Anti-Immigrant Parties,Local Presence and Electoral Success

Abstract

Does the local organisational presence of anti-immigrant parties affect their chances for electoral success? In order to answer this question, the article explores the potential of a supply-oriented explanation to anti-immigrant party success by examining the electoral advancements the Sweden Democrats (SD) made in the 2006 and 2010 elections. Our results indicate that traditional demand-side explanations to anti-immigrant party success can be successfully complemented by an ‘internal supply-side argument’ to make the electoral fates of these parties more intelligible. Whether the SD had a local organisational presence had a substantial effect on its results in the national election and on the probability of gaining representation in local councils. Thus, the party’s fate in the national as well as local elections was largely determined by whether or not it had a local organisational presence in Swedish municipalities.     

Mexican Immigrants

Abstract

Social Work's history is embedded in this profession's service and commitment to immigrant populations. This new century presents itself with a new mixture of immigrants who come to United States (U.S.) shores seeking a better life. The challenge to social workers is to be well-versed in social policy, human behavior, and practice realms related to serving these immigrants. Schools of social work must insure that curriculum reflects the needs and situations of this new mix of immigrants. One of the largest groups in this mix are those immigrants from Mexico. Of particular concern is the adaptation of Mexican and other Latino immigrants who come to this country without documentation. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to serve these clients in a culturally competent and informed manner. They must keep updated on immigration policy and entitlement or eligibility issues that mitigate these immigrants' ability to survive.     

‘The challenges of living here and there’: conflicting narratives of intermarriage between Cameroonian migrants and South Africans in Johannesburg

The influx of Africans into South Africa poses several challenges to the new democratic government. Today, the new government preoccupies itself not only with finding sustainable solutions for pathologies such as poverty, crime, and social violence but also with formulating succinct laws to regularise and curb the increasing population of Africans in major cities like Johannesburg. These laws have complicated the acquisition of legal documents for foreign Africans to reside in the country permanently. This article examines the dynamics of intermarriage between Cameroonian migrants and locals in Johannesburg, as a strategy for permanent residency in South Africa. It seeks to understand these relationships through the viewpoints of the various actors and how they give meaning to Cameroonian experiences of displacement. It concentrates on the actors' discrepant interpretations and their implications for autochthony, belonging, and transnational identities, as well as for issues of social inclusion and exclusion in the new South Africa.     

Employees’ Acceptance of E-Newsletters for Organisational Information Transfer

ABSTRACT

Internal marketing and internal communication collectively strive to build relationships with, empower, and motivate employees to foster an organisational culture of support for organisational goals and objectives to be met and organisational success achieved. Electronic newsletters support internal marketing and internal communication endeavours as they serve the purpose of transferring organisational information to employees. E-newsletters can be tested to determine whether employees willingly utilise them for their intended purposes. By means of a quantitative research approach, utilising regression to analyse the empirical data, a study was conducted to determine employees’ acceptance of e-newsletters. This was conducted by means of an adapted technology acceptance model (TAM), and a self-administered e-mail survey was disseminated to employees of a higher education institution. Based on the research results, employees perceive TAM differently to what is put forward in literature, which results in the acceptance of e-newsletters for the purpose of transferring organisational information. Results show that respondents perceived two of the factors of TAM as one factor. In addition, the results provide insight into how academic employees perceive e-newsletters and what practical changes can be made to e-newsletters in order to cater to employees’ preferences.     

Italian commentators on foreign affairs

The enduring economic crisis, austerity measures and corruption scandals have created a favourable environment for the advent of new political actors all over Europe. During the last general elections (February 2013), Italy was shocked by the inexorable rise of the Five Star Movement. Beppe Grillo’s creature upset the political system, occupying portions of the public sphere that had been ignored (the web) or gradually abandoned by traditional political parties (the squares). Its unusual campaigning style, its internet-based organisational structure, its atypical political positioning (beyond left and right), and its oversimplification of complex problems all help to explain its electoral performance, and distinguish it from similar anti-establishment parties that have emerged in Europe over the past decade.     

Ethnic and religious variations in the reporting of racist victimization in Britain: 2000 and 2008/2009

The role of victimization in the generation of ethnic inequalities is increasingly acknowledged yet its impact on the lives of people with different religious affiliations remains underexplored. This is despite evidence of the importance of religion for forms of group identification and social mobilization. An exploration of the particular impact of religion as a focus for experiences of victimization may be particularly pertinent given the increasingly negative treatment of Muslim people since the riots in Britain of 2001, the terrorist incidents of 2001, 2004 and 2005 and the political and military responses to them. Cross-sectional analyses of data collected in 2000 and 2008/2009 explore whether there is evidence that the ethnic/religious patterning of reports of different forms of victimization have varied over time, after adjusting for the impact of age, gender, migration and socioeconomic differences between the groups. In 2000 Muslim people with different ethnic backgrounds were less likely, but by 2008/2009 were more likely, to report experiences of victimization than Caribbean Christians. However, the ethnic/religious patterning of perceptions of Britain as a ‘racist society’ were more consistent over time. This may suggest that, despite their increased exposure to victimization over the period, Muslim people in the United Kingdom have yet to experience the racialization characteristic of the treatment of Caribbean Christians, which requires a more prolonged exposure to racist negative attitudes. But this may be only a matter of time. The persistent expectation of poor treatment described by Caribbean Christians is testament to the difficulties of addressing these negative perceptions once racialized identities are embedded. Immediate action must be taken to prevent this occurring among other ethnic/religious minorities.     

Ensuring regulatory compliance in banking and finance through effective controls: The principle of duality in the segregation of duties

Today the segregation of duties is commonly used to ensure regulatory compliance in various industries. This article considers the organizational requirements for the effective implementation of this principle, through an examination of a duality‐based segregation‐of‐duties type control system and its fundamental characteristics. Cases from the Swedish banking and finance sector are discussed to show how breakdowns in duality‐based systems have compromised compliance and even encouraged crime, and how crimes could be carried out in practice. Particular attention is paid to the critical role that gullibility, loyalty, and dependency relations among employees played in these cases, in leading control persons to neglect their responsibility to review and approve their colleagues’ work, while bringing no consequences for their ability to carry on performing their work tasks. The argument is made that an effective duality‐based segregation‐of‐duties type control system presupposes social relations characterized by relative autonomy and third‐party dependence, along with work task interdependence.     

对我国户籍制度改革价值取向的反思

价值取向规定着户籍制度改革的理性方向和价值认同。城镇化是当前我国户籍制度改革的价值取向。本文通过对公民权利、市场经济、城镇化本身以及改革内生性四个层面的分析 ,认为户籍制度改革的价值取向不应该是城镇化 ,而应该重新界定为人口迁徙的自由。     

Mobility among Pentecostal pastors and migratory “miracles”

Taking into account space and identity in the movements of transnational religious actors, this article is engaged in reframing and reinterpreting experience by investigating the articulation of migratory and religious experiences as expressed by the pastors of four different Brussels-based Pentecostal congregations. The analysis of pastors' narratives, as they reassess the circumstances that brought them from Sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America to Belgium, reveals an interwoven process of geographical shifts and “divine” actions: this offers us an opportunity to consider an implied double process of mobility and religion. On the one hand, we can see how Pentecostalism transforms and subverts their immigrant experience by allowing for an alternate narrative of this experience. On the other hand, we can analyse the effect of the migratory experience on the discourse and religious practices in the new social context, more particularly through the identification of such “Children of God” with missionary duties towards their fellow immigrants. An analysis of the pastors' narratives also offers a particularly relevant opportunity to question the tensions between processes of endogenous identification (missionaries elected by God and working towards the extension of his “kingdom”) and exogenous assignment, repeated associations of otherness and strangeness, and the stigma coupled with pejorative characterizations of the “migrant”.     

Explaining the immigration policy mix: Countries' relative openness to asylum and labour migration

Western democracies have developed complex policies to manage migration flows. Much of the scholarly literature and political discourse assume that countries have become increasingly selective and that they prioritise economic intakes. Despite clear efforts by policymakers to distinguish between refugees and migrant workers, we know surprisingly little about how countries combine different policy dimensions and which factors shape their relative openness to different target groups. In this article, we shed light on how countries combine two of the main admission channels, asylum and labour migration, by introducing the concept of the ‘immigration policy mix’. A comparative analysis of 33 OECD countries between 1980 and 2010 examines the pattern and drivers behind their immigration policy mix: Does the policy mix follow a pattern of convergence, is it subject to political dynamics or is it path dependent? The results reveal that despite a shift in political sympathies from asylum to labour migration, countries' immigration policy mixes have strongly converged into more liberal policies overall. The immigration policy mix primarily reflects governments’ limited room to manoeuvre due to competing political pressures. These insights demonstrate that the immigration policy mix serves to enhance our understanding of countries’ complex regulation of immigration.