Remittances and Happiness of Migrants and Their Home Households: Evidence Using Matched Samples

This paper explores how remittances influence happiness among migrants and their households of origin. It is based on a novel data set of matched samples of Bangladeshi migrant households (living in the UK and Malaysia) and their origin families in Bangladesh. Empirical findings suggest that remittances play a significant role in stimulating migrants’ happiness. We also find that the households of origin’s life satisfaction not only depends on receiving remittances from the emigrants, but also other factors such as number of migrants from the household living abroad and the migrants’ country of destination.     

What explains the rise of majority–minority tensions and conflict in Xinjiang?

ABSTRACT

In the past few years there has been a rise of inter-ethnic violence in China. While ethno-cultural repression and ineffective state policies are correctly attributed as key culprits behind this reality, this article suggests that socio-economic factors play a fundamental contributory role as well. Using the Xinjiang case, the article maps ethnic tensions and violence as a manifestation and expression of a growing and heightened ethno-cultural consciousness stemming from ethnic minorities’ low socio-economic status due, in part, to internal Han migration, and a labour market process – involving agency and structure – that has shaped a split and segmented labour market.     

The global importance of ‘illiberal moderates’, an exchange: partners in peace to precede a concert of democracies

The following is an exchange concerning the concept of ‘illiberal moderates’ and its implications for a new global architecture as well as for a worldview that sees the evolution of a global core of shared values which favour domestic and international security, in sharp contrast to the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis. The original statement was published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Etzioni 2006). A more extensive treatment can be found in Part III of Security first: for a muscular, moral foreign policy (Etzioni 2007b), which examines texts of four religious and two secular belief systems as well as review of relevant public opinion polls and ‘traveller notes’. Here follows a brief summary of the main thesis, followed by comments from prominent scholars and Etzioni's response to these comments.     

Multiple nails in the brain: an unusual suicidal attempt

We describe dangerous multiple self-inflicted brain-penetrating injuries caused by a nail gun device after a suicidal attempt for the first time in Iran. At the first forensic visit, we could not explain the manner of injuries. The authors reviewed the literature on the topics, and clinical presentation, radiographic findings, and forensic medical records are discussed.     

Validating crime prevention through environmental design construct through checklist using structural equation modelling

To date, there has been limited empirical exploration of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures to appraise their efficiency. The intention of the present study is to validate CPTED dimensions and its respective indicators developed to measure the CPTED construct. This construct is measured using four main dimensions, namely natural surveillance, access control, territoriality and exterior maintenance. The aim of this study is to identify factors that contribute in measuring the CPTED construct. The scale was administered by using on-site observation of a sample of 164 respondents in a typical residential area in Penang, Malaysia. The validation is carried out by employing the Confirmatory Factor Analysis using AMOS. The analysis was conducted by testing the higher order dimensionality of the CFA driven first-order solution by examining a second-order model. The final CPTED construct consists of four main dimensions with its respective indicators.