On Active Citizenship: Discourses and Language about Youth and Migrants in Italy

Abstract

The civic and political participation of young people and especially young migrants, who have limited rights of citizenship, is still a significant problem in Italy. Young people struggle to find opportunities and feel excluded from politics: the political agenda tends to see them more as a problem than as a resource. In this article, we illustrate the results of research to understand the dynamics of political and civic participation of young people and what the policy does in their favour. A content analysis of a corpus of European and Italian legislation, policy and planning documents has been undertaken. We also conducted six in-depth interviews with politicians and representatives of Italian nongovernmental organizations in order to investigate (a) policy priorities and institutional points of view, (b) consistency between these priorities and European programmes, and (c) European Union support for the policy actions and projects promoted in Italy about youth. The results showed a general difficulty for young people to ‘engage’ and be engaged in civic and political activities. There is also a gap between the political level and an effective investment which will recognize young people as a real resource.     

Integration Policy in the Contemporary Megalopolis

The author assesses the effect of migration on St. Petersburg and discusses the evolution of the city government's policy for the adaptation and integration of migrants.     

Structural and Behavioural Characteristics of Informal Service Employment: Evidence from a Survey in New Delhi

This article argues that at least two distinct categories within the informal sector - informal services and informal manufacturing - exhibit different structural and behavioural characteristics. While some segments of informal manufacturing may indeed be 'dynamic' as noted by some recent studies, the hypothesis is tested for the informal service employment on the basis of a survey by the author in New Delhi, India. It examines investment, earnings, returns to human capital, socio economic characteristics and scope for upward mobility of informal service employment. It finds formal education does not explain differences in earnings in the sample but background characteristics do; earnings in the informal service sector are neither the lowest in the economy nor are they comparable to wages in the urban formal unskilled sector, when differences between migrants and non-migrants are taken into account. On the basis of these results, the paper reflects on the nature of growth and structural change in the Indian economy and draws some analytical and policy implications.     

From Al-Itihaad to Al-Shabaab: how the Ethiopian intervention and the ‘War on Terror’ exacerbated the conflict in Somalia

Abstract

External intervention has frustrated and continues to frustrate peace and stability in the Horn of Africa and Somalia, adding various adverse layers to an already complicated and complex conflict. The level of forceful military engagement intended for regional domination has profoundly affected negatively the efforts of peacebuilding and statebuilding in Somalia. This article examines how the earlier Ethiopian policies towards Somalia has reshaped the (post)-Cold War politics of the Horn. In doing so, it traces the roots of the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia vis-à-vis new non-state armed groups to chart the changing political dynamics of the conflict in Somalia. By using historical approach, the article argues that Ethiopia’s agenda is central to understanding why the ‘War on Terror’ has strengthened and subsequently midwifed armed militant movements (e.g. new insurgency groups) in Somalia, starting from Al-Itihaad to today’s Al-Shabaab. In focusing upon various regional actors and groups, the article moves from the emphasis of internal systems to external power structures, considering the wider historical and political factors in the region that must be closely examined if the regional and local conflicts are to be deeply understood. While it is a context-specific study, the article aims to contribute fresh perspectives and insights to ongoing discussions on the consequences of the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia.     

Migrants’ inhabiting through commoning and state enclosures. A postface

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I deploy the framework of commons as social systems which I have developed in my last book Omnia Sunt Communia to interpret the debate developed in this issue, enquire on the relationship between commons and citizenship, and ground the question of migrants’ inhabiting on the theory of commoning.     

Memory and ethnic leadership among Afro-descendants and Africans in Argentina

Several academic studies on African and Afro-descendant population in Argentina have made reference to the ‘oblivion’ of the black component in the creation of an ethnically white and homogeneous national collective. The present work intends to rethink this issue in light of an Anthropology of the memory that promotes a critical analysis of the construction of an African past as diacritic of ethnic identification and interaction strategy related to the largest society, paying special attention to the actions of ethnic leaderships in the Afro community. In other words, we consider the processes of creation and validation of a social memory from an African origin by the ethnic entrepreneurs. For that purpose, we conduct a qualitative study employing the techniques characteristic of anthropological ethnography.     

农民工的社会支持、社会参与和身份认同

农民工问题历来是党和政府高度重视的问题,他们的情感状况更是不容忽视;特别是他们身份认同状况,关系到他们融入城市社会的程度。基于2013年流动人口调查数据,立足于社会支持、社会参与的视角,探究对农民工身份认同的影响,可以得出:社会支持中的实际支持而非社交支持,对农民工的社会参与有显著影响;社交支持、实际支持和社会参与,均显著影响农民工的身份认同;社会参与是实际支持影响认同感的一个可能的中介变量。     

Social Change and Class Formation in a French West African State

This article focuses on migrant children in West Africa in contexts where independent migrations during childhood constitute the norm rather than the exception. The article examines how the relative age and gender of a child influence his/her trajectory. It is based on the biographies of two young domestic workers – a girl in Côte-d’Ivoire and a boy in Burkina Faso. In describing their trajectories during the first eight to ten years of their migration to the city, this article shows that ideas surrounding age-appropriate work and the acquisition of new skills allow both girls and boys to increasingly exercise more power over their own lives. From these detailed trajectories it becomes clear that the dominant institutional categories, on the one hand, mask the diversity of activities of these very young migrants. On the other hand, they conceal the diachronic changes that take place in the course of their migratory work experience.     

Forced migrant “compatriots” from Ukraine: Accessing legal residency and citizenship in the Russian Federation

This paper examines the Russian migration and citizenship regime as encountered by forced migrants from Ukraine who fled to Russia during the period of 2014–2016. Based on legal and other official documents, media articles, and interviews, it gives an account of these migrants’ reception in Russia in theory and practice. Russia made great efforts to accommodate them, and in Russian media they were often spoken of as an easily integrated labor resource and as potential citizens. In 2015–2016, around 165,000 Ukrainians acquired Russian citizenship. While ethno-cultural similarity does privilege Ukrainian migrants in Russia, full asylum has been granted sparingly, and citizenship is not unconditionally granted. As this paper shows, Russian authorities have rather tried to control and distribute these forced migrants for the benefit of the state, according to principles of selectivity and economic interests – giving privileged access to permanent residency and citizenship to working-age people willing to settle in regions where population growth and more workers are deemed necessary. However, permanent residency and citizenship are also available to those able to circumvent or pay their way through the obstacles encountered – taking advantage of the flexibility inherent in a system that is not totally consistent.     

Labor Migration and the Philippine Labor Market

Abstract

Based on recorded data, the Philippines has experienced the largest outflow in Asia of both permanent emigrants and migrant labor over the last three to four decades. The number working and living abroad has reached almost 8% of the population and the yearly outflow of workers bound for an increasingly varied destinations and occupations is about 14% of the labor force. The paper discusses the rising scale and changing structure of migrants and explains these by three interacting factors that make for labor market flexibilityan extensive market-based educational system, active employment service industry and migration's own backward and forward linkages. Further discussed are the economic implications of the migration and some rigidity in the education market that tends to pull down returns to migration.