Foreign Newcomers Research Articles

Migrants Networks and Survival in the Job: Evidence from Foreign Newcomers on the PGA Tour

How do migrant social networks matter for performance in the job? We examine this by constructing a nationality-based network of foreign newcomers when they first begin to play in the PGA TOUR and examine the impact of this initial social network on newcomers’ probability of surviving (i.e., keeping their license) at the end of their inaugural PGA TOUR season. We find that the migrant social network matters among the non-elite group of players in the second tier of the PGA TOUR, but not among the elite group of players in the first tier of the PGA TOUR. For the second-tier tour players, we find that density of connections within a nationality cluster has a sizable positive effect on newcomers’ probability of surviving, but no evidence that the centrality of a nationality cluster in the overall PGA TOUR network has an impact on survival.

Economic Reforms and Development of India – A Study

Since, the economic reforms have been implemented in India in the year 1991 by the then Prime Minister Sri P.V. Narasimha rao, three major development trends are visible. First, the vast majority of successes have been private‐sector successes, whereas the vast majority of failures have been government failures, mainly in service delivery. Second, wherever markets have become competitive and globalized, the outcomes have been excellent. But many areas remain unreformed, a few areas have been marked by backsliding, and those along with new forms of regulation are combining to create what can be called neo‐illiberalism. Third, the weak quality of Indian institutions is increasingly a problem, and without better institutions, India will be unable to sustain high growth. Consider each of those three trends in further detail. The private sector has performed outstandingly in the past 30 years, taking advantage of new opportunities created by liberalization and globalization. Indian companies more than held their own against foreign newcomers, and the vast majority of big Indian companies have become multinationals, making acquisitions globally.

New Players on a Tough Field

Abstract The pivotal aim of this research is to identify new entrants to mountain farming, their routes into practicing and resulting environmental impacts. Following an actor-network approach, this multi-regional case study was conducted in two remote regions of the Western Austrian Alps and in a bordering Alpine region in South Tyrol (Italy). All data was generated using semi-structured interviews on site and official agricultural statistics. Both autochthons and foreign newcomers to mountain farming display a great deal of idealism to fulfil their agricultural dreams. Their self-determination and bid for independence from the agricultural industry affects their thinking and decisions on housing, farming and collaborations, resulting in far-reaching social and spatial impacts on the sociocultural landscape. In implementing sustainable and extensive farming practices, new entrants act as role models and thus highlight alternatives beyond the prevailing mountain agricultural regime.

Struktura narodowościowa regionów południowo-wschodniej Ukrainy

The Ethnic Structure of the Territories of South-Eastern UkraineIn her article the author analyses ethnic differentiation in the Donetsk and Zaporozhe regions in South-Eastern Ukraine. These areas first were a target of colonisation in order to establish a new fuel-metallurgical basis for the Russian Empire by developing the Donetsk coal industry and strengthening agriculture by colonising the steppes near the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. An important stage in the settlement of these areas occurred at the beginning of the 16th century, when early settlers, mainly Ukrainian craftsmen, Cossacks and peasants-refugees, arrived. The next step came in the 16–18th centuries, when the defence of the southern borderland from Tartar invasions took place. From the 18th century onwards foreign newcomers contributed to the cultural and industrial development of this region. They settled mainly in compact groups. The characteristics of settlement and development of such groups as Bulgarians, Germans, Jews, Czechs, Tartars, Poles, and Armenians are analysed in this article, too. The population censuses of the years 1959, 1989, 2001 are taken into account.The industrialisation and later “Stalinisation” of the region led to the liquidation of part of some ethnic groups and to their enforced assimilation, in an effort which was supposed to create a homogeneous Soviet people. However, as a result of political changes since 1991, the region is becoming multicultural again.

Social Networks and Professional Success: Evidence from Foreign Newcomers on the PGA Tour

How do social networks matter for professional success? Are they a source of information and support, both of which could be beneficial? We provide an answer using a unique data set of foreign athletes migrating to the PGA Tour. We construct a nationality-based network of newcomers when they first begin to play in the PGA TOUR, and examine the impact of this initial social network on the newcomers probability of surviving (i.e., keeping their license) at the end of their first PGA TOUR season. We find that social cohesion within a nationality cluster has a sizable positive effect on newcomers’ probability of surviving, but no evidence that the centrality of a nationality cluster in the overall PGA TOUR network has an impact on survival. If we consider social cohesion as indicative of the support an individual receives from the network and centrality in the network as a measure of information transmission, then this suggests that support has a more robust impact on performance than information.

Social service innovation and welfare recalibration: a case study of a local training to work trajectory in Belgium

Despite a growing interest in the relation between local social innovation in welfare services and ongoing welfare reform in Europe, both the social innovation and welfare studies literature currently lack a conceptually grounded framework to analyse how both are mutually implicated. Building on different, recent contributions in institutional theory the present paper proposes to analyse such changing relations as an interactive social learning process between ‘habits in motion’ (Berk and Galvan 2009) of reflexive, situated actors at the local level and the gradual and multidimensional process of macro-level welfare reform or ‘welfare recalibration’ (Hemerijck 2013). The value of this framework is explored through a case study of an innovative training to work trajectory for foreign language newcomers that receive welfare assistance in a medium-sized Belgian city.

Greek Migrations along the Ionian Coast (Southern Italy)

In the previous century, ancient migration was explained on the basis of the occurrence and quantities of imported archaeological artefacts, and with interpretations made in alignment with the ancient written sources. This was so too with the Greek migration into Southern Italy, often referred to as ‘Greek colonization’. This paper will focus on the relations between indigenous peoples and Greek newcomers in Southern Italy, taking the Sibaritide area as its focal point, as well as on the methods for identifying these foreign newcomers through the analyses of the archaeological record. From the end of the ninth century BCE, a Euboean-Levantine presence is detectable in the Western Mediterranean, including Northern Africa, Spain and Italy. In the first half of the eighth century BC in the Sibaritide, a Greek-indigenous coexistence emerged in the settlement of Timpone della Motta. This coexistence entailed a shared and mixed cultural framework at the site, which is reflected in the local pottery production. Based on the study of the ceramic technology, this paper seeks to shed light on the possibilities and limitations of technological analysis for identifying migration features in the archaeological record.

Migrants in the midst of city life: spatial patterns and arrival logics of foreign newcomers to Brussels in 1880

The spatial situation of foreign migrants in nineteenth-century cities has been studied mainly in static terms and has by and large focused on cases in the Anglophone world. This has yielded an image of concentration and segregation of foreign migrants in particular neighbourhoods. Little is known, however, about the spatial situation of foreign migrants in western European cities, and about how a dynamic approach may open up the way we think about nineteenth-century cities. This paper explores the spatial implications of the inherently dynamic process of foreign migration to western European cities. It does so by investigating the places of arrival of foreign newcomers to Brussels, using the registration files of all foreigners who arrived in Brussels in 1880. The visualisation and analysis of these data with a historical geographical information system (HGIS) shows that in contrast to what the Anglophone literature suggests, spatial concentrations based on foreign newcomers’ origins or class were absent. Instead, foreign newcomers mainly arrived centrally and dispersed according to workplace bound, accommodation related and event induced arrival logics. These arrival logics were expressed spatially in small scale, heterogeneous and more or less temporary ‘arrival spaces’. Foreign newcomers in Brussels in the nineteenth century should thus not be imagined in isolated migrant neighbourhoods, but as an integral part of the city, and as actively shaping and producing the city and its everyday life.

Mad at Tangier: Hygienist discourses, mental disorders, and European competition for hegemony in early twentieth-century Morocco

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on the discourse on mental pathologies affecting Western residents in Tangier that was elaborated from the late 1920s. After gaining prestige as a health resort during the nineteenth century, Tangier experienced mounting foreign intervention, ultimately leading to the establishment of an international regime, which substantially changed the city’s perception. Strong winds and a rough sea climate, coupled with the stress associated with the restless struggle for hegemony between the Western powers, became a suspected source of psychological distress for foreign newcomers. In this context, the French doctor Paul Remlinger, director of the Pasteur Institute, and José Sievert, head of the Spanish Laboratory, defined a mental pathology supposedly specific to the city: the “Tangerian neurosis” or “psychosis.” As we will try to show, their views, which enjoyed a lasting influence that went beyond medicine into literature and popular culture, reflected general anxieties associated to the efforts of France and Spain to colonize Tangier and Morocco at large, and to pathologize their inhabitants and environment.

Alone and Far from Home

On the basis of nominal data from local foreigners’ files, this article examines gender differences in the trajectories of more than 3,000 single foreign newcomers to Antwerp between 1850 and 1880. The data demonstrate an overall expansion, ruralization, and feminization of the migration field over time, attuned to the evolution of the port town’s dual labor market. Foreign single women were less specialized than their skilled male counterparts and immigrated in large numbers only toward the end of the period under study, supported by the facilitation of travel via rail. Engaged in a catch-up process as well as in the founding of new patterns of migration, single female migrants emerge from this study as both followers and pioneers. By highlighting the latter’s dual role, the results shed new light on gender stereotypes in migration research and on the oft-assumed connection between migration distance and occupational specialization.

Does Country of Origin Matter whilst Evaluating Candidates for Managerial Positions?

Abstract A growing number of foreign country nationals in economies worldwide challenges academics to raise a question whether one’s country of origin (COO) matters when selecting candidates for managerial positions. Thus the aim of this paper is to analyze the COO effect on the evaluation of managerial competence of a foreign individual. The analysis includes both the literature review and the empirical findings from the authors’ pilot research. A focus group interview is the method that was applied in the study. The analysis contributes to the nascent streams in international business and cross-cultural management research that concern the COO effect and the liability of foreignness (LOF) that refers to foreign newcomers (i.e. immigrants, ex/inpatriaties). It also adds some practical implications for the International Human Resource Management literature with that respect. The empirical findings suggest that COO is apparent when managerial skills are evaluated by locals.

EVERYDAY POLITICS AND COLLECTIVE MOBILIZATION AGAINST FOREIGNERS IN A SOUTH AFRICAN SHACK SETTLEMENT

ABSTRACTIn contrast to the tolerant and largely peaceful ‘living politics' of informal settlements, as embodied by the social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, this article considers a darker side of squatter politics: ‘xenophobic’ mobilization. I show how the historical stratification of citizenship in South Africa remains spatially embedded in longstanding informal settlements, where distinctive repertoires of collective action have been shaped by a (still unfinished) history of struggle for inclusion. Using archival research and interviews conducted in the informal settlements of Atteridgeville, Gauteng, I show how the continuing struggle for equal citizenship draws on shared experiences of mundane hardship and collective labour, giving rise to social distance between established local squatters and politically indifferent foreign newcomers. At times of protest, this polarity is concentrated by and converges with familiar practices of insurgent citizenship, creating a context for mobilization against foreigners. In this sense, ‘xenophobic’ mobilization may be seen to articulate a claim for inclusion by structurally excluded ‘citizens', rather than an exclusionary claim by those who already belong. The article provides a useful counterpoint to readings of ‘xenophobic’ violence that focus on the role of elite discourses, instrumental leaders or crude racial identities in shaping such mobilization.

Code‐switching for newcomers and veterans: a mutually‐constructed discourse strategy for workplace socialization and identification

Socialization into the workplace is a challenge faced by new foreign workers in multilingual societies. One underexplored factor in the process is code‐switching. We presented a case study of how a Filipino migrant integrated into her Hong Kong workplace where the local veterans used code‐switching at work. Conceptualizing the workplace as Communities of Practice (Wenger 1998), we employed Gee's (2011) model of discourse analysis to examine empirical workplace discourse. Our analysis suggests that for a newcomer, code‐switching indicates desire of socialization, negotiation of membership, linguistic competence, and professional abilities, and that for a veteran, code‐switching reveals situated identities, instantaneous relationships, openness to newcomers, and encouragement to them. We argue that code‐switching is performed by foreign newcomers and local veterans for workplace socialization and mutual identification.

Banking concentration and developments in FYROM: A country in transition

AbstractThe Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) belongs to the transition economies that have witnessed significant structural changes in their domestic markets during the 2000s. We examine the evolution of the banking competition from 2003 until 2011, covering the first period of economic growth followed by the acute financial crisis that still threatens European countries. We apply the Herfindahl–Hirschman index and the CR3 and CR5 indicators in order to estimate banking concentration on five industry variables. Our findings show that the market has been persistently operating under oligopolistic, if not monopolistic, conditions where the leading three or five institutions dominate the market. Foreign newcomers and legislative developments have not changed the situation during the past 10 years and bank customers seem to keep their preferences unaffected, staying loyal to their prior choices. We analyze the banking sector profitability since 2008 and during the economic crisis, as well as the ...

Foreign Entry and Profitability of Domestic Firms: Evidence from China

Profitability provides a yardstick for judging the operational efficiency, growth, and survival of a business enterprise. This study investigates the determinants of firm profitability in the Chinese manufacturing sector, with a focus on the impact of foreign entry on the profitability of domestic firms. Our findings show an inverted-U relationship between foreign entry and the profitability of domestic firms. Furthermore, we also find that the effect of foreign entry on domestic firm profitability varies according to the ownership structure of domestic firms and the export intensity of foreign newcomers.

Banking Concentration in FYROM: Evidence from a Country in Transition

The country of FYROM belongs in the transition economies that have witnessed significant structural changes in their domestic markets during the 2000s. We examine the evolution of the banking competition from 2003 until 2011, covering a first period of economic growth followed by the acute financial crisis that still threatens European countries. We apply the HHI index and the CR3 and CR5 indicators in order estimate banking concentration on five industry variables. Our findings show that the market has been persistently operating under oligopolistic, if not monopolistic, conditions where the leading three or five institutions dominate the market. Foreign newcomers and legislative developments have not changed the situation during the past ten years and bank customers seem to keep their preferences unaffected, staying loyal to their prior choices.

Banking Concentration in FYROM: Evidence from a Country in Transition

The country of FYROM belongs in the transition economies that have witnessed significant structural changes in their domestic markets during the 2000s. We examine the evolution of the banking competition from 2003 until 2011, covering a first period of economic growth followed by the acute financial crisis that still threatens European countries. We apply the HHI index and the CR3 and CR5 indicators in order estimate banking concentration on five industry variables. Our findings show that the market has been persistently operating under oligopolistic, if not monopolistic, conditions where the leading three or five institutions dominate the market. Foreign newcomers and legislative developments have not changed the situation during the past ten years and bank customers seem to keep their preferences unaffected, staying loyal to their prior choices.

Biotecnología en la Industria Vitivinícola en Argentina: ¿Nuevas Modalidades de Innovación en una Actividad Tradicional?

This work analyses the responses of the Argentine’s Wine Industry face to the opportunities bring about by biotechnology. Since liberalization policies, Foreign Direct Investment and newcomers have reinforced competition, encouraging product differentiation strategies and innovation efforts in products and processes. At the industrial level, innovation in fermentation processes has been traditionally driven by technology incorporated into equipment and, more recently, by the adoption of new commercial yeast and enzymes developments. This paper discusses the effects of these strategy changes over wine firms knowledge base and the role played by food ingredients firms and local Science and Technology infrastructure in biotechnology adoption.

Rethinking Belongingness in Korea: Transnational Migration, “Migrant Marriages” and the Politics of Multiculturalism

In 2006, a 30-year-old American football player, Hines won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the Super Bowl. Mr. Ward happened to have a Korean mother and an African-American father. Virtually overnight, Mr. Ward became a veritable sensation in his birthplace, which was more than a bit ironic given the long and very intense discrimination by Koreans against mixed-blood (honhyol) children and their mothers. irony of the situation, as Mary Lee points out, was no accident. The social buzz over Hines Ward, Lee writes, can be read as an attempt to achieve some sort of expedited closure on the issue of long-standing discrimination against interracial people.1 Even more, this social buzz?which was much more like a chainsaw?marked, for the first time, a countrywide recognition that South Korea was in the midst of a potentially profound social transformation, with equally profound political, economic and cultural ramifications. basis for this social transformation is clear, namely, the rapid growth of transnational migration/immigration to South Korea. This story is now fairly well known: beginning in the late 1980s, there has been a constant and constantly growing inflow of foreign newcomers (primarily unskilled workers) to South Korea. In the space of less than two decades, from 1990 to 2007, the number of foreign residents2 in South Korea grew from just under 50,000 to over one million?a 2,000 percent increase. (By