High Levels Of Ethnic Diversity Research Articles

Characteristics of primary care practices by proportion of patients unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2: a cross-sectional cohort study.

Variations in primary care practices may explain some differences in health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to evaluate the characteristics of primary care practices by the proportion of patients unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional cohort study using linked administrative data sets in Ontario, Canada. We calculated the percentage of patients unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 enrolled with each comprehensive-care family physician, ranked physicians according to the proportion of patients unvaccinated, and identified physicians in the top 10% (v. the other 90%). We compared characteristics of family physicians and their patients in these 2 groups using standardized differences. We analyzed 9060 family physicians with 10 837 909 enrolled patients. Family physicians with the largest proportion (top 10%) of unvaccinated patients (n = 906) were more likely to be male, to have trained outside of Canada, to be older, and to work in an enhanced fee-for-service model than those in the remaining 90%. Vaccine coverage (≥ 2 doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine) was 74% among patients of physicians with the largest proportion of unvaccinated patients, compared with 87% in the remaining patient population. Patients in the top 10% group tended to be younger and live in areas with higher levels of ethnic diversity and immigration and lower incomes. Primary care practices with the largest proportion of patients unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 served marginalized communities and were less likely to use team-based care models. These findings can guide resource planning and help tailor interventions to integrate public health priorities within primary care practices.

Ethnic diversity and homeownership

AbstractWe examine the impact of neighbourhood ethnic diversity on homeownership using 19 waves of household panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. We find that ethnic diversity is associated with a lower probability of homeownership. Specifically, a movement from complete ethnic homogeneity to complete heterogeneity is associated with up to a 31.3 percentage point decrease in the probability of homeownership. Our results also show that trust, neighbourhood satisfaction and belongingness, which are lower in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, are important channels through which ethnic diversity operates to reduce the probability of homeownership. We suggest policies to promote trust in multicultural societies with high levels of ethnic diversity with a view to addressing the negative relationship between ethnic diversity and homeownership.

Leveraging global recombinant capabilities for green technologies: the role of ethnic diversity in MNEs’ dynamics

The growing environmental pressure and the parallel policy push on eco-innovations are making the generation of green technologies more and more profitable, given the expansion of existing markets and the creation of new ones. MNEs may show a competitive advantage in this context because of their global knowledge sourcing strategies that increase heterogeneity and variety in firms’ innovation processes. We accordingly argue that the inventors’ teams involving higher ethnic diversity are more likely to successfully generate green inventions due to their idiosyncratic experiences and diversified knowledge bases. We rely on USPTO data from an ethnic patenting database covering US-based MNEs from 1980–2009. We find that R&D teams featured by higher levels of ethnic diversity among the US-based inventors correlate with a higher probability of green patenting, but the relationship follows a non-linear pattern. Also, ethnic diversity is found to moderate the effect of recombinant capabilities on the generation of new green technologies. Our results bring implications for the strategic management of inventors’ teams by multinationals willing to run the green patent race and policymakers facing the climate change challenges.

Ethnicity is not public service destiny: The political logic of service distribution in South Africa

Millions of South Africans have protested the unequal allocation of public services in thousands of demonstrations. Despite the African National Congress’s (ANC) promise to reduce the disparities generated by apartheid, the level of public services remains highly uneven across the country. Most studies of service provision in Africa argue that politicians will target their coethnics; others support the “diversity deficit” hypothesis, which predicts that high levels of ethnic diversity undermines service provision. Instead, we argue that explanations of service provision should first examine how political institutions incentivize politicians to choose whether, what, and how to distribute services. Even in an ethnicized polity, ethnic targeting may not be a politician’s best strategy. We seek to explain the variation in service levels across South African municipalities and advance three hypotheses: 1) municipal councilors in more ethnically diverse municipalities will form policy coalitions that produce higher service levels; 2) South African mayors will decrease services when they enjoy electorally safety due to their extensive powers and the possibility of being a residual claimant to municipality resources, and; 3) the strategic interaction between councilors and their mayor helps to account for the variation in service provision across South Africa’s municipalities. We test our hypotheses with data from more than 1.37 million households and aggregated municipality level measures and find strong support for our hypotheses. Political institutions – not just ethnic demography – can influence policy choices and service outcomes.

The way we perceive a place implies who can live there: Essentialisation of place and attitudes towards diversity

In the contemporary world of human mobility, one of the key problems is why different groups of people are welcomed in some places, but are driven away from others. Theoretical writings of geographers, sociologists, and architects suggest that place can be defined in two ways—as an essentialist, bounded entity with historical continuity or as an open, anti-essentialist space, supporting changes. We hypothesized that in the minds of lay people, these two types of places allow for either a small or high level of ethnic diversity, and thus a certain view of a place would have consequences for acceptance of outgroup members in that place. In three online experimental studies participants were asked to think of a real or imagined place focusing on its specific features, which were either essentialist or anti-essentialist. A consistent pattern of findings showed that conceiving of a place as anti-essentialist was related to greater openness towards the presence of ethnic outgroup members in that place compared to perceiving it as essentialist. Our study contributes to understanding which features of a particular place may foster its perception as more open and inclusive and, conversely, which features are related to a representation of the place as closed and unfriendly to certain ethnic groups.

A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Early Prelinguistic Gesture Development and Its Relationship to Language Development.

Many Western industrialized nations have high levels of ethnic diversity but to date there are very few studies which investigate prelinguistic and early language development in infants from ethnic minority backgrounds. This study tracked the development of infant communicative gestures from 10 to 12months (n=59) in three culturally distinct groups in the United Kingdom and measured their relationship, along with maternal utterance frequency and responsiveness, to vocabulary development at 12 and 18months. No significant differences were found in infant gesture development and maternal responsiveness across the groups, but relationships were identified between gesture, maternal responsiveness, and vocabulary development.

UK Demographic Diversity in Law Firms: Have Ten Years of Diversity Initiatives had an Impact?

Evidence on ‘what works’ in the promotion and effective management of demographic diversity is lacking. This paper analyses 10 years of data on 51 Law Firms (2006-2015), containing information on the proportion of female and minority ethnic Partners, Associates and Trainees within a Firm’s UK operations; together with detail on the Firm’s diversity initiatives. Regression-based approaches identify factors driving change in workplace diversity, with a particular focus on the impact of diversity initiatives (captured using a 17-item questionnaire). We find no significant impact for an aggregate measure that captures the extent of a firm’s resource commitment to diversity initiatives; but investigation of specific areas that make up this aggregate score, suggest this is not driven by a lack of significance in all underlying components. For instance, higher scores in the area of staff development and support are associated with higher levels of gender and ethnic diversity. Considering the pattern of differences across firms according to areas of practice, more ‘international’ areas of practice have higher levels of ethnic diversity, possibly driven by a global recruitment focus and a higher proportion of overseas non-white staff; whilst the ‘international’ nature of these areas is also associated with longer, unsociable hours, and fewer female lawyers. Our finding is that diversity initiatives are not sufficient [at least across Law Firms] to overcome deeply entrenched practices associated with different areas of practice, which dominate in our explanation of company diversity profiles.

As diversity increases, people paradoxically perceive social groups as more similar

With globalization and immigration, societal contexts differ in sheer variety of resident social groups. Social diversity challenges individuals to think in new ways about new kinds of people and where their groups all stand, relative to each other. However, psychological science does not yet specify how human minds represent social diversity, in homogeneous or heterogenous contexts. Mental maps of the array of society's groups should differ when individuals inhabit more and less diverse ecologies. Nonetheless, predictions disagree on how they should differ. Confirmation bias suggests more diversity means more stereotype dispersion: With increased exposure, perceivers' mental maps might differentiate more among groups, so their stereotypes would spread out (disperse). In contrast, individuation suggests more diversity means less stereotype dispersion, as perceivers experience within-group variety and between-group overlap. Worldwide, nationwide, individual, and longitudinal datasets (n = 12,011) revealed a diversity paradox: More diversity consistently meant less stereotype dispersion. Both contextual and perceived ethnic diversity correlate with decreased stereotype dispersion. Countries and US states with higher levels of ethnic diversity (e.g., South Africa and Hawaii, versus South Korea and Vermont), online individuals who perceive more ethnic diversity, and students who moved to more ethnically diverse colleges mentally represent ethnic groups as more similar to each other, on warmth and competence stereotypes. Homogeneity shows more-differentiated stereotypes; ironically, those with the least exposure have the most-distinct stereotypes. Diversity means less-differentiated stereotypes, as in the melting pot metaphor. Diversity and reduced dispersion also correlate positively with subjective wellbeing.

Political Climate, Voter Suppression Policies and Federal Sentencing Outcomes

AbstractMany states in the United States have recently implemented voter suppression policies, which make voting more difficult, particularly for members of marginalized populations (e.g. non-white and female voters). In this article, we examine how these policies and other measures of political climate influence criminal sentencing in US district courts. Using 2015 data from the US Sentencing Commission, alongside other district-level measures, we find both direct and conditioning relationships between political climate and extra-legal variables. Specifically, we find that, while voter suppression policies do not directly affect sentence length, racial threat effects are enhanced in districts governed by such policies. Conversely, districts without such policies see larger mitigating effects at high levels of ethnic diversity and gender equality.

Интеграция мигрантов второго поколения из Закавказья и Средней Азии в Тюменской области: социальные, языковые и идентификационные аспекты (Integration of Second-Generation Migrants from Transcaucasia and Central Asia in the Tyumen Region: Social, Linguistic and Identification Aspects)

Russian Abstract: Представлены результаты качественного исследования интеграции мигрантов второго поколения из Закавказья и Средней Азии в Тюменской области в том, что касается их кругов общения, романтических и брачных партнеров, этнических идентификаций и языковых компетенций. Статья написана на основании анализа 169 интервью с мигрантами второго поколения и экспертами, проведенных в восьми населенных пунктах региона. Полевая работа в Тюменской области — часть проекта по изучению мигрантов второго поколения в России, который выполняется смешанными — количественными и качественными — методами и является первым всероссийским проектом, сфокусированным на мигрантах второго поколения из категории молодых взрослых (18–35 лет). Под мигрантами второго поколения понимаются те, кто окончил в России школу и чьи родители приехали из другой страны, независимо от того, родились они в России или переехали в дошкольном или школьном возрасте. В силу полиэтничности региона круги общения мигрантов второго поколения — смешанные, этнические идентификации связаны с номинальными этническими категориями, но инклюзивны, романтические отношения возникают с представителями «иных» этнических категорий, а браки, напротив, чаще заключаются с представителями «своих» категорий. Русским языком мигранты второго поколения владеют свободно, а уровень владения родным языком или языками родителей варьируется. English Abstract: This article examines integration of second-generation migrants from Transcaucasia and Central Asia (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan) in the Tyumen region, namely their social ties, characteristics of their romantic partners and spouses, language competences and ethnic identifications. The empirical basis for the research included 169 interviews with second-generation migrants and experts conducted in eight localities of the region. This fieldwork constitutes a part of a larger project on second-generation migrants in Russia. This project conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods is the first all-Russia endeavour to study secondgeneration migrants aged 18–35 years old. The term «second-generation migrants» refers to individuals, whose parents moved to Russia and who graduated from a Russian school, regardless of whether they were born in Russia or moved to Russia at pre-school or school age. The history of the settlement/development of the region in the Soviet period, when the State played a significant role in attracting labour force from different parts of the USSR, contributed to a high level of polyethnicity in the region. This is reflected in a high level of ethnic diversity of the social ties of second-generation migrants at different life stages. Starting from the school years, secondgeneration migrants in the region continue to communicate in mixed social circles. The share of co-ethnic friends and acquaintances varies but never predominates. Apart from educational institutions, there are two other contexts, which may contribute to changes in the ethnic composition of social circles: mosque and sports activities. Selfidentification according to ethnic categories is common but, due to the ethnic diversity of the region, relevant not for all the informants. Romantic relations, which are much more characteristic of male second-generation migrants, are mostly with non-co-ethnic partners. Conversely, marriages are much more often co-ethnic, which reflects the attitudes of the informants’ parents, although the attitudes of the second-generation migrants in this regard vary. All the informants speak fluent Russian, while the level of their parent’s language(s) proficiency can vary.

The North West London Diabetes Transformation Programme (NWL‐DTP): the journey so far in optimising diabetes care within North West London

AbstractIn this paper we share learning and outcomes from three years of a North West London Diabetes Transformation Programme (NWL‐DTP) across eight clinical commissioning groups.We have evaluated the improvements in care of 77 382 people with diabetes and 71 562 patients with non‐diabetic hyperglycaemia (NDH) between August 2015 and August 2018, based on primary care data from 229 practices.Significant improvements in care have been achieved through active case finding, primary care improvement programmes and closer multidisciplinary working, supported by a clinical and administrative leadership team. Diabetes prevalence increased by 15% from 67 279 to 77 382 while the NDH register increased from 9071 to 71 562. There was an increase in: patients achieving all nine key care processes by 31.1%; HbA1c ≤58mmol/mol by 6.6%; blood pressure ≤140/80mmHg by 3.8%; cholesterol ≤4mmol/L by 6.8%; all three treatment targets by 4.5%; hypoglycaemia monitoring by 81.1%; collaborative care planning by 74.8%; and NDH annual review by 41.3%. North West London was the largest referrer into the National Diabetes Prevention Programme in the UK over this period.The NWL‐DTP has achieved significant improvements in diabetes care in the context of very high levels of ethnic diversity, significant social deprivation and a complex health commissioning environment. Key enablers supporting the widescale transformation have been clinical leadership, digital systems support, patient engagement and commissioner buy‐in. Further evaluation will focus on health care utilisation, costs and complications in order to understand the impact on key diabetes endpoints. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons.

Ethnicity, politics and firm performance: Evidence from Malaysia

Motivated by the inconclusive evidence on the role of ethnic diversity of directors and the limited research, this study examines whether there is an association between board ethnic diversity in Malaysian firms and firm performance. We find that the association between ethnic diversity of boards and firm performance is non-linear; at low levels of ethnic diversity there is a positive association but at higher levels of ethnic diversity, the association is negative. However, when we split the sample into politically and non-politically connected firms, we find that this association only holds for non-politically firms. Further, when we split our politically connected sample into Malay and non-Malay dominant boards, we find generally, that in both groups of firms, board ethnic diversity does not influence firm performance. Overall, these results suggest that the presence of political connection could undermine the role of ethnic diversity in influencing firm performance.

Associational Involvement in Dutch Municipalities and Neighbourhoods: Does Ethnic Diversity Influence Bonding and Bridging Involvement?

We test whether ethnic diversity in Dutch neighbourhoods and municipalities drives down associational involvement and build on earlier research in two important ways. First, we explicitly take into account the ethnic composition of local voluntary associations, distinguishing involvement in bonding (only in-group members) and bridging (with out-group members) associations. Second, we aim to explain relationships between ethnic diversity and associational involvement, testing two competing sets of predictions derived from conflict and contact theories. Using data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (2013), ethnic diversity turns out to hardly affect associational involvement negatively. Only for leisure associations, living in ethnically more diverse municipalities substantially decreases the likelihood to be involved in bonding associations, whereas higher levels of neighbourhood ethnic diversity increase the likelihood to be involved in bridging associations. Moreover, ethnic diversity indirectly affects associational involvement via interethnic contact. Higher levels of ethnic diversity increase interethnic contact which, in turn, is negatively related to involvement in bonding associations. Whereas higher levels of ethnic diversity in neighbourhoods increase perceptions of ethnic threat, these perceptions decrease with higher levels of ethnic diversity in the municipality. Perceptions of ethnic threat do not, however, affect associational involvement. Our results shed more light on the direct and indirect relationships between ethnic diversity and bonding and bridging associational involvement.

Political Competition and Attitudes towards Immigration in Africa

This paper examines the political conditions under which individuals are more likely to oppose immigration. We focus on immigration attitudes in Africa, which has been overlooked in existing literature and where there is wide variation on political factors. Drawing on existing case study literature that links exclusionary politics in that region to on-going processes of political liberalisation, we hypothesise that political competition heightens opposition to immigration by raising the salience of the issue and legitimising hostile attitudes. Using multilevel mixed-effect ordered logistic regression analysis with survey data from African countries, we find that opposition to immigration is significantly higher among individuals in countries that are more democratic, that have dominant party systems, and when the survey is conducted shortly before or after a national election. Our analysis also shows that opposition to immigration is more likely in African countries with higher levels of ethnic diversity and higher levels of economic development. In addition to raising important questions for future cross-regional research, our findings from Africa suggest a need to re-think broader comparative theories about immigration attitudes and to give greater attention to the role of political competition in shaping public opinion.

Heterogeneity and Colonial Governance

Some existing studies argue that indirect colonial rule adversely affects postcolonial development. To analyze the situation under which a colonial power adopts indirect rule to govern a colony, we analyze a delegation model wherein the colonial power decides whether to delegate policy choice to an agent who has an information advantage but has different policy preferences from that of the colonial power. The colonial power decides whether to delegate policy choice in multiple districts, and can acquire information by paying a cost in each district. We show that colonial powers are prone to adopt indirect rule when the heterogeneity among districts is high. The results are a possible explanation for why colonial powers utilized indirect rule in Africa, a region with high levels of ethnic diversity.

Translocal assemblages and the circulation of the concept of “indigenous peoples” in Laos

Laos has long been recognized as a country with a high level of ethnic diversity. At present, the government of Laos recognizes 49 ethnic groups and over 160 sub-groups. Over the last couple of decades the modern concept of “indigenous peoples” has been introduced in Laos, albeit unevenly, partially, and in a quite limited way. The three broadly defined groups that have played important roles in variously promoting the concept of indigenous peoples (xon phao pheun meuang) in Laos are non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multilateral banks (the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank), and United Nations organizations. In this article I employ the analytic of translocal assemblages to examine the ways that the concept of indigeneity is circulating in Laos, and drawing on international and local influences. I briefly examine two issues frequently linked to the indigenous politics: communal land titling and bilingual education, and assess the extent to which new indigenous identities are being adopted in Laos. I present an example of how a Hmong group in the USA with links to Laos is constructing translocal assemblages through an indigenous peoples framework in order to resist the government in Laos. Unlike some other countries in Southeast Asia, which have increasingly embraced the concept, the government of Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has not, preferring instead to acknowledge ethnic diversity, but within a framework that recognizes all ethnic groups as equal.

Being “SMART” About Adolescent Conduct Problems Prevention: Executing a SMART Pilot Study in a Juvenile Diversion Agency

The development of adaptive treatment strategies (ATS) represents the next step in innovating conduct problems prevention programs within a juvenile diversion context. Toward this goal, we present the theoretical rationale, associated methods, and anticipated challenges for a feasibility pilot study in preparation for implementing a full-scale SMART (i.e., sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial) for conduct problems prevention. The role of a SMART design in constructing ATS is presented. The SMART feasibility pilot study includes a sample of 100 youth (13–17 years of age) identified by law enforcement as early stage offenders and referred for precourt juvenile diversion programming. Prior data on the sample population detail a high level of ethnic diversity and approximately equal representations of both genders. Within the SMART, youth and their families are first randomly assigned to one of two different brief-type evidence-based prevention programs, featuring parent-focused behavioral management or youth-focused strengths-building components. Youth who do not respond sufficiently to brief first-stage programming will be randomly assigned a second time to either an extended parent- or youth-focused second-stage programming. Measures of proximal intervention response and measures of potential candidate tailoring variables for developing ATS within this sample are detailed. Results of the described pilot study will include information regarding feasibility and acceptability of the SMART design. This information will be used to refine a subsequent full-scale SMART. The use of a SMART to develop ATS for prevention will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of prevention programing for youth with developing conduct problems.

Sub-Ethnic Identity and Conflict in Nigeria: The Policy Option for the Resolution of the Conflict between Ezza and Ezillo in Ebonyi State

Nigeria’s high level of ethnic diversity can explain the country’s ethnic based conflicts. Scholars have focused attention on explaining these inter-ethnic conflicts using political and linguistic differences as well as patterns of segregation as factors behind the conflicts. However, sub-ethnic identity conflicts are becoming increasingly common in Nigeria today. While such conflicts hardly attract academic attention relative to inter-ethnic conflict, they are capable of yielding theoretical insights into identity formation, ethnic transformation and the questions that border on citizenship. This study, therefore, analyzes the conflict between Ezza and Ezillo in Ebonyi State. It assesses the role of material interest and deep-seated animosity in the conflict between the two communities in a homogenous setting. It argues that the conflicts emanate from the interface between material interest and animosity. Our analysis indicates that the effects are deep-rooted and widespread. The study made use of documents and interviews as its method of data collection. It concludes that political factors, linguistic differences and patterns of ethnic segregation are found to be poor predictors of sub-ethnic identity conflict. It finally proffers a-people-oriented approach to conflict resolution. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n2p681

Ethnic Diversity, Political Stability and Productive Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from the African Countries

AbstractWhile ethnic diversity has been shown to produce numerous negative effects on the economic performance due to disagreement on the production of the public good, nepotism in making employment decisions, increased corruption and rent‐seeking behaviour, its positive effects appear to have received much less attention. We hypothesise and test several explanations why higher levels of ethnic diversity may be associated with better socio‐economic outcomes. We find that productive efficiency will be higher in the societies where ethnicities can benefit from the complementarity of skills. Incentives to engage in an ethnic conflict will be lower and the extent of political stability higher in those countries where the opportunity costs of ethnic conflict are more substantial. We also find some evidence in support of the political aspirations hypothesis that attributes the negative effects of ethnic diversity to the strife by ethnic groups for more political influence.

Characterizing polymorphisms and allelic diversity of von Willebrand factor gene in the 1000 Genomes

The von Willebrand factor (VWF) gene is highly polymorphic, with variants correlated with VWF antigen levels, adhesion activity, clearance and factor VIII binding. VWF mutations are detected in patients with von Willebrand disease (VWD), whereas polymorphic variants could be associated with thrombosis. However, information on the ethnic diversity of VWF variants and their association with diseases is limited. To characterize novel VWF variants from different ethnicities in the general population. We analyzed samples from 1092 subjects of 14 ethnicities available in the 1000 Genomes database for VWF variants and their potential functional impacts. We identified 2728 SNPs and 91 insertions and deletions that had a high level of ethnic diversity, with Africans having the highest number of variants. The highest level of diversity was found in the D' and D2 domains. Among 94 non-synonymous variants, 31 were predicted to be deleterious, including 19 that were previously associated with VWD. Most of these 'VWD variants' had allele frequencies consistent with disease incidence in European subjects, but some had a significantly higher frequency in other ethnicities. The mutations R2185Q, H817Q and M740I associated with type 1 and type 2N VWD were present in more than 13% of African subjects. These results highlight the complexity of VWF variations in different ethnic groups and emphasize the importance of interrogating variations on multiple ethnic backgrounds for associations with bleeding and thrombosis.