Incorporating immigrants as foreigners: multicultural politics in Japan

With the growth of immigrant population over the past couple of decades, a ‘multicultural’ discourse has emerged in Japan. A notable point is that immigrants are expected to be incorporated into the host society primarily as foreigners rather than as Japanese nationals with full citizenship rights. The purpose of this article is to understand this prevailing mode of immigrant incorporation and to consider the comparative implications. By examining the discursive aspects of claims-making on behalf of both old-timer and newcomer immigrants, I argue that the underlying opportunity structures have been reproduced in each phase of immigration-related development in Japan, facilitating the use of the ‘foreigner’ category in advocacy efforts. Official recognition of the category has also helped to further institutionalize it as the main target of immigrant policy. In comparative perspective, ‘incorporation as foreigners’ can be understood as a variant of the ethnic model of immigration regimes in that it tends to reinforce the dominant ethnocultural conception of Japanese nationhood.     

Medical aid as protest: acts of citizenship for unauthorized im/migrants and refugees

This article examines organized efforts by citizens to provide medical aid to unauthorized migrants in Germany. A case study of an activist organization in Berlin highlights how prevailing forms of governance through citizenship are disrupted. Three major themes are explored. First, historical contingencies and policy realities explain why, given examples of grassroots protest by migrants in other settings, efforts in Germany have been driven primarily by citizens. Second, migrants' biolegitimacy shapes specific ideas of relative deservingness. As a result, advocacy for some groups, such as survivors of torture or refugees from specific geopolitical settings, is more highly valued than that which addresses needs of unauthorized labor migrants. Finally, although their sustained efforts have resulted in challenges to policy and called into question prevailing notions of citizenship, medical activist organizations have become increasingly institutionalized, which may jeopardize their goals. As this case illustrates, the distinctive ethics associated with providing medical care has the ability to disrupt the scaling of citizenship by the state by treating noncitizens – especially ‘illegal’ noncitizens – ostensibly as citizens, thus protesting citizenship as the exclusive organizing principle of German society.     

A Clinical Trials Recruitment Education Program for Immigrant Chinese Americans

Abstract

This study was designed to develop and evaluate a community-based education program to facilitate enrollment of immigrant Chinese into clinical cancer screening trials. The program included workshops with culturally tailored health education materials. It was piloted to recruit persons into an ongoing lung cancer screening trial from a senior citizen center in Manhattan's Chinatown and compared with a control program at a second senior center. Survey results from a convenience sample of seniors showed that the workshop raised awareness about cancer screening and clinical trials. However, it did not change attitudes towards cancer screening. The results highlighted prior focus group findings in which factors influencing participation in cancer screening and clinical trials are similar. Important facilitative factors include doctor recommendation, friend/family recommendation, the belief that early detection could “save lives,” no cost, and having an-interpreter.     

Citizenship,enclaves and earnings: comparing two cool countries

This paper uses the Canadian 2006 Census and the Swedish 2006 register data to analyse the citizenship effect on the relative earnings of immigrants, using instrumental variable regression to control for citizenship acquisition. We ask: ‘Is there a citizenship effect and if any, in which country is it that we find the largest effect and for which immigrant groups?’ We add one further dimension, asking if the size of the co-immigrant population in the municipality has an effect on earnings. We find that the impact of citizenship acquisition is substantial in both Canada and Sweden. However, the place of birth of immigrants is important. In most cases, immigrant women in Sweden enjoy a higher citizenship premium than is the case for immigrant women in Canada. Amongst men the picture is more mixed. Most European groups receive a larger citizenship premium in Canada as compared to Sweden. Being in a city with more immigrants of the same background is better for earnings in Sweden than in Canada. However, being in a city with a lot of immigrants (regardless of origin) is better in Canada as compared to Sweden.     

论日本对中国东北地区的移民侵略──日本军国主义侵略本质的新视角

伪满14年期间,日本策划并实施了对中国东北的移民侵略,其政策是通过“移民计划大纲”、派遣“试验移民”及“百万户移民计划”来进行的。日本移民政策的形成过程、各种类型的移民活动及通过国家与民间的管理机构对进入中国东北移民的管理,是为了把日本移民组织成武装集团,监视和镇压当地人民,以达到其长期侵占中国东北的目的。     

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。     

Collecting on their investments,one woman at a time: Economic partnerships among Caribbean immigrant women in the United States

ABSTRACT

This article treats rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) from a constructive cultural perspective. The female-based African-Jamaican tradition of paadna (partnership) is examined within the theoretical scope of womanist (Black feminist) thought, a seminal discourse intersecting both the African diaspora and women's studies. Across the multiple scholarly approaches within women's and African diaspora studies, academic theory acquires cogency through legitimate correspondences with tangible liberating practices and traditions that can be documented and interrogated for conceptual insights. The practice of economic partnering is one such tradition that substantiates the ethical directives and imperatives of womanist theory and practice. A womanist reading of paadnas is proposed, not because the participants have any self-conscious commitment to feminism/womanism, but because of the institution's efficacy in enhancing the socioeconomic standing of Black families through a relatively small-scale capital enterprise. Through paadna networks, Jamaican women have transplanted a flexible self-help tradition to America that is arguably one of the most reliable sources of social and economic mobility among groups of African descent in the United States.     

合力建设农民工的精神家园

目前，农民工的物质利益，已得到各级政府的普遍重视和关注。相比之下，对农民工精神文化需求的关注，则显得有些不足。今后应动员各界力量，加大对农民工文化生活方面的投入，努力建设好农民工的精神家园。     

Community Involvement as a Vehicle for Integration: A Study with Young Immigrants

ABSTRACT

Immigrants are often exposed to conditions of economic deprivation or to hardships of a social nature connected to their status. These factors increase their feeling of impotence, thus slowing down the integrative process. An element that could counter these disadvantaged conditions is participation in an association that promotes immigrants’ demands on a socio-political level. The first aim of this study is understanding the relationships between involvement and integration. The authors hypothesize that youth engaged in community are more integrated than not engaged immigrant youth. The second aim is to investigate the relationship between the type of activity, type of association and integration. The participants were 644 immigrant youth (Age range 19–35, 56.2%) that were involved in the community. The results show that involved immigrant youth report higher levels of both ethnic and national identity compared to not involved youth. Regarding the type of activity carried out, there is a statistically significant difference between activity of a social type, which obtains higher means, and of a civic type, which rather obtains lower means. While exploratory, the study shows and confirms the relationship between community engagement, young immigrants’ integration process and construction of identity.     

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.