Migrant melodrama and the political economy of suffering

This article deploys the term “migrant melodrama” to describe contemporary cultural production that trains a melodramatic imagination on migrants. It argues that migrant melodrama often reconfigures suffering as a necessary step in the progress toward inclusion and belonging. To interrogate this assumption, the article analyzes three prominent examples of migrant melodramas that feature children traveling north across national borders without adult caretakers: the 2006 journalistic narrative Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother, by Sonia Nazario; a 2009 HBO documentary film inspired by Nazario’s book, Which Way Home, directed by Rebecca Cammisa; and the 2007 fictional film Under the Same Moon, directed by Patricia Riggen. The article proposes that migrant melodrama plays a role in the commodification and circulation of undocumented migrant suffering in a global market, a phenomenon that the author terms “the political economy of suffering.” Performances of suffering can be exchanged in the political economy of suffering for any number of privileges, from a handout to a visa, and are linked to major international economic and political decisions, such as migration policies that regulate human mobility across nation-state borders. The political economy of suffering is a web of transactions in which performances of undocumented migrant suffering are exchanged in attempts to promote empathy, tolerance of mobility, and respect for migrant human rights. In different ways, all three of the works analyzed accept the underlying logic of the political economy of suffering.     

Taiwanizing female immigrant spouses and materializing differential citizenship

Taiwan holds the Asian record for the proportion of families that involve so-called ‘foreign brides’. Marriage migration has brought close to half a million immigrant spouses into the country over the past decades. Most of these women come from Mainland China, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. This paper discusses how the Taiwanese state and society have actively pursued the integration of immigrant spouses since 2002, with a set of policies that acknowledge the massive migration of ‘foreign brides’ and the impact of this phenomenon on society. It argues that the attempt to integrate new immigrants is fraught with a discourse that serves to further stigmatize these women, discriminate against them, and, therefore, create an ‘Other’ that is used to erect the ideology of nation-building in Taiwan. The paper provides a critical analysis of policies, academic discourse and NGOs fundraising strategies to show how these institutions reinforce the idea that immigrant spouses are problematic and, therefore, need to be ‘Taiwanized’. This results in a system of differential legal and social citizenship in which immigrant spouses are at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Taiwanese society.     

Do land reforms have adverse impacts on the livelihoods of poor land users? Evidence from the Nkoranza South Municipality,Ghana

Poverty reduction is the overarching goal of most development interventions in the developing world. From 2004, Ghana has been implementing a land reform policy/programme that seeks to improve tenure security and reduce poverty. The present study uses qualitative methods to analyse the extent to which land reforms are enabling or inhibiting poor land users in Ghana to exit poverty and improve their living standards. The study finds that Ghana’s land reform system redefines customary land governance resulting in a breakdown of the trusteeship ethos of the chieftaincy institution, increasing land sales, insecurity of land tenure for the poor and disappearing commons. These factors subsequently have adverse impacts on the ability of poor people to meet their livelihood needs. The study concludes that, for land reforms to work proactively for the poor, they must be pursued as part of broader, holistic and integrated development initiatives.     

Anti-immigrant mobilization in Russia's regions: local movements and framing processes

This article argues that increased anti-immigrant mobilization (the targeting of ethnic migrants to limit their rights and/or promote their resettlement) in Russia's regions is a consequence of local social movements adopting an anti-immigrant frame as part of their efforts to promote recruitment, acquire resources, and advance their movement's particular cause. Using the cases of Sverdlovsk's Gorod Bez Narkotikov (City Without Drugs) and Krasnodar's Cossack groups, it develops the argument and demonstrates specific ways in which an anti-immigrant frame is taken up by local movements. As a complement to existing studies of anti-immigrant sentiment or far right ideology, these cases highlight the practical politics of mobilizing support for anti-immigration causes in contemporary Russia.     

农村女性婚姻迁移者社区融合的基本状况及影响因素探析--基于1011名调查对象数据的实证分析

使用自行编制的“农村女性婚姻迁移者社区融合调查问卷”对1011名农村女性婚姻迁移者进行测量的数据分析结果显示，农村女性婚姻迁移者的社区融合没有达到较好水平；影响农村女性婚姻迁移者心理融合的因素呈现多样性，目前是否在工作、房子类型、公婆是否同意外娶、婚龄、城乡、是否适应迁入地自然环境、是否了解丈夫家庭、迁移是否有遗憾、是否考虑到迁移困难、是否有困难、面对困难是否积极、回娘家情况、娘家人来婆家情况、迁入地是否有朋友等因素对农村女性婚姻迁移者社区融合有显著性影响。应从多方面提升农村女性婚姻迁移者的社区融合水平。     

Regulating Dutch–Chinese marriages and relationships in the Netherlands (1920–1945)

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to contribute to The History of the Family by researching the historical relationship between family and state, and the roles that the concepts of 'race' and 'mixture' played. To this end, it analyzes the regulation of Chinese–Dutch marriages in the interwar period and Second World War in the Netherlands. It argues that the ways in which these interracial marriages were regulated were informed by colonial discourses on the Chinese as racialized others. This resulted in a systematic pattern of exclusion of Chinese migrants in the Netherlands, in which they were registered, fingerprinted, counted and deported. Part of these discourses focused on Chinese 'interracial' marriages with Dutch white women. This resulted in the 'regulation of mixture' in which state officials aimed to prevent such marriages, through migration law, document requirements and premarital counseling. During the war, these marriages were considered a 'racial shame' and relationships were broken up by arresting Chinese husbands before marriage. More research is needed to learn more about the extent of these practices and to know whether they were applied to racialized groups other than Chinese.     

The coping strategies and responses of African youth in New Zealand to their encounters with the police

This article looks at the coping behaviors used by African youth in Aoteaora New Zealand during their encounters with the police. African youth are one of New Zealand's newest and youngest populations yet report disturbing accounts of racial provocation and abuse by the New Zealand police. In a research study carried out with African youth about their experiences with the police, qualitative interviews with the youth and African community leaders revealed that the youth responded to the discriminatory behaviors of the police in a number of ways. These responses included being obstructive, demonstrating vigilance of police practices, and avoiding subsequent encounters with the police, and indicate that the youth are prepared to challenge the perceived racism of the police.     

How women use family networks to facilitate migration: A comparative study of Irish and Polish women in Britain

Within migration studies there has been a tendency to focus on a single case study of a particular national group. Adopting a comparative approach may raise new and interesting questions or challenge conventional thinking on migration. While on the surface, at least, Irish and Polish migrants would appear to have many commonalities, there has been surprisingly little comparative analysis of these two groups. Drawing on my own research on these migrants in the British context, I focus on women as a large but under-researched aspect of both groups. This paper suggests ways in which such a comparison could be undertaken by using social networks as a useful comparative tool. A social networks perspective not only allows a probing analysis of migration strategies, but also provides a framework within which to compare across different migrant groups, such as for example, examining the role of family networks (here and there) in migration processes. In addition, this approach enables an examination of dynamism over time and how migrants develop relationships within spatially dispersed as well as locally embedded ties.     

Changing Control of the Open Drug Scenes in Oslo— Crime,Welfare, Immigration Control,or a Combination?

Over the last few years there has been a societal move away from a perception of drug users as criminals to a perception of the users as sick. Contrary to what one may expect from such a change, reported drug crimes against the penal code are at record-high levels. It is the contradictory inherent in these tendencies that will be emphasized and highlighted in this article. The open drug scenes in Oslo and the police control of the scenes have changed. During the last few years there has been a growing element of foreign citizens in the drug scenes, and the police control has focused on the foreigners. Could part of the explanation of the contradictions be that there is a differentiation of how the different users are handled? Are there different forms of social control employed toward Norwegian and foreign actors in the open drug scenes? This article puts forward arguments that this is actually the case, driven by a consistent association of foreign actors in the drug scene with organized crime, and a stricter Norwegian legislation and approach to immigration questions, with a tendency toward a conflation of immigration and criminal law.