Intimate partner violence and immigration laws in Canada: How far have we come?

Immigrant women face numerous, and sometimes insurmountable, barriers in reporting and seeking services for intimate partner violence (IPV). A number of these obstacles relate to immigration laws, policies and legal processes they encounter due to their immigration status and sponsorship relationship. The present study was conducted in Canada, in an urban centre that boasts one of the largest immigrant populations in the world. Using a focus group methodology within a participatory action research framework, this investigation sought to identify factors that facilitate or impede women from coming forward and disclosing IPV, and traced their help-seeking actions. Qualitative data from helping professionals and women reveal that in cases of sponsorship breakdown due to IPV, the criteria required for a viable immigration application are unrealistic, and in many cases impossible to meet in situations of domestic abuse. These data indicate that despite claims to the contrary, laws and policies related to immigration have remained stable for over a decade. Systemic and structural barriers that these create for abused women are still clearly present in immigration laws and policies. The result is that many women stay in abusive relationships, often with their children, for prolonged periods of time accruing serious negative mental health effects. Implications are discussed to help inform policy and practice.     

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

With a focus on the relationship between women's and children's rights and theories of globalization, we conduct an event history analysis of more than 150 countries between 1950 and 2011 to assess the factors associated with policies banning corporal punishment in schools and homes. Our research reveals that formal condemnation of corporal punishment in schools is becoming a global norm; policies banning corporal punishment in the home, in contrast, are being adopted more slowly. We find that the percentage of women in parliament is associated with the adoption of anti‐corporal punishment policies in both schools and homes, suggesting a nexus between women's and children's issues. Countries with more ethnic diversity are slower to adopt home policies, however. We propose that minority groups in these countries may be resistant to laws because of the risk of selective or prejudicial enforcement. In terms of globalization, more aid is associated with both school and home policies, and countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child are more likely to adopt home policies. Surprisingly, international nongovernmental organizations are not significantly associated with either type of policy adoption.     

Forced marriage: an analysis of legislation and political measures in Europe

Forced marriage is of current international concern in Europe. As many cases involve a transnational component linked to migration, it is increasingly receiving attention at the government level. The serious consequences for women, including sexual violence, and the physical and psychological health risks associated with it, seem to receive little consideration. Recent years have seen a rise in initiatives and measures taken by policy makers throughout Europe. As the focus is placed on criminalization and stringent immigration policies, ethnic minority population groups bear the greatest burden. It is argued that specific criminal laws make it more difficult for victims to come forward, while offering very little or no protection in return. The widespread 21-year age rule in immigration law has been denounced by scholars, institutes and magistrates alike for infringing on the fundamental human right to family life guaranteed by article 8 ECHR. The discourse on forced marriage appears to have reached a crossroads. European governments are faced with the challenge to create policies that protect and support victims, while simultaneously cracking down on perpetrators and safeguarding their borders from abuses in obtaining visas. There is a very pressing need to work more closely with those at risk, involving service provisions to directly support them, instead of a one-side top-down policy framework through which minority communities feel targeted and stigmatized.     

Mobilizing Migrant Workers’ Rights in “Non‐immigration” Countries: The Politics of Resonance and Migrants’ Rights Activism in Israel and Singapore

How are the rights of migrant workers mobilized in non‐immigration regimes? Drawing on an ethnography of human rights NGOs in Israel and Singapore, two countries that share similar ethnic policies but differ in their political regime, this study contributes to scholarship on migrants’ rights mobilization by expanding cross‐national analysis beyond the United States and West Europe and diverting its focus from legal institutions to the places where rights are produced. Findings show that differences in the political regime influence the channels for mobilizing claims but not the cultural politics of resonance that NGOs use when dealing with the tensions between restrictive ethnic policies and the expansion of labor migration. While restraints in authoritarian Singapore operate mainly outside the activists’ circle, in the Israeli ethno‐democracy they operate through self‐disciplining processes that neutralize their potential challenge to hegemonic understandings of citizenship. Paradoxically, success in advancing rights for migrants through resonance often results in reinforcing the non‐immigration regime.     

Buried voices: Mexican migrants’ views on the question of illegality

How do immigrant Mexican workers perceive the policies and social discourses that regulate their insertion into American society as noncitizens and illegals? Using ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews, evidence is presented that unauthorized Mexican migrants do not consider themselves lawbreakers but rather moral actors responding to difficult socioeconomic conditions. Informed by a keen understanding of the social forces oppressing them, these migrants articulate a discourse of social justice that works as a powerful counterpoint to the hegemonic ideas of citizenship, belonging, and illegality. A careful analysis of migrant social reflexivity offers a much-needed corrective to the prevailing top-down perspective typically offered among contemporary scholars. By looking at the ways in which migrants make sense of immigration policies and articulate their right to have rights, this examination departs from the widespread tendency among scholars and policy makers of analyzing the migrant’s social and civic status as a matter of assimilation and immigration control.     

State power and diffusion processes in the ratification of global environmental treaties, 1981–2008

There have been many explanations for why countries ratify global environmental treaties. They range from neorealist theory, to hegemony theory, world society theory, and network embeddedness theory. Drawing on hegemonic transition theory, this paper provides evidence that prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, strong and weak countries ratified a treaty if the USA or the USSR ratified the treaty first. After the fall of the Soviet Union, countries’ proximity to world society institutions increased the likelihood of ratifying a treaty, and only weaker countries emulated the ratifications of the USA and Russia. However, weaker countries also emulated economic, religious, and language peers, diplomatic ties, and neighbors as well. In contrast, more powerful countries ratified treaties more independently. We studied the ratifications of eight universal environmental treaties by 166 countries between 1981 and 2008 and showed that as the geopolitical context changed, the diffusion process changed. The paper argues that the hegemonic transition which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s was an enabling event that helped to explain the new roles that major powers assumed in the 1990s and 2000s and opened the door to the ascendency of global institutions and broader participation in the environmental regime.     

寻找WTO法中的比例原则

虽然国内外学者公认非歧视、透明度及自由化原则是WTO法的基本原则,但对WTO法基本原则的范围及其适用并没有达成一致,而这其中一个最大的争议就是欧洲大陆学者所主张的比例原则是否是WTO法的原则。美国政府及学者对此一般都持反对态度。中国学者研究这一涉及国际法基本理论问题的人还比较少,通过寻找WTO法律文本中体现比例原则的规定和WTO争端解决机构裁决中对这些规定的应用和分析,证明比例原则在WTO法中确实存在,它不但可以在平衡不同的政策目标,削减贸易壁垒及限制贸易报复水平方面起重要作用,而且作为一个工具性原则能起到其它原则起不到的作用。比例原则应该成为约束成员方政府行为及指导WTO法发展的基本原则。     

Speaking of Rights: The Influence of Law and Courts on the Making of Family Migration Policies in Germany

The impact of the judiciary on immigration policies has been simultaneously overestimated and underestimated. Migration scholars broadly assume that courts have forced liberal states to admit unwanted migration. Based on an analysis of family migration policy making in the Federal Republic of Germany (1975‐90), I show that the direct policy impact of court rulings was limited, as courts were reticent to impinge upon democratic sovereignty. However, the indirect impact of the courts was substantial. Political actors amplified the implications of rulings by interpreting the jurisprudence selectively and expansively. Thus, they turned speaking of rights into a powerful political resource.     

Paradoxes of Family Immigration Policy: Separation,Reorganization, and Reunification of Families under Current Immigration Laws

It is increasingly recognized that immigration laws affect immigrants' integration. Most recently there has been growing attention to how immigration enforcement affects families through forced separations caused by deportations and long‐term family separations across national borders stemming from unauthorized entry to the United States. However, beyond enforcement, there has been little systematic account of how other provisions of immigration law contribute to family separations. In this article we examine how four key provisions in immigration law, far from creating conditions for immigrant families to reunite, contribute to keeping families apart. As such, these provisions shape, in fundamental ways, the structure and composition of immigrant families. Relying on data from the American Community Survey and ethnographic interviews in Phoenix, Arizona, we find evidence consistent with the premise that immigration laws affect the formation, composition, and structure of immigrant families with potential long‐term consequences.     

Signaling Environmental Stewardship in the Shadow of Weak Governance: The Global Diffusion of ISO 14001

This article examines how the quality of domestic regulatory institutions shapes the role of global economic networks in the cross‐national diffusion of private or voluntary programs embodying environmental norms and practices. We focus on ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world, which encourages participating firms to adopt environmental stewardship policies beyond the requirement of extant laws. We hypothesize that firms are motivated to signal environmental stewardship via ISO 14001 certification to foreign customers and investors that have embraced this voluntary program, but only when these firms operate in countries with poor regulatory governance. Using a panel of 129 countries from 1997 to 2009, we find that bilateral export and bilateral investment pressures motivate firms to join ISO 14001 only when firms are located in countries with poor regulatory governance, as reflected in corruption levels. Thus, our article highlights how voluntary programs or private law operates in the shadow of public regulation, because the quality of public regulation shapes firms' incentives to join such programs.     

世界主要反倾销法分析与我国反倾销立法的完善

在“以‘替代国’价格作为非市场经济国家出口产品‘正常价值’”、“对公共利益的考虑”、“对出口商替进口商交纳反倾销税的作弊行为的制裁”、“反规避的措施”和“对中止反倾销调查的态度、做法”五个问题上,WTO、美国、欧盟反倾销法律中有着明显的或微妙的差异。比较这些差异的客观性、合理性会给中国反倾销立法的完善以启益。     

Silencing Women's Voices: Nuisance Property Laws and Battered Women

There is little documentation about how nuisance property laws, which fine people for excessive 911 calls, affect victims of domestic violence. In St. Louis, we found that police and prosecutors believe that the law benefits victims of domestic violence by providing them with additional services. By contrast, advocates for domestic violence victims believe that the law undermines battered women's access to housing and discourages them from calling 911. Using qualitative data, we analyze how the organizational structures and dynamics within which each group works give rise to different stocks of working knowledge. We conclude that law enforcement officials are unaware of these harms because women's voices and experiences are marginalized during the enforcement process. This research reveals mechanisms through which law enforcement policies reinforce gender inequality, and illustrates some ways in which gender relations and power come into play in what, on their surface, appear to be gender‐neutral laws.     

Dreams Deterred: The Collateral Consequences of Localized Immigration Policies on Undocumented Latinos in Colorado

Recent years have seen a broadening of the scope of immigration enforcement. As a result, immigrants free of criminal convictions, once considered low priorities for enforcement, are increasingly subject to arrest, detention, and removal. At the same time, federal immigration authorities have sought the cooperation of states and localities in the enforcement of immigration laws. While there has been growing scholarly attention paid to the ways in which legal geographies can account for variation in local immigration policies, the long‐term effects of these policies on immigrants themselves are often overlooked. In this article, we use the case of Colorado, one of the first states to pass a “show‐me‐your‐papers” law in 2006, and data from two qualitative studies to highlight the collateral consequences of enhanced immigration enforcement on immigrants’ economic opportunities, emotional health and well‐being, and academic trajectories. We situate our analysis within the crimmigration literature and discuss the implications of our findings in light of the current political climate.     

Global and Domestic Governance: Modes of Interdependence in Regulatory Policymaking

Abstract:  This article examines how the regulatory policies of countries are interdependent. In particular, it identifies three modes of interdependence: competitive, coordinative, and informational. In the competitive mode the essential structure of interdependence is for countries to attempt to have distinctive policies that provide some advantage over other countries, but where the equilibrium set of policies is suboptimal for all. In the coordinative mode, there is an advantage for all countries to adopt the same policy, but exactly which policy is adopted may have significant distributional consequences. Lastly, in the informational mode, the choices and experiences of countries produce informational externalities, pointing the way for other countries to policy decisions. This article examines the logic underpinning each of these modes of interdependence, and draws out the governance implications of each mode.     

Controlling Immigrants: The Latent Function of Italian Administrative Orders

Enforcement of new—or relatively new—administrative powers targeting control and criminalization of behaviorbehavior has become increasingly common in Italian cities in recent years. Defined as ordinanze sindacali, Mayors’ Administrative Orders (MAOs) have traditionally been among the powers available to mayors to regulate urban life. Under a new national law passed in 2008, their use in controlling undesirable behavior ranging from minor social and physical incivilities to prostitution and social problems like begging and vagrancy has become increasingly common. In this paper, using data from our own research and from national and local studies, we discuss these orders from a new perspective, showing how they have been used in Italy to criminalize statuses and behaviors of a specific vulnerable social group: namely, legal and illegal immigrants. We describe the main features of these administrative tools, their complex interactions with the criminal justice system and immigration laws, and the mechanisms through which they target irregular and regular immigrants and their use of public space. We contextualize their enforcement in Italian cities in the broader development of exclusionary policies against immigrants and in the more general tendency to increase criminalization of groups and behaviors that seem to be part of a common punitive turn in many Western countries.     

Secret Laws

There is a thesis that legal rules need to be made public because people cannot guide their conduct by rules they cannot know. This thesis has been a mainstay of anti‐positivism and the controversy over it continues apace. However, positivism can accommodate the secret laws thesis. The deeper import of the debate over secret laws concerns our understanding of law's nature. In this regard secrecy merits attention as a candidate necessary connection between law and immorality. In addition the mediating role of lawyers as experts in ascertaining the law should be highlighted. It has been widely overlooked despite the fact that lawyers are criterial in Hart's concept of law.     

Institutional Paths to Policy Change: Judicial Versus Nonjudicial Repeal of Sodomy Laws

What variables lead judicial and nonjudicial decision‐making bodies to introduce policy change? In the theoretical framework proposed, the path‐dependent nature of law has a differential impact on courts and legislatures. Likewise, certain political institutions including elections and political accountability lead those bodies to introduce policy change under dissimilar circumstances. Global trends, however, affect both institutional paths equally. We test this theory with data for the repeal of sodomy laws in all countries from 1972–2002. Results from two disparate multivariate models overwhelmingly confirm our predictions. The unique institutional position of courts of last resort allows them to be less constrained than legislatures by either legal status quo or political accountability. Globalization, on the other hand, has a comparable effect on both. This work is path breaking in offering a theoretical framework explaining policy change via different institutional paths, systematically testing the framework comparatively and with respect to a policy issue still on the agenda in many countries.     

经济中心城市的集聚与扩散规律研究

经济中心城市具有集聚和扩散这两种基本运动形式。它们遵循着三条基本规律,即经济中心城市的集聚和扩散力随着其综合实力的提高而增强（增强律）,随着运输费用的提高而衰减（衰减律）,并趋向生产力布局的优区位（指向律）,根据这三条基本规律,城市的引力公式应修改为：两城市之间的引力与城市的质量成正比,与运输费用的平方成反比。     

Through the Back Door: Applying Theories of Legal Compliance to Illegal Immigration During the Chinese Exclusion Era

This article applies theories of legal compliance to analyze the making of this country's first “illegal immigrants”—Chinese laborers who crossed the U.S.‐Canadian and U.S.‐Mexican borders in defiance of the Chinese exclusion laws (1882–1943). Drawing upon a variety of sources, including unpublished government records, I explore the ways in which Chinese laborers gained surreptitious entry into the United States during this period and ask, what explains their mass noncompliance? I suggest that while an instrumental perspective is useful for understanding these border crossings, it overlooks other important determinants of noncompliance: normative values and opportunity structures. Specifically, the exclusion laws were widely perceived by the Chinese as lacking social and moral legitimacy, and thus not worthy of obedience. In addition, the existence of smuggling networks and liberal immigration policies in Canada and Mexico played a critical role in facilitating noncompliance. The article concludes with a discussion about the benefits and challenges of using this theoretical framework to analyze noncompliance in immigration law.     

论申根协定对国际移民的影响

《申根协定》是欧洲若干国家通过政府问的合作而对跨国移民进行统一管理的国际条约,它集中体现了欧盟的移民政策。该协定基本实现了欧盟国家内部的个人自由流动,促进了欧盟一体化的进程,但其实施对国际移民也带来一些负面问题,笔者拟从《申根协定》出台的历史背景及其条款内容出发,深入探究欧盟的移民法律与政策,并就该协定对未来国际移民的影响趋势进行分析和研讨。