Transnationale Migration jenseits von Assimilation und Akkulturation

Classic theories of migration describe international migration as one-way movements and investigate the cultural adjustment of migrants into a “majority society”. Contrary to this view, the article raises the question of new conceptual possibilities to describe migrants’ assimilation and acculturation without conceptually focusing on a nation-state frame. In doing so, it makes reference to theories of transnational migration which define migration as a circular process connecting both sending and receiving contexts. This perspective enables, first, to analyze “structural assimilation” as multiple simultaneous inclusions of individuals into societal institutions in different nation-state locations. Secondly, it suggests to consider acculturation as a cultural adjustment of migrants’ knowledge patterns, which goes hand in hand with the maintenance of cultural “otherness”.     

Post–Conflict Global Governance: The Case of Microfinance Enterprise Networks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The article examines the institutional infrastructure that supports the foreign aid flows in the mcrocredit sector in postconflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. It documents the mobilization of transnational networks between different international agencies in the course of the policy formulation and implementation, and elicits the effects that certain network attributes exert on the policy choices made by individual organizations. How and why do international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, with at times conflicting goals, join forces in such networks? More important, whose goals are eventually implemented, and under what conditions? Whose goals are diluted in the process of network mobilization? What are the policy implications of such "battles" for the postconflict reconstruction? The article seeks some answers to these questions, demonstrating how transnational networks intermediate between the organizational goals and the final policy outcomes that result from such a network–based mode of global governance in postconflict regions.     

Foreclosing on the American dream? The financial consequences of low-income homeownership

Federal programs have consistently encouraged ever-lower-income households to buy homes, despite concerns about the long-term sustainability and desirability of homeownership from the perspective of wealth-building, especially since the recent housing market collapse and the epidemic of mortgage foreclosures. We ask in this paper: can very low-income households build wealth through sustainable homeownership, with the aid of an innovative public program? We answer this question by examining 122 very low-income households who purchased their homes between 1996 and 2007 after completing an extensive asset-building and homeownership education/counseling program offered by the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver (DHA), called HOP. We analyze our own longitudinal surveys and focus groups, as well as data compiled from administrative agency sources, real estate records, and longitudinal census data from the Neighborhood Change Database and the Piton Foundation's Neighborhood Facts Database. We find that homeownership attained through HOP typically did provide very low-income households with opportunities to build home equity (both absolutely and relative to generic homeowner cohorts in Denver) and net wealth, although this was contingent on time of purchase and ethnicity. Our multivariate analyses revealed that changes in annualized home equity appreciation were associated with the ethnic composition of the neighborhood and age of property. Annualized wealth accumulation was associated with annualized home equity appreciation, being married throughout the tenure of homeownership, and year of home purchase. HOP homebuyers received exceptionally favorable initial mortgage terms and conditions, often enhanced with down-payment assistance from their own DHA escrow account or from local housing and neighborhood development organizations, resulting in a dramatically low rate of default and foreclosure to date. Moreover, HOP homebuyers were not immune to financial stresses, and the continuing lack of wealth for many makes them vulnerable to future interruptions in primary wage earner's employment or health. We discuss the implications for low-income homeownership policy and argue that the goal of expanding homeownership opportunities should not be abandoned.     

Health scrutiny,democracy and integration: Part of the same jigsaw?

Set against the major restructuring of decision-making processes within local government and the wider modernisation agenda for public services, this paper suggests that the scrutiny process (specifically in relation to local authority health scrutiny) can be described in two analytically different, but not necessarily contradictory, ways. It could be seen as a process to increase the levels of local democracy or as a form of integration across different organisations/sectors. The article is informed from the first half of a three-year evaluation that includes interview and observational data from in-depth case study research in five local authorities and their associated Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). The research highlights examples of health scrutiny in terms of both democratic input and integration/joined-up working by organisations from different public sectors, to facilitate scrutiny reviews and resulting changes. It is suggested that further evaluation of the continued development of health scrutiny will be required to examine the potential longer-term impacts on local governance issues, partnership working and the health of the local population.