Country Of Settlement Research Articles

“If you become a slave here, do you think they’re going to fight there?” Tamil Diaspora Mobilizations and Host-country Politics

Tamil diaspora political mobilization against the Sri Lankan government shows that, contrary to a commonly held view, migrants’ transnational political engagement can be a vector, rather than an obstacle, to their political inclusion in their country of settlement. But the articulation of a homeland-oriented struggle with the broader political participation of migrants has been a highly contentious issue in the diasporic political field, some activists seeing in these dynamics a risk of co-optation and dilution of the Tamil cause. While LTTE diasporic associations promoted a form of political inclusion which did not challenge the primacy of the Tamil cause, independent diasporic groups incorporated external ideological influences in their conception of the Tamil struggle and merged their homeland-oriented activism with a broader engagement in host-country politics. The case of Tamil diaspora politics shows that the modalities of incorporation of diaspora activists into host-country politics can be a major stake for them, leading to thorough reflections about their role as migrant political actors, to deep disagreements between various poles of a diasporic field, and to diverse pathways of insertion in the host-country political arena.

Towards a theory of diaspora formation through conflict deterritorialization

AbstractBuilding on different cases of conflicts in homelands triggering diaspora mobilization, we develop a theory of diaspora formation through processes of conflict deterritorialization. We argue that an armed conflict in the country of origin can trigger specific processes of diaspora formation in the countries of settlement and in the transnational space, depending on the actors involved and the particular context in both the home and host countries. We suggest that this specific non‐linear process of diaspora formation can happen at the individual and collective levels, and can both turn a migrant into a diasporic individual as well as mobilize diasporic individuals for collective action. This mobilization, we argue, builds on narratives about and from the homeland, the country of residence, and the transnational space, and can, in turn, lead to conflict autonomization in diaspora settings.

Home is Where the Heart is: Identity and Belonging Among Older Chinese Immigrants in Australia.

The concept of home encompasses relationships people develop with the physical, familial, social, and cultural environments in which they are embedded. It is through navigating these relationships that immigrants negotiate their identity and belonging in the settlement country. Yet, a significant gap exists in the current knowledge of the process through which a sense of home is created and experienced by immigrants as they undergo acculturation. This conceptual paper addresses this knowledge gap by elucidating the process through which they develop identity and belonging in a foreign land through constructing a sense of home. Drawing on environmental gerontology as a primary framework and incorporating acculturation theories as well as evidence from previous research, this paper shows how older Chinese immigrants build a sense of home through decorating their houses with culturally meaningful objects, growing culturally reminiscent plants, and maintaining intergenerational relations and social networks in Australia. This paper argues that immigrants' sense of home is always in-between cultures, regardless of how long they have lived outside their homeland, because home is where the heart is. Building a sense of home in a foreign land therefore involves continuing reintegration of people and place in both the old country of origin and the new country of settlement.

A place migrants would call home: open-ended constructions and social determinants over time among Ecuadorians in three European cities

Is there a place in particular that international migrants would call home? How do they talk about it, where does it lie, and what characteristics is it expected to have, given their demographics and patterns of settlement? Similar questions are meaningful in themselves and in illuminating migrant biographical, family and housing trajectories. We address them, in this paper, through the categorization and multinomial analysis of the responses to a dedicated open-ended question in a survey on Ecuadorians in Madrid, Milan and London (n = 1175). This original dataset allows us to explore migrant views of home against the background of their demographics and of their migration and housing conditions. We analyse respondents’ ways to articulate, spatialize and prioritize key aspects of home through a logit model, thereby assessing their association with age, length of stay, housing tenure, family networks and city of residence. Overall, their predominant construction of home points to a place in the country of settlement, but not necessarily to their own dwelling. Younger and newcomer immigrants see home as a primarily relational construct, whereas older and long-stayers emphasize its place-based and private dimension. Significant variations in the expected emplacement and bases of home can be found across cities of residence. However, no significant variations are associated either with gender or with migrants’ transnational engagement.

Not paid to dance at the powwow: Power relations, community benefits, and wind energy in M’Chigeeng First Nation, Ontario, Canada

The literature on wind energy developments upholds distributional and procedural justice as key drivers of community acceptance of wind turbines. However, this Eurocentric and settler-based literature routinely overlooks Indigenous contexts, causing concern that the energy transition might reproduce the socio-economic inequalities of the fossil fuel era. Through 32 semi-structured interviews conducted within a community-based approach, this paper examines the lived experience of people living with wind turbines in M’Chigeeng First Nation in Ontario, an Indigenous community who owns and operates two wind turbines. We examine what the turbines mean to M’Chigeeng members, how owning the turbines relates to the community’s values and goals, and to which extent M’Chigeeng’s engagement in renewable energy portends a redefinition of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. The key themes in our findings are acceptance and support of the turbines, intra community communication, the importance of ownership, and relationships. While members expressed the need for clear and up-to-date communication on the project and are yet to see the generated financial benefits, intracommunity tensions remain manageable for the time being, tempered by a general pride from owning the turbines. Connecting relationships to restorative justice and recognition justice, we argue that these latter dimensions are equally, if not more meaningful, than procedural and distributional justice for understanding the meaning of turbines in M’Chigeeng First Nation. This study reaffirms the importance of attending to place histories at the broadest scale in examining communities’ responses to renewable energy, especially in settler countries like Canada.

Continuity of care: The ongoing use of "bush medicine" as a transnational therapeutic health practice in Guyanese immigrant communities.

Using in-depth interviews with Guyanese immigrants in North America this paper argues their therapeutic landscapes are produced transnationally and these transnational therapeutic landscapes impact their ongoing health practices in the country of settlement. The results reveal that the historical use of traditional "bush medicine" provided a resilient response to inaccessible biomedical healthcare in Guyana. However, the continued use of bush medicine in the countries of settlement is not a result of barriers to healthcare. Instead, continued use constitutes a transnational therapeutic health practice that is tied to historical use, perceived efficacy of treatments, and participants' perceptions of Guyana as a therapeutic landscape.

Home State Oriented Diaspora Organizations and the Making of Partisan Citizens Abroad: Motivations, Discursive Frames, and Actions Towards Co-Opting the Turkish Diaspora in Europe

What motivates diasporas to support undemocratic rule in their countries of origin while enjoying democratic freedoms in their countries of settlement? This study adopts a meso-level approach to answer this question, and focuses on the Turkish diaspora in Europe as a case study. Lately, the diaspora governance literature has focused on official diaspora institutions and the policies of countries of origin. This study, alternatively, highlights “diasporic civic space” as an arena entrenching authoritarian practices “at home.” It investigates the conditions under which diasporic civic space can be co-opted by undemocratic countries of origin and the role of “home state oriented diaspora organizations” in this process of co-optation. The study shows that diasporic civic space can offer resources to undemocratic regimes to mobilize previously dormant diaspora communities and create a support base abroad that is driven by nationalism and partisanship. The empirical discussion unveils four factors behind the successful mobilization of diasporas by undemocratic countries of origin: (1) nationalist sentiments among the diaspora; (2) motivations to get a share from the perks that may be meted out by home country government; (3) feelings of insecurity, fear, and marginalization as immigrants; and (4) the desire to assert one’s identity and cultural ties vis-à-vis the majority in countries of settlement. The findings are based on the case of the Turkish diasporic civic space in Europe, which has recently been mobilized by a diaspora organization with political ties to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Original data are drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted in 2018–2019 with members and representatives of major pro-AKP diaspora organization known as the Union of International Democrats (UID), as well as Alevi, Kurdish, and Islamist/conservative diaspora organizations in Sweden, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Germany. The findings contribute to the understanding of undemocratic home states’ non-coercive and de-territorialized governance practices beyond their borders.

“I call it a system.” Unauthorized Migrants’ Understandings of the Long Reach of Dutch Internal Migration Controls

We draw on the concept of deportability to show how unauthorized migrants who (used to) live in the Netherlands perceive and experience Dutch internal-control mechanisms. We first conclude that these migrants’ deportability has serious legal, social, and existential effects on them, which they feel long after their return or deportation to their home country. Second, we state that unauthorized migrants evaluate the Dutch internal-control mechanisms as “one system” in which they distinguish three important, interlinked layers, consisting of (1) divergent actors, (2) laws and policies inside and outside the migration control domains located within (3) different geographies. This implies that individual nation-states, through their internal control mechanisms, also contribute to the externalization of migration control at a supranational level. We conclude that the state’s internal migration controls bring about immobility not only in the countries of settlement but also in the transit and home countries.

Merlan, Francesca.Dynamics of difference in Australia: Indigenous past and present in a settler country. xvi, 301 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. £48.00 (cloth)

Merlan, Francesca<scp>.</scp>Dynamics of difference in Australia: Indigenous past and present in a settler country. xvi, 301 pp., map, illus., bibliogr. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. £48.00 (cloth)

Diaspora citizenship in practice: identity, belonging and transnational civic activism amongst Zimbabweans in the UK

ABSTRACT This article develops the notion of diaspora citizenship to analyse domains of transnational action by Zimbabwean migrants in the UK by focussing on their political and civic practices. I argue that diaspora citizenship is enmeshed with a sense of belonging and active practices of civic engagement in both host and homeland. A transnational lens allows us to look at how diasporic citizenship can provide a banner of mobilisation, not just for undocumented or irregular migrants in relation to rights in countries of settlement, but also for a range of diasporic activists whose formal citizenship is not fully recognised in countries of origin. Diaspora citizenship therefore becomes a recognisable sphere of practice in both the hostland and homeland. The article draws on interviews conducted in the UK and Zimbabwe and follows a multi-sited methodology that entailed tracing and assessing UK-based diaspora groups’ transnational networks and activities in Zimbabwe. The article therefore contributes to broader theoretical debates about citizenship and diaspora by exploring the potential utility of the concept of diaspora citizenship.

\u2018Making Hijra\u2019: mobility, religion and the everyday in the lives of women converts to Islam in the Netherlands

Drawing on long term research – including topical life stories, interviews and participant observation – we analyze how women converts to Islam in the Netherlands signify and experience making hijra. Our interlocutors, all observant Muslims, had left the Netherlands between the late 1990s and the mid 2010s. In the course of the last 5 years many have again returned to the Netherlands. Their life courses indicate that physical and existential mobility are interconnected in their everyday lives as well as in their migration trajectories. Whereas they considered conversion to Islam as moving forward, the majority society did not share this perspective. They were sharply aware of how they were no longer seen as self-evidently part of the Dutch nation. This produced feelings of stuckedness - in an existential and a material sense - for themselves and their children, and hence a desire to move to a Muslim majority country. They differed amongst themselves as to whether and how they signified leaving Europe as making hijra in an Islamic sense. To some, making hijra was a highly desirable religious act. Others did not foreground such religious signification, but nonetheless expected positive effects of living in an environment where Islam would be an integral part of daily life. Their attempts to settle in various Muslim majority countries were, however, often not successful. Material conditions made it difficult to enact their ethical aspirations, that included the moral and material wellbeing of others, especially their children. Moreover, their appreciation of the self-evident presence of Islam in the countries of settlement was tempered, first, by the tension between their quest for a reflexive, deculturalized Islam and the culturalized practices they encountered in their new environment, and second, by their growing awareness of how their sense of self was much more shaped by habitual ‘Dutch’ conventions than most of them had envisioned beforehand. As a result they were often unable to develop meaningful social relationships in their new environment. Eventually, almost all of them returned to the Netherlands.

Lived Experience Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic among Arabic-, Russian- and Somali-Speaking Migrants in Finland.

Increasing research shows that migrants are disproportionately exposed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, little is known about their lived experience and related meaning-making. This qualitative study maps COVID-19-related experiences among respondents from three migrant groups living in Finland: Somali-, Arabic- and Russian-speakers (N = 209). The data were collected by telephone interviews over four weeks in March and April 2020. Using inductive thematic analysis, we identified seven themes that illustrate respondents’ multifaceted lived experiences during the first phase of pandemic. The themes depict respondents’ difficulties and fears, but also their resilience and resources to cope, both individually and collectively. Experiences varied greatly between individuals and migrant groups. The main conclusion is that although the COVID-19 pandemic may be an especially stressful experience for migrant populations, it may also provide opportunities to deepen cooperation and trust within migrant communities, and between migrants and their country of settlement. Our analysis suggests that cooperation between local authorities and migrants, trust-building and effective information-sharing can foster positive and functional adaptations to disease-related threats and changing social environments.

Covid-19 and labour migration: Investigating vulnerability in Italy and in the UK

This article provides preliminary analyses on how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the labour market positions of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Italy and in Great Britain. Our research interest stems from the findings of the EU funded SIRIUS project (Skills and integration of migrants, refugees and asylum applicants in European labour markets) as well as from literature which highlight that migrants' roles in the European labour markets are characterised by a high level of vulnerability. Such a vulnerable situation depends, on the one hand, from the juridical-legal status that migrants receive when entering the new country of settlement, a status which may limit their rights and their access to regular employment and to services conducive to decent employment such as vocational training or language learning. On the other hand, migrants' vulnerability depends also on they being over-represented in those jobs which have been qualified as ‘front-line', and therefore more exposed to risks of contagion during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as workers in the care, or parcel distribution sectors. Hence, this paper discusses the effect of the intertwinement of the pandemic with a status of double-vulnerability on migrants' life.

Local-Indigenous Autonomy and Community Streetscape Enhancement: Learnings from Māori and Te Ara Mua-Future Streets Project.

In settler countries, attention is now extending to the wellbeing benefits of recognising and promoting the Indigenous cultural identity of neighbourhoods as a contributing factor to more equitable and healthier communities. Re-indigenisation efforts to (re)implement cultural factors into urban design can be challenging and ineffective without the leadership and collaboration of local-Indigenous peoples. Undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Ara Mua — Future Street project, demonstrated that co-design has critical potential in the reclamation of Indigenous autonomy, increased local-Indigenous presence and revitalisation of cultural identity. Employing a Kaupapa Māori (Māori-centred) research approach, we focused on the workings and perspectives of mana whenua (local-Indigenous peoples) and community stakeholder engagement in Te Ara Mua. An Indigenous theoretical framework, Te Pae Mahutonga, was utilised in the data analysis to explore perspectives of Indigenous collective agency, empowerment, and wellbeing. Our research demonstrates that developing capacity amongst Indigenous communities is integral for effective engagement and that the realisation of autonomy in urban design projects has broader implications for Indigenous sovereignty, spatial justice and health equity. Significantly, we argue that future community enhancement strategies must include not only re-designing and re-imagining initiatives, but also re-indigenising.

The migration of Poles to Belgium and their Return to Poland between 1918 and 1952 – the Migration Story of the Szotek Family

The aim of the paper is to serve as a reminder of Polish economic migrations to and from Belgium between 1918 and 1952, largely absent from the collective memory of Poles or frequently identified with migrations to and from France. Based on the account of the Szotek family, collected in accordance with oral history methodology, the authors present the family’s complex story of migration: first a journey from Ujków Stary to the Charleroi coal basin in Belgium and then a return to Poland, where they lived again in Ujków Stary, then in Zalesie and Bystrzyca Kłodzka, only to finally return to Ujków Stary. The family’s reasons behind the decision to go to Belgium and then re-migrate to their homeland helps to comprehend the historical context of economic migration to and from Belgium, as outlined by the authors. The issue of adaptation of emigrants in the country of settlement, and then their adjustment as re-emigrants to the new reality forged by the authorities of the “democratic” Polish People’s Republic occupies an important place in the paper.

ДЕРЖАВНІ ПРІОРИТЕТИ У ЗБЕРЕЖЕННІ ЕТНОНАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ ПРЕДСТАВНИКАМИ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ДІАСПОРИ: ОСВІТНІЙ КОНТЕНТ

The legacy of substance and spirit, as well as traditional ethnonational dimensions, which are fundamental for the national being of Ukraine and allow feeling a constant connection with the Motherland, form an essential foundation for the further representation of Ukrainians and their culture in Ukraine and abroad. The article is devoted to research of modern state of Ukrainian school membership abroad, especially in the context of ethnical and national identity formation and preservation. Problems of native language education of the young generation of Ukrainian Diaspora representatives are analyzed. It is indicated that many Ukrainians who don‟t live on Ukraine ground have such structure complicated phenomenon as ethnical and national identity. They recognize themselves as the representatives of Ukrainian nation (national factor), withstand to ethnical assimilation in the countries of settlement and preserve their language, traditional culture, ethnical self-consciousness (ethnical factor), support building up of Ukraine and development of Ukrainian studies in the world (state build factor). The article focuses on the priorities of the state policy regarding Ukrainians abroad, the activities of state institutions aimed at meeting their educational, cultural, and information needs. As the Ukrainian authorities do not systematically protect the interests of their foreign compatriots and do not provide adequate support of cultural and educational centers as well as cultural and information projects, the process of foreign diasporas‟ assimilation intensifies. Today, in particular, there are virtually no Ukrainian studies textbooks and manuals for schools abroad. This constitutes a significant problem for teachers who are forced to adapt textbooks developed for educational institutions in Ukraine and are not very suitable for foreign countries. Due to the lack of state support of the Ukrainian educational process abroad, the teaching community is trying to consolidate efforts to solve this problem.

Bhutanese Settlement and Community Leadership

Traditionally, three possible solutions are pursued to address refugee problems globally. These include repatriation of refugees to their country of origin; local integration or third-country resettlement. This article explores further the resettlement option, how it is currently approached by different resettlement countries, and opportunities for key stakeholders to work more collaboratively by adopting strength-based approaches. Role of service providers as well as communities and community leaders are explored in driving positive settlement as well as successful integration outcomes. The focus of this article is on learnings from the Bhutanese refugee settlement experiences in different settlement countries and the role community leaders can play in driving successful settlement outcomes.

Cross-Cultural Conflict and Pursuit of Identity in Ameen Rihani’s The Book of Khalid

Multiculturalism is an outcome of developing global culture emanating from ceaseless flow of people between nations and intercultural interactions. Crossing the borders results in psychological transformation of the immigrants as their ethnic identity shaped by social, religious, historical and political forces over decades is in continual flux. Though different kinds of responses to the situation of cultural multiplicity may be diagnosed, the fact remains that there are no simplistic ways of dealing with or responding to multiculturalism. The immigrants face cultural clash and find difficulties in acculturating. When the immigrants come to install in another country, they are accosted with a new culture, a new statute and a reserved group of people who do not mix so very easily. Everyone does not have the capacity to adjust their feelings and mind. They form a community of diaspora who are always reminded of their roots in an alien land. The impact of diasporic experiences on immigrants’ psyche depends on their level of belonging in an alien land. Ameen Rihani’s odyssey from Lebanon to United States gives him a cutting edge over his contemporaries to be established as most revered author of Arabs diaspora abroad. Rihani, molded and transformed by the cultures of his countries of origin, movement and settlement, has been earnestly engaged in re-conceptualizing the idea of diaspora as a profitable affair as opposed to the popular beliefs that render immigration and displacement as a condition of loss. His novels are bulging with different protagonists of staunch spirit and calibrating credence who win the tussle with cultural conflict and in the process evolve and finally lost. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Rihani’s protagonist Khalid in his novel of the same name evolves with cultural changes, endeavors for pursuit of identity in both origin and adopted worlds and finally takes control of his destiny.

A regimes-of-mobility-and-welfare approach: The impact of migration and welfare policies on transnational social support networks of older migrants in Australia

In this paper, I examine the implications of welfare and migration policies on transnational aged care arrangements of older migrants in Australia. The paper draws on the results of an ethnographical, biographical and network analytical study of transnational social support networks of older migrants in Perth. I present the developed typology of older migrants and their possibilities of transnational care through three case studies that exemplify each type, namely 'retirement migrant by choice', 'financial obstacles of traditional labour migrants', and 'mobility and welfare regime restrictions of refugees'. The case studies show, first, that the maintenance of social ties across national borders through which different forms of care are organised is constrained by the Australian mobility regime, where temporary migration schemes prevail and migration policies are increasingly restrictive. Second, transnational social support is affected by a welfare regime that is increasingly linked to the mobility regime, as the rights to social welfare and long-term care are often linked to citizenship. Third, inequalities in the possibilities of transnational care and inaccess to mobility are linked to migrants’ legal and socioeconomic status in the country of settlement and the position of their country of origin in the global geopolitical hierarchy. Based on these findings, I propose a 'regimes-of-mobility-and-welfare' approach for the study of transnational social support and family care, which considers the effects of ‘sedentary’ policies and the intertwinement of mobility and welfare regimes.

Protocol for a scoping review of the collection, analysis and reporting of variables related to cultural and linguistic diversity in dementia clinical trials and cohort studies

AbstractBackgroundEthnic minority communities and people living with dementia have been under‐represented in epidemiological studies. Concurrently, there are limited insights into how to analyse and report on a minimum set of variables related to cultural and linguistic diversity in such studies. In light of increased cultural and ethnic diversity in national populations, this review aims to investigate the collection, reporting and analysis of variables related to cultural and linguistic diversity in epidemiological dementia studies, and to identify best practice exemplars to inform recommendations for accurately capturing cultural diversity in future studiesMethodEmbase, PsycINFO, Medline, CENTRAL and CINAHL will be searched for peer‐reviewed studies published between January 2000 and January 2020. Selection criteria are: epidemiological dementia research studies (including clinical trials and cohort studies) focusing on cultural and ethnic minorities or cultural and ethnic difference, and undertaken in high‐income countries. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses) guidelines will be used to report findings.ResultResults will describe the variables related to cultural and linguistic diversity, the related measures used, how such variables are treated (e.g. categorical or continuous) and triangulated, what corrections are made (if any) for variables such as time lived in country of settlement, and how these are analysed to inform understanding of dementia among ethnic minorities in high‐income countries.ConclusionBased on these findings, best practice exemplars will be identified, and recommendations made for a minimum and consistent set of variables relating to ethnic diversity to be collected and reported. The study addresses methodological uncertainties around which variables to collect and how to bring them together in a robust analysis that accounts for the cultural and pathological heterogeneity often found among ethnic minority study participants living with dementia.Reference 1Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Older Australia at a glance. 2L. F., Barcenilla‐Wong, A. L., and Brijnath, B. 2019. Including ethnic and cultural diversity in dementia research. Medical Journal of Australia, 211, 345. 3World Bank Country and Lending groups.https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519#High_income. Accessed 14 January 2020.