High Emigration Rates Research Articles

Residency, home range and tidal habitat use of Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Port Curtis, Australia

To understand habitat requirements of green turtles in an important foraging area subject to both anthropogenic and natural perturbations, we examined residency, home range and habitat use of juvenile, sub-adult and adult green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Port Curtis, Australia, using passive acoustic telemetry. Acoustic tags were attached to turtles at Pelican Banks (n = 33) and Wiggins Island (n = 16). Between May 2013 and September 2014, tagged turtles were detected > 1.3 million times by 46 acoustic receivers. Data demonstrated variability in residence index and home range size between Pelican Banks and Wiggins Island that was largely attributed to larger body size at Pelican Banks and habitat differences. Tide had a significant influence of movement and habitat use. At Pelican Banks turtles moved into intertidal seagrass beds at high tide and retreated to the channel at low tide. At Wiggins Island, high tide 50% KUD area was more than double low tide area and turtles moved into the mangroves at high tide and retreated to channels at low tide. Diet reflected availability of food resources; seagrass dominated diet at Pelican Banks whereas epiphytic red algae dominated diet at Wiggins Island. There was no evidence of a diurnal shift in home range or habitat use. The use of intertidal areas by both turtles and small recreational craft during high tide at Pelican Banks resulted in increased risk of vessel strike. Unusually short residency at Pelican Banks suggested that animals had either relocated to another foraging area or a combination of recent flooding, port development and reduced seagrass coverage during the period of monitoring resulted in higher emigration rates than previously demonstrated for this species. Acoustic telemetry is a valuable tool for obtaining fine-scale, long- term data on movement and residency of green turtles.

The Interaction and Impact of Social Support and Father Absence on Breastfeeding.

Background: Behaviors related to early childhood nutrition are influenced by a mother's social environment. In many low- and middle-income countries, breastfeeding rates have steadily declined. At the same time, many communities have a history of domestic or international migration that affects the family support systems for women and children remaining in these communities. While social support has been shown to be important to health behaviors conducive to maternal and child health, scant research examines whether social support moderates the impact of an absent father on breastfeeding. Objective: We aim to assess the relationship between father absence and breastfeeding duration and test whether social support moderates the impact of father absence on breastfeeding duration. Methods: We use data from the Social Networks and Health Information Survey (n = 292), a random household survey conducted in a municipality in Guanajuato, Mexico, to estimate Poisson regression models of breastfeeding duration. Results: In multivariate models, an absent father is negatively associated with breastfeeding, whereas social support is positively associated. A significant and positive interaction between father absence and social support suggests that at high levels of support, breastfeeding duration for women with absent fathers does not appear to be meaningfully different from women with present fathers. This suggests that receiving high levels of social support during pregnancy may mitigate the absence of the child's father. Conclusions: Social support interventions for mothers of infants should target mothers and children in households without a father. More research should also be directed at understanding how social support processes during pregnancy can affect breastfeeding in other low- and middle-income countries with high rates of emigration.

ДЕЦА ДЕВЕДЕСЕТИХ У ВОЈВОДИНИ: МЕШОВИТИ БРАКОВИ И ЕТНИЧКИ ИДЕНТИТЕТ

The 1990s Yugoslav wars avoided armed conflicts in Vojvodina, the multiethnic Northern province of Serbia,but the war still bears its consequences. Some argue that the province avoided escalation partly because of the relatively high rate of ethnic intermarriages in the Yugoslav era, which acted as bonds and bridges between the Serbs and ethnic minorities. The 1990s state-funded (Serbian) nationalist propaganda did have detrimental effects on Vojvodinian ethnic minorities which are facing high emigration rates since the 1990s. Ethnic minority millennials might be the group most adversely affected by the 1990s wars, facing open nationalism, alienation, and sidelining. One milestone event in the lives of intermarriage-born millennials was the choice of language instruction (majority or minority) when enrolling in elementary school and secondary school as well. The research aimed to investigate the education element of the many-faceted framework shaping the decisions of parents and the effects those decisions had on millennials and their identity construction. The analysis was based on semi-structured interviews conducted with millennials born into (Serbian – Hungarian) intermarriages and/or exhibiting high levels of acculturation. The findings show that the respondents who enrolled in elementary school in Serbian departed from the ethnic minority group, and even if they cultivated the ethnic minority language, it became a tool for further career advancement, not a bond with their minority group. Interviewees who enrolled in elementary school in a minority language preserved a stronger bond with the ethnic minority group and essentially built an ethnic minority identity. Both groups, regardless of the language of instructions, faced nationalismfuelled incidents during their schooling, which inevitably made them more insecure and vulnerable.

Effects of Migration and Human Capital Formation in Albania

Albania has one of the world’s highest emigration rates, relative to its population, at -3.3 migrants per 1,000 people, and a total migrant population of more than 1.25 million in 2014, according to UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs data. In 2010 Albania was granted with visa-free travel to the Schengen area and this also affected the crossing of the borders and the circular migration across the land border between Greece and Albania was for many years, one of the most significant irregular migratory flows across the EU’s external borders. Although during the last years it is observed an increase number of return migrants, Albanian citizens continued to migrate and it is observed an increase of the number during 2014, and the new trend now is requesting asylum in EU member states increased during 2014. According to EUROSTAT data show that 65,000 Albanians applied for asylum in 2015, 55,000 of them sought asylum in Germany and 99 percent of Albanian asylum requests have been refused from European countries, half of them belong to the age group 18 – 34 years old. Due to the poor economic and living conditions in Albania, the labor market in Albania is still vulnerable and it affects the on-going migrant flows from Albania to the most developed labor markets of other countries. These migrant flows are directly linked with labor market development especially level of unemployment and poverty. Migration in Albania has major development impact and poverty implications in several levels. It has effects for individuals and their families, for origin and destination countries, and the national economy. At the individual level it shows that migrants benefit economically from their movements, their migration leads to better employment opportunities and income; at the household level in the home country migration reduces poverty at the family level and positively contributes to human capital formation, and improving education and healthcare conditions. Migration also has effects at the national level, bringing positive changes to the national economy.

Investigation of Students’ Attitudes Towards Entrepreneurship, Career Path Abroad and Their Life Satisfaction

Youth entrepreneurship is considered an essential tool to unleash the economic growth of countries and diminish the high rates of youth emigration in southeast Europe. This paper is based on the data collected as part of the INTERGEN project on the attitudes of young people related to entrepreneurship and the development of family businesses carried out at twelve universities in six countries (Pavlov & Zagorcheva, 2020). The main objective of the paper is to reveal findings of the entrepreneurial attitude of students and the differences between this attitude and variables such as sex, age, the field of study, and country. Also, the paper presents the desire of students to pursue a career abroad, their life satisfaction, and analyze differences between these attitudes and variables such as age, gender, the field of study, and country. Data were generated by a sample of 1382 students from 12 universities in Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Romani, Russia, and Serbia. Responses from the survey were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings disclose those female students, older students, and those who pursue business studies are more inclined to become entrepreneurs compared to their peers. The results show that there is no significant difference between the desire to develop a career abroad and variables such as age, gender, and field of study. Findings prove that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the students’ entrepreneurial attitude and life satisfaction. The paper clearly shows that students from different countries expressed different levels of entrepreneurial attitudes, life satisfaction, and desire to develop a career abroad.

Understanding Pakhtun Woman’s Vulnerability in Negotiation with their Husbands for HIV/AIDS Screening

Unequal treatment of females within families is a common phenomenon and is a core concern of feminist perspectives (Macionis, 2012; Haralambos & Holborn, 2013). In patriarchal societies women are not welcome to discuss and negotiate with men (Thompson, 1998), and this pattern prevails in private relationships as well (Saunders et al. 2017). Framed under qualitative research design, this study aims to understand Pakhtun women’s vulnerability in negotiation with their husbands for HIV/AIDS screening in Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Purposive sampling technique has been utilized to select samples from the population of interest whereby a total of 8 samples were selected in reaching the saturation point. For collection of the information, an interview guide was designed with relevance to the research questions of the current study. The collected information has been analyzed thematically. Findings show that women exercise limited sexual authority and men are in control when it comes to personal relationships. There is very much less space for women to discuss and negotiate with men regarding use of precautionary measures. Men consider discussion and negotiation as a competing behavior from women. Thereby women are apprehended of problems in marital relationships and angry reply from husbands in discussing and negotiating with men regarding private family relationships and use of precautionary measures. Men being vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the study area due to high rate of emigration and inability of women to discuss and negotiate regarding screening tests and use of precautionary measures are increasing the spread of HIV/AIDS among families.

Medical brain drain: How many, where and why?

We build a new database documenting the evolution of physician migration over a period of 25 years (1990–2014), and use it to empirically shed light on its determinants. In relative terms, the highest emigration rates are observed in small island nations and low-income countries, where needs-based deficits of healthcare workers are often estimated to be most severe. Over time, we identify rising trends in Caribbean islands, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. On the contrary, despite increasing migration flows to Western Europe, physician migration rates from sub-Saharan Africa have been stable or even decreasing. Our empirical analysis reveals that physician migration is a complex phenomenon that results from a myriad of push, pull, and dyadic factors. It is strongly affected by the economic characteristics of origin and destination countries. The sensitivity to these push and pull factors is governed by linguistic and geographic ties between countries. Interestingly, we find that the evolution of medical brain drain is affected by immigration policies aimed at attracting high-skilled workers. In particular, physician migration is sensitive to visa restrictions, diploma recognition, points-based system, tax breaks towards migrants, and the option of obtaining a permanent resident status.

Hospital doctors in Ireland and the struggle for work-life balance.

Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Challenging working conditions and poor work–life balance, particularly in the hospital sector, are often cited as a driver. The aim of this study was to obtain insight into hospital doctors’ experiences of work and of work–life balance. In late 2019, a stratified random sample of hospital doctors participated in an anonymous online survey, distributed via the national Medical Register (overall response rate 20%; n = 1070). This article presents a qualitative analysis of free-text questions relating to working conditions (n = 469) and work–life balance (n = 314). Results show that respondent hospital doctors, at all levels of seniority, were struggling to achieve balance between work and life, with work–life imbalance and work overload being the key issues arising. Work–life imbalance has become normalized within Irish hospital medicine. Drawing on insights from respondent hospital doctors, this study reflects on the sustainability of this way of working for the individual doctors, the medical workforce and the Irish health system. If health workforce planning is about getting the right staff with the right skills in the right place at the right time to deliver care, work–life balance is about maintaining doctor wellbeing and encouraging their retention.

Hospital doctors and the struggle for work-life balance: the case of Ireland

Abstract Background Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Difficult working conditions, particularly in the hospital sector, are often cited as a driver of doctor emigration. In October 2019, a random sample of Ireland's hospital doctors were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their working conditions. Methods The survey was distributed via the national Medical Register (with the assistance of the Medical Council of Ireland). Invitations were sent to 5356 hospital doctors, stratified by registration status (including interns, trainees, those not in training and consultants). An overall response rate of 20% was achieved (N = 1070). This paper focusses on responses to two free-text survey questions: (1) Do you have any other comments about your work-life balance? (N = 314). (2) Do you have any other comments on your working conditions as a hospital doctor? (N = 469). Results Respondent hospital doctors, at all levels of seniority, were struggling to achieve a balance between work and life. Of the free-text responses received, 8/10 were negative, with work-life balance/imbalance and work-overload being the issues arising most frequently. Respondents discussed how long and unpredictable working hours, combined with a high level of work intensity, meant that they often spent their personal time recovering from work. Conclusions Poor work-life balance has become normalised within Irish hospital medicine. The findings call to action to critically reflect on the sustainability of this way of working for the individual doctors, the wider workforce and the Irish health system.

Challenges posed by COVID-19 to the health of people with disabilities living in residential care facilities in Romania

In this contribution, I discuss potential risk to the health of people with disabilities in residential care institutions during the COVID-19 outbreak by looking at evidence from Romania. As an academic who has studied deinstitutionalization of services for people with disabilities in Romania, I argue that residential care institutions for people with disabilities are at risk of becoming sites for community contagion with COVID-19. These institutions are often located in remote and economically peripheral areas of the country that have been characterized by high rates of outmigration. Now, these are becoming areas of intense return migration. Community contagion in adjacent locations can easily spill over to residential institutions through care and health workers’ trajectories. Once spread to residential institutions, COVID-19 has a high chance of adversely affecting the health of residents with disabilities. It is vital to ensure disabled people’s health and wellbeing through adequate contagion prevention measures.

US Migration Status of Adult Children and Cognitive Decline Among Older Parents Who Remain in Mexico.

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are experiencing rapid aging, a growing dementia burden, and relatively high rates of out-migration among working-age adults. Family member migration status may be a unique societal determinant of cognitive aging in LMIC settings. We aimed to evaluate the association between adult child US migration status and change in cognitive performance scores using data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study, a population-based, national-level cohort study of Mexico adults aged ≥50 years at baseline (2001), with 2-, 12-, and 14-year follow-up waves (2003, 2012, and 2015). Cognitive performance assessments were completed by 5,972 and 4,939 respondents at 11 years and 14 years of follow-up, respectively. For women, having an adult child in the United States was associated with steeper decline in verbal memory scores (e.g., for 9-year change in immediate verbal recall z score, marginal risk difference (RD) = -0.09 (95% confidence interval (CI): -0.16, -0.03); for delayed verbal recall z score, RD = -0.10 (95% CI: -0.17, -0.03)) and overall cognitive performance (for overall cognitive performance z score, RD = -0.04, 95% CI: -0.07, -0.00). There were mostly null associations for men. To our knowledge, this is the first study to have evaluated the association between family member migration status and cognitive decline; future work should be extended to other LMICs facing population aging.

EL VOTO PARAGUAYO DESDE EL EXTERIOR COMO PARTE DEL PROCESO DEMOCRÁTICO

Three decades after the beginning of the democratization process in Paraguay, multiple political rights are still curtailed or restricted for Paraguayan citizens; such is the case of the right to vote from abroad, a fundamental political feature for democratic regimes in the current context of the globalization process. The paper describes the legal-political process that introduced the formal right of Paraguayans to vote from abroad in national elections, as a consequence of the first amendment of the Paraguayan Constitution, in 2011. In that year, the right to vote of Paraguayans residing outside their country was officially recognized with the publication of decree 7.671 of the Executive Branch. The entry into force of this political right has so far resulted in two experiences, in the electoral processes of 2013 and 2018, allowing Paraguayans residing in Argentina, Spain, the United States and Brazil to vote through polling stations in some of the main cities. The quantitative and qualitative impact of the vote from abroad in these two elections is also analyzed, as well as the transformations and consequences that this fact has on the Paraguayan electoral process, considering the high emigration rate of the country which could possibly have, in the medium or long term, a decisive influence in the results of the national elections; the work also addresses the factors that affect the participation of this emigration, establishing hypotheses about the impact it could have in future elections.

The Impact of Moth Migration on Apparent Fecundity Overwhelms Mating Disruption as a Method to Manage Spruce Budworm Populations

Aerial applications of a registered formulation of synthetic spruce budworm female sex pheromone were made in 2008, 2013 and 2014 to disrupt mating in populations of this forest insect pest in Quebec, Canada. Each year, the applications resulted in a 90% reduction in captures of male spruce budworm moths in pheromone-baited traps. A commensurate reduction in mating success among virgin females held in individual cages at mid-crown of host trees was also obtained. However, there was no reduction in the populations of eggs or overwintering larvae in the following generation (late summer and fall). The failure of this approach as a viable tactic for spruce budworm population reduction could have resulted from considerable immigration of mated females, as evidenced by high rates of immigration and emigration that caused steep negative relationships between apparent fecundity and the density of locally emerged adults.

Assessment of the impact of emigration on the origin economy

Our article concentrates to the main aim – to assess the impact of emigration on an origin economy. This topic was chosen because the theoretical research has disclosed that the positive impact of emigration usually manifests through monetary transfers to a native country while the negative impact mainly emerges as a reduction in the labour force, which, in its turn, causes deterioration of a country’s demographic and economic situation. It has been found that the growing flows of emigration significantly reduce Lithuanian population and cause “brain drain”. High emigration rates also have a negative impact on Lithuanian national economy, in particular, its unemployment rate (the opposite effect). To reduce the rates of emigration from the country, Lithuania must develop and improve such ALPM’s elements as combination of work and dual vocational training, targeted selection of the industries for arrangement of an apprenticeship, manual training, dual vocational training and workplace training, segmentation of the unemployed by the indications of employment impediment, individual work with the unemployed to restore their basic skills (motivation, practice, health improvement), vocational guidance of young people (students) and early involvement of students into the labour market by combining studies and work.

Coupling acoustic tracking with conventional tag returns to estimate mortality for a coastal flatfish with high rates of emigration

The addition of acoustic telemetry to conventional tagging studies can generate direct estimates of mortality and movement rates to inform fisheries management. We applied a combined telemetry and tag-return design to southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma), a coastal flatfish that demonstrates limited movements within estuarine habitats coupled with extensive ontogenetic migrations that present unique challenges for estimating mortality rates. The fates of acoustically and conventionally tagged fish were followed during 2014–2016 to estimate annual rates of fishing mortality (F), natural mortality (M), and estuarine emigration (E). Multistate models estimated southern flounder annual F for each of the 3 years at two spatial scales (New River estuary F = 0.49–1.61; North Carolina coast F = 0.36–0.72). Annual rates of emigration were high (E = 1.06–1.67), and direct estimation of this source of loss considerably improved mortality estimates. The model estimated natural mortality as a constant annual rate (M = 0.84), which was similar in magnitude to life-history-based estimates for similar age groups. By accounting for unique behavioral attributes in the study design, the application of multistate tagging models provided robust estimates of mortality and emigration rates for a valuable coastal fishery resource that will inform future efforts to achieve yield and conservation goals.

Sons or Daughters? The Impact of Children's Migration on the Health and Well-Being of Parents Left Behind

We study the impact of adult children's internal migration on the health and subjective well-being of elderly parents left behind, distinguishing between the gender of the migrant children. To overcome migration endogeneity, we exploit novel and exogenous variation in children's astrological characteristics and apply instrumental variables methods. We find a positive effect of the migration of daughters on parents' health and life satisfaction, but no such beneficial effects when sons migrate. We further explore the mechanism through which this gender-biased migration effect may arise. Our findings have important implications for regions and countries that have high rates of female emigration.

Migration and geopolitical preferences

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the impact of work experience abroad on migrants’ geopolitical preferences. For this purpose, I analyze representative survey data from Moldova, a country caught in an ideological battle between Russia and the West, with high emigration rates to both destinations. In a first step, I show that return migrants from the West are significantly more likely to support European Union (EU) accession than non-migrants, while return migrants from the East are more likely to support closer ties with Russia, controlling for economic, demographic, and ethnic confounding factors. In a second step, I use district-level variation in migrant networks as an instrument for individual migration. Second-stage regressions show that work experience in the West increases support for EU accession, while no evidence of causal effects is found for work experience in the East. Differences in information exposure and migration policies between the EU and Russia may explain this asymmetry.

Natal habitat conditions have carryover effects on dispersal capacity and behavior

AbstractLocal habitat quality affects regional dynamics, including metapopulation persistence and speciation, by altering dispersal. However, most previous studies have not been able to determine whether dispersal is more strongly affected by habitat quality experienced at the dispersal stage, or carryover effects of habitat quality from previous life stages. Strong carryover effects will cause dispersal to be temporally disconnected from its drivers, altering the impact of dispersal on metapopulation dynamics, and potentially complicating empirical estimates of context‐dependent dispersal. Here, we used a fully factorial mesocosm experiment to assess how both habitat quality experienced during development and at adulthood affected emigration in adult backswimmers (Notonecta undulata). We found strong carryover effects of natal habitat quality on dispersal; individuals from high‐quality natal environments had higher emigration rates than individuals from low‐quality natal environments. However, emigration did not depend on adult habitat quality. This suggests that conditions experienced during development can outweigh the effects of habitat quality at later life stages, resulting in time lags between environmental triggers and the onset of dispersal behavior. If there are critical life stages at which dispersal rates are determined, habitat quality at those stages may have outsized impacts on biological dynamics in spatiotemporally variable landscapes.

Genetic diversity of common Gasterophilus spp. from distinct habitats in China

BackgroundGasterophilus species are widely distributed around the world. The larvae of these flies parasitize the digestive tract of equids and cause damage, hindering horse breeding and protection of endangered species. However, study of the genetic structure of geographically distinct Gasterophilus populations is lacking. Here, we analyzed the genetic diversity of Gasterophilus pecorum, G. intestinalis, G. nasalis and G. nigricornis from three typical grasslands (meadow, desert and alpine steppes) in China as compared to published sequences from Italy, Poland and China (Daqing and Yili), based on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase cox1 and cox2 gene sequences.ResultsHaplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity of mitochondrial genes was generally high in all Gasterophilus populations. Due to the unique natural climatic conditions of the alpine steppe, there were high levels of genetic differentiation among different geographical populations of G. pecorum and G. nasalis, indicating that environmental variations influenced population genetic structure. Frequent exchanges between meadow and desert steppe Gasterophilus species resulted in low genetic differentiation. The highest exchange rates were found among G. intestinalis populations. Genetic differentiation was only observed on a large geographical scale, which was confirmed by analyzing population genetic structure. Three species, G. pecorum, G. intestinalis and G. nasalis, from meadow steppe showed a high emigration rate, indicating that the direction of Gasterophilus dispersal in China was from east to west.ConclusionsOur results show that the four Gasterophilus species have a high level of genetic diversity and different degrees of genetic differentiation and gene flow among different populations of the same species, reflecting their potential to adapt to the environment and the environmental impact on genetic structure. Knowledge of the genetic structure, population history, and migration will help understand the occurrence and prevalence of gasterophilosis and provide a basis for controlling the local spread of Gasterophilus spp.

Challenges and opportunities for monitoring wild Nile crocodiles with scute mark-recapture photography

The global conservation status of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) was last assessed in 1996. The species presents particular difficulty in monitoring because it can be cryptic, require expertise to handle, and caudal tail tags and transmitters are often lost. Some studies advocate mark-recapture techniques based on photograph identification of the unique scute markings of crocodile tails as a non-invasive means of monitoring their populations. Researchers developed this method with crocodiles in captivity. In this study, we test the technique under field conditions by monitoring crocodiles from 2015 to 2017 in the Sunset Dam in the Kruger National Park. Using a Cormack-Jolly-Seber open population model, we found that the dam may host 15–30 individuals, but that there is a high turnover of individuals and much uncertainty in model outputs. The dam’s population thus has high rates of immigration and emigration. The method proved challenging under field conditions, as there was bias in identifying scute markings consistently. The efficient use of the method requires an exceptional quality of photographic equipment. Animal crypsis, however, remains an issue. In this study, we discuss how to improve the mark-recapture photography methodology, especially to adapt the technique for citizen science initiatives.Conservation implications: Using scute mark-recapture photography presents challenges under field conditions. These challenges require innovative, practical and analytical solutions to successfully use the technique before monitoring programmes, aimed at ensuring the persistence of crocodiles in the wild, can be implemented.