Ethnic Exclusion Research Articles

The Discourse of Secession in Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s House of Stone

ABSTRACT This article examines the depiction of the discourse of secession in Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s House of Stone (2018). Borrowing insights on secession from international law and drawing on postcolonial concepts of identity formation and the theory of ethnicity as entry points, the article highlights the elusive nature of nation in Zimbabwe and affirms that the secessionist calls are a manifestation of the Ndebele people’s struggles against the dialectics of otherness. The central argument advanced in this article is that the secession addressed in Tshuma’s novel is a particular instance of an ethnic group’s re-imagination of its identity that is given form and impetus by a past legacy that includes historical imaginations and memories of experiences in post-independence Zimbabwe. In addition, the article argues that this ethnic exclusiveness that is rendered under the political rubric of secession is in stark contrast to the common and shared imaginings of a single nation that is built upon the tenets of basic unity and the existence of a single set of shared principles as postulated by postcolonial theorists. Thus, the article concludes by highlighting the contested and paradoxical nature of secession since it can be viewed on the one hand as a negative rebellion against the status quo or, on the other hand, a positive affirmation of concepts, models and even blueprints for new societies. The article is significant in that it contributes to debates on national identity and contemporary discourses on justice and the accepted frameworks of human rights.

Is “pro-poor land administration” a realistic proposition? How a land survey in Bangladesh reproduced and reconfigured gendered and racialised poverty

Ensuring land administration interventions achieve equitable, “pro-poor” outcomes continues to be a prominent focus for scholars and practitioners. While welcome, it is uncertain how this turn towards questions of justice and equity within the field can be implemented, not least because there are strong indications that land administration scholars are only just beginning to grapple with a number of major problems long recognised in development studies, including how to engage with complex, internally variegated “communities”. Analysis of how a recent land administration project in Bangladesh reinforced both gendered and ethnic exclusion provides additional empirical material that demonstrates the limits of current land administration theory and practice. In order to be realistic, land administration frameworks would benefit from a more precise understanding of what social justice outcomes are desirable for land administration interventions to achieve, how social mobilisation is necessary in order to do this, and what the implications of broader governance issues are for these proposed ends and means.

Ethnic empowering policies and postcolonial political exclusion in the British empire: An analysis of ethnic police recruitment and communal legislative representation

AbstractDoes ethnic empowerment under colonial rule shape ethnic power even after independence? Existing research offers mixed arguments and rarely differentiates between different types of political empowerment. Drawing on the historical observation that the parliament and the security forces were two of the major sources of political power in newly independent states, this preregistered study tests whether ethnic representation in the colonial constabulary force and the receipt of guaranteed communal representation in the colonial legislature reduces the risk of postcolonial ethnic exclusion in ex‐British colonies. It is found that the former has a strong and consistent effect on reducing the odds of postcolonial ethnic exclusion, but the latter, despite its frequent usage as a form of colonial ethnic empowerment, does not prevent political exclusion. The importance of martial vis‐à‐vis rational‐legal power in newly independent states and varying levels of diachronic continuity between the two forms of colonial empowerment may account for the diverging results.

Strategic generosity among local patrons: Place belonging and ethnic exclusion in a transforming lower‐income neighborhood of Tel Aviv

AbstractWorking at the intersection of exchange theory, urban anthropology, and ethnic and racial studies, this article offers an original perspective on the role of local patrons’ exchange networks in constructing place belonging during racial urban change. Inspired by a middle‐ground approach to reciprocity, embodying both solidarity and distrust within the same ethnic community, and manifested in an interracial context, the article proposes the integrative term of strategic generosity. The concept includes two interlinked layers: the combination of altruism and self‐interest in local patrons’ exchange practices within the same ethnic community, and patron exchange circles as mechanisms for the exclusion of racial Others reproducing boundaries between social groups. The case study is HaTikva—a lower‐income neighborhood in downtown Tel Aviv originally inhabited almost exclusively by disadvantaged Mizrahi Jews (of Middle Eastern origin), and more recently transformed by the arrival of African asylum seekers. Based on fieldwork conducted from 2010 to 2013 among long‐term Mizrahi residents, I argue that although local Mizrahi patrons use parental metaphors to describe their unconditioned giving to their own community; in fact, altruist and instrumental actions intermingle in the management of their reciprocity network. The exchange networks help vulnerable agents and enhance Mizrahi place attachment, but at the same time buttress the patrons’ own standing in the neighborhood and exclude the non‐Jewish African Others. These findings are discussed in the context of everyday life in a marginalized ethnic community as well as a barrier to integration and the concept's contribution to exchange theory more broadly. [strategic generosity, ethnic exclusion, exchange theory, place belonging, Mizrahi Jews, Tel Aviv]

Who gets public goods? Effects of ethnic diversity and exclusion on urban and rural populations' access to water and sanitation

AbstractWhy do some countries provide better access to life‐saving public goods than others? An enduring explanation from the political economy literature points to ethnic heterogeneity in impeding public goods provision. However, previous studies have not examined how the “diversity deficit” directly affects access to improved water and sanitation, a leading cause of continued under‐5 mortality globally, and how this effect varies for urban versus rural communities. Using cross‐sectional time series analysis of 149 low and middle‐income countries between 1990 and 2013, this study explores the relationship between national ethnic diversity and ethnic‐based political exclusion, and rural and urban populations’ access to water and sanitation. We find that ethnic diversity rather than ethnic exclusion predicts lower access to water and sanitation, although more so for rural populations, and that this relationship may be the most pronounced in South Asia and sub‐Saharan Africa. This suggests that the negative impact of diversity rooted in coordination problems may be rooted at the national level for goods that require both long‐term investment and ongoing resources. Our findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how national‐level ethnic diversity can exert divergent effects on the provision of public goods to rural versus urban populations, while also highlighting regional variation.

Confronting xenophobia in South Africa and the concept of foreigner in Deuteronomy as an act of ‘othering’

This article explored the theme of xenophobia and ‘othering’ (violently targeting African immigrants in particular) as a complex and highly relevant theme in South Africa in order to move towards addressing it for the sake of unity in Africa. This research article has adopted a sociological lens that critically examines the issue of xenophobia within a 21st-century South African context. It then considers Deuteronomy and its context from a literary approach to understand how the book deals with ethnic exclusion, also known as xenophobia. South Africa, because of its history, has seen xenophobic sentiments manifest themselves in a particularly violent manner in its short democratic history. Xenophobic violence is seen as an ever-present fibre built into the make-up of South African culture, which is always ready to spill over and negatively impact society.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article critically engages the topic of xenophobia and frames it around the theme of other and/or othering others. It then evaluates how the book of Deuteronomy and how the 21st-century African, particularly South African, have misappropriated the issue of immigrants. An African hermeneutic has been implored to explore all this.

Does fear of migrant crime predict xenophobia: Evidence from three Russian cities

In this study, we examine Russian millennials’ attitudes toward migrants—an estimated 10 million legal and four million illegal migrants, who work in construction, service, and retail industries. More specifically, we examine the influence of various factors such as perceived fear of migrant crime, economic, and cultural competition on explaining xenophobia measured by social distance and ethnic exclusionism. Drawing from a survey of 944 university students in St Petersburg, Vladivostok, and Rostov-on-Don, Russia, our findings suggest that fear of migrant crime along with perceived cultural threats are strong predictors of xenophobic attitudes toward migrants. However, the economic threat did not appear to be a strong predictor of xenophobia. Variations existed between cities on dimensions of a perceived threat from migrants, suggesting that geographic and city characteristics are important factors.

Understanding residential mobility: Why the African context matters

ABSTRACT Residential mobility in a Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context is substantially different from in the Global North. This paper provides three position statements to substantiate this claim. The first relates to residential mobility dynamics and posits that in SSA they are characterized by a much more transient and mobile population who frequently move to, from, between and within urban areas. Secondly, formal mechanisms that enable access to decent living conditions in the city are largely absent as compared to most of the Global North context and, as a consequence, poor households have to resort to other options to find a place in the city. Thirdly, real estate markets in SSA are less transparent as social networks interplay with market mechanisms and markets often function on the edge of or outside formal regulatory frameworks. The second part of the paper reflects on the implications of these differences for the African city. It argues that (1) translocal living reduces place attachment to the city, (2) processes of residential sorting and ethnic exclusion aggravate spatial inequality, and (3) limited spatial governance leads to developments that go beyond the capacity to sustain the city.

A State of (Dis)unity and Uncertain Belonging: The Central African Republic and its Muslim Minority

Abstract This article examines how existing in a larger socio-political environment of contested national belonging shapes Muslims’ experiences in the Central African Republic (car). We draw on data gathered between 2017 and 2019 from various archival sources and in-depth interviews with Muslim religious leaders and non-Muslims in car’s capital, Bangui. We argue that through claims to autochthony a dual logic of exclusion co-occurs which shapes how Muslims experience their minority status. First, national level autochthony debates frame Muslim minority exclusion from the Central African national imagination. Second, at the Muslim intra-communal level, and particularly among religious leaders, autochthony encapsulates debates over “authentic” Muslimhood – fuelled not by contestation over Islamic practice and interpretation, but rather historical contestation based on ethnic exclusion. Specifically, we show that claims to “proper” Central African Muslimhood are premised on autochthony embedded in a dominant myth of primary settlement advanced by certain Muslim leaders.

The Role of Colonialism in Creating and Perpetuating Statelessness in Southern Africa

Some of the largest stateless populations in the world are in Southern Africa. Statelessness in the region is primarily linked to colonial histories, border changes, migration, gender, ethnic and religious discrimination, and poor civil registry systems. Colonial and white minority rulers created and implemented multi-tiered citizenship systems – extending full rights only to settlers. Like all other aspects of society, colonizers based citizenship on ethnic exclusion, exploitation, and discrimination. Native Africans were forced into legal subordination with minimal rights that were superseded by those of white settlers. At independence, most Southern African countries adopted nationality laws based on the models of their former colonial rulers while making efforts to reverse the systems of discrimination. Efforts to redress the inequalities via nationality laws have had unintended and intended consequences on vulnerable populations and exacerbated statelessness. Xenophobia is another consequence of colonial heritage that has perpetuated statelessness. Colonial powers relied on political exclusion. They used violence to 'divide and conquer,’ creating and reinforcing racial, ethnic, and tribal clashes. In many parts of Southern Africa, we see an increase in xenophobia and nationalism as the emerging form of political exclusion, resulting in restrictive and repressive migration responses to prevent migrants from arriving or integrating into societies. There are concerning signs that states are instrumentalizing statelessness as a migration management tool. Rising nationalism and anti-migrant sentiments threaten to undo gains in the fight against statelessness.

Cantonese migrant networks, white supremacy, and the political utility of apologies in Canada

ABSTRACT Using the specific example of the attempts of the municipal government of Vancouver in 2018 and the provincial government of British Columbia in 2014 to apologise for historical anti-Chinese legislation in Canada, this paper illustrates how Cantonese migrant networks shaped and were shaped by the politics of white supremacy in Pacific white-settler nations, and argues that historical narratives about historical anti-Chinese discrimination that erupt at these moments of apology and reconciliation aspire to shape future politics by producing historical frames for civil society that are broadly inclusive and based primarily neither on ethnic identification nor shared exclusion in the past but on aspirational narratives of more inclusive belonging in the future. They also provide at the same time a narrative of belonging for migrants who trace ancestry to very different parts of China and with divergent identities and migratory pathways to identify with each other’s histories and to belong to a ‘Chinese’ diasporic past and future marked by resistance to racism and white supremacy in Pacific settler colonies such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Included in this future are Chinese who were excluded in the past, allowing those who identify as Chinese a path for belonging.

When decentralisation undermines representation: ethnic exclusion and state ownership in DR Congo's new provinces

AbstractAfrican regimes commonly use strategies of balanced ethnic representation to build support. Decentralisation reforms, often promoted in order to improve political representation and state access, can undermine such strategies. In this article we use the example of the DR Congo to show the extent to which the multiplication of decentralised provinces is upending a political system largely based until now upon collective ethnic representation in the state. Not only are Congo's new provinces more ethnically homogeneous than their predecessors, but many of them have also witnessed political takeover and monopolisation by the province's dominant ethnic group. In addition, the increased number of Congolese who now find themselves non-autochthonous to their province of residence heightens their vulnerability and the potential for local conflict. Decentralisation, whose intent was proximity to governance, might well end up excluding more Congolese from the benefits of political representation. The article uses original empirical evidence on provincial ethnic distributions to support its claims.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

Cabinet size, power-sharing and ethnic exclusion in Africa

While it is often pointed out that African countries have large government cabinets that underpin economic performance, lesser is known about the factors behind the size of government cabinets in Africa. Using an original database of the number of ministerial appointments in government offices in 35 African states, this paper establishes a robust negative relationship between the size of the government cabinet and the exclusion based on ethnicity. This result suggests that the governments that are more inclusive tend to be the largest, independent to the number of ethnic groups present in the country, namely, the state of the ethno-linguistic fractionalization. However, the results also show that this inclusion is in favor of powerless positions, suggesting that inclusion might be less about power-sharing than it is about resource-sharing, since the incumbent controls the key positions, while the included ethnic groups have peripheral positions with, however, an access to public rents. The results are robust to various sensitivity analyses.

CURATING EXCLUSION AND PRIVILEGE: HISTORY, HERITAGE, AND NATURE AS NEOLIBERAL TOOLS

In the early 20th century, zoning, restrictive covenants, deed restrictions, and federallysponsored real estate maps that directed bank loans operated at multiple levels to perpetuate spatial patterns that separated whites from Blacks, Asians, and other non-Anglo ethnics; homeowners from renters; and single-family dwellings from multi-family units. The obvious overtly racial biases of those systems are socially unacceptable today but their underlying purposes have since been augmented by new tools that mask further discrimination. This article presents a critical examination of the relationship between historic preservation, open space easements, and farmland preservation practices to reveal how these regulations support racial and social discrimination in American land-use practices. Existing literature presumes that history, nature, and farming, preserved by these practices are cultural, environmental, and public positives. An examination of the underlying forces shows how these goals are achieved by restrictive instruments that create exclusion and protect privilege by controlling development and establishing and maintaining social norms that exclude certain groups while welcoming others. Using documentary evidence, this paper establishes historic preservation’s origins as an instrument of racial and ethnic exclusion in Charleston, South Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of the United States, and the subsequent evolution of historic districts into gentrified, white neighborhoods. Two case studies in the New York metropolitan area, chosen for their use of historic preservation with farmland preservation (Cranbury Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey), and historic preservation with open space easements (Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York) as resistance to affordable residential development, demonstrate how enclaves of exclusion and privilege were created. This article further establishes how these tools commodify history and landscapes into transactional entities that attain value in today’s neoliberal wealth-focused environment.

Rohingya Refugees: Implications of the Right to Return and the Right to Remain

This study explores two related notions – the right to return and the right to remain of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, now living in camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, across the border. The study views these rights, and tries to make sense of them, through the light of human rights, human security and human capital approaches, combined. Based on secondary studies, official and NGO reports and various other on-line documents, the study looks for discussion of the constraints on the capabilities of the Rohingya to fulfil their right to return and their right to remain. With this background, it is not surprising that the main causes of Rohingyas displacement have included: rejection of their historic right to citizenship and identity; patterns of land colonization; ethnic discrimination in livelihoods and education; ethnic and religious exclusion that as has been mentioned bear some similarities to internationally condemned forms of apartheid segregation. Denial of the rights of ethnic Rohingyas to equal citizenship rights is both one of the root causes of the Rohingya refugee question and an element that worsens the problem of statelessness. Torn between the impossibility of returning, and the fact of their statelessness in Bangladesh, the Rohingya are really stuck in Bangladesh, and the prospects for them to be granted citizenship in Bangladesh are also poor.

The Experiential Basis of Social Trust Towards Ethnic Outgroup Members

This study contributes to social trust research by examining the extent to which cross-group interaction provokes exclusionary reactions among trusters. Specifically, we examine whether unpleasant contact with ethnic outgroup members constrains the relationship between social trust and ethnic exclusionism among majority members. The analysis shows that: (a) social trust relates negatively to ethnic exclusionism, (b) unpleasant contact experiences relate positively to ethnic exclusionism, and (c) social trust is almost unrelated to ethnic exclusionism when contact experiences have been unpleasant. Inconsistent with “moralistic” perspectives, social trusters’ views of ethnic outgroup members are remarkably experience-based. To understand the “experiential effect”, we develop a tentative interpretation emphasizing the joint capacity of negative emotions and group membership salience to enhance the implications of unpleasant encounters among contacted trusters. The analysis is based on the 2014-European Social Survey, including 27,796 individuals and 21 countries. The concluding section discusses how our affect-salience interpretation adds to the experiential understanding of social trust and interethnic relations in contemporary nations.

Networks, Informal Governance, and Ethnic Violence in a Syrian City

ABSTRACTIn cross-national studies, ethnic exclusion is robustly associated with the onset of violent challenge to incumbent regimes. But significant variation remains at the subnational level—not all members of an excluded ethnic group join in challenge. This article accounts for intra-ethnic group variation in terms of the network properties of local communities, nested within ethnic groups, and the informal ties that regimes forge to some segments of the ethnically excluded population. Mobilization within an excluded ethnic group is most likely among local communities where members are densely linked to one another and lack network access to state-controlled resources. Drawing on a case study of the Syrian city of Homs in the 2011 uprising, this article demonstrates how the Syrian regime’s strategies of managing the Sunni population of Homs shaped patterns of challenge. On the one hand, the state’s toleration of spontaneous settlements on the city’s periphery helped to reproduce dense network ties. On the other hand, the regime’s informal bargains with customary leaders instrumentalized those ties to manage local populations. These bargains could not withstand the regime’s use of violence against challengers, which meant that these same local networks became crucial factors in impelling and sustaining costly antiregime mobilization.

Sexual violence in the Kosovo conflict: a lesson for Myanmar and other ethnic cleansing campaigns

In this article, we analyze the patterns of sexual violence against Albanian women during the Kosovo conflict (1998–1999) as a weapon of the Milosevic regime’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. We used a broad combination of sources: a secondary literature of history and social science, human rights reports, trial records, our oral history of survivors, interviews with advocates and psychologists handling hundreds of survivors, and a subset of survey data of reported discrete incidents of sexual violence. Our focus on Kosovo as a single-case study rich in data allowed us to discern patterns that offer important insights for understanding how women’s bodies come to be sites of militarized violence in the context of ethnic exclusion and destruction. This carries policy implications for preventing the use of sexual violence in other conflicts, or, in the case of Myanmar military’s sexual violence against Rohingya women, to offer a roadmap for the prosecution of perpetrators.

Restoring the State's Power to Defame: The Legal Life of Character in the Era of Roosevelt and Trump

While the abstract equality of citizens before the law is imagined as protection from arbitrary, subjective legal judgments of an individual's character, I argue that judgments of character play a pivotal yet unexamined role regulating access to citizenship in American law. Through a comparative analysis of President Trump and President Theodore Roosevelt, I show how their seemingly personal obsession with libel law reveals a deeper interest in consolidating the state's power as sole arbiter of character in order to weaponize the “good moral character” requirement in immigration and naturalization law as an instrument of racial and ethnic exclusion.