Chinese Immigration to Russia and Its Non-traditional Security Impact

Russia and China rapidly restore communication after the Cold War, but the Chinese immigration issue is also widely exaggerated and even described as “Yellow Peril again” in Russia. The so-called Yellow Peril is not only a Russian object perception but also a cross-generational conflict between Russia and China. Furthermore, it will be related to the subsequent development of the Russian Far East and Siberia. The Chinese immigration constitutes psychological and survival non-traditional security impacts on Russia and also forms some kind of social competition with Russians. It is vital for Russia to cooperate with its eastern neighbor to accelerate the development of the Russian Far East and Siberia, but national security and social stability are the prerequisites for cooperation. Nevertheless, it is more significant to rebuild self-confidence of the Russians in the Russian Far East and acknowledge that the East will not be a threat to Russia. As long as Russia realizes that it can enjoy unlimited possibilities in the East, the non-traditional security impacts caused by the Chinese immigration will automatically alleviate and even disappear. Today, most Russians are trapped in the dilemma of welcoming or refusing the Chinese immigrants; however, cultural exchange still has some effects and at least causes Russians to begin to positively treat the Chinese immigration and consider whether to accept China and cooperate with China.     

Kazakhstani public opinion of the United States and Russia: testing variables of (un)favourability

ABSTRACT

Though Central Asia is often studied through the prism of its relationships with external powers, research on local public perceptions of these different actors has largely been overlooked. The literature on Kazakhstanis’ perceptions of their neighbours, for instance, is scarce, and mostly focused on analysis of official discourse on Kazakhstan’s multi-vector policy, with little exploration of how this is received, appropriated or refuted by the population. On the basis of Gallup data spanning the last decade, and several other surveys, we test most of the main hypotheses usually advanced to explain attitudes to the US and Russia – age, ethnicity and access to information – and draw five main conclusions: (1) Kazakhstanis are not defined by an exclusive pro-US/pro-Russian dichotomy; (2) they nevertheless largely choose Russia over the US if forced to pick; (3) age does not have a significant effect on foreign policy attitudes; (4) ethnicity does affect some of the attitudes under consideration, but its effects are not large enough to produce markedly different opinions among ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Russians in aggregate; and (5) consumption of media from Russia and access to non-governmental and Western sources of information do not seem to have significant effects on the attitudes under consideration.     

Russian-Speakers in Ukraine and Kazakhstan: “Nationality,” “Population,” or Neither?

A political scientist examines the level of attachment to the “Russian-speaker” label among Russians and Russian-speakers who live outside of Russia within the former Soviet Union. Also examined is the proposition that this label is the main alternative to assimilation and that those who accept it think differently from those who do not about issues such as the independence of their state of residence. Survey and focus-group data collected in 1998 and 1999 in Ukraine and Kazakhstan are examined to analyze whether “Russian-speaker” is a more important identity marker than citizenship and ethnic group.     

Fit bodies,strong races,modern nations

The Introductory Essay places the articles collected in the dossier within current debates on race, gender and nation. First, it examines the notion of “Latin” eugenics, both as a non-hereditarian approach to race improvement and a form of Fascist cultural diplomacy based on the export of Italian racial knowledge. Second, it explores the way in which the visual representation of women's bodies shaped the “eugenics gaze” of an idealized racial nation, as well as her racial “others”. Third, it analyses the racialization of immigration by looking at how dominant groups established eugenics preferences for certain foreigners based on popular assumptions of moral worth and physical strength.     

The Big Five in Context: Personality,Diversity and Attitudes toward Equal Opportunities for Immigrants in Switzerland

The paper analyzes the link between personality traits and attitudes of Swiss citizens toward equal opportunities for immigrants. In particular, we examine the extent to which this relationship is moderated by the socio‐structural context. We test the assumption that the direct links between personality traits and attitudes toward equal opportunities are strengthened by perceived ethnic diversity. Based on our empirical analyses, we are able to replicate central findings of the research on personality traits and attitudes toward immigrants for the Swiss context. While openness toward experience and agreeableness are positively related to a preference for equal opportunities, conscientiousness is negatively linked to these attitudes. Furthermore, our results reveal that the link between conscientiousness and attitudes toward equal opportunities is significantly moderated by the perceived share of foreigners in the neighborhood. This finding is especially relevant for future research on the effects of personality traits.     

Mehr Zuwanderer,mehr Fremdenangst? Ein Überblick über den Forschungsstand und ein Erklärungsversuch aktueller Entwicklungen in Deutschland

The share of residents with foreign roots in Germany will rise considerably in the next years. A crucial societal question will certainly be whether natives will get used to the increasing level of ethnic diversity or whether anti-immigrant threat perceptions will rise. There is an obvious empirical paradox in the context of this question: On the one hand, high immigration usually coincides with more skeptical views towards immigration and greater success for right-wing political parties. On the other hand, these reactions are often over-represented in regions where the actual share of migrants is rather low. This paper presents an overview of theories and evidence on this apparent contradiction. A crucial factor which can at least partially reconcile these ambivalent findings is the geographic level of analysis: If the national share of migrants increases, media coverage of the topic is greater and fears among the population accordingly rise in most cases. On the level of regions, however, effects of contact and habituation are strongest, such that people living in high-immigrant regions tend to perceive immigration in a more positive way. On the level of city districts, the relationship seemingly turns negative again. Here, the more tolerant citizens live in residential areas with a low to moderate share of migrants, while natives living in districts with many foreigners tend to move away or vote for far-right parties, as the success of the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) in the 2016 state elections suggests. A number of conclusions can be drawn with regard to current developments in Germany.     

Greeks or Turks, “White” or “Asiatic”: Historicising Castellorizian Racial-Consciousness, 1916–1920

ABSTRACT

This article traces a specific moment when Castellorizian settlers intersected with the racialised and labour-based politics of immigration restriction in the Northern Territory, between 1916 and 1920. Through an examination of a contested labour issue, a political immigration debate and a racialist newspaper dispute, this history aims to demonstrate how a group of ethnically Greek labourers from the Dodecanese island of Castellorizo ushered in a distinctive form of “white” racial preferencing. By examining how Castellorizian labourers were viewed by unionists, politicians and public commentators, this article suggests that confusing, and, at times, porous, national and racial classifications—such as Greek and Turk, and white and Asiatic—predisposed how these distinctive settlers could engage with the society in which they lived. In direct opposition to being classified as, and compared to, Asians, Castellorizians articulated their own distinct attachments to Australia and the white race. An investigation into their articulations offers us a nuanced reading into the making and fluidity of white racial consciousness in Australia. By examining the precarious positioning and self-articulations of Castellorizians in the Northern Territory, we can begin to reflect on how the racialised and labour-based politics of immigration restriction impacted on the making of an early Greek-Australian racial consciousness.     

The rise and fall of “Novorossiya”: examining support for a separatist geopolitical imaginary in southeast Ukraine

In the spring of 2014, some anti-Maidan protestors in southeast Ukraine, in alliance with activists from Russia, agitated for the creation of a large separatist entity on Ukrainian territory. These efforts sought to revive a historic region called Novorossiya (“New Russia”) on the northern shores of the Black Sea that was created by Russian imperial colonizers. In public remarks, Vladimir Putin cited Novorossiya as a historic and contemporary home of a two-part interest group, ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, supposedly under threat in Ukraine. Anti-Maidan agitation in Ukraine gave way to outright secession in April 2014, as armed rebel groups established the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhans’k People’s Republic on parts of the eponymous Ukrainian oblasts. Rebel leaders aspired to create a renewed Novorossiya that incorporated all of eastern and southern Ukraine from Kharkiv to Odesa oblasts. To examine the level of support for this secessionist imaginary in the targeted oblasts, our large scientific poll in December 2014 revealed the Novorossiya project had minority support, between 20 and 25% of the population. About half of the sample believed that the concept of Novorossiya was a “historical myth” and that its resuscitation and promotion was the result of “Russian political technologies.” Analysis of the responses by socio-demographic categories indicated that for ethnic Russians, residents of the oblasts of Kharkiv and Odesa, for older and poorer residents, and especially for those who retain a nostalgic positive opinion about the Soviet Union, the motivations and aims of the Novorossiya project had significant support.     

What Actually Matters? Understanding Attitudes toward Immigration in Switzerland

On 9 February 2014, the Swiss people accepted the popular initiative “against mass immigration” launched by the national‐conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP). This voting outcome has triggered wide‐ranging debates about both the policy on immigrants as well as the future of Switzerland within the European context. Against this background, we evaluate attitudes toward immigration in Switzerland. Using hitherto unexplored survey data of MOSAiCH, our empirical analyses show that already in the year 2013, before the debate about the initiative on mass immigration was in full swing, roughly 53 percent of the 1011 interviewed Swiss citizens stated that immigration should be reduced. Moreover, our estimations indicate that the threats and fears induced by immigration and the will to maintain sovereignty and autonomy are particularly relevant for attitudes toward immigration. By contrast, education and national or personal economic conditions are only weakly related to the immigration issue.     

Nationalism and patriotism as predictors of immigration attitudes in Switzerland: A municipality‐level analysis

Abstract: Using Swiss data from the 2003 International Social Survey Programme (N = 902), this multilevel study combined individual and municipality levels of analysis in the explanation of nationalism, patriotism and exclusionary immigration attitudes. On the individual level, the results show that in line with previous research nationalism (uncritical and blind attachment to the nation) increased exclusionary immigration attitudes, while patriotism (pride in national democratic institutions) was related to greater tolerance towards immigration. On the municipality level, urbanization, socioeconomic status and immigrant proportion (and their interaction effects) were found to affect nationalism, patriotism and immigration attitudes. Nationalist and patriotic forms of national attachment were stronger in German‐speaking municipalities than in the French‐speaking municipalities. Path analyses further revealed that living in a Swiss‐German municipality indirectly led to more negative immigration attitudes through an increase in nationalism. The research is discussed in light of social psychological and political science literature on political attitudes.     

The State-Legal Administration and the Politics of Redundancy

The main aim of this study was to investigate whether the competition and cultural theoretical models that have received solid empirical support in the context of Western European societies can explain anti-foreigner sentiment in post-socialist Russia as a society searching for new national identity borders. Data obtained from the third round of the European Social Survey (2006) indicate a high level of anti-foreigner sentiment in contemporary Russia – more than 60% of Russians claimed that immigrants undermine the cultural life of the country, and almost 60% claimed that immigration is bad for the economy of the country. Our multivariate analysis showed that the two sets of individual-level predictors of anti-foreigner sentiment – the socioeconomic position of individuals (as suggested by the competition model) and conservative views and ideologies (as suggested by the cultural model) – are not meaningful in predicting anti-foreigner sentiment in post-socialist Russia. The results are discussed from a comparative sociology perspective and in the context of the Russian society.     

Does electoral fraud spread? The expansion of electoral manipulation in Russia

In this paper, we argue that the occurrence of electoral manipulation in Russia has been driven, in part, by diffusion across neighboring raions through emulation, incentives, and networks. Presumably, in Putin’s Russia all local authorities have some incentives to deliver a high number of votes to United Russia, the “party of power”. However, the perceived pressure to deliver ever higher levels of support for Putin’s party arguably increases considerably if one’s raion is located in a region marked by extraordinarily high turnout and high vote share for United Russia. Conversely, the absence of perceived competition to curry executive favor through delivering votes and networks of uncorrupted local authorities, as well as local opposition organizations working to combat electoral fraud, may help explain the absence of fraud among raions located in regions marked by clean elections. Our quantitative analyses suggest that a “neighborhood effect” – the existence of manipulated raions within a region – strongly influences the likelihood that raions are manipulated. Moreover, although results are more mixed, spatial autocorrelation analysis suggests that turnout levels in raions are influenced by the turnout in proximate raions.     

“Korean Japanese”

Until recently, resident Koreans in Japan, former colonial subjects and their offspring, have had only two options for staying in Japan: naturalization, which required assimilation and the adoption of a Japanese identification, or zainichi status, which meant remaining Korean nationals and keeping their own ethnic identity. Choosing the zainichi option was a way for resident Koreans to express their resistance to Japan's naturalization system, which they saw as a legacy of assimilationist colonial policy. In the early 1990s, however, greater numbers of resident Koreans began to seek naturalization. In part, this was because they were beginning to redefine ethnicity as separate from nationality. Thus, they thought, they could retain their Korean identity even after naturalization. This development, coupled with the rise of a multiculturalism movement in Japan, set the stage for the recent emergence of a third option for staying in Japan, “Korean Japanese,” that is, Japanese nationals with Korean ethnic identification. By analyzing articles written by Sakanaka Hidenori, an influential immigration official who has expressed support for the Korean Japanese option, this article demonstrates that this new identity option as presented by government officials is actually in line with the earlier colonial discourse of ethnic hierarchy and assimilation. While cautioning against an easy acceptance of the government's calls for the Korean Japanese option, the author explores its potential for revitalizing the political presence of resident Koreans in Japan.     

俄罗斯移民政策弊端解析

俄罗斯还不是真正意义上的移民国家,其接收各类外来移民(定居移民、劳务移民和留学移民等)的历史并不长。从国民性格角度看,俄罗斯社会缺乏安全感,在制定移民政策时,总是将安全考量放在第一位。俄移民领域的管理因而具有浓重的“强力”色彩,“经济”和“融合”的成分则相对不足。当前俄移民政策领域存在诸多弊端,如融合政策缺失,腐败问题严重,统计工作不到位,移民政策缺乏系统性和连贯性等。为构建具有吸引力的移民政策,俄罗斯学界提出很多建设性主张,如必须为引进和利用外国劳动力制定简单透明的规则和程序;必须使移民政策的实施由单独的联邦非强力部门主管;必须要有保障移民融合的基础设施,维护移民的权利,反对影子就业和社会隔离;公开承认移民对于国家经济的作用,对居民解释实行移民政策的各种动机,创造出移民和社会可以有效协作的氛围。这些主张能否得以落实,还有待进一步观察。     

Does everyday corruption affect how Russians view their political leadership?

Do Russians’ personal experiences with corruption influence how they evaluate their political leaders and, if so, in what direction? In addressing this question, we focus specifically on small-scale corruption that arises when Russians encounter employees of service provision organizations. We analyze survey data gathered in the summer of 2015 from Russia to trace the links between personal corrupt behavior and political attitudes. We show that participation in everyday corruption lowers a person’s support for the political regime, both as a bivariate relationship and in a multivariate model with controls. Being involved in corrupt transactions reduces support for the regime through two indirect mechanisms: by making the political leadership’s performance seem worse and by heightening perceptions that corruption is widespread among the country’s leaders. We find no support for arguments in the literature that bribery and other forms of bureaucratic corruption help citizens pursue their needs in the face of inefficient state institutions and less developed economies. In Russia, those who frequently encounter corruption are less, not more, happy with the regime.     

The views of the Chinese statesman on the par Eastern problem (1921)

The phrase “The Great Game” was first used in the context of Russia and Central Asia by the ill-fated Captain Conolly in 1840. For Conolly, the game metaphor signified a contest in which the Russians were Britain's potential opponents, while the Central Asians were her immediate ones. Indeed Conolly, like Thorburn, a later writer, seems even to have envisaged Russia as Britain's partner in the work of civilizing Asia. Boulger, tried to use the phrase to signify Anglo-Russian confrontation but interestingly the phrase was little used in the literature on Central Asia until Kipling's “Kim” endowed it with a popularity and the implication of great power rivalry which it had not previously enjoyed. In fact widespread use only came after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, though “The Great Game” is now in ever more frequent use to signify American/Russian rivalry. Kipling's use has triumphed over Conolly's.     

在俄华人灰色经营问题解析

灰色经营是指非正规但又被默许存在的经营活动。华人在俄进行灰色经营的领域主要有包棚种菜、在批发市场做买卖和带团旅游。华人在俄灰色经营活动之所以能够长期存在,在某种意义上是俄方有意为之的结果。俄罗斯社会缺乏安全感,对外资和外来移民充满戒心;在制定移民政策和引资政策时,总是更多地考量安全。这样就形成了如下矛盾心理:一方面对于外来移民的经营活动存在客观需求;另一方面又担心对外来移民的经营活动难以把控。对待在俄谋生的外来移民,俄方事实上的行为模式如下:先通过收严合法化空间使包括华人在内的外来劳务移民处于非法境地,然后,一方面默许其灰色经营方式的存在,另一方面在必要时进行检查和惩处。在这一背景下,如何化解灰色经营带来的危害,如何使经营方式由“灰”转“白”,就成为亟待探讨和解决的问题。     

Bildungsunterschiede zwischen Migrantengruppen in Deutschland: Schulabschlüsse von Aussiedlern und anderen Migranten der ersten Generation im Vergleich*

This contribution explores the educational achievements of immigrants who migrated to Germany as minors during the large influx that began in 1987. Differences in education levels between the following two immigrant groups are the analytical focus of this analysis: ethnic German resettlers (? Aussiedler“) and other first-generation immigrants who used different legal channels to enter German territory. What accounts for the fact that “Aussiedler” youth have higher chances of reaching a medium-level school certificate, whereas the majority of their immigrant peers finish their general education with no more than the low-level “Hauptschul” certificate? Analyses of the third DJI Youth Survey, conducted in 2003, demonstrate that this educational gap between groups can only partially be explained by factors central to educational opportunities, such as their social background. The ?Aussiedler“ immigrant status exerts an additional positive impact on educational achievement due to particular immigration and integration policies as well as (mainly linguistic) incorporation processes specific to this immigrant group.     

Citizenship,economy and social exclusion of mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is often viewed as a Chinese immigrants' city. This article discusses three interrelated dimensions of the social exclusion of migrants designated as “new” Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. First, it is argued that globalisation has triggered intense economic rivalry among world cities as they undertake economic restructuring. Second, the political attempts of territorial states to establish their own legitimacy and strengthen their governing capacity are major catalysts that induce the social exclusion of immigrants. Third, the nature and strength of local place-based social identity is vital to determine the difficulties new immigrants face in being included in the host society. After recounting the history of Chinese immigrants and their recent profile in Hong Kong, the article examines the relationships between Hong Kong's economic development and the state's immigration policies, and how Hong Kong's state policies have constructed a form of Hong Kong identity vis-à-vis Mainland Chinese, drawing out the mechanisms that determine the social exclusion of Mainland immigrants since the 1990s.

“We asked for workers but human beings came.” Max Frisch(quoted in Hollifield,2000:149)