Immigrant Society Research Articles

Mixed-ethnicity marriages and marital dissolution in Israel

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relation between mixed-ethnicity couples and marital dissolution in Israel, an ethnically stratified immigrant society, including Jews from different continents and Israeli Palestinians. Findings indicate that, when defined broadly, mixed-ethnicity couples have higher divorce risks than endogamous couples. However, comparing mixed and non-mixed couples in terms of specific ethnic categories reveals a more complex picture. Only in a few cases did mixed-ethnicity couples have higher divorce risks than endogamous couples of the respective origin groups. Moreover, some endogamous couples were more prone to divorce than others. We claim that since ethnic categories are socially constructed, it is important to critically examine various categories. In doing so, we can learn about the complex relationship between ethnicity, educational and economic resources, and divorce.

Past and Current Realities about Mexican/Latino Immigration. Looking Beyond the U.S.

The literature including social media shows that Mexican/Latino immigrants have attracted contempt and have been traditionally objected to as a minority in the U.S. The intent here is to search for historical and other factors that might explain the public antipathy and to identify reasons that could, either in isolation or in combination with others, explain anti-immigrant sentiments among people, many of whom are descendants of immigrants. The perusal of the challenges of Mexican immigrants to the U.S through the decades will highlight some similarities related to discrimination against waves “peoples of color”, not only in the U.S. but in other parts of the world. The daily treatment within the society of immigrants of color as well as the frequent lower immigration quotas imposed on certain groups, including Mediterranean people, makes the topic quite relevant to today’s concerns.

A moderated mediation model of political collective action in Hong Kong: examining the roles of social media consumption and social identity

ABSTRACTAdopting a communication mediation approach, this study explores the role of overall social networking service (SNS) use in facilitating people’s participation in collective political action through the mediation of online and offline political discussions. The study also underscores the moderating effect on the mediation process of both social identity and geographical origin. Moderated mediation analyses reveal that the positive impact of overall SNS use on participation mediated by offline discussion is stronger for people with higher Hong Kong identity and for people from Hong Kong. This moderated mediation model specifies the socio-psychological mechanism of participation in collective political action in an immigrant society such as Hong Kong.

Transformation of Japanese Immigrant Society in Korea and the Publication of Who’s Who

Transformation of Japanese Immigrant Society in Korea and the Publication of Who’s Who

Migrants and the language of instruction: Is the EU policy deficit driving new innovations in social inclusion?

Language learning has long been seen as an important tool for achieving European Union (EU) targets for social inclusion. However, “mainstream” policy instruments like the Action Plan on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity and the European Charter for Minority Languages have been undermined in recent years by the effects of the global financial crisis, which has contributed to the widespread decimation of welfare budgets in many EU member states. This has been accompanied by the increasing influence of a “neo-liberal” discourse in welfare and social service policies and practices, leading to the delegation of responsibility for service provision from central, regional and local government to commercial enterprises, civil society and, ultimately, to citizens themselves. At the same time, the gaps in service provision that have resulted from this “financial crisis” have opened up new opportunities for social innovators. New kinds of organisations are beginning to develop and apply new approaches using language learning to deliver innovative services aimed, for example, at supporting the integration of immigrants in society. Using case study analysis, this paper explores how these new approaches have developed, what kinds of innovation are being delivered and the contribution these social innovations are making to broader EU social inclusion objectives.

Beyond the Ethnic Enclave: Interethnicity and Trans‐spatiality in an Australian Suburb

AbstractThis ethnographic study investigates a suburban place in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It aims to reconsider the spatial formation of ethnic Chinese in a Western immigrant society beyond conventional notions about a Chinatown, an enclave, or an ethnoburb. In public enunciations, this local district, Box Hill, is depicted as an emerging Chinese enclave. In contrast, this study sheds light on multicultural engagements, interethnic interactions, and translocal and transnational mobility among the subjects who are integral to the production of the Box Hill space, through their narratives and experiences that are all in some way linked to Box Hill. This study explores everyday accommodations of multiculturalism, and yet expands this notion by underlining intersecting concepts beyond culture which together produce narratives about a suburban Chinatown. The conceptual framework of interconnectivity suggests relations and links as well as interstices and discontinuities that undermine enclave theories and to which place‐making practices across ethnicity and space are integral. [Chinatown, ethnic enclave, ethnoburb, interconnectivity, Chinese immigrants]

The Contributions and Constraints of Contemporary Immigration and Citizenship: Commemorating Canada’s 150 Years

The Contributions and Constraints of Contemporary Immigration and Citizenship: Commemorating Canada’s 150 Years Evangelia Tastsoglou, Special Guest Editor (bio) Although neither selected as representative of the field of Canadian ethnic studies, nor comprehensive, the articles in this special issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques au Canada, commemorating Canada’s 150 years, do provide a good sense of the contemporary state of ethnic studies in Canada. The articles consist of diverse perspectives, methodologies, substantive topics and disciplines, yet they also share common features and point to common directions. I will start from their diversity, representative of and continuing the historical diversity in the field of ethnic studies, then move on to their similarities and common directions which reflect broader scholarly, theoretical and policy preoccupations of the present time, and finally end with what I consider promising, more recent—though by no means new—perspectives and directions pushing the traditional boundaries of the field of ethnic studies. I will conclude this brief introduction with an overview of the articles in the volume. First, in terms of the articles’ diversity as a group, they are interdisciplinary, spanning the fields of sociology, literary studies, history, and policy studies. They make use of a great range of social science and humanities methodologies, from discourse analysis to multilevel regression and from the analysis of legal texts to qualitative interviews. They also derive from a healthy range of perspectives and dimensions within their respective disciplines, ranging from feminist perspectives to historical and legal dimensions; from positivist approaches to interpretative, constructivist and Critical Theory ones. In terms of the articles’ similarities which also shaped the title of this special issue, they consist first in a common emphasis on immigration and broadly defined citizenship issues and processes, as opposed to insular ethnic group issues, essentialized ethnic cultures and static ethno-cultural identities. Moreover, the articles are [End Page 1] about either contributions or constraints of immigration and citizenship, that is, they emphasize the dynamic interaction of diverse groups within Canadian society and with the Canadian state. An important similarity among these articles, in the midst of their said diversity, is the authors’ intent for intervention in order to make a difference, manifested in various degrees of explicitness. This intent to make a difference is expressed as recognition of a problem of exclusion, discrimination, omission, or gap, so that more inclusive and equitable policies and practices, at the appropriate level, can be put in place. The studies of this issue move beyond description to policy relevance, in the direction of expanding social justice in Canadian society for the 21st century. In so doing, while always mindful of the lessons from the dark periods in Canada’s 150 years, the present volume truly commemorates the country’s historical promise of freedom and justice to its immigrants and all Canadians. More specifically, in this volume the articles by Fernando and Rinaldi, and Kaya are about ongoing—albeit in new forms—processes of exclusion, i.e., obstacles to citizenship for immigrants. The article by Tastsoglou and Dobrowolsky is about obstacles but also possibilities for enhancing a sense of belonging for immigrants; Branker’s study is about obstacles but also venues or possibilities for finding work, that is, economic integration or socio-economic citizenship for English-speaking Caribbean immigrants in Toronto. Yixi Lu and Li Zong’s article is about historical processes of discrimination against the Chinese out of major metropolitan centres, while Chira’s work is about obstacles to, and possibilities for international students, i.e., often prospective immigrants, also outside of major, immigrant-attracting Canadian metropolises. Finally, van Dijk’s article is about contributions of Dutch-Canadian writers to Canadian multi-cultural and polyphonic identity. With respect to the more recent dimensions and directions, the latter consist in modernizing and expanding the field of ethnic studies outside of the historical settler societies, societies of immigration, immigrant-receiving societies, or nation-states in which ethnicities are created and ethnic identities are molded, to include the transnational level, in recognition of (i) the contemporary modality of migration as a dynamic transnational process and (ii) the role that the transnational field plays in identity negotiation, sense of belonging and citizenship. As a consequence...

THE ROLE OF SOCIETY TRANSLATORSHIP IN CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION

Globalization and mass migration cause living of different cultures together. Immigrants take their own culture to foreign countries. Hence, cultural varieties occur in target countries. Foreign cultures cannot be reshaped, so different cultures meet and live together in target countries. Integration of different cultures is an obligation for cultural pluralism. In order to build a multicultural and tolerant society, society translators who know the cultures of immigrant societies have some important roles. In addition, society translators could contribute to building a stable integration in target countries. Hence, it is important to train society translators not only on target language, but also on target culture. This study has qualitative design investigates contemporary cross-cultural interaction, cultural variety, hybrid cultures and multi-culturalism by interpreting the obtained data. In addition to these, contribution of society translators who know the cultures of immigrant societies to building multicultural policies will also be investigated. Article visualizations:

Competing Visions and Current Debates in Interculturalism in Québec

In her article "Competing Visions and Current Debates in Interculturalism in Québec" Marie McAndrew posits that interculturalism is the quest for a middle path between Canadian multiculturalism (criticized for essentializing and isolating cultures) and French Jacobinism (which relegates diversity to the private sphere). The theoretical underpinnings of the three approaches are first compared using major works in political philosophy, sociology of ethnic relations, and social psychology. The polysemic nature of actual policies is then explored through the example of Québec's immigration society where two versions of interculturalism developed since the late 1970s and are still competing. McAndrew analyzes four recent controversies regarding diversity management in Québec to illustrate these two conceptions of interculturalism and to demonstrate the continuing popularity of multiculturalism and Jacobinism in Québec where religious diversity has increased significantly.

Victor Greene, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, and Urban Studies

Victor Greene, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, and Urban Studies

Citizen journalism and moral panics: A consideration of ethics in the 2015 South African xenophobic attacks

ABSTRACTThis article hinges on empirical qualitative data gathered from an illustrative sample to determine perceptions on enforcing ethics on social media from people who acted as citizen journalists during South Africa’s 2015 xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. The April 2015 attacks were mediated through userdriven social media platforms such as WhatsApp, where truthful and untruthful information on xenophobia was disseminated to warn targeted recipients of impending attacks to allow them to take precautionary measures. While these messages proliferated valid and verified information there were cases where false information was spread, causing undue panic in some sectors of the immigrant society especially. This study therefore uses moral panics and citizen journalism concepts to explore the understanding of ethical implications in mediating the attacks from the perspective of citizen journalism. In the end, the argument is made that professional journalism ethics, according to the respondents in this study, need not apply to social media. Instead, the study concludes, there is a possibility of peer-to-peer monitoring and reprisals that may work as control measures in social media and citizen journalism, especially in times of crisis.

Interkulturelle Bildung durch schulische Mehrsprachigkeit. Über die integrative Kraft von Türkisch in einem bilingualen Sprachenprogramm einer Grundschule in Hannover

Intercultural communicative competency is solidly grounded in the foreign language subjects as the most important learning objective. The article argues that in immigrant societies migration induced multilingualism can be seen as an asset for both individuals and society alike. How multilingualism can be used as a source for the development of transnational capital is illustrated against the backdrop of an ethnographic case study. In the context of an elementary school in multi-ethnic Hanover, Turkish as the dominant community language in the neighborhood was integrated into the school curriculum as part of a bilingual programme, and, thus, upgraded. The findings indicate that such an unusual language programme not only contributes to achieving more educational justice but also opens up spaces for intercultural encounters and offers a place of belonging for the descendants of former immigrants.

A Few Observations on Health Service for Immigrants at a Primary Health Care Centre.

Objective. Icelandic society is rapidly changing, from being an ethnically homogeneous population towards a multicultural immigrant society. In the hope of optimizing the service for immigrants at the health care centre, we decided to evaluate health care utilization by immigrants. Methods. As a case control study we invited all immigrants that attended the health care centre during a two-week period to participate. Paired controls of Icelanders were invited for comparison. Results. There were 57 immigrants, 48 females and 9 males, from 27 countries. Significantly more of the immigrant women were married, P < 0.001. Interpreters were needed in 21% of the consultations. The immigrants often attended the clinic and had the same diagnoses as did the nonimmigrants. The immigrants evaluated the quality of the service in Iceland as 4.3 and the service in their homeland as 1.68, P < 0.001. Conclusion. Immigrants attending a health care centre in Iceland came from all over the world, had the same diagnoses, and attended the clinic as often per annum as the nonimmigrants. Only one-fifth of them needed translators. The health and health care utilization of immigrants were similar to those of nonimmigrants.

The Formation of Immigrant Networks in the Short and the Long Run

In this paper, we present a formal framework of possible network formations among immigrants. After arriving in the new country, one of the new immigrant’s important decisions is with whom to maintain a link in the foreign country. We find that the behavior of the first two immigrants affects all those who come after them. We also find that in the long run, under specific conditions, the first immigrant will become the leader of the immigrant society. Over time, as the stock of immigrants in the host country increases, the investment in the link with the leader will increase as well.

The value of cultural diversity: rhetoric and reality

This report is meant to summarize the discussion themes introduced in the Fellows Day session of the 9th Biennial Congress of the International Academy of Intercultural Research held in Bergen, Norway June 28, 2015. The report also attempts to summarize some of the participant comments made during the session. Because it is a report and not an original research article, descriptions of concepts are intentionally truncated and referencing is restricted to establishing context more than linking to other contemporary treatments of the issue. Further, the summary of participant comments is necessarily selective and may not reflect the complete intention of the commentator. Participant comments were for the most part informed observations or statements of opinion and are therefore not accompanied by formal references. The Fellows Day session was advertised with the following description: Practitioners of intercultural communication and cross-cultural psychology routinely make the claim that cultural diversity is an asset to teams, organizations, and societies. The more research-oriented among us quote studies that have shown correlations of creativity and heterogeneity of teams, profitability and diversity in corporations, and innovativeness and immigration in societies. These studies serve our purposes, but to what extent are they indicative of a general value of diversity? What is the research that fails to show these correlations or that suggests complex mediating factors? How do we integrate our understanding of immigrant assimilation with the preservation of ethnic diversity? How can we extend the idea of preserving diversity to the realm of mergers and acquisitions in corporations? Is the global village generating homogeneity, or is it really, as McLuhan (Understanding media: the extensions of man. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964) put it, that our neighbors will be profoundly different from us? And is that intrinsically good, or do we need to make it good? These and other questions central to our social future are appropriate for consideration by IAIR Fellows. I propose that we do so in three exploratory phases: *The first exploration is of the rhetoric: what we want to believe, what we sell, and how we support that with anecdote and ideology. I am not using "rhetoric" in a pejorative way here; I mean it more like "narrative" or "value proposition" (which is, by the way, the way the term is used by academic rhetoricians). Thus, the idea is to explore the assumptions we are making in claiming that cultural diversity is a good thing. I hope part of this conversation will position our narrative in the largely post-enlightenment, post-modern Western context that is its home, and that is will also explore how the idea of diversity has or has not emerged in other geo/historical contexts. *The second exploration is a more critical view of our claims, seeking both supportive and contradictory theory and research regarding the value of diversity and/or the value of uniformity. I don't mean to juxtapose "reality" in a positive way to "rhetoric." Rather, I mean to invoke the empirical reality of research as a tool to assess and either support or not our rhetorical claims. I hope we can include both quantitative and qualitative and both descriptive and nomothetic forms of research in our consideration, with the goal of seeing how our claims about the value of diversity stand up to systematic observation. * The third phase is reconciliatory, exploring ways to form a dialectic of diversity and unity that would provide us with a more sophisticated guide to practical action in the areas of education, corporate consulting, and intercultural training. In my practical work as a trainer and organizational development consultant, I have observed that no matter how sterling the value of diversity might be, it needs to be reconciled with the frequently more highly valued need for "unity" — shared goals, common procedures, universal policies, etc. Given our discussion of the day, how might we address both sides of this dialectic in practical, effective, and acceptable ways? In other words, where can we go from here…

“A bad, bold, big-nosed, biblical brother”: refashioning the funny Jew in post-World War Two America

ABSTRACTFilm director Jonathan Kesselman’s 2003 comedy The Hebrew Hammer introduced a new Jewish superhero on cable television: a tough, hip, jive-talking “biblical brother” who battles anti-Semites on the streets of New York under the gaze of adoring children, desirous women, and admiring African-Americans. Although the Hebrew Hammer is a cool Jewish thug who transcends the exilic condition of the proverbially submissive diaspora Jew through his brawn and swagger, he is also funny; he is a gangster who exhibits the neuroses, complaints, and schlemiel-like stereotypes that lie at the heart of modern Jewish humour. The Hebrew Hammer represents the culmination of a trend in American popular culture that began in the 1950s with Lenny Bruce. An unapologetically proud Jew, Bruce deployed his comedy and his cool persona to demolish Gentile propriety. Proclaiming an affinity to other minorities who had also suffered at the hands of Anglo-Saxon Christendom, Bruce and his successors publicly mocked their history of exclusion and the legacy of racism. A narrative of shared affliction has allowed Jewish humourists to appropriate the stereotypes and cultural practices of African-Americans and other ethnic groups, and to embed them into their comedy, fusing them with familiar Jewish tropes. This is the foundation of a new Jewish humour, one that remains anchored in the past, even as it has been refashioned to suit a multi-cultural immigrant society.

To Understand a Portrait and Inner side of Korean Immigrant Society in China at the Period of Korean Independence Movement : Kim Kwang-jae, A Study on Korean Immigrant Society in China at Modern times, Kyung-in publisher, 2015‒

To Understand a Portrait and Inner side of Korean Immigrant Society in China at the Period of Korean Independence Movement : Kim Kwang-jae, A Study on Korean Immigrant Society in China at Modern times, Kyung-in publisher, 2015‒

Immigration in Greece: overview and perspectives

&lt;p&gt;The present paper examines immigration&lt;br /&gt;in Greece over the past two decades.&lt;br /&gt;Economic immigrants in Greece, despite&lt;br /&gt;the absence of reliable offi cial data, exceed&lt;br /&gt;one million, while immigration has lead&lt;br /&gt;to the development of policies relating&lt;br /&gt;to the planning and implementation of&lt;br /&gt;a coherent immigration policy centered&lt;br /&gt;on the legalization and the integration&lt;br /&gt;of immigrants in the Greek society. This&lt;br /&gt;necessity stems from the twenty year old&lt;br /&gt;existence of immigration in Greece as well&lt;br /&gt;as from a series of developments affecting&lt;br /&gt;core public policies such as education,&lt;br /&gt;employment, income, social insurance,&lt;br /&gt;health care, residence, legalization and&lt;br /&gt;integration of immigrants.&lt;br /&gt;Nonetheless, it should be pointed out,&lt;br /&gt;that the size and the complexity of the&lt;br /&gt;phenomenon requires the development&lt;br /&gt;of a coherent policy that will in turn&lt;br /&gt;enhance effectiveness in tackling the&lt;br /&gt;social, economic, and political aspects&lt;br /&gt;of immigration. In addition, the role of&lt;br /&gt;immigrants in society, the labor market&lt;br /&gt;and the economy constitutes a further&lt;br /&gt;point towards that direction.&lt;/p&gt;

Völkerfreundschaft nach Bedarf: Ausländische Arbeitskräfte in der Wahrnehmung von Staat und Bevölkerung der DDR

For good reasons, few people think of the GDR as an immigration country. With millions of its citizens voting with their feet until 1961, and the subsequent desperate efforts to literally climb the wall that separated the two German states, the migratory route led out of rather than into the GDR. And yet, there was significant immigration to socialist Germany, most obviously when it came to the millions of Soviet soldiers who were stationed there between 1945 and 1990. By comparison the numbers of students and workers who arrived from other states of the Warsaw Pact or from Third World countries cooperating with East Berlin were fairly inconspicuous. Several tens of thousands took classes at venerable universities such as Greifswald, Jena and Leipzig, while a few hundred thousand came to work; in 1989, a mere 191,000 foreigners were living in the GDR, about half of them contract labourers ( Vertragsarbeiter ), who had been hired through bilateral agreements between their home countries and the GDR, and whose employment was explicitly temporary. Unlike its western counterpart which, after decades of denying reality, finally came to terms with the permanence of immigration in the late 1990s (although the current debate on refugees raises questions if and to what extent this understanding has taken roots), East Germany never turned into an immigration society.

“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.