Renewing the Commonwealth—A Reform Agenda for a New Secretary-General

A new Secretary-General is to be elected at the Malta Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2015. He—or she—must be a change agent, thought-leader, motivator and manager. This article gives a brief overview of this important position in global affairs and underlines the need for realistic but effective leadership. It sets an agenda for the new Secretary-General, especially in addressing the issues of violent extremism, terrorism and migration.     

Large‐scale solidarity? Effects of welfare state institutions on the admission of forced migrants

The variation among countries when it comes to the admittance of forced migrants – refugees and asylum seekers – is substantial. This article explains part of this variation by developing and testing an institutional explanation to the admission of forced migrants; more precisely, it investigates the impact of domestic welfare state institutions on admission. Building on comparative welfare state research, it is hypothesised that comprehensive welfare state institutions will have a positive effect on the admission of forced migrants to a country. There are three features of comprehensive welfare state institutions that could steer policies towards forced migrants in a more open direction. First, these institutions have been shown to impact on the boundaries of social solidarity. Second, they enhance generalised trust. And third, they can impact on the citizens’ view of what the state should and can do in terms of protecting individuals. The argument is tested using a broad comparative dataset of patterns of forced migration, covering 17 OECD countries between 1980 and 2003. This analysis shows that comprehensive welfare state institutions have a significant positive effect on the admission of forced migrants, under control for a number of factors often highlighted in migration research.     

The business of noncitizenship

Abstract

Private actors play an increasing role in mediating the relationship between States and noncitizens and even in creating or perpetuating exclusions associated with noncitizenship. This paper offers a way to analyse the forms of engagement of the for-profit private sector in migration control and asks what it means for how noncitizenship is constructed. It presents the private sector as acting like a buffer, altering whether and how individuals may engage with a State constructing what noncitizenship means within a State’s territory, and removing so-constructed individuals from a relationship with that State. It shows how this may occur directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly. The paper addresses two main concerns: the impact on the State-noncitizen relationship and whether there are some areas of the relationship between the State and the noncitizen that should not be so-delegated. It argues that privatised migration control raises problems for standard justifications of migration control and noncitizenship construction.     

迁徙自由权的界定

迁徙自由权指公民在法律允许的范围内自主变更居住地权利。它是一种带有平等权性质的人身自由权。对迁徙自由权作出科学界定有利于理清迁徙自由权与居住自由权的关系 ,为其立法实践提供科学理论根据 ,较科学地解决相关理论问题     

蒙古族向河南省的迁徙及其与汉族的融合——以河南省镇平县晁陂镇为例

镇平县晁陂镇是河南省蒙古族人口最多的地方,几百年前,蒙古族人从元大都迁至此与当地汉族人经过长期杂居。随着当地社会生产力的发展、经济文化水平的提高、社会交往的日益频繁和互相影响的加剧,历史上存在的文化、思想等方面的隔阂和恐惧逐渐被打破、消除,形成了多民族共居一处、融为一体的局面。     

From privileged to thwarted stakeholders – Polish migrants’ perceptions of the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015

Scotland in 2014 and 2015 provides an ideal context for examining EU citizenship political rights as established in the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 from the perspective of Polish migrants resident in Scotland. We argue that the contrast between Polish migrants’ full enfranchisement in the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 to then being disenfranchised from the UK General Election in 2015 is a significant site for observing how EU laws interact with state-centric and also ‘post-national’ notions of citizenship. Our participants’ experiences of voting in the Referendum and subsequently not being able to vote in the General Election were articulated in the following terms: (a) the justification of their political rights in terms of their stake and contribution in the UK; (b) their frustrations with regards to anti-migration rhetoric and the limitations of European citizenship; and for some, (c) their plans of apply for British citizenship in the context of EU membership uncertainty.     

Stakeholder citizenship: the complexities of Polish migrants’ citizenship attachments in the context of the Scottish independence referendum

This article focuses on the experiences of Scotland’s largest foreign-born minority group, namely Poles, in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. We draw on 20 in-depth interviews to explore our participants’ intentions and justifications for voting (or not) in the referendum. We found that our participants tended to emphasise the jus domicili principle when justifying their eligibility to vote in the referendum. However, our participants extended the jus domicili principle in their justifications to also include the intention to stay in Scotland as a central aspect of their continuing stake in (and right to vote in the referendum to determine) Scotland’s future. Through exploring our participants’ justifications for voting in the referendum, we were able to examine and better understand how migrants constitute their citizenship through articulating their substantive attachments (social, economic and relational or familial) in their adoptive country and in their country of origin.     

The Leverage of the Gatekeeper: Power and Interdependence in the Migration Nexus between the EU and Turkey

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement seeking to end the refugee flows from Turkey to Greece. This agreement is the outcome of a bargaining process in which Turkey gained considerable leverage from its position as a ‘gatekeeper’ situated between Syria and an increasingly ‘immigration-averse’ and securitised EU. More importantly, this bargaining process might have broader implications for the EU and its relations with its periphery, since Turkey has progressively reversed the asymmetries of power by demonstrating the indispensability of its continued commitment to act as gatekeeper vis-à-vis an increasingly fragmented and anxious EU.     

Greeks or Turks, “White” or “Asiatic”: Historicising Castellorizian Racial-Consciousness, 1916–1920

ABSTRACT

This article traces a specific moment when Castellorizian settlers intersected with the racialised and labour-based politics of immigration restriction in the Northern Territory, between 1916 and 1920. Through an examination of a contested labour issue, a political immigration debate and a racialist newspaper dispute, this history aims to demonstrate how a group of ethnically Greek labourers from the Dodecanese island of Castellorizo ushered in a distinctive form of “white” racial preferencing. By examining how Castellorizian labourers were viewed by unionists, politicians and public commentators, this article suggests that confusing, and, at times, porous, national and racial classifications—such as Greek and Turk, and white and Asiatic—predisposed how these distinctive settlers could engage with the society in which they lived. In direct opposition to being classified as, and compared to, Asians, Castellorizians articulated their own distinct attachments to Australia and the white race. An investigation into their articulations offers us a nuanced reading into the making and fluidity of white racial consciousness in Australia. By examining the precarious positioning and self-articulations of Castellorizians in the Northern Territory, we can begin to reflect on how the racialised and labour-based politics of immigration restriction impacted on the making of an early Greek-Australian racial consciousness.     

Political entrepreneurs,clientelism, and civil society: supply-side politics in Turkey

How do citizens in developing democracies launch political careers? Despite the large literature on electoral politics in developing countries, we know surprisingly little about how individuals become political candidates. This article examines an important mechanism of political recruitment in developing democracies: party-civil society organization (CSO) linkages. Existing theories treat CSOs as arenas of civic participation rather than as political agents in their own right, which leads scholars to overlook their impact on electoral competition. This article argues that the distinct resource portfolios of CSOs influence their relative impact on candidate selection, and consequently, local politics. CSOs that represent the material interests of their constituents, such as resource-rich business groups and vote-rich identity groups, have significant influence over candidate selection. Issue-oriented CSOs tend to have less impact. Party-CSO relations often facilitate clientelist linkages between parties and voters, weakening democratic governance. Evidence is provided with an in-depth case study of CSO-political party relations in the industrial periphery of Istanbul, Turkey.