Inclusion Of Immigrants Research Articles

Re-thinking urban citizenship for immigrants from a policy perspective: the case of Barcelona

This article proposes that the role of cities in immigrant integration be reconsidered through the prism of urban citizenship, looking at how local policies co-regulate immigrants’ status, rights and identity. It argues that urban citizenship connects two dominant understandings of citizenship, as city governments are under pressure to reconcile the normative perspective of formal membership of the state with the claims for rights expressed by excluded parts of the urban citizenry. A case study of an inclusive way of regulating citizenship in Barcelona illustrates how a citizenship perspective can cast light on the specific ways in which cities regulate immigrant citizenship in interaction with higher levels of government, and highlights some of the levers cities possess to modify the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion of immigrants locally.

The Concept of the Åland Islands’ Regional Citizenship and Its Impact on the Inclusion of Migrants

This article explores how the minority protection regime affects immigrants in the Åland Islands, focusing on the institution of regional citizenship. Is the inclusion of migrants in the Åland Islands of Finland affected by this institution? The article reviews the historical foundations of the minority protection regime, its legislative development, and contemporary debates surrounding the Åland Islands’ institution of regional citizenship. It argues that the right of domicile of the Åland Islands should not be considered a barrier to inclusion for immigrants although it is in part tied to political rights, as well as to the right to acquire property and trade in the Islands. Contemporary debates on the link between the right of domicile and Finnish citizenship attest to the contested nature of this marginal regional citizenship, which, to the extent it performs an exclusionary function, depends on the construction of national citizenship.

Constructing a Language Problem: Status-based Power Devaluation and the Threat of Immigrant Inclusion

Opposition to immigrant inclusion is often grounded in a “Latino threat” narrative that portrays Latino immigrants and their descendants as incapable of assimilation and “undeserving” of the benefits of citizenship. Are nativist reactions to this narrative strongest where immigrants are lagging behind in cultural assimilation, or where they are actually making the greatest gains? Two competing logics of status threat are tested through an analysis of county-level voting returns on California’s Proposition 227. Status politics theories predict higher antibilingual support where immigrants are failing to learn English. In contrast, the status devaluation argument leads to the counterintuitive prediction that support should be highest where language assimilation rates are high. Although we might expect that the claims of the Latino threat narrative would be least appealing where objective circumstances refute them, findings suggest that the resonance of such claims can be amplified in settings where they are furthest from the truth. The theoretical argument advanced helps explain why nativist policies continue to generate broad appeal at a time when immigrants are rapidly assimilating.

Mennonite partnerships: Two ethnographic case studies

This article brings cultural anthropology into conversation with theological reflection around the notion of partnership, focused on two case studies: the first examines Mennonite institutions in the United States working for inclusion of new immigrants from Latin America; the second considers the international community development work of the Mennonite Central Committee in a rural area of Bolivia. In both cases, humanitarian impulses galvanized action aimed towards the construction of horizontal power relations for social and economic justice. In both cases as well, however, the concentration of economic resources along with deeply embedded assumptions about ethnic and cultural difference made substantive equality in partnership difficult to sustain. Close attention to these challenges can shed light on ways in which Christian organizations can at least mitigate, if not resolve, the deeply entrenched power differences that have historically plagued engagement and partnerships across the world.

Intercultural Mediation as a strategy to facilitate relations between the School and Immigrant Families

The contribution focuses on the role of intercultural mediator as a facilitator of relationships between the school and immigrant families. The perspective of interculturalism in schools represents the political and educational response to the challenges of the multicultural society. In this task, strategies of intercultural mediation have been adopted in the schools in order to develop links and promote effective relationships between people from different cultures. In particular, an intercultural mediator (also called a ‘community interpreter’ or a ‘cultural linguistic’ or ‘cross-cultural mediator’ in certain contexts) is an operator in charge of facilitating communication between individuals, families, and community as part of measures to promote and facilitate the social inclusion of immigrants. As a mediator between immigrants and the society of reception, he/she promotes the removal of cultural and language barriers, the development of a culture of openness, inclusion and the advocacy of rights, and observance of the duties of citizenship. Moreover he/she facilitates the expression of immigrants’ needs on the one hand, and the characteristics, resources, and constraints of the welfare system on the other. Finally some key results of quantitative research in Italy are presented with regard to biographical and professional experience of intercultural mediators active in the Italian school system.

Immigrants and Autochthonous People in the Italian Labor Market: A Comparative Study

The inclusion of immigrants in local labor markets is a complex process that is influenced by the local labor market’s structural and individual characteristics, social networks and migratory projects. We test the contrasting assimilation hypothesis with the segmented assimilation hypothesis and verify the presence of ethnic penalties among immigrants who originate from specific countries/areas. We use data from the Continuous Survey on the Italian Labor Forces to compare the levels of employment and the conditions of immigrants with natives in the Italian labor market in 2010. Subsequently, we focus on the main determinants of time-related underemployment and underqualified employment. The results show that immigrants assume higher risks than native Italians of experiencing the worst conditions. The results also suggest that the segmented assimilation theory applies to the Italian case. Given the existing geographical gradient in the Italian productive system, the economic sector of employment plays an important role in the working conditions that affect men and women differently. Immigrants are unable to improve their occupational situation over time, and the gap between their educational levels and employment positions persists. Moreover, the risk to be “trapped” in underqualified employment is amplified for immigrants who originate from specific countries/areas, which suggests the presence of ethnic penalties.

“French or foreign, so long as they be mothers”: Immigrant Women, Welfare, and the Politics of Pronatalism in Interwar Paris

This article examines two private welfare organizations in interwar Paris, the Foyer Francais, an early immigrant aid society, and the League for the Protection of Abandoned Mothers, a maternalist welfare agency. It analyzes interactions between middle-class French social workers and their working-class foreign clients to demonstrate that the politics of populationism pervasive in interwar France mitigated those class, cultural, and racial barriers that so often beset interactions between welfare agents and their clients in Europe and the United States. On the contrary, I show that the strength of pronatalist sentiment allowed for the formation of cross-class, cross-national alliances between French welfare agents and their foreign female charges, even during the depressed 1930s. This article thus reveals how the world of welfare functioned as a site of inclusion for immigrants in France and suggests how further research can complicate our understanding of gendered dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion.

Variazioni e negoziazioni di significato attraverso l’inglese ‘lingua franca’ in contesti migratori

Abstract – ELF used in immigration domains typically reflects the different cognitive and communicative processes as well as the power/status asymmetries involved in cross-cultural situations of unequal encounters between non-western supplicants (i.e., African immigrants and asylum seekers) and western (Italian) experts in authority. Such situations will be here explored with reference to institutional contexts where the conditions for achieving successful communication through the use of ELF variations are biased against the participants’ different native linguacultural backgrounds from which they appropriate English without conforming to native speaker norms of usage. A number of case studies will illustrate the extent to which features of ELF usages may be perceived as formally deviating and socio-pragmatically inappropriate in intercultural communication – this being due to the participants’ lack of acknowledgement of each other’s ELF variations – thus giving rise to misunderstandings that often raise social and ethical issues about inequality and social justice. More specifically, the case studies will enquire, on the one hand, into the processes by which ELF users transfer typological, textual, lexical and logical features of their native languages and cultures to the domain-specific communication they are involved in, thus affecting their pragmalinguistic behaviours and interpretative strategies, leading ultimately to communication failure. On the other hand, some case studies will enquire into possible ‘hybridization strategies’ of written reformulation aimed at making ELF discourse conceptually accessible and socio-pragmatically acceptable to immigrants and refugees involved in the interaction, by making it conform to their different native linguacultural backgrounds, with the ultimate purpose of achieving a ‘mutual accommodation’ of ELF variations in order to promote the social inclusion of marginalized immigrants as well as raise awareness among intercultural mediators operating in such situations of power asymmetry of the possible discourse strategies that can improve mutual intelligibility through ELF.

Immigrant Inclusion in the Safety Net: A Framework for Analysis and Effects on Educational Attainment

Across states, there is substantial variation in the degree to which immigrants and their children are offered public assistance. We present a theoretical framework for analyzing the effects of policy decisions about immigrant inclusion. We apply the framework to investigate the effect of the state safety net on educational attainment. We focus on the years following welfare reform in 1996, when states gained considerable autonomy over welfare policy, including decisions about the eligibility of immigrant residents. Leveraging state‐level data from before and after reform, we estimate a difference‐in‐difference model to identify the effect of variation in immigrant inclusivity on educational attainment. We find that when states broaden the inclusivity of the social safety net to immigrants, young Latinos are more likely to graduate from high school. This effect is present beyond the group of Latino residents who receive additional benefits, suggesting that policy decisions about immigrants spill over to broader communities and communicate broader messages about social inclusion to racial and ethnic groups. We find similar patterns among Asian youth, but not among black and non‐Hispanic white youth. We conclude that immigrant inclusion has consequences for the life prospects of the growing population of youth in high‐immigrant ethnic groups.

Do we need them? When immigrant communities are perceived as indispensable to national identity or functioning of the host society

AbstractThis study proposed a new perspective to look at the consequences of the formation of immigrant communities in globalized societies, by investigating the impact of two forms of group indispensability on majority attitudes towards immigrants. Specifically, it explored whether perceived indispensability of different immigrant groups to the national identity and their contributions to the functioning of the host society are related to the development of more positive attitudes towards them. We also explored whether such effects would be mediated by the inclusion of immigrants within the national common identity and whether these effects would be stronger among host country members with a stronger civic than ethnic conception of national citizenship. Results supported these predictions among a sample of native Portuguese citizens (N = 118). As predicted, these effects were driven by perceptions of different types of indispensability for three immigrant groups in Portugal, who differed in their historical relations with the host society.

Immigration and educational inclusion: Preliminary evidence from three schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This exploratory comparative case study examines three schools in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires that have a considerable number of recent immigrant students. The article illustrates how these schools advance ideas of inclusiveness and pluralism through the curriculum and educational opportunities, as mandated by the national education law of 2006 and current core curricular standards. The study draws on data from participant observations and semi-structured interviews with administrators and teachers, gathered between 2009 and 2010. Preliminary results show inconsistent practices across schools, leaving many immigrant students ill-prepared and unsupported to become acculturated into Argentine society. This inconsistency appears to stem, at least in part, from two factors: the schools’ missions and organizational practices; and lack of teacher in-service training and sufficient support from the city’s central administration.

More Than Just Refugees—A Historical Overview of Vietnamese Professional Immigration to the United States

This article seeks to broaden the scholarly literature on contemporary Vietnamese America with the inclusion of new Vietnamese immigrants who have come to the United States as professionals. It illuminates the nuanced ways in which diplomatic educational channels have always enabled privileged Vietnamese to enjoy a US education and gain access to US settlement. It also makes visible the political and social contexts in which the American-bound migration is articulated with the discourse of nation and empire. The article thus argues for a reexamination of the factors shaping contemporary Vietnamese American identity and for the need to place Vietnamese immigration within broader genealogies of Asian migration to the United States.

Migration and validation of non-formal and informal learning in Europe: Inclusion, exclusion or polarisation in the recognition of skills?

This article explores (1) the degree to which immigrants can be considered dominant groups in the area of validation of non-formal and informal learning and are subject to specific validation measures in 33 European countries; (2) whether country clusters can be identified within Europe with regard to the dominance of immigrants in the area of validation; and (3) whether validation systems are likely to lead to the inclusion of immigrants or foster a process of “devaluation” of their skills and competences in their host countries. Based on the European Inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning project (chiefly its 2014 update) as well as a review of 124 EU-funded (Lifelong Learning Programme and European Social Fund) validation projects, the authors present the following findings: (1) in the majority of European countries, immigrants are not a dominant group in the area of validation. (2) In terms of country clusters, Central European and Nordic countries tend to consider immigrants a dominant target group for validation to a greater extent than Southern and Eastern European countries. (3) Finally, few initiatives aim to ensure that immigrants’ skills and competences are not devalued in their host country, and those initiatives which are in place benefit particularly those defined as “highly skilled” individuals, on the basis of their productive potential. There is, thus, a “low road” and a “high road” to validation, leading to a process of polarisation in the recognition of the skills and competences of immigrants.

Group Boundaries, Immigrant Inclusion, and the Politics of Immigrant–Native Relations

In multiethnic nation-states experiencing new flows of immigrants, political officials and citizens alike have expressed hostility in the form of demonstrations, campaigns, vandalism, and even policies. Yet local communities have also displayed public support for immigrants in the form of protests and advocacy efforts. Past literature has almost exclusively focused on anti-immigrant activity, using theories of group threat and competition, which suggest that new influxes or large concentrations of immigrants should prompt dominant groups to protect their interests, leading to anti-immigrant attitudes and behaviors. We extend the literature by focusing on pro-immigrant behavior, which we define as efforts initiated by established local residents and organizations to include immigrants in the larger community and/or to improve the lives of immigrants. In contrast to theories of group threat, we put forth the group inclusion model, and contend that demographic and political “threats” operate to break down rather than bolster group boundaries. We also find that when the increasing demographic and political presence of immigrants is coupled with the visibility of immigration, immigrant inclusion thrives. Using a data set of pro-immigrant collective action across 52 U.S. metropolitan areas, we generally find support for our model, and discuss the broader implications for immigrant–native relations.

Multiculturalism as the Normative Context of Immigrant Reception: Somali Immigrant Inclusion in Lewiston, Maine

Drawing on data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork, I examine the process of normative incorporation as it occurs through the establishment of group recognition and representation among a new immigrant group settling in a new immigrant destination. I argue that Somali immigrant incorporation in the small, white American, new destination city of Lewiston, Maine was characterised by (1) the recognition of and partnership with Somali organisations and individuals who might represent the Somali community; (2) tensions between the assumed homogeneity of the Somali community and the reality of limited group cohesiveness; and (3) declining concerns about the authentic leadership position of representative organisations and increasing interest in working with an organisation that embodied the ideals of multiculturalism. I show that these organisational struggles shaped the development of a public, secular Somaliness that fit the parameters of the mainstream and undercut attention to practical challenges of Somali immigrant incorporation. My observations provide insight into the multicultural context of immigrant reception in other locations and among other immigrant groups.

Multilingual Practices of Senegalese Immigrants in Rome: Construction of Identities and Negotiation of Boundaries

While African immigrants and Italians of African descent have become more visible in Italian society since the 1980s, Italian culture and identity are still largely understood by majority white Italians in terms of race, nationhood, and family history. Overwhelmingly absent from these national discussions concerning the inclusion of immigrants, foreign residents, and so-called non-Italian citizens in society are the very people at the center of these debates. To give voice to some of these individuals, this article explores how a specific group, the Senegalese community in Rome, conceptualizes and understands identity formation as foreigners and as linguistic, racial and ethnic minorities through the lens of Applied Linguistics. Through analysis of code-switching in qualitative ethnographic data collected in the spring of 2010, I show how multilingual practices illustrate these immigrants’ understandings of inclusion/exclusion and how these notions intersect with ideas about blackness. Therefore, this essay calls into question the static, exclusionary narrative on national identity and shows the ways in which the Senegalese community in Rome inserts formulations of blackness in the conversation. By comprehending how immigrants perceive their identities and the sites in which these identities are constructed, we gain a more multifaceted perspective on what it means to be Italian.

‘Not all of us Finns communicate the same way either’: teachers’ perceptions of interculturality in upper secondary vocational education and training

This article examines teachers’ perspectives on interculturality and diversity within the context of upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. Increasing diversity in VET education challenges teachers’ sense of interculturality and their readiness to interact with and treat the ‘other’ fairly. Compared to other European countries, Finland has much less experience with the inclusion of immigrants in VET. Qualitative data (interviews and open comments of VET teachers involved in social and health care training) were analysed through a template based on a critical and reflexive understanding of intercultural encounters. The results suggest the presence of cultural essentialism and cultural/national hegemony in teachers’ talk about their work with ‘diverse students’. There is also, however, awareness of positionalities and ideologies affecting communication as well as concern among VET teachers about equality and justice – two central issues which can lead to real and proper empowerment of all students in any educational context.

Immigration in Molise and Some Paths Towards Integration

This paper moves from the idea that a deeper and more realistic knowledge of the immigration in Italy is necessarily based on local studies of this phenomenon. Above all, it is important to carefully analyze the situation of foreigners who fit into local community to find the special features of their settlement that must be taken into account in order to build and plan integration policies really effective and appropriate to the local context. In the wake of these considerations, I will introduce a brief survey on the presence and integration of foreigners in Molise region. More precisely, I will examine some recent statistics that allow to outline the main socio-demographic characteristics of the foreign population resident in the region and also to consider some aspects concerning the inclusion of foreigners in the local labor market. Finally, I will explain some events in order to point out some possible directions for the social integration of foreigners in the region. In this way, Molise could be a pilot region for the effective inclusion of immigrants.

Women in the driving seat: Eastern European immigrant women's citizenship, participation and educational inclusion in Portugal

This paper is a case study of Eastern European immigrant women's social inclusion in Portugal through civic participation. An analysis of interviews conducted with women leaders and members of two ethnic associations provides a unique insight into their migrant pathways as highly educated women and the ways in which these women are constructing their citizenship in new contexts in Northern Portugal. These women's accounts of their immigrant experience embrace both the public realm, in using their own education and their children's as a means of integration but also spill over into ‘non-public’ familial relationships at home in contradictory ways. These include the sometimes traditional, gender-defined division of labour within the associations and at home and the new ways that they negotiate their relative autonomies to escape forms of violence and subordination that they face as women and immigrants.

Gimme Shelter: Inclusion and Exclusion of Irregular Immigrants in Dutch Civil Society

The present article investigates the role of civil society in internal migration control by looking at the exclusion of irregular immigrants within Dutch society. Based on qualitative fieldwork and an inventory of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their tasks, we have analyzed the bureaucratic field of service provision to irregular immigrants, which is characterized by constant negotiations at different levels. We can safely conclude that even after years of strong exclusionary rhetoric from the part of the national government, civil society still plays an important supportive role with respect to the shelter of irregular immigrants in need. Yet, this does not imply that every irregular immigrant can easily fall back on organizations within civil society. NGOs have to choose who deserves support and who does not. Their consideration and deliberations to some extent mirror the priorities of the national policy, which stresses the importance of return of irregular immigrants to their country of origin.