Civic integration in Western Europe: three debates

Since the late 1990s, civic integration has become the dominant immigrant integration policy in Western Europe. This article reviews three debates surrounding the new policy: first, whether there is policy convergence or persistent variation along national models of integration; secondly, whether civic integration marks a retreat from multiculturalism, or is merely layered on resilient multiculturalist policies; and, thirdly, whether the new policy is liberal or illiberal, and whether it entails a return of cultural assimilation. It is argued that civic integration converges cross-nationally with respect to policy goals and instruments, while extant variation is often incoherent or touching more on the form than the substance of policy; that civic integration is national-level policy that tends to coexist with ongoing de facto multiculturalism, especially at local level; and that civic integration mostly remains in a liberal register, as it is still integration and not assimilation, which would connote forced identity change.     

Perceived Social Support and Well Being in School; The Role of Students’ Ethnicity

This paper reports on the relationship between early adolescents’ evaluation of the availability of instructional and social support from parents, teachers, and peers and their well-being. The main questions are whether indigenous and immigrant youngsters differ in their evaluation of the availability of support and whether the relationship varies by group. Participants in the study were 245 Dutch and 172 Turkish/Moroccan 10- to 13-year olds with a lower class background. Both Dutch and immigrant youngsters clearly distinguish between the various agents of support. Dutch youngsters report more instructional support from their parents than from their teacher, whereas immigrant youngsters report more instructional support from their teacher. Both for Dutch and immigrant students, parents were seen as the primary providers of emotional support. Reported well-being in the classroom was related to available teacher support and to the frequency of occurrence of learning-related problems.Paul Vedder is an associate professor trained in developmental psychology. He received his PhD in 1985 from Groningen University, in the Netherlands. His main research interest is with self regulated learning, social competence, cooperative learning, and interethnic relationshipsMonique Boekaerts is a full professor trained as an educational psychologist. She received her PhD in 1978 from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her field of expertise is self regulated learning, motivation and emotions.Gerard Seegers is an assistant professor working in the field of self regulated learning, mathematics and ICT. He received his PhD in 1985 from Nijmegen University in the Netherlands. All authors are working at the Center for the Study of Education and Instruction at Leiden University in the Netherlands.     

Defying the traditional theses: Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Belgium

ABSTRACT

This article considers the features of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Belgium and critically examines the dynamics that shape them. The characteristics of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium are shown to vary over time and differ across regions and sub-policy areas (immigrant reception policies and anti-discrimination). The comparative case study indicates that the primary traditional theses of the international comparative IGR literature, namely classical institutionalism and party politics, do not provide insights into the nature and mechanisms of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium. Less established variables like European integration and sub-state claims for distinctiveness constitute key explanatory variables. While European integration explains the increase of IGR over time, notwithstanding the appearance of party incongruence, sub-state claims for distinctiveness enlighten the more conflictual nature of IGR with Flanders, even in cases of more party congruence than for Francophone authorities.     

整建制工业安置水库农村移民的实践——河南省“义马市狂口社区”调研

在我国现阶段城镇化水平和农村移民综合素质较低等客观因素的制约下,整建制工业安置农村移民在有条件地区是可行的,但也存在的不可避免的问题和矛盾,在条件成熟的情况下,非农业安置水库农村移民仍是移民发展致富的重要选择。     

Re-thinking urban citizenship for immigrants from a policy perspective: the case of Barcelona

This article proposes that the role of cities in immigrant integration be reconsidered through the prism of urban citizenship, looking at how local policies co-regulate immigrants’ status, rights and identity. It argues that urban citizenship connects two dominant understandings of citizenship, as city governments are under pressure to reconcile the normative perspective of formal membership of the state with the claims for rights expressed by excluded parts of the urban citizenry. A case study of an inclusive way of regulating citizenship in Barcelona illustrates how a citizenship perspective can cast light on the specific ways in which cities regulate immigrant citizenship in interaction with higher levels of government, and highlights some of the levers cities possess to modify the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion of immigrants locally.     

Placing sons and daughters in the church: Strategies used by the gentry of Central Catalonia to maintain social status in the 17th and 18th centuries

This study analyses strategies for placing sons and daughters used by Notaries, Doctors of Law and Honorary Citizens of Manresa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Reconstructions of several family trees show that all of the sons, except the heir, went into the church and many of the girls remained single or went into convents. The consistency of this behaviour has led to an interpretation in terms of how these families maintained their social status, given their particular way of gaining access to resources. This study traces the way the younger generations entered the church and how they returned resources to the families they came from. Celibacy excluded many sons and daughters from inheriting the family patrimony and opened the way to combining patrimonies with other families. This happened if the heir had no children and the inheritance went to the eldest daughter married to the heir of another family. Combining patrimonies was one of the strategies used to deal with the problem of declining incomes suffered by these families.     

Policy framing and denizen enfranchisement in Portugal: why some migrant voters are more equal than others

The enfranchisement of non-citizens across different democracies has been mostly approached at with macro-explanations that propose national traditions of citizenship or transnational influences as remote causes, leading researchers to explain variation through some fuzzy balancing of the two. This article joins the more recent literature focusing on the meso-level, particularly on political discourses on denizen enfranchisement, to examine the deviating case of Portugal, based both on strict reciprocity and on differentiating clauses that divide non-citizen migrants into different universes of voters and non-voters. Such a case allows theoretical refinement of process-based and discursive approaches on denizen enfranchisement and shows that it succeeded in Portugal when parliamentarians framed it as a symbolically generous but practically restricted move that promised prestige gains vis-à-vis Europe and Portuguese emigrants.     

Intersections,Immigration, and Partner Violence: A View From a New Gateway—Baltimore,Maryland

This article reports on the results of exploratory surveys with immigrant women regarding their observations of intimate partner violence and criminal justice practices in their communities in the emerging immigrant gateway of Baltimore, Maryland. Using an intersectional/interlocking theoretical framework, it asks how nativity interacts with other social locations in the experiences of partner violence through surveys of women representing 5 language groups. The study found high levels of awareness of the problem of partner violence in immigrant communities and strong awareness of many U.S. criminal justice approaches to the problem. Although the women preferred informal sources of support in a situation of abuse, they strongly supported government intervention. We found low levels of awareness of the Violence Against Women Act as well as little support for the higher levels of prosecution for batterers, even though arrest was sometimes approved. The article calls for sensitive policies and practices that take into account the particular vulnerabilities of the foreign-born, especially in localities where national diversity is relatively novel.     

新生代民工人文关怀与和谐劳资关系的构建

随着我国经济体制改革的不断深化,劳资冲突已成为影响社会经济发展和稳定的重要社会问题之一,新生代民工在工资增长、体面劳动等方面诉求颇为强烈。对此,不仅国家应予高度重视,企业更须更新管理理念,努力增强人文关怀,以促进劳资关系的和谐建立。     

Smuggling of Indian Citizens

Abstract

This study examines the smuggling of Indian citizens to other countries and aims at gaining an insight into the modus operandi of the smugglers. It is based on an empirical study of deportation cases of Indian citizens from other countries.

About three-quarters of the deportees who accessed the services of smugglers belonged to the State of Punjab. Almost 80 per cent of the deportees were young and in the age group of 18-30. About 28 per cent of the deportees succeeded in reaching their countries of destination with the help of smugglers. Thus, the success rate of illegal migration with the help of smugglers is higher by more than quarter than without them.

Individual deportees had paid sums varying from US$ 2000 to US$ 10,000 to smugglers. No correlations have been observed between the countries of destination and the amounts paid to smugglers.

The study has shown that smuggling of aliens is carried out by professional organizations with links in the countries of source, transition, and destination. The study concludes that so long as opportunities for legal migration are limited there will always be a demand for smugglers. In order to prevent and control smuggling an international co-operation among countries of source, transition, and destination would be imperative. It would also be desirable to widen the ambit of legal migration for low-skill jobs like in agriculture, construction works, and service sectors for limited periods through country-specific bilateral agreements.