From the outside lane: issues of ‘race’ in South African athletics in the twentieth century

In her introductory essay to this special issue on refugees and xeno­phobia--in which the articles focus primarily on asylum-seekers,2 mostly in the United Kingdom, but also in France and Ireland--guest editor Liza Schuster draws on the work of the contributors and on her own research in Britain, France, Germany and Italy to address the treatment of asylum-seekers by European states. European liberal democracies share a common commitment to granting asylum to those in need of protection, a commitment made legally binding by signing the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. They also share a commitment to principles of equality and non-discrimination. However, in recent years European states have embraced practices that permit discrimination against and unequal treatment of asylum-seekers, and recent British government proposals threaten the 1951 Convention itself. Schuster interrogates some of the underlying assumptions of asylum policies in the United Kingdom in particular, but also with reference to other European states, arguing that common-sense assertions of the ‘need for control’, which underlie the differential treatment of asylum-seekers in particular, are expressions of a racism at the heart of European states. She further argues that, at the border, racism intersects in a complex and shifting way with class and gender, creating a hierarchy of the excluded. Following a discussion of racism and these other modalities of exclusion, Schuster examines practices through which this racism is articulated.     

Anti-racism,racism and asylum-seekers in France

Anti-racist movements in France have been characterized by their strong political orientation and their tendency to be highly centralized. However, in the past decade the increasing salience of the position of ‘new immigrants’, a term that in France is used to include asylum-seekers, has been accompanied by a shift in the form and content of anti-racist mobilization. Support for asylum-seekers has been provided by a multiplicity of specialist national and local organizations developing modes of solidarity that are more akin to welfare, social work or humanitarian aid than the more directly and overtly political interventions common among French anti-racists. At the same time local committees have developed in places of high tension, but at some distance from the political limelight of Paris. Lloyd examines some of these developments in the context of the crisis of provision for asylum-seekers in France. After setting out some basic information about asylum, undocumented migrants and the law in France she examines the political debate about ‘the new immigrants’ and racism. Comparing the relatively successful sans papiers movement of the 1990s with the difficulties of organizing among and with more isolated, transient and socially deprived asylum-seekers, she discusses the way in which this new set of issues has challenged the main anti-racist organizations and given rise to new actors and alliances.     

全球化视域下中国政策转移的反思与建构

随着全球化进程逐步深入,政策议程已经越来越多地受到跨国经验的影响.各种团体、国际组织以及各类政策制定者越来越多地转移国际经验到本国的政治、经济与社会中,而处于这一进程中的我国政策制定必将更加不可避免地受到这一趋势的影响.因此,如何适应这一新形势的要求,研究政策转移的特点及规律,特别是探索一个符合中国国情的政策转移体系,以对当下我国政策过程实践有所启发和帮助,是我们亟待解决的新课题.文章以全球化为背景,通过对我国政策转移的回顾与反思,针对影响我国政策转移的主要障碍及其症结,尝试建构当前我国政策转移的框架体系及保障机制,以供我国政策转移实践之参考.     

‘A quite natural and moderate defensive feeling’? The 1945 Hampstead ‘anti-alien’ petition

In October 1945 an ‘anti-alien’ petition was launched in the London Borough of Hampstead that, under the pretext of securing homes for returning ex-servicemen, campaigned for the removal of the district's predominantly Jewish refugee population. By examining the nature of support and opposition to the petition Macklin's local case study provides further evidence to suggest that reactions to those who had fled Nazi terror remained complex. Those who did find sanctuary were characterized by the local press not as ‘deserving victims’, but as the cause of the problems created by their Nazi persecutors. A detailed examination of the rhetoric of the petition movement reveals how this defence of local amenities against ‘alien‘ encroachment can rightfully be defined as ‘antisemitic’. Following an analysis of the role of the local press, Macklin examines its impact on, and interaction with, local and central government policy regarding reconstruction and immigration, which continued to be dominated by the dogma that harmonious race relations necessitated the strict control of immigrants, regardless of the desperation of their plight. He concludes by examining the media's symbiotic relationship with extremist and fascist politics.     

The Hi-jacking of Global Society? An Essay

Abstract

Globalization is producing a global society of some sort. Three leading forms are on offer: Global Civil Society, Global Islam and Global America. This essay presents an analysis of globalization as a process, and then a discussion of each of the three possible forms, while recognizing that contingency prevails in history. With this said, the odds are against Global Islam succeeding. Rather, the most likely outcome seems to be the ‘hijacking’ of Global Civil Society by the US. The reasons for this are given, plus a glance at alternative possibilities.     

Meaning nothing but good: ethics,history and asylum-seeker phobia in Britain

The current hostility of the media, politicians, state and public against asylum-seekers in Britain is unprecedented in its intensity. Rarely in modern British history have those campaigning for refugee rights been so isolated, marginalized and silenced. Kushner explores how it has been possible to couch the campaign against asylum-seekers in a discourse of morality: the need to protect ‘our’ people and culture against the diseased and dangerous alien, as well as the distinction drawn between helping the genuine refugee and exposing the bogus asylum-seeker. History has been instrumentalized to prove, through alleged generosity in the past, the moral righteousness of Britain's treatment of refugees. He attempts to expose the dangers of misplaced ethics and distorted history. To begin the process of change, he argues, historians and moral philosophers, because of the abuse of their areas of expertise, must confront the issue of refugees as being central rather than peripheral to their concerns.     

动态均衡视角下的政策变迁规律研究

公共政策在其动态运行过程中,政策变迁是一个自然的过程环节。所谓政策变迁是指不同政策间的替代与转换过程①。这一过程是否遵循某种一般性规律,理论界对此一直缺乏必要的研究探讨。从动态均衡的视角看来,可以将政策变迁过程分为政策失衡、政策创新、政策均衡3个阶段。其中,政策失衡指的是愿意改变既定政策的政策参与者的集合力量,超过愿意维持既定政策的政策参与者的力量集合时的一种状态;而政策均衡则表示与之相反的一种状态。政策创新是指由旧政策到新政策的实质性转换过程。通过这3个环节,拟揭示出政策变迁过程中政策从原有均衡状态演变为失衡状态,再通过创新变革向新的均衡状态转变这一规律。     

Open Borders and the Right to Immigration

I do not argue for or against substantive immigration policies in this paper. Rather, my thesis concerns what kinds of reasons are morally salient in the construction of just immigration policies. I argue that philosophical proposals for regulating immigration should be evaluated according to the following methodological principle: The unit of analysis in terms of which principles for regulating immigration must be evaluated is the socially situated individual. I defend this principle indirectly by applying it to cosmopolitan principles for regulating immigration in order to demonstrate the moral inadequacy of theories of immigration that adopt an inappropriate unit of analysis. Failure to evaluate the moral adequacy of their own substantive proposals in terms of their effects on socially situated individuals leads some cosmopolitans to endorse substantive recommendations for regulating immigration (namely, open borders) that, I argue, disproportionately burden members of institutionally disadvantaged groups.

Look to Denmark or not? An experimental study of the Social Democrats’ strategic choices

Social Democratic parties struggle to maintain their strong electoral position, as political competition has shifted from the traditional left-right dimension to the cultural dimension. This has led to a debate on what would be the most viable electoral strategy for these parties in terms of adjusting their policies. Some propose a “New Left” policy platform that combines social investment and progressive cultural policies; others an “Old Left” policy platform that combines traditional redistribution policies and social-conservative cultural policies. We conducted a survey experiment to test the effects of these two platforms on support for the Norwegian Labour party. Our results show that the New Left platform is more popular among current Labour voters and voters from competing left-wing parties, and the two policy platforms are equally popular among the total electorate.