordillo explains that her own work expands on transnational and gendered studies done before but views immigration as one experience that takes into account the Mexican and the U.S. experience (5). Crucial in this section is Gordillo’s idea that oral histories provide historians with an important tool to trace women’s immigrant experience, a phenomenon that challenges what she considers hegemonic male-oriented narratives on transnational subjects (12–3).

    Chapter 1 focuses on the importance and influence of San Ignacio’s emigrants in the religious celebrations as well as the economic and cultural transformation of San Ignacio and Detroit. Gordillo points out that immigration studies …”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In a well-planned book, Lisa Krissoff Boehm chronicles the experiences of African American women during the Second Great Migration. The book presents the voices of forty women who were born in the rural South and moved between 1940 and 1970 to urban areas of the North. Boehm’s work provides much-needed scholarship on a population conspicuously absent in most oral history collections. The book questions the motivations for the migration and seeks to understand how the migrant families’ lives were different because of the migration.

    Boehm provides concise biographical sketches on each of the forty women interviewed for the book. From these sketches, the reader learns that the women came from different parts of the South, although most were born in either Mississippi or Alabama; and most of the women were born in the 1920s and 1930s. However, the women interviewed represent a range of years, born from 1902 to 1962. This group provided Boehm with an excellent opportunity to learn of the migratory experience from various ages, … “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Jews have lived in Mesopotamia for 2,500 years, since being transported there as captives after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. For centuries, Babylonia was the world center of Jewish culture. While retaining distinctive religious and cultural practices, Jews were in many ways well integrated into Mesopotamian society. Social and political treatment of Jews waxed and waned with political changes in the region, but Jews always constituted a significant minority. By the 1920s, close to 140,000 Jews lived in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad, where they made up about one-third of the city’s population. Jews were influential in commerce, in politics, and in Iraqi national culture. Then, between 1939 and 2008, as a result of intense anti-Jewish government policies, the establishment of the state of Israel, and Arab nationalism’s response to Zionist action in the region, all but a handful of Iraq’s Jews left the country.

    Iraq’s Last Jews tells the closing chapter of this 2,500-year history. The book presents the voices of three generations who lived through the Babylonian Jews’ final exodus. The volume is made up of edited oral histories with nineteen Jews and one Shi’ite Muslim. The Jews are all (except … “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Today, the increasing complexity of life in a time of socio-cultural and economic transition has led to the emergence of various problems, such that literacy and numerical skills alone will not help children to face the growing challenges. Thus, skill based training has been in much demand to empower children to resolve such conflicts successfully. Among the many existing skill based training programmes, life skills training (LST) has been a buzzword especially in school and health care education. Life skills are psychosocial competencies and contribute greatly to achieving psychological, social and mental well-being. Although there is no definitive list of life skills, any skill which is psychosocial and interpersonal in nature can be labelled a life skill. WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA listed 10 skills as the most essential, which have been particularly considered for the present study. The 10 core skills which are relevant across cultures are decision making, problem solving, creative thinking, critical thinking, effective communication, interpersonal relationship, empathy, self-awareness, coping with emotions and coping with stress. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Migratory contacts may have a positive or a negative influence on local processes of reconciliation and reconstruction. However, their impact on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains a largely underexposed topic. Migrants from post-conflict Rwanda maintain substantive contacts with their relatives through social networks and the resources that they send. Reconstruction and reconciliation programmes in post-conflict Rwanda heavily rely on these migratory contacts. We explore the relationship between migration, reconstruction and reconciliation processes in post-conflict Rwanda. We analyse the importance of migratory contacts as a major constituent of social capital, and discuss whether and how remittances can be used for mobilizing this social capital. Adopting a micro-level perspective, we examine the effects of migratory contacts and remittances on cooperative behaviour and willingness for reconciliation amongst 558 households in Huye District, southern Rwanda. We find that migratory contacts enhance reconstructive behaviour and reconciliatory attitudes, whereas financial remittances result in reduced participation in these processes, indicating that there is a crowding-out effect due to remittance-dependency. Furthermore, we scrutinize the relationship between reconciliation and reconstruction, showing that inter-group contact is a key mediating variable.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In this paper, I examine the state of access to financial services by migrants in South Africa and the intermediation of remittances using a case study of Zimbabwean migrants. I observe that migrants generally use informal channels to intermediate remittances. While this phenomenon can technically be attributed to immigration laws and the financial regulatory environment, there are other factors at play, such as cultural inertia. I observe financial access for migrants to be positively related to migrant legal status, income level, savings level and education level. Furthermore, I note that financial access is not correlated with the choice of the mode of remittance transfer. The majority of migrants with financial access still prefer to utilize informal transfer mechanisms. Policy interventions that have the effect of improving financial access include the “formalization” of the legal status of migrants, improving their wage levels and access to education, and expanding savings programmes to migrants.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Since 2000, South Africa has experienced unprecedented migration from Zimbabwe. Surveys have estimated that by the end of 2007, between 1 million and 2 million Zimbabweans had migrated to South Africa as a result of a political and economic crisis that has been bedevilling their country. These migrants are supporting the livelihoods of relatives left at home through remittances. The nature of the remittance flows is not well documented, and the characteristics of the remittance senders and recipients are even less well understood. In this paper, I attempt to fill this research gap by focusing on the remittance behaviour of the senders. Using data from a survey of Zimbabwean migrants living in Johannesburg in South Africa, in this paper I examine the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the remittance senders. Pertinent findings are that remittance behaviour is seen to be positively correlated with age, the number of dependents supported in the home country, income level and the return migration decision. Furthermore, males and married persons make up a larger proportion of the remitters than females and single persons. There are more remitters among migrants with basic education than among those with tertiary education. I have found remittance behaviour to be independent of legal status and length of stay in the host country. The independence with regard to length of stay raises questions about the validity of the remittance decay hypothesis.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “In recent years, the reception of remittances by migrant-sending countries has been quantified and well advertised. Many have predicted economic development based on the magnitude of these aggregate figures, leaving aside the fact that new family arrangements, emigration expectations, consumption patterns and demographic changes impact the prospects for development. This paper shows how remittances link distant locations economically, socially and culturally creating unique transnational dynamics that shape development at both ends. I use multi-sited ethnographic work conducted over seven years in different places of migrant origin and destination. The paper challenges common assumptions regarding the developmental effect of remittances, by contrasting the hyper-rational, atomistic and perfectly informed theoretical actors of the neoclassical account with the complex actors who make their decisions on the basis of imperfect information, and the values and meanings constructed within a transnational web of family and community ties.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “At first at the level of the European Commission, and increasingly also in the European Union’s member states, it is being recognized that past labour migration management tools have more or less serious drawbacks in that they produce undesired outcomes and do not sufficiently attain the objectives for which they were designed. The welfare states of north-western Europe are discovering that their desire of the past three decades to restrict labour immigration as much as possible is no longer “in sync” with changing labour market demands, which are growing both for the highly skilled and the unskilled. In order to satisfy the demand for unskilled labour, schemes are being proposed that would allow for circular migration. The European Commission is a forceful promoter of these schemes. Member states such as the Netherlands, which we take as a case in point, are also considering modes by which to allow temporary unskilled labour migration, but seem intent on employing regulatory tools that are not very different from those used in the “guest worker” era, which brought about large-scale settlement. Up to the present time, the resulting ethnic minority groups are the subject of large integration efforts on the part of the receiving states. This begs the question of the extent to which “circular migration” would be different from “guest worker” schemes, in its management and its outcomes.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Our purpose in undertaking this research is to methodically map the labour market circumstances of the main immigrant groups in Greece. We classify all of the Districts of Greece into three categories (Diverse, Mixed and Unmixed) according to the ethnic composition of each District. We measure how the employment status of the immigrants varies (1) according to the ethnic group and sex of the immigrant, and (2) according to the ethnic composition and economic structure of a District. In general, the majority of immigrants exhibit lower unemployment and higher economic activity rates than the indigenous Greeks. Three immigrant groups (Albanians, Bulgarians and “Other”), which make up two-thirds of the foreign-born population of Greece, have lower unemployment rates than the national average, and lower rates than Greeks as well. The poorest labour market outcomes are observed in Unmixed and Mixed Districts, whereas Diverse Districts are better off. At the regional level, the most disadvantaged Geographical Department is the Ionian Islands, since it presents the highest unemployment rates for the general population for both sexes. With regard to sex-differential unemployment across immigrant groups, we found that women exhibit higher unemployment than men in almost every ethnic group.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “When annual migration data lack reliability, scholars apply alternative methods for estimating international migration. Yet, researchers note that alternative approaches have primarily been tested on developed countries, rather than developing countries that usually have dramatic migration shifts. I close this research gap. I use the example of 15 former Soviet republics to demonstrate several conclusions. First, I show that such alternative approaches as immigration-by-origin data of receiving countries do not result in reliable and valid estimates of post-Soviet migration, given the large variation that exists in how former Soviet republics define “migrant”. Second, I demonstrate that population censuses, while a more superior alternative, fail to capture temporary migrants. In developing countries, the international emigration is mainly due to temporary (undocumented labour) migration. Third, I suggest that scholars and policy-makers should apply household surveys as a possible alternative. However, while this method seems promising, given the limited use of household surveys in migration measurement in the post-Soviet republics, future research by both scholars and applied researchers should explore the advantages and limitations of household surveys as an alternative source for estimation of migration. Finally, I outline methodological guidelines that researchers and scholars can advance on migration issues in the post-Soviet region.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Most old people want to remain in their homes and age in place, and they regard institutional admission as a last resort. In various developed countries, as the demand for homecare workers to augment traditional family caregiving increases apace, migrant caregivers providing otherwise unavailable informal services are becoming more common. They enable older people to stay in their homes, provide them with a sense of security and confidence, reduce feelings of loneliness and solitude, alleviate the family burden, and improve the well-being of the primary caregivers. On the other hand, migrant caregivers pose serious challenges to existing social and legal institutions in the societies in which they operate. They demand policy responses that in many cases have socio-economic consequences that go beyond the older population they serve.

    This article describes and analyzes the Israeli experience with migrant homecare workers for older persons. It discusses key problems and dilemmas that are involved with employing migrant homecare workers, and provides some critical perspectives on policies adopted in Israel as a response to this phenomenon.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

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  • “The nuclear family is often the point of departure in much of the existing acculturation research on refugee youth and children of refugees. The influence of other extended family members appears to receive less attention in understanding acculturation processes and intergenerational perspectives. This qualitative study explores the influence of extended family members upon a small sample of Vietnamese refugee parents and their adolescents while they undergo acculturation through their long-term resettlement process in Norway. With repeated interviews over a time span of 3 years, we identified situations and processes in family life in which extended kin become particularly activated and influential. Vietnamese refugee families in Norway keep close contact with extended kin even in the face of geographical distance to kin remaining in Vietnam, or globally dispersed. Aunts, uncles, and cousins are experienced as significant persons in the lives of many adolescents. Additionally, birth order of parents can often influence relationship dynamics among siblings and siblings children. Extended kin surfaced as especially important and influential at critical stages and crisis situations in family life. Extended family, and in particular, parental siblings play important roles in the acculturation experience and family functioning of Vietnamese refugee families in Norway. This has important implications for the study of Vietnamese and other refugee and immigrant families in acculturation research.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Objective: Studies from around the world point to differences in the rates of mental illnesses between immigrant, refugee, ethnocultural, and racialized (IRER) groups and host populations. Risk of illness depends on social contexts; therefore, to offer the best information for people aiming to develop and offer equitable services, local information on rates of mental illness in different population groups is required. Methods: We performed a literature review of peer-reviewed journals and the grey literature between 1990 and 2009 using standard techniques and identified primary research reporting the rates of mental illness and suicidality in IRER groups in Canada. Results: Among the 229 papers we reviewed, 17 were included. Most papers reported rates for depression. There was no clear pattern, with different IRER groups and different age groups reporting either elevated or lower rates, compared with white Canadians. Refugee youth in Quebec have higher rates of numerous mental health problems and illnesses. When immigrant groups were considered as a whole, suicide rates were low but different national origin groups reported different trajectories in rates across the generations. Conclusion: The literature on rates of mental illness and suicidality in IRER groups in Canada is diverse and not comprehensive. In addition, most research has been conducted in 3 provinces and, in particular, 3 major cities. The rates of mental illness seem to vary by national origin groups, age, and status in Canada. There is very little research on nonimmigrant, culturally diverse populations in Canada. This lack of information may undermine efforts to develop equitable mental health services for all Canadians.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • “This article is a response to the disappointing results of the policies adopted by the Government of Georgia, aiming to provide a durable housing solution and aspiring to enhance the livelihood opportunities of the population displaced during the territorial conflicts of the early 1990s and 2008. The study finds that while the policies partially provided the displaced with housing and land, they eroded probably their most important asset – labour – by resettling them in remote rural areas, where employment opportunities are scarce, if there are any at all. The article distinguishes between the “new” internally displaced persons from 2008 and the “old” or previous internally displaced persons from the early 1990s. It argues that the Government should not deal with their problems in a “one size fits all” manner, but it should rather tailor resettlement policies to the internally displaced persons’ existing asset-base and their location. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper uses rich, empirical data to explore repatriation from refugee perspectives, which are widely overlooked within host state framings of this topic. Participants from two countries are compared within how they approached the prospect of repatriating differently or alike, whilst different background contexts to these cases affected the ways in which participants framed discussions. Both the Somalis and Afghans were concerned with issues of safety and reintegration prospects upon return, and revealed that these were key parts of what they had also sought while living in exile. In addition, hope for change – or its absence – affected whether they anticipated returning or staying away permanently, with proof more than promise of change sought, so suggesting a difference with the early expectations more preferred by host states. Policy and political discussions of repatriation tend to make claims about refugees without asking about their own priorities. This gap in perspectives is a source of tension and distrust, and emphasis can be misplaced to try to promote return without reference to such empirical understandings as this paper explores. This paper concludes by asking whether unless we can understand return on such refugee terms, then what is its actual meaning and whose perspective does it serve? Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Studies of specialized agencies of the United Nations in general and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in particular focus overwhelmingly on the humanitarian activities and bureaucratic structure of these institutions. Relatively understudied and less understood in the literature on UNRWA is the impact the institution has had on the ongoing reconstruction of Palestinian national identity over the last six decades. UNRWA unintentionally—and despite its humanitarian mandate—played a political role in its five areas of operation: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza. This study focuses on how UNRWA’s support of, and provision for, education in schools and camps in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and elsewhere helped in the continuation of reconstructing Palestinian nationalism and identity. In UNRWA schools, Palestinian students interacted with one another in ways that inadvertently preserved and cultivated an identity of nation and self among Palestinians amidst war and social dislocation. The main factor that had the unintended consequence of reconstructing Palestinian nationalism in the last six decades has been the use by UNRWA schools of extracurricular activities that reinvented many elements of Palestinian identity and nationalism (e.g. songs, plays, music, paintings, poetry). This article speaks to how UNRWA schools have been providing opportunities for Palestinian youth to articulate and enact Palestinian identity. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article analyses a single strand of national, community and personal priorities from the mid 1930s to the early 1940s when local community networks, composed mainly of women, supported refugees from the Nazis in activities that became a central part of many women’s lives. The stand these women took against anti-Semitism in British society meant that their views and behaviour were in opposition to a dominant element in patriotic discourse. Yet, these women were often pillars of their local communities. This article teases out the motives of women who were willing to run the gauntlet of local hostility in order to bring refugees into their homes and communities. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

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  • “This paper engages with the critique that mental health social work with asylum seekers requires urgent attention, as current practice is inadequate. Four key issues are discussed in the paper. First, I briefly interrogate key aspects of the UK’s current asylum policy: poverty, dispersal and detention. I elaborate on the mental health implications of each of these and argue that these policies replicate known risk factors in mental ill health. Second, much of the psychiatric literature relating to asylum seekers and refugees draws on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the key diagnostic category. The paper argues that PTSD has to be problematised and highlights the importance of maintaining a social model of understanding mental distress and developing it further to include insecure immigration status in our models of understanding mental distress. Third, I consider the specific issues facing women asylum seekers and illustrate how an analysis at the intersection of gender, mental distress and asylum is essential. Lastly, I argue that, to respond more effectively in this complex area of work, interventions at a practitioner, organisational and societal level are required if the espoused values of social work are to be more than mere rhetoric. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper examines theoretical propositions regarding the social mechanisms that produce hostility and discriminatory attitudes towards out-group populations. Specifically, we compare the effect of perceptions of socio-economic and national threats, social contact and prejudice on social distance expressed towards labour migrants. To do so, we examine exclusionary views held by majority and minority groups (Jews and Arabs) towards non-Jewish labour migrants in Israel. Data analysis is based on a survey of the adult Israeli population based on a stratified sample of 1,342 respondents, conducted in Israel in 2007. Altogether, our results show that Israelis (both Jews and Arabs) are resistant to accepting and integrating foreigners into Israeli society. Among Jews, this is because the incorporation of non-Jews challenges the definition of Israel as a Jewish state and poses a threat to the homogeneity of the nation. Among Arabs, this is probably due to threat and competition over resources. The meanings of the findings are discussed within the unique ethno-national context of Israeli society and in light of sociological theories on ethnic exclusionism.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article is a response to the disappointing results of the policies adopted by the Government of Georgia, aiming to provide a durable housing solution and aspiring to enhance the livelihood opportunities of the population displaced during the territorial conflicts of the early 1990s and 2008. The study finds that while the policies partially provided the displaced with housing and land, they eroded probably their most important asset – labour – by resettling them in remote rural areas, where employment opportunities are scarce, if there are any at all. The article distinguishes between the “new” internally displaced persons from 2008 and the “old” or previous internally displaced persons from the early 1990s. It argues that the Government should not deal with their problems in a “one size fits all” manner, but it should rather tailor resettlement policies to the internally displaced persons’ existing asset-base and their location. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article focuses on asylum-seekers’ perspectives on work including the Norwegian policy tightening concerning asylum-seekers’ right to work. The new policy states that asylum-seekers must prove their identity to be granted the right to work. However, beyond this short-term work opportunity, more fundamental factors affect asylum-seekers’ evaluations of their destination country and social practice. Asylum-seekers’ perspectives on work, as well as assessments of whether they should submit identity documents can be viewed in light of their assessment of costs and benefits of various actions. At the same time, asylum-seekers’ choices are characterised by uncertainty, lack of knowledge and very limited possibilities of action including the fact that some asylum-seekers really lack and really cannot produce identity documents. Our focus is directed towards conditions in Norway, but the questions that we address are also indirectly relevant to other Nordic countries. The Norwegian experience is directly relevant to Denmark since Danish authorities are also posing strict identity requirements as a condition for being granted the right to work. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

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  • “As envisioned by T.H. Marshall, social citizenship was a corrective to the injustices caused by the capitalist market. Entitlements and protections guaranteed by the welfare state would prevent social and economic exclusions that civil and political rights, on their own, simply could not. Such protections consequently would ensure social cohesion and solidarity, as well as a productive economy and market. European welfare states successfully followed this formula for the most part of the post-World War II period, however the last couple of decades witnessed significant changes. For one, the very meaning of `work’ and `worker’ on which the welfare state is based has changed – flexibility, risk, and precariousness have become defining elements of working life. The welfare state itself has gone through a transformation as well, increasingly moving away from a system of `passive benefits’ to `social investment’ in human capital. These developments are coupled with an emphasis on education in `active citizenship’, which envisions participatory individuals who are adaptable in an increasingly globalized society, and ready to contribute at local, national and transnational levels. The emergent European social project draws on a re-alignment between these strands: work, social investment, and active participation. In this article, I consider the implications of this project for immigrant populations in Europe in particular and for the conceptions of citizenship and human rights in general. In contrast to the recent commentary on the neoliberal turn and the return of nation-state centered citizenship projects in Europe, I emphasize the broader trends in the post-World War II period that indicate a significant shift in the very foundations of good citizenship and social justice. The new social project transpires a citizenship model that privileges individuality and its transformative capacity as a collective good. Thus, while expanding the boundaries and forms of participation in society, this project at the same time burdens the individual, rather than the state, with the obligation of ensuring social cohesion and solidarity, disadvantaging not only non-European migrants but also the `lesser’ Europeans. The new social project brings into focus the relationship between universalistic individual rights and their effective exercise. I conclude that rather than treating human rights and citizenship as a dichotomy we should pay attention to their entangled practice in order to understand the contingent accomplishments and possible expansions of citizenship in Europe. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New Volume of International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

The latest edition of the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care has recently been published.  Articles in this edition, Volume 7 Number 4 (2011)  include:

Articles:

What’s in a number? Counting the African population of Portland, Oregon: methods, issues and implications for community health collaborations
Anais Tuepker, Linda Boise, Folashade Onadeko, Teresa Gipson (pp. 164 – 173)
Keywords: African immigrants, African refugees, Census, Communities, Participatory research, Secondary migration, US immigration
Article type: Research paper
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Epidemiological profile of an urban immigrant population
Robert Halberstein (pp. 174 – 181)
Keywords: Caribbean-Americans, Epidemiology, Immigrants, Personal health, Urbanization
Article type: Research paper
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Family therapy with Eastern European immigrants: recommendations for practice
Mihaela Robila, Jonathan Sandberg (pp. 182 – 196)
Keywords: Eastern European immigrants, Family therapy, Immigrants, Social services
Article type: Research paper
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Exploring migrants’ health seeking strategies: the case of Latin American migrants in London
Jasmine Gideon (pp. 197 – 208)
Keywords: Inequalities, Latin American, Migrants, Personal health, Transnational
Article type: Research paper
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Link to the Journal Webpage:-  [Access]

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • The Economics of International Refugee Law
    Ryan Bubb, Michael Kremer and David I. Levine
    The Journal of Legal Studies
    Vol. 40, No. 2 (June 2011), pp. 367-404
    (article consists of 38 pages)
    Published by: The University of Chicago Press for The University of Chicago Law School
    DOI: 10.1086/661185
    Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661185

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Contrary to common assumption, major forms of large-scale organized political violence in sub-Saharan Africa are declining in frequency and intensity, and the region is not uniquely prone to the onset of warfare. African civil wars in the late 2000s were about half as common compared to the mid-1990s. The character of warfare has also changed. Contemporary wars are typically small-scale, fought on state peripheries and sometimes across multiple states, and involve factionalized insurgents who typically cannot hold significant territory or capture state capitals. Episodes of large-scale mass killing of civilians are also on the decline. That said, other forms of political violence that receive less attention in the academic literature are increasing or persistent. These include electoral violence and violence over access to livelihood resources, such as land and water. While primarily descriptive, the article posits that geo-political shifts since the end of the Cold War are a leading candidate to explain the changing frequency and character of warfare in sub-Saharan Africa. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Most research on remittances focuses on economic motivations, with little emphasis on the social contexts in which the remittance economy operates. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with migrant workers in a London hotel and hospital, we examine how migrants’ familial and social relationships in both sending and receiving countries inform the decision to send remittances. We suggest that remittances are a mechanism through which migrants are able to fulfil multiple obligations to families and places of origin, while also enhancing their own economic status and future. First, satisfying the cultural expectation of sending remittances helps migrants maintain their social worlds at “home”. Second, we observed that both positive and negative changes in power and resources influence the decision to send remittances by motivating migrants to invest in their social position in either their home or receiving country. In sum, we argue that the migrants’ social experience in the United Kingdom might be just as predictive of remittance behaviour as their economic and social status in the country of origin. We, therefore, call for a need to move beyond the often one-sided concern with development by concentrating on the overlapping social worlds of migrants.”

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  • “The creation of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), often referred to as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, has given new impetus to Cambodia’s transitional justice process. The case of Cambodia illustrates how relatively strong and proactive local civil society organizations can support and complement the work of an internationalized criminal court. Working primarily at the intersection of the Court and Cambodian society, these actors have assumed various roles in support of the ECCC process, some of which normally fall under the responsibility of a court. This Notes piece explores the main roles Cambodian civil society actors have played at the ECCC and offers some preliminary observations following the completion of the Court’s first trial. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The United States’ system of refugee protection, long a source of national pride and a symbol of United States’ openness to the world’s dispossessed, remains generous in many respects. This system – which encompasses refugees, asylum-seekers, and populations in need of short-term protection – has ambitious goals and diverse responsibilities. It seeks to enable those fleeing persecution to reach protection, while preventing terrorist and criminal infiltration; to identify and admit vulnerable refugees, and to promote their successful integration; to screen out fraudulent political asylum claims, but to ensure that bona fide asylum-seekers can apply for and, if eligible, secure asylum; and to weigh endless requests for temporary protection from groups and individuals. Over the past 20 years, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, security and enforcement concerns have driven United States’ refugee developments and protection policies have not kept pace. The present article details the increased difficulties bona fide refugees and asylum-seekers face in trying to reach and to gain protection in the United States. It also describes the paucity of legal tools available to admit and to provide temporary status in the United States on humanitarian grounds. It argues that the United States’ system of refugee protection needs policy attention and revitalisation. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The majority of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon lives in poverty. This can be observed across a number of socio-economic indicators such as low income and few assets held by the household, poor housing, poor educational achievements, poor health, and others. However, these factors, while completing the picture of what it means to be poor for a Palestinian household, fail to explain the persistence of the low socio-economic status suffered by most Palestinian households. This article argues that restriction of access to major social and occupational institutions of society tremendously affects the living conditions of Palestinian households. Identifying these restrictions as systematic social exclusion, this article outlines mechanisms of exclusion. Particular attention is given to the camp as a form of urban exclusion, aggravating the existing legal discrimination against Palestinian refugees. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article presents the personal experiences of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina related to their employment in Sweden. It is based on 35 interviews conducted in 2009 with asylum claimants and resettled refugees who came to Sweden in the early 1990s, aiming at their own perceptions and subjective assessments of their employment paths. The variety of experiences within each of these two groups suggests that individual employment paths can neither be fully explained by the admission category, nor in terms of the type of education, age, or gender. Although they admit the importance of these factors, the interviewees perceive chance as a decisive issue with regard to their initial access to the labour market, and its strong impact on their further success. They see official channels of professional recognition as far less functional than informal paths leading into the labour market that depend on personal encounters and connections. Against the background of laws and policies, personally experienced employment integration is revealed as a chance-ridden individual process. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article deals with Tibetan refugees in India from the first arrivals in 1959, following the Dalai Lama’s own flight to India, up to the present day. It focuses on legal issues and on questions pertaining to livelihood possibilities and the preservation of a distinct Tibetan identity in a context of increasingly numerous interactions with Indian society. It first explains how Tibetans managed to establish a strong exile community thanks to the possibilities offered by life in India, such as the constitution of relatively isolated refugee settlements. It then focuses on the challenges faced by Tibetans in India by analysing the tensions between being/remaining a refugee and acknowledging the diasporic status of the Tibetan exile community. It eventually concludes on the more recent trend towards further dispersion, notably to North America. For this, it makes use of the triangular relationship developed by refugee and diaspora scholars, such as Gabriel Sheffer, Bertrand Badie, Steven Vertovec, and Kim Butler, and more specifically of the refugee/diaspora community/host country segment of the triangular relationship. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article provides an ethnographic account of how urban refugees and legal protection officers from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kampala, Uganda compete to define the present by way of a struggle to manage the past. Taking the bonds between the visible and invisible cityscapes of Kampala as a focal point for the inquiry, the article juxtaposes the practices involved in recording official history with the scattered memories circulating in Kampala’s urban refugee community. The article shows how urban refugee governance is produced through bureaucratic records of the past, regulatory practices, and the politics of exclusion. It reconstructs refugees’ experiences of rejection and mistreatment as physical mappings of Kampala, in which the creation and closure of urban spaces give meaning to the idea of “protection space” and urban refugeehood. The ambition is to begin to develop a critique of urban refugee management by outlining a “shadowgraphy” of Kampala from the perspective of the urban displaced. “

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  • “Among the grounds for European Union subsidiary protection, the present article asserts that the attention garnered by Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive in case law and doctrine is disproportionate to its actual meaning and reach. It suggests analysing the scope of the provision in light of Article 15(b) and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The practical need to include Article 15(c) within the Qualification Directive is thus examined in order to assess its relevance. In fact, the author asserts that the complete elimination of this provision would not change the current law of subsidiary protection, for everything that needs to be, is already regulated by Article 15(b) of the Qualification Directive and Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. “

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  • “A domestic violence questionnaire was administered to 701 adult females in a sample of 813 Iraqi households in Syria; unmarried women and women whose husbands were away were excluded, yielding a final sample of 486. Lifetime physical, verbal, or emotional abuse was reported by 30%, and approximately 20% experienced abuse within the past year. Non-Damascus residence, children <18 years in the household, no financial challenges upon arrival, and borrowing money in Syria were associated with increased risk of domestic violence within the past year. Support services are inadequate and should be expanded; and longer-term prevention measures also should be implemented."

    tags: newjournalarticles

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Do remittances reduce labor supply in recipient economies? This paper addresses this question with aggregate level data for a panel of sixty-six developing countries from the Middle East and Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean over the period 1985 to 2005. The results exhibit a positive and significant relationship between remittances and aggregate labor supply. The effect is clearly driven by men in each of the three regions. Three potential explanations are put forward to explain these empirical findings: (1) non-migrating household members are likely to increase their labor supply in order to defray migration-related expenses; (2) neighboring households increase their labor supply to help family members migrate after they become more aware of the benefits of remittances; and (3) remittances overcome credit constraints, thus generating employment.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Kazakhstan are all major destinations for labour migrants from rural areas of southern Kyrgyzstan. Along with searching for better income, younger men and women also migrate for educational purposes; children and elderly people stay behind. While older migrants often regard this separation from their families as temporary, younger people start to put down roots in places other than their homes and this has long-term consequences for development in rural areas. The paper therefore looks into families’ multi-local settings and why young migrants fail to return home. It also considers the potential impact on rural development including remittance dependency, an increasing shortage of qualified labour and new conditions of social care. The paper concludes with an assessment of the policy implications.”

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  • “Abstract

    Immigrant professionals comprise a growing segment within current migration waves, but the determinants of successful transnational skill transfer are poorly understood. In this paper, I offer a framework for the evaluation of these determinants, drawing upon three empirical studies among immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union in Israel. I start by describing the social context of immigrant integration, including policies aimed at assisting skilled immigrants to get a fresh start on the local labour market. Next, I reflect on the nature of various professions in terms of their cultural and linguistic dependency, with the ensuing adaptive potential upon migration. I also tap into the main macro-economic and institutional characteristics of the host society that may facilitate or hinder the initial entry and subsequent mobility of immigrant professionals within local organizations. I apply this analytical frame to the discussion of Israeli studies among immigrant professionals who represent three different points on the scale of cultural dependency: engineers (technical occupation), physicians (combining standard medical training with cultural skills) and schoolteachers (most dependent on language and local cultural codes). In every case, the resulting success or failure of occupational continuity reflects a complex interplay of context-bound and individual factors, aggravated by the small size and rapid saturation of the local labour market.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    Conceptually, this paper relies on the asset accumulation framework and identifies its relevance to work on Argentine migrants to Spain and returnees. The asset accumulation framework represents an innovative approach to understanding the complexities of migratory flows in a transnational context. In order to comprehend and tackle migration, this framework pays particular attention to investment and savings in various domains, including the financial, social, human, civic and political fields. Responding to gaps in current studies, the objective of this paper is twofold. First, it expands the asset accumulation framework by differentiating between civic and political assets. Second, using data drawn from interviews conducted among Argentine migrants and returnees in the cities of Barcelona and Buenos Aires, this paper fleshes out the definition of civic assets. The findings indicate that, for interviewees, moving to Spain implied the accumulation of civic assets that enhanced the development of a more equitable and democratic society. Respondents incorporated new civic capabilities in several areas, including increased environmental awareness and tolerance for minority groups, as well as the acquisition of knowledge about equity and labour rights. In addition, results suggest that, as a result of the migratory experience, many interviewees went through reflective processes that made them question their old presumptions about both the receiving and sending societies.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    Over 60 years ago, the Jewish nationalist movement known as Zionism culminated in the creation of the State of Israel. Millions of Jews immigrated to Israel over the twentieth century, a process known as aliya (literally, “going up”). Yet over the years, thousands of Israelis have also chosen to leave Israel in a movement termed yerida (“going down”). As the term suggests, this reverse migration has been highly stigmatized. During the 1960s and 1970s, emigrants were publicly disparaged in the Israeli media for having abandoned a struggling state. Consequently, Israeli migrants suffered strong feelings of guilt that often, hampered their integration process abroad, a phenomenon observed as late as the 1990s. This paper, however, reveals that feelings of stigmatization have greatly decreased among Israeli migrants in recent years. The study is based on research that I conducted in 2008–2009, involving nine months of participant observation in Vancouver’s Israeli community and 34 in-depth interviews. Unlike in previous studies, most of my informants expressed no feelings of guilt over having left Israel. Of those who did, most framed their guilt as a longing for family and friends rather than the patriotic longing for the land as expressed by previous generations. Previous studies have also found that Israelis harbour a “myth of return”– a continuously expressed desire to return to Israel and a reluctance to accept their stay abroad as permanent. However, I have not found that the myth of return is still strong today, despite the continued prevalence of a strong sense of Israeli identity among Israelis abroad. I suggest that these changing attitudes are the product of shifting ideals in Israeli society that have developed as the state of Israel has matured. This paper thus serves to update the outdated image of Israeli migrants as it exists in the prevailing literature.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract

    While the global number of resettled refugees rises annually, the summaries of research on refugee health needs in countries of asylum remain sparse. We conducted a systematic review of published research on refugee health in Canada in order to: (i) identify studies addressing health outcomes among refugees recently resettled in Canada; (ii) identify general trends in health research conducted in Canada among refugee populations; (iii) identify significant gaps in current knowledge of health-related issues among refugees recently resettled in Canada; (iv) evaluate the quality and consistency of available information; (v) develop a summary of available research results; and (vi) identify priorities for future research. A search of several major citation indices resulted in the analysis of 196 research reports after reviewing more than 5,000 articles. This review is timely, systematic and inclusive; furthermore, potential biases in methodology are clearly assessed. The results indicate an immediate need to address specific gaps in health knowledge for refugee populations and lead us to draw five primary conclusions. First, mental health outcomes dominate the research landscape. Second, cross-sectional studies are most commonly the study design of choice. Third, studies examining some aspect of health among refugees from Asia dominate the literature. Fourth, there is a notable lack of information on cardiovascular diseases and its antecedents. Fifth, indications show that screenings for pre-existing conditions are biased towards communicable diseases. These findings have implications for health monitoring, evaluation and policy affecting the health of refugees resettled in Canada and elsewhere.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Most research on remittances focuses on economic motivations, with little emphasis on the social contexts in which the remittance economy operates. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with migrant workers in a London hotel and hospital, we examine how migrants’ familial and social relationships in both sending and receiving countries inform the decision to send remittances. We suggest that remittances are a mechanism through which migrants are able to fulfil multiple obligations to families and places of origin, while also enhancing their own economic status and future. First, satisfying the cultural expectation of sending remittances helps migrants maintain their social worlds at “home”. Second, we observed that both positive and negative changes in power and resources influence the decision to send remittances by motivating migrants to invest in their social position in either their home or receiving country. In sum, we argue that the migrants’ social experience in the United Kingdom might be just as predictive of remittance behaviour as their economic and social status in the country of origin. We, therefore, call for a need to move beyond the often one-sided concern with development by concentrating on the overlapping social worlds of migrants.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Immigrants’ motives are central to understanding immigration, yet they remain an under-researched subject in immigration studies. To fill this gap, this article examines Taiwanese immigrants’ motives for relocating to the United States. Following Mills’ concept of vocabularies of motive, this article treats immigration as situated actions and explores how cumulative causation and structural positions shape immigrants’ interpretations of their immigration decisions. Based on 75 in-depth interviews, this study discovers important differences in motive during two migration phases, initial migration and permanent settlement, as well as differences according to gender, ethnicity, and social class. Migration through education comprises the major pattern of Taiwanese immigration, as most Taiwanese move to the United States to study and then settle there for job opportunities. While men settle for careers, women stay for family wellbeing. One ethnic group, benshengren, tends to settle for job opportunities, while the other, waishengren, migrates to unite their families. Moreover, professionals always consider return as an option, while labourers are determined to stay permanently. Findings of the study suggest the importance of examining the influences of immigration contexts and individual structural positions in shaping personal motives.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The period since the 1990s witnessed a strong economic performance and labour demand in many countries in the Middle East, East Asia, and West, which coincided with the major political turmoil in Nepal causing enormous increase in emigration and foreign remittance. Using micro-data for 1996 and 2004, this paper examines foreign remittance to Nepal and its socioeconomic implications. Data indicate that foreign remittance has helped increase income sizably and reduce poverty and income inequality marginally. Various family and individual characteristics are used to test whether the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups such as those with low non-remittance income and assets, low caste and ethnic backgrounds, and from rural areas and remote regions benefited equally from foreign remittance. Analytical strategy involved estimating regressions of foreign remittance using the Generalized Least Squares estimator for families with foreign remittance and Three Stage Least Squares estimator for all families to minimize self-selection and simultaneous causality bias. Although non-remittance income and some of the low caste, ethnic, and spatiality backgrounds showed less consistent relationships, findings suggest that smaller families particularly with low asset-holding and socioeconomic backgrounds were likely to receive less remittance. These findings highlight an important progress that the Nepali society is making toward levelling the playing field in foreign employment and remittance with migration to the regions and countries other than India offering better remittance prospects. Yet, further policy efforts are needed to ensure that foreign employment and remittance do not exacerbate the increasingly polarizing economic structure leaving the bottom sections of the society further worse off.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Catalonia’s economy is characterized by linguistic diversity and provides a unique opportunity to measure the incidence of language proficiency on over-education, that is, whether individuals with deficient language skills, as non-natives, tend to accept jobs for which they have excessive formal skills. Descriptive evidence suggests the contrary, that individuals with better language knowledge are more likely to be over-educated. However, estimating a model that controls for individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics reveals the opposite: better language knowledge decreases over-education. This effect, although robust to accounting for endogeneity of language knowledge and significant at the individual level, is mostly non-significant on average.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “There is an increasing tendency for Western European states to extend elements of minority rights protection to so-called ‘new’ minorities through the establishment of detailed integration policies and mechanisms to reduce discrimination, whilst also enabling these groups to maintain their own distinct identity. However, thus far, refugee communities have largely been excluded from these policies, and refugee integration policy has evolved in parallel to minority integration policy, focusing primarily on language and citizenship education. The failure of Western European states to establish effective refugee integration policies has led to barriers to refugee integration, such as intolerance, discrimination and opposition to the maintenance of their distinct identity. Consequently, Western European states are now facing large groups of poorly integrated refugees settling permanently in their territory, which in turn has implications for the cohesiveness and stability of society.

    This article argues that in order to ensure the integration of refugees, and hence the cohesiveness of society, it is necessary to enable refugee communities to maintain their distinct identity and reduce discrimination. Further, as the majority of Western European states have already established detailed integration policies in respect of other minority groups, it would be effective and viable to include refugees within these pre-existing policy frameworks. First, in order to highlight the importance of taking a new approach to refugee integration, potential barriers to refugee integration and implications for society are identified by considering the interrelationship between integration and identity. Secondly, selected state and EU practice in respect of refugee integration is considered in the light of minority rights obligations, and the shortcomings in state practice are drawn out. Finally, the question of whether refugee communities can be considered to be minorities within international law is addressed, and the benefit of minority rights based policies regarding integration is considered through an examination of state and NGO run integration projects. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The 1951 Refugee Convention contains an ‘exclusion clause’ stipulating that individuals who have committed certain serious crimes – including war crimes and crimes against humanity – are not entitled to the protections associated with being a legal refugee. Each time the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or a resettlement country conducts an evaluation to determine whether an asylum seeker meets the convention criteria, the exclusion provision is considered.

    Principles developed in the criminal context figure prominently in exclusion assessments, a practice that is logical and convenient, both because the language of the provision mandates referral to relevant international instruments and because the entire evaluation is based on determining whether the claimant has committed a crime. There are, however, significant challenges associated with transposing legal ‘tests’ and ‘frameworks’ directly from one paradigm to another, and caution must be taken to ensure that underlying principles of fairness and justice are not compromised.

    This article critically evaluates the consequences of applying jurisprudence developed in the criminal context to exclusion assessments. Focusing on the UNHCR’s practices in situations of mass influx, it argues that a failure to consider individual and mitigating circumstances, while simultaneously relying on criminal principles that assume these factors form part of the analysis, can lead to unprincipled decisions and extreme injustices. It further suggests that this problem can be remedied through a re-formulation of the proportionality aspect of the UNHCR’s exclusion process. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article examines the ways in which the decisions of immigration and asylum tribunals in the UK can be challenged. It argues that recent legislative reforms continue a trend of restriction that threatens to undermine the fair and effective procedures that are essential if the individual rights contained in instruments like the Refugee Convention are to continue to have practical effects. The sort of challenge under consideration, known as ‘onward appeal’, is brought against a determination that is itself the outcome of a tribunal set up to hear appeals against UK Border Agency decisions. According to the traditional administrative justice paradigm in the UK, such challenges are initially dealt with by a second-tier tribunal, followed by an avenue of appeal to the higher courts. Taking account of the policy reasons that underpin legislative reform in the UK, and the wider context of EU and ECHR standards of effective judicial protection, this article attempts to offer a fully contextualised analysis of law reform in this highly specialised and contentious field. Drawing on an empirical research study into the impact of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004, and in light of further reforms introduced in 2010 following the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, the article examines three critical aspects of the reforms to onward appeals: time limits for submission of such appeals, the legal grounds for review, and the structure of higher court supervision. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article examines the concept of a non-state actor of protection under European Union asylum law and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The need to grapple with this concept has arisen primarily from the wording of article 7(1) of the EC Qualification Directive, which sets out an expansive interpretation of non-state actors, and the decision of the European Court of Justice in Abdulla and ors, which extends this concept to multinational forces. The EC Qualification Directive is said to be based on the 1951 Convention, but this article questions whether article 7(1) is in fact consistent with that Convention. More broadly, the article addresses the complex question of the role of non-state actors within the international refugee law framework and the meaning of refugee ‘protection’. Does the concept of ‘protection’ involve particular functions and attributes that only states can provide? In this regard, the article seeks to reconceptualise the non-state actor debate by highlighting the importance of the state-citizen relationship underlying refugeehood. This new element in the debate provides a much needed theoretical model for analyzing the concept of non state actors of protection that may assist in reaching both a principled and pragmatic answer to the complex legal questions raised. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract:
    The international refugee law regime that was created in the wake of the Second World War does not comprise distributive principles as a result of which geographic proximity functions as the primary, often sole, distributive mechanism. The distribution of refugees is consequently unevenly shared among states, understandably giving rise to calls for burden sharing. Rather than states, UNHCR is charged with finding durable solutions for the problem of refugees including that of resettlement and it depends on the discretion of (too few) states to offer resettlement places. One of those states is The Netherlands, which has set an annual quota of 500 refugees (including their relatives) for resettlement. Dutch practice with respect to its ‘quota refugees’ appears to be illustrative of the current use of ‘resettlement’ as neither a form of burden sharing nor necessarily a durable solution for the problem of refugees, and it invites to revisit the meaning of ‘resettlement’: the solution of resettlement will be considered against the background of legal developments, state and UNHCR practice using fuzzy logic as an analytical tool. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • This study investigated social relationships between established and new Caribbean migrant communities in Britain. Established migrants are characterised as those who settled in Britain from the 1940s, their offspring and subsequent generations, as opposed to a new influx that arrived and settled from the late 1990s onwards. The assumption is that established and new groups are bonded together through shared cultural and ethnic background. Therefore any differences that exist between the two groups tend to be ignored because it is assumed that the newcomers are automatically absorbed into existing Caribbean communities. Eighty qualitative interviews were conducted with Caribbean migrants, their offspring, and the children of their offspring in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham, and for those that had returned home Jamaica, Barbados, and Guyana. Findings, drawn from the views and perspectives of Caribbean people to highlight the social hierarchies and cultural stereotypes that exist between established and new migrants, suggest that there are inherent differences exist between these two groups. The author explores issues of change and continuity, and also problems and opportunities that emerge within Caribbean family networks and their relationships.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This article reports part of the findings of research undertaken between 2007 and 2009 that aimed to investigate the contribution made by migrant workers to the care workforce in England. The study involved analysis of national statistics on social care and social workers and semi-structured interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, including ninety six migrant care workers. The interviews elicited some accounts relating experiences of racism and discrimination from some people using social care services, employers, and UK-born care workers. This included directly racist comments and refusals to receive services from workers from a visibly different ethnicity alongside more subtle racism. The research highlights the different kinds of racism experienced by migrant care workers and the importance of the support they receive in terms of balancing their right to protection, managing the workforce, and respecting the choice of people using social care services.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The presence of undocumented migrants is increasing in many Western countries despite wide-ranging attempts by governments to increase border security. Measures taken to control the influx of immigrants include policies that restrict access to publicly funded health care for undocumented migrants. These restrictions to health care access are controversial, and evidence suggests they do not always have the intended effect. This study provides a comparative analysis of institutional, actor-related and contextual factors, which have influenced health care policy development on undocumented migrants in England and the Netherlands. For undocumented migrants, England restricts its access to care at the point of service, while the Netherlands restricts through the payment system for services. The study includes an analysis of policy papers and semistructured, in-depth interviews with various actors in both countries. Findings confirm the influence of such contextual factors as immigration considerations and cost concerns on health care policy making in this area. However, these factors cannot explain the differences between the two countries. Previously enacted policies, especially the organization of the health care system, affected the kind of restrictions for undocumented migrants. Concerns about the side effects of generous treatment of undocumented migrants on other groups played a substantial role in formulating restrictive policies in both countries. Evidently, policy development and implementation is critically affected by institutional rules, which govern the degree of influence that doctors and professional medical associations have on the policy process. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper reports on projections of the United Kingdom’s ethnic group populations for 2001–2051. For the years 2001–2007 we estimate fertility rates, survival probabilities, internal migration probabilities and international migration flows for 16 ethnic groups and 355 UK areas. We make assumptions about future component rates, probabilities and flows and feed these into our projection model. This model is a cohort-component model specified for single years of age to 100+. To handle this large state space, we employed a bi-regional model. We implement four projections: (1) a benchmark projection that uses the component inputs for 2001; (2) a trend projection where assumptions beyond 2007 are adjusted to those in the UK 2008-based National Population Projections (NPP); (3) a projection that modifies the NPP assumptions and (4) a projection that uses a different emigration assumption. The projected UK population ranges between a low of 63 millions in 2051 under the first projection to a high of 79 million in the third projection. Under all projections ethnic composition continues to change: the White British, White Irish and Black Caribbean groups experience the slowest growth and lose population share; the Other White and Mixed groups to experience relative increases in share; South Asian groups grow strongly as do the Chinese and Other Ethnic groups. The ethnic minority share of the population increases from 13% (2001) to 25% in the trend projection but to only 20% under our modified emigration projection. However, what is certain is that the UK can look forward to be becoming a more diverse nation by mid-century. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper considers the ethnic dimension of changing usual residence using 1-year data from the 2001 Census, the only available comprehensive source of origin-destination flow data on Whites and non-white minority groups. The analysis identifies the variation in migration propensities at national level by ethnic group and by age and investigates spatial patterns of ethnic migration at local authority district scale using an area classification based on migration variables extracted from the 2001 Census. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Strengthening the home–school partnership is a strategy to raise achievement levels and to engage ‘hard-to-reach’ parents with education in the UK, however this political ideal has been critiqued as exclusive and based on a white, middle class model. This article explores how six asylum-seeking mothers manage their children’s early years education, with a specific focus on the concept of parent-partnership. Asylum-seekers in the UK are stigmatised in the media and one of the most marginalised groups in society. The mothers participated in a three-hour group interview with questions, ranking cards and discussion interpreted into the home languages. Findings highlight tensions in language learning, a lack of appropriate cultural resources, perceptions of teachers as experts, and differing values as desired attributes for their children. The implications of these findings extend our knowledge of an under-researched group of mothers and young children and, if replicated, may inform future early years practice.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “This paper examines the ways in which ‘Palestine’ and ‘Palestinianess’ are culturally, socially and symbolically produced and regulated through formal and non-formal institutional sites in Palestinian camps in south Lebanon. It argues that although institutional power, processes and outcomes help to construct shared notions of ‘Palestinianess’, they also produce contestations and internal ‘others’. Moreover, since Palestinian youth identities are produced inter-textually across multiple civil society institutions, the artificial divide between the school and the community is challenged, the school is decentred as the primary learning site for the construction of youth identities, and notions of ‘student’ and ‘teacher’ are destabilised. This has important implications for how citizenship education is theorised and practised in the contexts of transience, political instability and conflict.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Abstract:
    The current US refugee resettlement system reflects the US government’s agenda of having refugees acquire quick employment with low state welfare dependence and minimal fiscal and cultural disruption to the receiving communities. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assisting refugees hold broader goals for refugees, including feeling a sense of belonging in the USA. These goals represent a framing of social citizenship rights for refugees, and how NGOs frame social citizenship varies depending upon the NGOs contractual relationship with the US welfare state. Using data from 57 in-depth interviews, I describe how resettlement and assistance NGOs currently frame social citizenship for refugees in relation to market citizenship, and how their relationship with the federal government shapes this framing. Findings illustrate the role of NGOs in creating a discursive space for expanding the social citizenship rights of refugees and the ways such framing is highly constrained by the definitions of belonging that emerge from market citizenship. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “The worldwide rise in numbers of refugees and asylum seekers suggests the need to examine the practices of those institutions charged with their resettlement in host countries. In this paper we investigate the role of one important institution – schooling – and its contribution to the successful resettlement of refugee children. We begin with an examination of forced migration and its links with globalisation, and the barriers to inclusion confronting refugees. A discussion of the educational challenges confronting individual refugee youth and schools is followed by case studies of four schools engaging in good practice in the provision of education for refugee youth. Using our findings and other research, we outline a model of good practice in refugee education. We conclude by discussing how educational institutions might play a more active role in facilitating transitions to citizenship for refugee youth through an inclusive approach. “

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Abstract:
    This article examines how nongovernmental service providers navigate devolutionary trends in Canada, in both immigration control and integration policy, when responding to migrants who come to them for help and support. Drawing upon conceptualizations of citizenship as a “negotiated relationship” (Stasiulis and Bakan 2003), I explore how social service providers, who work amidst a complex interplay of federal, provincial, and local policies, can influence both who is deemed worthy of social membership and what rights an individual can successfully claim from the state. Empirically, this article focuses on observation of community meetings and conversational interviews with service providers in violence against women shelters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s most populous and diverse city. While service providers navigate different levels of government to advocate for women’s rights to seek safety from abuse, I argue that both individual service providers and the organizations in which they work monitor and constrain the degree to which they openly challenge state authority to restrict immigrants’ “right to have rights” (Arendt 1951 [1979], 296).

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine the health seeking strategies of Latin American migrants in London.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a small case study analysis conducted with Latin American migrants in London and relevant stakeholders.Findings – The paper highlights that even where Latin American migrants do have entitlements to use the NHS, a series of informal barriers limits their access. As a consequence many employ a range of transnational health-seeking strategies in order to seek resolution to their health problems. These findings repeat those identified in other studies and point to the need to gain a better understanding of migrant’s exclusion and marginalisation in relation to formal health care providers. At the same time, the findings point to the lack of long-term resolution many migrants experience in relation to their health care needs, raising important questions about health inequalities.Research limitations/implications – Latin Americans represent a hugely diverse and heterogeneous group of migrants who have differing values and belief systems in relation to health care. A more detailed study is necessary in order to fully understand their health seeking behaviour in a UK context.Originality/value – Latin Americans represent a “new migrant” population in the UK and are considerably under-researched compared to more established migrant communities. At the same time they are an unrecognised group and are therefore excluded from many policy debates. This paper seeks to address this lack of knowledge.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Family therapy with Eastern European immigrants: recommendations for practice

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Purpose – The health status and medical care of migrant populations is an increasingly important topic in light of the recent emergence of a number of global epidemics. This paper aims to investigate the prevalence of diseases, injuries, and other health problems in the Caribbean-American population of Miami, Florida.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 290 Caribbean-born permanent adult residents of Miami, representing 17 different Caribbean countries of origin, was interviewed at three health clinics regarding current health problems and treatments. Demographic data were also collected.Findings – In total, 38 percent of the respondents indicated past or current health problems requiring professional medical care, while an additional 7 percent engaged in self-care. The 62 different reported conditions ranged from lung cancer to ulcers, kidney stones, clinical depression, scoliosis, and diverticulitis. The most frequently stated disorders were hypertension, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis. Anti-hypertensives, cardiac modifiers, and analgesics accounted for the majority of the 26 reported prescription medications. A smaller number indicated the usage of chemotherapy, insulin, allergy medicines, and other individualized prescriptions. A total of 62.5 percent of the respondents employed traditional medicinal plants for preventive and therapeutic care or to supplement biomedicines in the treatment of culture-bound syndromes.Research limitations/implications – The epidemiological profile of this sample suggests a positive correlation between genetically-influenced degenerative disorders and urbanization.Originality/value – This research reveals the health profile of a previously unstudied population and hopefully will guide future treatment plans for this and similar communities.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Purpose – Aware that “those who aren’t counted don’t count” in health program planning, a community coalition, called African Partnership for Health, attempts a current estimate of the African community living in Portland, Oregon, USA. This paper seeks to describe the findings.Design/methodology/approach – The paper’s definition of the “African community” was crucially informed by community participation in the research process. The authors drew on existing publicly available data sources to estimate the size of the target population and identified the strengths and weaknesses of each source.Findings – Conservative estimations are of a 2010 African community population of 11,500-15,500 for the Portland metropolitan area. No data source on its own would have resulted in this estimate.Research limitations/implications – Areas for further research include creating practical systems to collect data on country of origin and to address an existing data bias towards refugees over immigrants. In the USA, more robust data collection systems are needed to estimate the impact of secondary migration on the size and characteristics of refugee and immigrant communities.Practical implications – Health program planners should be aware that existing data may include more information about some groups (refugees as opposed to immigrants) and emphasize some characteristics (race as opposed to country of origin).Originality/value – Including immigrant and refugee community members in the research process can result in more relevant definition of that community, which may lead to more effective program targeting and design.

    tags: newjournalarticles

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New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • The educational landscape for Manitoba has continued to shift with the arrival of many immigrants. In particular, there has been a noticeable increase in the numbers of refugee students in our schools who may have experienced interruptions in their education. Their presence in our schools brings unique challenges for teachers and school systems. This narrative inquiry explores my lived experiences as an English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher in a Manitoba high school working with refugee students who have had their learning interrupted due to a variety of reasons. I examine three main topics: the challenges and successes I have experienced while working with this particular group of EAL learners; how these experiences have impacted me in the past; and how they inform what I do now and in the future as I navigate through a new professional landscape. My goal is to provide readers with a firsthand account of what it is like to be an EAL teacher working with refugee students and some of the issues that have emerged as I worked and lived alongside these students in a Manitoba context. My hope is that this narrative inquiry will shed some light on how teachers might work with these students to help them succeed in high school.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Why has the term humanitarian intervention experienced such a meteoric rise into the core of academic as well as public political discourse? An investigation of classical theory shows that the use of force to help citizens of other states has been regularly contemplated and practiced in the past. The concept of humanitarian intervention therefore does not describe new policies; instead it serves to hide the political nature of these policies today and functions as a ‘doctrinal advance guard’ for a new international order. It is the political conjuncture that requires a new name for old policies and its radical political content that explains the timing, speed and impact of this term.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • This article presents the case for arbitrating the territorial dispute over the West Bank between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. After nearly two decades of intense intermediary activity but with still no signs of progress, and against the inability of the parties themselves to move towards reconciliation, the article argues that as a method of conflict resolution, mediation has exhausted its primary objective – namely the establishing of direct channels of communication between the disputants – and it is now time to examine alternative methods to conflict resolution. The article debunks the myths surrounding the success of American mediation in the conflict, and uses the historical case of the Taba arbitration between Israel and Egypt to demonstrate under what terms the arbitration of the West Bank dispute might be presented, while taking into consideration its advantages and drawbacks compared with the more established method of mediation in this conflict.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • We sought to identify what services indigenous (Maori) and immigrant populations use pharmacies for, and how long pharmacy staff spend interacting with them, as longer interactions are associated with better quality care. We review literature on counseling in pharmacy, and interaction length as an indicator of counseling quality. 1,086 interactions were discretely observed in 36 pharmacies in 5 cities around New Zealand. Maori or Pacific people, along with men, were more likely to treat pharmacies as prescription ‘depots’, being less likely to buy over-the-counter or pharmacist only medicines (ORs: 0.25–0.72). However, the influence of demographic factors on interaction length was small (|B|s < 7.7 s). The weak effect of ethnicity on interaction length suggests that pharmacies are providing advice of relatively consistent quality to different population groups. Possible barriers to use of pharmacies for primary healthcare, including over-the-counter medicines in Maori and Pacific people are discussed.

    tags: newjournalarticles

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Call For Papers: Migration Studies

Apologies for cross-posting.

CALL FOR PAPERS: MIGRATION STUDIES

Migration Studies is a new multi-disciplinary refereed journal from Oxford University Press. It will publish work that significantly advances our understanding of the determinants, processes and outcomes of human migration in all its manifestations.

Migration has always defined human populations, and today it is one of the most powerful currents shaping global society. In recent decades, the increasing scope, complexity and salience of human migration have inspired new conceptual and policy vocabularies, and stimulated ground-breaking research efforts across many different academic disciplines.

Migration Studies will contribute to the consolidation of this still-fragmented field of study, developing the core concepts that link different disciplinary perspectives on migration, and bringing new voices into ongoing debates and discussions. Drawing on the expertise and networks of a Global Editorial Board of senior migration scholars, the journal will publish articles of exceptional quality and general interest from around the world.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Migration Studies invites papers that contribute substantively to a core scholarly discipline or sub-discipline, while engaging with migration research in other disciplines. Papers will be reviewed through a global editorial board including senior scholars in each of the following fields:

*Anthropology

*Demography

*Economics

*Forced Migration

*Geography

*History

*International Relations

*Sociology

*Political Science

The editorial team also welcomes book reviews, special issue proposals, and ideas for presenting content in new ways.

HOW TO SUBMIT A PAPER

Please send submissions or expressions of interest to migration.studies.oup@gmail.com.

Warm regards,

The Editorial Team: Alan Gamlen (Editor), Alexander Betts, Thomas  Lacroix, Emanuela Paoletti, Nando Sigona and Carlos Vargas-Silva (Associate Editors).

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • Each year thousands of labor migrants leave Central Asia to look for work in Russia and Kazakhstan. Many studies have examined the impact of their remittances on the domestic economy of their home country. This case study of Kyrgyzstan asks whether returning migrants have a political impact as well.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • The historical exploitation experienced by indigenous people in the United States has left a number of negative legacies, including distrust toward research. This distrust poses a barrier to progress made through culturally sensitive research. Given the complex history of research with indigenous groups, the purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to illuminate the lived experiences of both indigenous and non-indigenous researchers conducting culturally competent research with indigenous people. Interviews from 13 social science research experts revealed 6 underlying themes about their research with indigenous people, including respect and commitment, mutual trust, affirmation, harmony among multiple worldviews, responsibility, and spiritual/personal growth.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • ‘There is no opposite to belonging’: Nira Yuval-Davis in conversation with Jenny Allsopp on religion, migration and the politics of belonging. So is it time to open up the debate and ask what it means to belong ‘in’ – rather than ‘to’ – contemporary Britain?

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Research on domestic violence documents the particular vulnerability of immigrant women due to reasons including social isolation, language barriers, lack of awareness about services, and racism on the part of services. Based on qualitative interviews with 30 South Asian women with insecure immigration status residing in Yorkshire and Northwest England, this article explores how inequalities created by culture, gender, class, and race intersect with state immigration and welfare policies in the United Kingdom, thereby exacerbating structures of patriarchy within minority communities. It is within these contexts that South Asian women with insecure immigration status experience intensified forms and specific patterns of abuse.

    tags: newjournalarticles gender

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Typical labor market outcomes vary considerably between majority and migrant populations. Drawing on scholarship from across the social sciences, we assess competing micro- and macro-level explanations of differential occupational attainment among immigrant groups across 28 countries. The analyses of occupational attainment are run separately for first- and second-generation migrants as well as children of mixed marriage and take into account their wider social and cultural background. Results from four rounds of the European Social Survey show that people with a migration background do not necessarily achieve a lower labor market success than the majority. However, human capital, social mobility, and cultural background explain these outcomes to different degrees, suggesting tailored pathways to labor market success for each group of migrants. We also find that occupational attainment varies considerably across countries, although this is hardly attributable to immigration policies. These and other findings are discussed in the light of previous studies on immigrant incorporation.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • “Germany, France, and the Netherlands have pursued different types of integration policies. Using data from a mixed method study, this paper investigates whether and how these differences have affected the settlement country and ethnic identification of the children of Turkish immigrants. The results indicate that integration policies do not affect ethnic identification, but an inclusive policy has a positive impact on settlement country identification. Multicultural policies do not seem to have any effect. Despite processes of exclusion and self-exclusion in all three countries, our respondents have developed a strong connection to their settlement country and in particular to their place of residence.”

    tags: n newjournalarticles

  • “By treating the 1.5 generation as a distinctive analytic category, this paper compares the effects of generational status on earnings among men of Chinese, Filipinos, and Korean descents in the New York metropolitan area. Our analyses of the 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample data of the 2000 U.S. census show that all other background characteristics held equal, 1.5-generation Chinese and Filipino American workers make significantly higher earnings than second-generation workers. However, Korean American workers do not exhibit this 1.5-generation advantage. These findings support a segmented assimilation theory, the view that immigrant assimilation paths are not uniform across ethnic groups or generation status. Other findings suggest that bilingual ability would increase earnings only for the Chinese group.”

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  • This paper evaluates the impact of migrant remittances on human capital accumulation among youth. An augmented human capital model with two outcomes, education attendance and education attainment, is estimated using a large nationally representative household survey from Jordan. Empirical results show that migrant remittance receipt has a positive effect on education attendance. This finding is obtained while controlling for other socio-economic determinants of schooling behavior and is robust to censorship and endogeneity bias. The results also indicate that the magnitude of the remittance impact on both education outcomes is larger for men compared with that of women.

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  • “This article addresses whether there is the beginning of a fifth wave of intercountry adoptions (ICAs) from Africa to the United States (U.S.). ICAs function as a “quiet migration” of children [Weil (1984)International Migration Review 18(2):276–293; Lovelock (2000)International Migration Review 34 (3):907–949; Selman (2002)Population Research and Policy Review 21:205–225]. U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data from 1971 to 2009 indicate that there were 421,085 ICAs to the U.S. Tarmann (2003:2, http://www.prb.org/Articles/2003/InternationalAdoptionRateinUSDoubledinthe1990s.aspx?p=1) reported that in 2000, U.S. parents completed one ICA for every 200 births. In the past, top sending countries have followed flows from Europe, South America, and Asia. INS data are used to analyze the increase in the intercountry adoptees from Africa from 1996 to 2009. Similar Hague Convention data are used for the comparison of the number of ICAs from Africa to other top recipient nations. Demographic and economic data are used to support the suggestion that ICAs, similar to other migratory flows, are from developing to developed countries.”

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • In recent decades, more countries have started to recognize dual citizenship. Although overlooked in the literature, Africa is part of this trend with more than half of its governments now permitting their nationals to naturalize elsewhere while retaining home country rights. Why have some African countries embraced dual citizenship for emigrants, while others have not? We examine demographic, political, and economic data broadly across the continent and identify few clear patterns. We then explore the cases of Senegal, Ghana, and Kenya, finding that dual citizenship policies are driven as much by politics as they are by economic or security concerns.

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  • Migration data can be divided into two broad types: “stock” or census and survey data and “flow” or administrative data. Both stock and flow data are valuable resources for analyzing the migration process. In the statistical system of the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau is the primary source for census and survey data on the foreign born. The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. State Department provide several different administrative sources for studying immigration. The goal of this study is to review the best sources of government data available for analyzing (1) the size, distribution, and characteristics of the foreign-born population and their households and (2) the level of immigration into the United States, and the distribution and characteristics of immigrants by status.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Families immigrating to Australia face many challenges integrating into the educational system, including language barriers and interrupted schooling. We have qualitatively evaluated the educational concerns of Arabic migrants from Sudan and Iraq to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, a city that receives a high percentage of Australia’s immigrants. Using an interactive paradigm incorporating focus group discussions for thematic analysis, we concluded that the parents’ frame of reference for education was a more didactic style of learning. Parents viewed education as an essential part of the way forward for their children in Australia. However, it was stressful for them to try to cope with a new host nation’s expectation of their involvement in their children’s education while at the same time dealing with a language barrier. Professionals should look to empower parents with structural information about the key elements of the educational curriculum with minimal reliance on written technical language and match their expectations of parental involvement to the situation of the parents.

    SOURCE: W.J. Sainsbury, A.M.N. Renzaho, Educational concerns of Arabic speaking migrants from Sudan and Iraq to Melbourne: Expectations on migrant parents in Australia, International Journal of Educational Research (2011), doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2011.10.001

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Understanding the selves, situations and actions of Africans can never be comprehended outside kinship. Local and foreign worldviews are first pigeonholed into culture and defined within kinship realities in Nigeria and Africa. There have been studies on kinship in Africa. However, the findings from such studies portrayed the immutability of African kinship. Thus, as an important contribution to the on-going engagement of kinship in the twenty-first century as an interface between the contemporary Diaspora, this article engaged kinship within international migration. This is a major behavioural and socio-economic force in Nigeria. Methodological triangulation was adopted as part of the research design and primary data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs), and life histories of international migrants were documented and focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with kin of returnees. The article found and concluded that while returnees continued to appreciate local kinship infrastructures, the infrastructures were liable to reconstruction primarily determined by dominant support situations in the traditional African kinship networks.

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  • ABSTRACT – Background and Objectives: This study investigated the mental health status of young girls after genital mutilation in Northern Iraq. Although experts assume that circumcised girls are more prone to psychiatric illnesses than non-circumcised girls, little research has been conducted to confirm this claim. For the purpose of this study, it was assumed that female genital

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Although democratization is desirable, the reframing of ethnic identity, witnessed for example in the peace campaigns of South Africa and Rwanda, raises two questions: First, there is an empirical question: can ethnic identities actually be modified? Second, there is a normative question: should ‘problematic’ elements of ethnic identities be modified? This article is divided into three sections. In the first section, I demonstrate that each of these questions provokes, and indeed merits, debate. In the second section, I argue that in each case these debates are the result of an incoherent response to the complications of identity politics. Thus to address these debates, I first develop a theory of how to manage the machinations of social and ethnic group identities: the recognition–redistribution–participation theory, inspired by the work of Nancy Fraser, which comprises a two-dimensional conception of justice and accompanying norm of equality of participation opportunity. I then in my final section proceed to show that the debates that develop from efforts to desecuritize ethnic relations can be resolved by applying this theory.

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  • The United States’ system of refugee protection, long a source of national pride and a symbol of United States’ openness to the world’s dispossessed, remains generous in many respects. This system – which encompasses refugees, asylum-seekers, and populations in need of short-term protection – has ambitious goals and diverse responsibilities. It seeks to enable those fleeing persecution to reach protection, while preventing terrorist and criminal infiltration; to identify and admit vulnerable refugees, and to promote their successful integration; to screen out fraudulent political asylum claims, but to ensure that bona fide asylum-seekers can apply for and, if eligible, secure asylum; and to weigh endless requests for temporary protection from groups and individuals. Over the past 20 years, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, security and enforcement concerns have driven United States’ refugee developments and protection policies have not kept pace. The present article details the increased difficulties bona fide refugees and asylum-seekers face in trying to reach and to gain protection in the United States. It also describes the paucity of legal tools available to admit and to provide temporary status in the United States on humanitarian grounds. It argues that the United States’ system of refugee protection needs policy attention and revitalisation.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • The United States’ system of refugee protection, long a source of national pride and a symbol of United States’ openness to the world’s dispossessed, remains generous in many respects. This system – which encompasses refugees, asylum-seekers, and populations in need of short-term protection – has ambitious goals and diverse responsibilities. It seeks to enable those fleeing persecution to reach protection, while preventing terrorist and criminal infiltration; to identify and admit vulnerable refugees, and to promote their successful integration; to screen out fraudulent political asylum claims, but to ensure that bona fide asylum-seekers can apply for and, if eligible, secure asylum; and to weigh endless requests for temporary protection from groups and individuals. Over the past 20 years, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, security and enforcement concerns have driven United States’ refugee developments and protection policies have not kept pace. The present article details the increased difficulties bona fide refugees and asylum-seekers face in trying to reach and to gain protection in the United States. It also describes the paucity of legal tools available to admit and to provide temporary status in the United States on humanitarian grounds. It argues that the United States’ system of refugee protection needs policy attention and revitalisation.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • This article presents the personal experiences of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina related to their employment in Sweden. It is based on 35 interviews conducted in 2009 with asylum claimants and resettled refugees who came to Sweden in the early 1990s, aiming at their own perceptions and subjective assessments of their employment paths. The variety of experiences within each of these two groups suggests that individual employment paths can neither be fully explained by the admission category, nor in terms of the type of education, age, or gender. Although they admit the importance of these factors, the interviewees perceive chance as a decisive issue with regard to their initial access to the labour market, and its strong impact on their further success. They see official channels of professional recognition as far less functional than informal paths leading into the labour market that depend on personal encounters and connections. Against the background of laws and policies, personally experienced employment integration is revealed as a chance-ridden individual process.

    tags: newjournalarticles

    • This article presents the personal experiences of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina related to their employment in Sweden.  It is based on 35 interviews conducted in 2009 with asylum claimants and resettled refugees who came to Sweden in the early  1990s, aiming at their own perceptions and subjective assessments of their employment paths. The variety of experiences within  each of these two groups suggests that individual employment paths can neither be fully explained by the admission category,  nor in terms of the type of education, age, or gender. Although they admit the importance of these factors, the interviewees  perceive chance as a decisive issue with regard to their initial access to the labour market, and its strong impact on their  further success. They see official channels of professional recognition as far less functional than informal paths leading  into the labour market that depend on personal encounters and connections. Against the background of laws and policies, personally  experienced employment integration is revealed as a chance-ridden individual process.
  • The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of macro-level factors on immigrant and non-immigrant women’s mental health status in a Canadian context. This study was part of a larger study examining women’s quality of life in south eastern Ontario. Using survey research methods, data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 91 women of whom 66 identified their country of origin as “other” than Canada. Descriptive, bivariate and regression analysis of this data revealed that immigrant and non-immigrant women’s macro-level predictors of mental health status vary. Overall, for immigrant women’s perceptions of neighbourhood social cohesion was a stronger predictor influencing mental health status, while for non-immigrant women social support was more influential. Research with larger, representative samples should explore the findings to ascertain generalizability.

    tags: newjournalarticles

    • The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of macro-level factors on immigrant and non-immigrant women’s mental  health status in a Canadian context. This study was part of a larger study examining women’s quality of life in south eastern  Ontario. Using survey research methods, data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 91 women of whom 66 identified  their country of origin as “other” than Canada. Descriptive, bivariate and regression analysis of this data revealed that  immigrant and non-immigrant women’s macro-level predictors of mental health status vary. Overall, for immigrant women’s perceptions  of neighbourhood social cohesion was a stronger predictor influencing mental health status, while for non-immigrant women  social support was more influential. Research with larger, representative samples should explore the findings to ascertain  generalizability.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

RSQ Advance Access Articles and Pub. on Displacement in Pakistan and Legal Aid

Refugee Survey Quarterly

Refugee Survey Quarterly

Struggle for Recognition: Bosnian Refugees’ Employment Experiences in Sweden.
By Maja Povrzanović Frykman.
Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access Article.
[Access]
(Source: Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access on Oxford Journals).

The Faltering us Refugee Protection System: Legal and Policy Responses to Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, and Others in Need of Protection.
By Donald Kerwin.
Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access Article.
[Access]
(Source: Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access on Oxford Journals).

Subsidiary Protection and the Function of Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive.
By Paul Tiedemann.
Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access Article.
[Access]
(Source: Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access on Oxford Journals).

Examining the relationship between immigration and unemployment using National Insurance Number registration data.
A new discussion paper published by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.  The abstract for this paper argues that:

 Immigration has been central in recent UK policy debates and has attracted significant concern over its possible adverse effect on labour market outcomes. This paper contributes to the evidence on this issue by presenting initial results on the impact of migration inflows on the claimant count rate using previously unused data on National Insurance Number registrations of foreign nationals. Our results, which appear robust to different specifications, different levels of geographic aggregation, and to a number of tests, seem to confirm the lack of any impact of migration on unemployment in aggregate. We find no association between migrant inflows and claimant unemployment. In addition, we test for whether the impact of migration on claimant unemployment varies according to the state of the economic cycle. We find no evidence of a more adverse during periods of low growth or the recent recession.

[Download Paper]
[National Institute of Economic and Social Research – Press Release]
(Source: The Guardian – Migrants do not affect jobless levels, say researchers).

Unintended Consequences: the cost of the Government’s Legal Aid Reforms: A Report for The Law Society of England & Wales.
By Dr. Graham Cookson.  This is a report on research commissioned by The Law Society of England & Wales (henceforth, The Law Society) in June 2011.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: The Refugee Council – Legal aid cuts will incur £139m of knock on costs, report finds).

Pakistan: Displacement caused by conflict and natural disasters, achievements and challenges.
A new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (IDMC).[Download Full Report or visit the Pakistan country page]
(Source – Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).

New Journal Articles on Refugee Issues (weekly)

  • The Sociological Quarterly

    The Sociological Quarterly

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  • This article employs Max Weber’s ideal-type method to classify genocides based on their degree of mass killing, unilateralism, and ethnic liability. The identification of the elements of genocide draws from a general theory of genocide (Campbell 2009, 2010) and from theories of social control employing Donald Black’s (1995, 1998) theoretical approach, known as pure sociology. Because these theories identify the social features associated with each element of genocide, they can explain the form genocides take.

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  • By examining the comparative experiences of Rohingya who fled in the early 1990s to Bangladesh and Malaysia, this paper discusses implications for refugee protection in an Asian regional context characterized by generally applicable immigration measures and a reluctance to offer formal durable solutions. Somewhat secure from refoulement but undifferentiated or even deliberately invisible among larger irregular migrant populations, refugees in the region develop certain protection strategies and livelihood mechanisms outside the boundaries of formal asylum, which suggest they possess significant capacities to carve out their own protection space and achieve a level of de facto integration. Given the migration-focused discourse among states and regional processes as well as the impasse on solutions in Asia, this paper makes the case for further recognition of available, intermediate solutions which capitalize on ambiguities between migration management and refugee protection and empower refugee-driven solutions in all dimensions.

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  • Refugee studies are often said to be a product of the policy world, shaped by global power relations and in particular by the interests of the global north. This article attempts to refine this view by exploring the relationship between refugees and forced migration as ‘real world’ phenomena and refugee or forced migration studies as a field of enquiry. The article takes two upheavals—the collapse of communist regimes in 1989–1991 and the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2011—to mark out or ‘bookend’ a period of about two decades during which we may track migration crises and upheavals of varying magnitudes and depth, and relate these developments to the unfolding of refugee or forced migration studies. Taking issue with some commentators’ views about the relationship between ‘real world’ forced migration and the development of forced migration studies as an analytical field, the article addresses the relations among three types of thinking: social science understandings of refugees and forced migration; thinking about refugees and forced migration in the world of policy and practice; and popular or everyday thinking about refugees. Concepts travel among these spheres of thinking and are shaped and transformed en route. Subject to power relations like other forms of knowledge, social science research on forced migration may influence both popular and governmental thinking as much as policy categories shape forced migration research.

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  • Despite considerable efforts to harmonize reception conditions for asylum seekers in the European Union, the adoption of Directive 2003/9/EC reflects domestic interests, producing substantially different standards at the national level. By drawing upon the Austrian case, this article examines the politics and policies of reception that have emerged in the context of the adoption, transposition and implementation of the Directive. Based on analysis of policy documents, house rules and expert interviews, it will be demonstrated to what extent and why outcomes differ widely even at the sub-state level. The prevailing variations are ascribed to, first, wide margins of administrative discretion and, second, conflicting interests between regional and federal governments, regarding financial and executive competences but also over the mere presence of asylum seekers. Thus, the concept of ‘minimum standards’ translates into minimum welfare and restricted enjoyment of personal freedom but not into measures supportive of a dignified life for asylum seekers.

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  • According to current estimates, Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees in the region. This study aimed to provide information on the household economy and livelihoods among Iraqi refugees residing in urban areas of Syria. A nationally representative 80 × 10 cluster survey of Iraqi refugee households (total n = 800) was conducted in March 2009. Overall, 69 per cent of households reported having financial difficulties; 14 per cent fell below the poverty line of US$1/person/day and 41 per cent were living on less than US$2/person/day. High levels of dependency on remittances, pensions, and UN support were observed. Nearly 40 per cent of households reported an employed member, of whom 58 per cent reported workplace difficulties. Uncertain legal status and inability to work in the formal sector are principal concerns among the Iraqi population in Syria. Humanitarian assistance planners should consider livelihoods and cash transfer programmes that promote income generation and reduce dependency on savings and other outside sources.

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  • The displaced from Iraq now constitute one of the largest refugee populations worldwide manifesting the evolving conditions of “protracted displacement”. Unlocking this protracted crisis of displacement requires analysis of the perceptions of solutions, durable and not-so-durable, among all stakeholders. This article focuses on the local-level perceptions of practitioners, policy-makers, and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. It is based on desk research and interviews in the field in April and May 2011. Our findings show that the three classical durable solutions are largely unworkable for the majority of Iraqis in exile in the Middle East. Their migration is often circular and involves movement in and out of Iraq as well as across wider transnational networks in the Middle East and further afield. There is a need for an analytical shift from transitory humanitarian (emergency) assistance to fostering inclusive local assistance and accommodation to cater to the large group of Iraqi refugees who are increasingly “stuck” in host countries of the Middle East. It is worth exploring the possibility of a multi-directional approach to unlocking this prolonged crisis that taps into legal, policy, and operational opportunities.

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  • The displaced from Iraq now constitute one of the largest refugee populations worldwide manifesting the evolving conditions of “protracted displacement”. Unlocking this protracted crisis of displacement requires analysis of the perceptions of solutions, durable and not-so-durable, among all stakeholders. This article focuses on the local-level perceptions of practitioners, policy-makers, and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. It is based on desk research and interviews in the field in April and May 2011. Our findings show that the three classical durable solutions are largely unworkable for the majority of Iraqis in exile in the Middle East. Their migration is often circular and involves movement in and out of Iraq as well as across wider transnational networks in the Middle East and further afield. There is a need for an analytical shift from transitory humanitarian (emergency) assistance to fostering inclusive local assistance and accommodation to cater to the large group of Iraqi refugees who are increasingly “stuck” in host countries of the Middle East. It is worth exploring the possibility of a multi-directional approach to unlocking this prolonged crisis that taps into legal, policy, and operational opportunities.

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  • This article argues for a review of children’s services responses to trafficked children. It draws on findings from research funded by the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which took place between 2006 and 2009 exploring practitioners’ understandings of and responses to trafficked children and young people. Accompanied by an ongoing literature search, the project underwent three stages of data collection. Nine focus groups were run with a generic sample of practitioners from three locations in England. These were followed by interviews with practitioners who had detailed experience of working with trafficked children. A total of seventy-two practitioners took part in the focus groups and interviews. Finally, thirty-seven case studies of trafficked children were analysed. The findings explored in this article highlight variations in practitioners’ understanding of the meaning of trafficking; problems with the delivery of child-centred practice; confusions about the distinction between ‘trafficking’ and ‘smuggling’; and the meaning of ‘internal’ trafficking. Despite excellent examples of service delivery, further training for child-care and law-enforcement practitioners is needed for them to be equipped to respond to the full range of needs of trafficked children and young people.

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  • This article addresses whether there is the beginning of a fifth wave of intercountry adoptions (ICAs) from Africa to the United States (U.S.). ICAs function as a “quiet migration” of children [Weil (1984)International Migration Review 18(2):276–293; Lovelock (2000)International Migration Review 34 (3):907–949; Selman (2002)Population Research and Policy Review 21:205–225]. U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data from 1971 to 2009 indicate that there were 421,085 ICAs to the U.S. Tarmann (2003:2, http://www.prb.org/Articles/2003/InternationalAdoptionRateinUSDoubledinthe1990s.aspx?p=1) reported that in 2000, U.S. parents completed one ICA for every 200 births. In the past, top sending countries have followed flows from Europe, South America, and Asia. INS data are used to analyze the increase in the intercountry adoptees from Africa from 1996 to 2009. Similar Hague Convention data are used for the comparison of the number of ICAs from Africa to other top recipient nations. Demographic and economic data are used to support the suggestion that ICAs, similar to other migratory flows, are from developing to developed countries.

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  • International migration is a global phenomenon involving nearly 215 million people, equivalent to 3% of the world’s population. Previous databases of global migration catalog international migration using a variety of variables (sex, education, age); however, religion is rarely addressed within these data sets. Representing nearly half a million data points, the Global Religion and Migration Database (GRMD) was constructed – the only global database estimating the global migrant population (stock) by origin, destination, and religious affiliation. This research note serves as an introduction to the GRMD, detailing the construction of the database and providing key findings from a global perspective.

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    • International migration is a global phenomenon involving nearly 215 million people, equivalent to 3% of the world’s population. Previous databases of global migration catalog international migration using a variety of variables (sex, education, age); however, religion is rarely addressed within these data sets. Representing nearly half a million data points, the Global Religion and Migration Database (GRMD) was constructed – the only global database estimating the global migrant population (stock) by origin, destination, and religious affiliation. This research note serves as an introduction to the GRMD, detailing the construction of the database and providing key findings from a global perspective.
  • Using employment register data, this study compares the outcomes of male foreign workers from different East and West European countries who entered the German labor market between 1995 and 2000 with those of male German workers. Although the wage differentials are highest for Poles, results from Oaxaca/Blinder type decompositions show that the East Europeans are not generally worse off. Actually, we find considerable heterogeneity also within nationality groups. Quantile decompositions show that coefficients effects tend to be larger at the bottom of the wage distribution and, by that, give evidence for sticky floors.

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    • Using employment register data, this study compares the outcomes of male foreign workers from different East and West European countries who entered the German labor market between 1995 and 2000 with those of male German workers. Although the wage differentials are highest for Poles, results from Oaxaca/Blinder type decompositions show that the East Europeans are not generally worse off. Actually, we find considerable heterogeneity also within nationality groups. Quantile decompositions show that coefficients effects tend to be larger at the bottom of the wage distribution and, by that, give evidence for sticky floors.
  • International migration figures prominently on the agenda of the United Nations. Solid migration data are crucial for supporting this global debate. This article describes the international migration data sets produced by the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations. The Population Division’s Migration Section produces migrant stock estimates for the world’s countries by sex and, more recently, by age. The Section also produces a database containing annual data on inflows, outflows, and net flows of international migrants by country of origin for major destination countries. The Section maintains the Global Migration Database, containing the world’s most complete set of empirical statistics on the international migrant stock by country of birth, citizenship, sex, and age for more than 200 countries and territories for recent decades. The data and associated publications are available from the Migration Section’s Web site at http://www.unmigration.org.

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  • The concept of ‘discrimination’ has several meanings and usages in refugee law. It goes to the very core of the refugee law regime, yet it does not have a clear definition. This article seeks to explore and critique the ways in which ‘discrimination’ is interpreted and applied by decision makers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is primarily concerned with ‘cumulative grounds discrimination’: namely, the understanding in refugee law that the cumulative effect of various discriminatory measures can amount to persecution, even where each incident of discrimination alone would not suffice. It critically analyzes the approaches of decision makers in such cases, in light of various statements of principle made by UNHCR. This article raises a number of questions, issues and inconsistencies that merit further research and consideration. It argues that decision makers should adopt a broader approach in discrimination cases: they should consider the impact of discrimination on the meaningful and effective enjoyment of rights, as well as on the individual and his or her ability to live a dignified life. The article concludes that adopting a broader approach in discrimination cases would be more consistent with fundamental principles of international human rights and refugee law: equality, non-discrimination and the inherent dignity of all human beings.

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  • This article will analyse the provisions of, and the rationale for, the EU Sanctions Directive and the significant divergence in treatment of irregular immigrants in EU Member States, in particular, in relation to the provision of outstanding remuneration, which the EU Sanctions Directive has highlighted. Ireland, a state that has chosen to opt-out of the Directive, has been selected as a case study to analyse some of the issues that states encounter in bringing domestic labour policy in line with globalisation. In particular, this article will address the phenomenon of irregular immigration to Ireland, the current approach to the provision of outstanding remuneration and the rationale behind this current approach. Finally, the article will conclude that the reasoning behind the Irish opt-out was based upon misinformed assumptions about the purpose of the provision of outstanding remuneration arising out of a `disconnect’ between immigration and labour policy at a domestic level.

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  • Canada’s security policies have had an impact on refugee protection. Canadian judges use international law principles in refugee issues, and ensure constitutional human rights protection to “everyone”, including refugees and asylum-seekers. Canada has expanded the refugee definition to persons at threat of torture, according to the United Nations Convention against Torture. But, on recent security issues, Canada has had difficulty to reconcile international law and domestic law, in terms of human rights guarantees. Return to torture has been technically rendered possible by the Supreme Court of Canada, as a matter of constitutional interpretation. One particular mechanism, the “security certificate”, has been intensely scrutinised by courts and found wanting in many cases. The secrecy surrounding the information on which the certificate is based has been criticised, as have been the ex parte proceedings, the indefiniteness of the detention, the limitations on the role of the “special advocate”, and so forth. Judges have felt increasingly irritated by the intrusion of security intelligence in judicial proceedings. Canada is (now more than before) reluctant to submit to international human rights scrutiny on migration and security issues, arguing that it relates to territorial sovereignty.

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  • This article starts from the premise that the way that policy is made plays an important role in how it is subsequently received. It is argued here that New Labour asylum policy and the symbols and rhetoric that accompanied policy-making, constructed asylum seekers as a threat. This construction problematized immigration generally and created a sense of crisis within the policy field. This assumed crisis then acted to encourage hostility within the general population. The hostile political environment then raises significant problems in terms of integration for all migrant groups, but particularly for asylum seekers and refugees. The article contextualizes these developments and locates cohesion and integration ‘problems’ within the policy-making processes of the Government.

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  • Italy and Greece have been often blamed by their fellow EU Member States for the excessive permeability of their borders, their inability to stop irregular migration, and their inefficient asylum systems. In addition the two countries have weak internal controls, especially as regards the sectors of the labour market where immigrants are usually employed e.g. agriculture, domestic work, tourism and catering. This article seeks to make sense of these fundamentally contradictory policies that characterise Greece’s and Italy’s approach to managing migration. The article starts by outlining the common features of Italian and Greek immigration policies and proposes an analysis of immigration control regimes along two dimensions: their internal (within the country’s territory) or external (at the border or outside the border) character, and their fencing (stopping) vs. gate-keeping (preventing) nature. Section 3 discusses critically the irregular migration inflows in Greece, the policies implemented to address them and their contradictory results. Section 4 reviews the related policies in Italy and casts light to their inconsistencies. In the concluding section, we highlight the possible explanations for these two countries’ lack of direction in immigration management pointing to the opposition between excessively regulated labour markets, large informal economies and strict border controls which however become lax and ineffective once irregular migrants or asylum seekers are within the country.

    tags: immigration newjournalarticles

  • Background: Roma people, the largest minority in Europe live in segregated communites in several countries. The size of the Roma population is based on estimations deriving from various sources, whereas only narrative accounts of their living conditions have been available. Methods: A comprehensive environmental survey of all settlements in Hungary (n = 3145) was carried out employing Roma field workers in order to locate and characterize segregated parts (colonies) of human habitats. Based on the collected data on environmental conditions and aggregate population numbers of the colonies, ranking of colonies and maps on their characteristics were prepared for all counties of Hungary. Results: Seven hundred fifty-eight colonies were identified with approximately 134 000 inhabitants. Ninety-four percent of all colonies are populated dominantly by Roma. Most frequent environmental problems in the colonies were found to be lack of sewage and gas mains, garbage deposits, waterlogged soil and lack of water mains. Conclusion: Census data cannot be used for policy design aiming at those Roma who are in greatest need of help; that is, living in segregated settlements (colonies). Colonies constitute disadvantaged living conditions of varying severity which can be quantified by a composite score based on indicators of access to services and presence of environmental dangers. The proportion of colony-dwelling Roma is approximately one-fifth to one-quarter of the estimated number of Roma people in Hungary.

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  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • The literature identifies three key factors that shape attitudes towards immigration: socio-economic uncertainty, ideology and the institutional framework. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the differences in trade union members’ attitudes to immigration and the factors that determine them. We test three hypotheses by addressing three questions. First, what are the differences between the attitudes of trade union members and non-members with regard to immigration? Second, how are attitudes affected by material socio-economic variables? Third, how do different institutional frameworks and contexts affect trade union members’ attitudes? We conclude that attitudes can be explained by the interaction between economic and ideological variables. This has important implications for trade union strategies geared towards the integration of migrant workers.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • This study is based on three years of participative, ethnographic fieldwork with asylum-seekers and refugees in the United Kingdom. Through participant observation and analysis of ego-centred networks, I attempted to build trusting research relationships with individual refugees coming to terms with life in exile. Refugees themselves have played an integral part in the innovative research design which has evolved in response to their contributions. The research demonstrates that, contrary to some stereotypes, refugees endeavour to be proactive social actors. This counters the predominant assumption of refugee dependency. Furthermore, the research adds to existing work on the social networks of refugees by providing an intimate picture of a small group of refugees. It describes their tactics in meeting practical and emotional needs, describes how these networks spread across continents and from home country to countries of exile, and proposes a new typology based on the strength of network ties:

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • The article examines and assesses the various instruments developed at the European level for granting protection to asylum-seekers. It starts by providing an historical overview of asylum and immigration law and policy in the European Union, from its origins to the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and recast proposals of existing legislative instruments. In so doing, the article critically examines whether the European Union provides an adequate framework for protecting those seeking international protection both from the perspective of effectiveness and fairness and shows that despite some changes ensuring a stronger level of protection of asylum-seekers the recast process still does not ensure an equal standard of protection across European Union Member States.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • In his critique of everyday life, Henri Lefebvre called for an understanding of the everyday as a complex, fragmentary and dynamic constellation. Apprehending everyday life in this way complements the calls – from scholars of migration geography in particular – to ground meta-narratives of globalisation and mobility within the physical locales, material objects and social and spatial practices where the daily lives of migrants actually unfold. This paper takes up these issues by drawing on qualitative interview research conducted over an 11-month period with asylum seeker and refugee women living in contemporary Irish society. Drawing on some of Lefebvre’s ideas the paper examines how the presence and absence of material objects and textures of the everyday train and emplace participants in local contexts while simultaneously linking them in concrete and abstract ways to global transnationality. In this process, the ‘fractured mosaic’ that marks migrants’ social, material and cultural everyday lives becomes crystal clear while illustrating the value of Lefebvre’s perspectives for apprehending the intricate sociality and materiality of transnational migration. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • The United Kingdom (‘UK’) has indicated its intention not to opt-in to two proposals from the European Commission aimed at further developing the Common European Asylum System through the replacement of existing instruments on asylum procedures and reception conditions. The purpose of the European Union (‘EU’) amendment process is to establish rules that more closely align the legal framework for asylum in the Member States so that asylum seekers receive the same higher standard of treatment in any Member State in which they choose to make their application, and to address criticism that the Directives are incompatible with human rights obligations. The UK asserts that its asylum procedures satisfy the standards imposed by its obligations under international and European law, and does not view further harmonization of asylum matters at EU level as necessary or appropriate. Its decision not to opt-in raises issues regarding sovereignty, subsidiarity, the rule of law and European integration. This article will explore these issues, as well as provide an overview of select provisions from the proposals in light of UK asylum policy.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • The US-led invasion and war in Iraq has created one of the most significant refugee crises in recent decades. International nongovernmental organizations have partnered with local organizations in Jordan and Syria to provide humanitarian aid to some two million displaced Iraqis. Field research indicates that, as with other humanitarian crises, few trained social workers have contributed to policy and practice with displaced Iraqis. The case of Iraq provides an opportunity to consider how the social work profession can shape comprehensive global refugee policies and programs. This role is appropriate, given mandates for the profession to promote social justice and human rights. Using the case of Iraqi displacement, we illustrate the complexities of humanitarian services provision and the need for trained social workers to participate in humanitarian relief and development programs. We argue that a variety of social work institutions and actors should become more robust advocates for shaping just refugee policy and practice.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • The `Arab spring’ which spread in early 2011 and the consequent exceptional influx of people that arrived on the Italian coasts from North Africa put the national reception and asylum systems under particular pressure, also raising the debate on the status to be attributed to these people. Faced with a situation out of the ordinary, Italy immediately addressed a request for help to the European Union, which has revealed the difference of views and mistrust existing between Member States in relation to these issues. This episode also calls into question the scope and effectiveness of the EU migration management framework, particularly in case of strong and unexpected pressure, and its implementation in a true spirit of solidarity.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • This article will critically examine the treatment of migrant Roma in Western Europe, particularly Italy and France, in the light of the obligations under the EU Citizenship Directive 2004/38. The role of the political institutions will be considered, especially the European Commission, who have yet to take a decisive position on the Roma expulsions and on the wider issue of Roma discrimination in Europe. It is argued that the focus on non-discrimination cannot address the entrenched inequality which characterises the Roma’s situation in Europe. Furthermore, that the comparative disadvantage experienced by Europe’s Roma communities constitutes a major human rights crisis which has so far been sidelined by Brussels. A European strategy is urgently required, which demands leadership from the Commission and the full participation of Roma representatives.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Abstract After its judgment in the Kadzoev case, the Court of Justice has been called again to interpret the Returns Directive and its scope of application in the El Dridi case: this new ruling put an end to the situation of judicial chaos and to the very intense debate which followed non-transposition of the directive in Italian legislation. The judgment in the El Dridi case clarifies the difference between criminal detention and pre-return detention, as well as the objectives of the Returns Directive and its scope of application. This ruling will have far-reaching consequences not only on the Italian criminal and expulsions system, but also on the national legislation of a number of Member States.

    tags: newjournalarticles immigration

  • Since the early 1990s, the UN Security Council has used its enforcement measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to address different aspects of international refugee protection from the root causes of forced displacement to the search for durable solutions to the refugee problem. At the same time, however, the Security Council has been criticized for impelling trends towards state security concerns that have emerged in the refugee-protection regime over the past two decades. By establishing safe areas in Iraq, Bosnia, and Rwanda, or linking refugee status to terrorism, the Security Council has been accused of violating established refugee-protection standards. This paper seeks to use the prism of international refugee protection to draw a more nuanced picture of the normative effects of SC actions on the development of international law generally. Shifting the analytical focus from the much-discussed responsibility of the Security Council for wrongful acts, it is submitted that the practice of the Security Council has had a considerable influence on the development and even making of norms in the field of international refugee protection, thereby eroding established refugee-protection standards. This normative erosion through the inherently political actions of the Security Council will be assessed with regard to the principal measures by which the Security Council has addressed international refugee protection, namely peace operations and economic sanctions.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • The surveillance of immigrants from Turkey in Germany functions on two seemingly contradictory levels: on the one hand, it de facto recognizes their inclusion in German society; on the other hand, it serves as an instrument to exclude them as ‘(un)suitable’ foreign subjects within that society. Since 1961, this surveillance has slowly but surely changed its character. The aim of this article is to examine these changes through the lens of the different characteristics of so-called disciplinary and control societies. The article reconsiders the theoretical definitions of discipline and control in light of the German context to develop these as more precise historical categories. The fundamental point is that contact between German society and the social fact of migration and an immigrant population decisively inflected German disciplinary and control societies from the very beginning. This study argues that there has been a gradual shift on the part of the German state from a more limited focus to broader considerations of the issue of migration. This shift reveals more inclusionary measures; yet, dialectically, at the very same time it defines and captures an expanding space of exclusion.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Abstract— There were roughly 4 million children of undocumented parents in the United States in 2008. This article describes the effects that parental undocumented status can have on developmental contexts experienced in early childhood, before formal school entry. It focuses on early childhood as a crucial but still overlooked period for the study of children in immigrant families, a developmental stage when foundational cognitive and social skills are developing and in which social and economic disadvantage has particularly potent effects. Moreover, 91% of children under 6 with at least 1 undocumented parent are themselves U.S. citizens, which highlights the role of parental documentation status in affecting contexts of development that children may have access to but cannot select themselves. This article focuses on 3 sets of developmental contexts that may be sensitive to documentation status of parents: immediate postmigration contexts, in areas of legal, local enforcement policy, and neighborhood characteristics; everyday social settings, including program use, housing quality, and work conditions; and family processes.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • Most unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people arrive in the UK in their mid teen years. Preparation and planning for transition to adulthood should therefore be at the forefront of the minds of care-givers and social workers. This paper reviews current research evidence on the response of social work services to this group of young people in England, with a particular focus on what is known about the circumstances in which young people may be best prepared for adult life, how they fare in comparison to other young people in public care, and on the challenges presented for pathway planning that arise at the intersection between social work and the asylum determination process. The evidence for England is situated, wherever possible, against evidence drawn from international literature in this field and the need for a broader research agenda (incorporating more longitudinal work on care and leaving care pathways) is highlighted in order to strengthen the evidence base to support policy and practice in this field.

    tags: newjournalarticles

    • In the last 30 years, the social and linguistic articulation of the Afghan in Pakistan and Iran has gone from muhajir [refugee], to migrant, and even to terrorist. This article provides an overview of that transformation to demonstrate that it depends more on external factors rather than any fundamental change in the conditions structuring Afghan migration. Examining the migration regime operating between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran further confirms the problems of a refugee/migrant dualism.
  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • Most unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people arrive in the UK in their mid teen years. Preparation and planning for transition to adulthood should therefore be at the forefront of the minds of care-givers and social workers. This paper reviews current research evidence on the response of social work services to this group of young people in England, with a particular focus on what is known about the circumstances in which young people may be best prepared for adult life, how they fare in comparison to other young people in public care, and on the challenges presented for pathway planning that arise at the intersection between social work and the asylum determination process. The evidence for England is situated, wherever possible, against evidence drawn from international literature in this field and the need for a broader research agenda (incorporating more longitudinal work on care and leaving care pathways) is highlighted in order to strengthen the evidence base to support policy and practice in this field.

    tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

  • tags: ethics vulnerability speakers languages newjournalarticles

  • tags: newjournalarticles

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New Pubs. on Refugee Research, Youth, Newly Arrived Migrants, Employment

Journal of Refugee Studies

Journal of Refugee Studies

Forcing the Issue: Migration Crises and the Uneasy Dialogue between Refugee Research and Policy
By Nicholas Van Hear
Journal of Refugee Studies – Advanced Access.

Abstract from the Oxford Journals website:

Refugee studies are often said to be a product of the policy world, shaped by global power relations and in particular by the interests of the global north. This article attempts to refine this view by exploring the relationship between refugees and forced migration as ‘real world’ phenomena and refugee or forced migration studies as a field of enquiry. The article takes two upheavals—the collapse of communist regimes in 1989–1991 and the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2011—to mark out or ‘bookend’ a period of about two decades during which we may track migration crises and upheavals of varying magnitudes and depth, and relate these developments to the unfolding of refugee or forced migration studies. Taking issue with some commentators’ views about the relationship between ‘real world’ forced migration and the development of forced migration studies as an analytical field, the article addresses the relations among three types of thinking: social science understandings of refugees and forced migration; thinking about refugees and forced migration in the world of policy and practice; and popular or everyday thinking about refugees. Concepts travel among these spheres of thinking and are shaped and transformed en route. Subject to power relations like other forms of knowledge, social science research on forced migration may influence both popular and governmental thinking as much as policy categories shape forced migration research.

[Access]
(Source: Oxford Journals)

The Employment Rights of Refugees in Africa under the 1969 African Refugee Convention (Refugees and the Right to Work, Dec. 2011) [text]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Making Our Way: Resettled Refugee and Asylee Youth in New York City (Women’s Refugee Commission, Dec. 2011) [text]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Participation and Employment: A Survey of Newly Arrived Migrants and Refugees in Melbourne (AMES, 2011) [text via BroCAP]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Preventing Gender-Based Violence, Building Livelihoods: Guidance and Tools for Improved Programming (Women’s Refugee Commission, Dec. 2011) [text]
(Source: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog).

Recently Published Journal Articles

The following are a selection of recently published journal articles within the fields of refugee and forced migration studies.  Details of these articles have been listed on the Mimas Zetoc database.

Zetoc provides access to the British Library’s Electronic Table of Contents of around 20,000 current journals and around 16,000 conference proceedings published per year. The database covers 1993 to date, and is updated on a daily basis. It includes an email alerting service, to enable you to keep up-to-date with relevant new articles and papers.”

A selection of the articles I have recently received are as follows:

JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES VOL 37; NUMBER 7 (2011) pp. 1017-1037
Acceptable and Unacceptable Immigrants: How Opposition to Immigration in Britain is Affected by Migrants’ Region of Origin
Ford, R.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294998480&field=zid

JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES VOL 37; NUMBER 7 (2011) pp. 1119-1135
Time and Transnationalism: A Longitudinal Study of Immigration, Endurance and Settlement in Canada
Waters, J.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294998548&field=zid

JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES VOL 37; NUMBER 7 (2011) pp. 977-997
Nativism and the Obsolescence of Grand Narrative: Comprehending the Quandary of Anti-Immigration Groups in the Neoliberal Era
de Oliver, M.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294998572&field=zid

JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE FAMILY STUDIES VOL 42; NUMB 4 (2011) pp. 599-614
Needs of Refugee Children in Canada: What Can Roma Refugee Families Tell Us?
Walsh, C.; Estes, D.; Krieg, B.; Giurgiu, B.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294716992&field=zid

QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH VOL 21; NUMB 7 (2011) pp. 976-986
Improving Qualitative Interviews With Newly Arrived Migrant Women
Merry, L.; Clausen, C.; Gagnon, A.J.; Carnevale, F.; Jeannotte, J.; Saucier, J.-F.; Oxman-Martinez, J.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294578028&field=zid

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL WORK VOL 54; NUMB 4 (2011) pp. 485-504
The experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in and leaving the out-of-home care system in the UK and Australia: A critical review of the literature
Barrie, L.; Mendes, P.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294568576&field=zid

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MIGRATION AND LAW VOL 13; NUMB 2 (2011) pp. 201-218
Legislative Update EU Immigration and Asylum Law 2010: Extension of Long-term Residence Rights and Amending the Law on Trafficking in Human Beings
Peers, S.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294472123&field=zid

ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES VOL 34; NUMBER 8 (2011) pp. 1392-1407
Turning refugees into ‘illegal migrants’: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe
Schuster, L.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294460262&field=zid

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION VOL 12; NUMBER 3 (2011) pp. 253-274
The Development of Migrant Entrepreneurship in Japan: Case of Bangladeshis
Rahman, M. M.; Lian, K. F.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294386218&field=zid

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY VOL 32; NUMB 2 (2011) pp. 129-143
Lost in Translation? Embracing the Challenges of Working With Families From a Refugee Background
Codrington, R.; Iqbal, A.; Segal, J.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294223056&field=zid

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW REVIEW VOL 63; NUMB 2 (2011) pp. 283-322
The Board of Immigration Appeals’ Standard of Review: An Argument for Regulatory Reform
Rempell, S.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294165159&field=zid

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH VOL 14; NUMB 4 (2010) pp. 17-26
Contraceptive Use: Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes of Refugee Youths in Oru Refugee Camp, Nigeria
Okanlawon, K.; Reeves, M.; Agbaje, O.F.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294199870&field=zid

SEXUALITIES -LONDON- VOL 14; NUMB 3 (2011) pp. 334-353
`Having words for everything’. Institutionalizing gender migration in Spain (1998-2008)
Soley-Beltran, P.; Coll-Planas, G.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN293863323&field=zid

JOURNAL OF CANADIAN STUDIES VOL 45; NUMB 2 (2011) pp. 229-237
New Directions in Immigration and Ethnic History
Patrias, C.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294798090&field=zid

JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY VOL 83; NUMB 2 (2011) pp. 435-436
Elisa Camiscioli, Reproducing the French Race: Immigration, Intimacy, and Embodiment in the Early Twentieth Century
Lewis, M.D.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN294044448&field=zid

NEW YORKER -NEW YORKER MAGAZINE INCORPORATED- 04-JUL-2011 (2011) pp. 28-34
England, Their England: Immigration and resurgent nationalism
Collins, L.
http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?db=etoc&terms=RN293934379&field=zid

Journal of Refugee Studies : Advance Access Articles

Journal of Refugee Studes

Journal of Refugee Studes Advance Access

The Journal of Refugee Studies has recently published the following advance access articles on their website, via Oxford Journals, at :  [Advance Access].     The articles include :

Understanding ‘Sanctuary’: Faith and Traditions of Asylum.  By Philip Marfleet.
From the Abstract,

`Sanctuary movements emerged in North America in the 1980s as a means of providing support, advocacy and protection for refugees and other vulnerable migrants. In recent years they have grown quickly in Europe, animated largely by faith activists who invoke moral principles associated with religious traditions. This article examines ancient and modern histories of sanctuary and the implications for understanding contemporary ideas about protection, refuge and asylum.’

The Role of Faith and Faith-Based Organizations among Internally Displaced Persons in Kenya.  By Damaris Seleina Parsitau
Link :  http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/07/27/jrs.fer035.short?rss=1

Faith-Based Aid to People Affected by Conflict in Jos, Nigeria: An Analysis of the Role of Christian and Muslim Organizations. By Nkwachukwu Orji
Link :  http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/07/27/jrs.fer034.short?rss=1

 

Un/settling Angels: Faith-Based Organizations and Asylum-Seeking in the UK .  By Susanna Snyder

Link :  http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/07/27/jrs.fer029.short?rss=1

 

Newly Published Journals and Articles

IJTJ JournalOxford Journals have just published the latest edition of their journal, the International Journal of Transitional Justice.  Further detail on volume 5 sssue 2,  (July 2011), including the table of contents and article abstracts, can be found on the Oxford Journals websute: [link here]

The latest edition of the International Journal of Refugee law, namely volume International Journal of Refugee Law cover page23 number 3, (October 2011), has also now been released on the Oxford Journals website.  Articles from this volume include : `The Right to Seek Asylum: Interception at Sea and the Principle of Non-Refoulement’ by Guy S. Goodwin-Gill ; and `Protecting Victims of Human Trafficking Within a ‘Non-Refoulement’ Framework: is Complementary Protection an Effective Alternative in Canada and Australia?’ By Udara Jayasinghe and Sasha Baglay.  the table of contents and article abstracts can be found : [link here].

The latest issue of the Journal of International Migration and Integration, volume 12 number 3 (August 2011), is now available online via the Springer website.  The table of contents can be found : [link here]

Oxford Journals have published the following advance access article from the Journal of Refugee Studies :  ` The Pragmatics of Performance: Putting ‘Faith’ in Aid in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps.’  By Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh   The Link to the Article is : [here].

Oxford Journals have also published the following advance access article from Refugee Survey Quarterly:  `Sex Trafficking or Sex Work? Conceptions of Trafficking Among Anti-Trafficking Organizations in Nepal.’  By Miranda Worthen*   The Link to the Article is : [here].