Multi-ethnic Context Research Articles

Grammatical innovation in multiethnic urban Europe: New linguistic practices among adolescents

This paper discusses a phenomenon that has recently been observed in areas with a large migrant population in European cities: the rise of new linguistic practices among adolescents in multiethnic contexts. The main grammatical characteristics that have been described for them are (1) phonological/phonetic and lexical influences from migrant languages and (2) morpho-syntactic reductions and simplifications. In this paper, I show that from a grammatical point of view, morpho-syntactic reductions are only part of the story. Using ‘Kiezdeutsch’ as an example, the German instance of such a youth language (which may be the one with most speakers), I discuss several phenomena that provide evidence for linguistic productivity and show that they evolve from a specific interplay of grammatical and pragmatic features that is typical for contact languages: grammatical reductions go hand-in-hand with productive elaborations that display a systematicity that can lead to the emergence of new constructions, indicating the innovative grammatical power of these multiethnolects.

‘This is what pots look like here’: ceramics, tradition and consumption on Mafia Island, Tanzania

The Mafia archipelago, off the southern coast of Tanzania, is home to a thriving tradition of ceramic manufacture and use, as part of a more general repertoire of small-scale craft activity on the islands. As such, the archipelago is unusual for the Swahili coast, where cheap imported vessels have mostly replaced locally-produced ceramics for cooking and serving food. Recent ethnoarchaeological fieldwork carried out in the archipelago has examined the production of these ceramics, particularly in relation to the distinctive coastal tradition which is recreated here. Although the vessel types can be seen to be directly descended from earlier types found along the coast, the potters themselves are immigrants and originally learned to make very different vessels, using different potting techniques. This paper presents the results of these interviews, exploring the reasons for the stylistic choices made by the potters and the creation of a recognisable ceramic tradition in a multi-ethnic context. The ceramic tradition is linked to place and to the market for the ceramics, rather than to the identity of the potters, and it is suggested that this might relate to the distinctive coastal cuisine.

Des services à domicile culturellement sensibles : perspective des intervenants et des proches-aidantes originaires d’Haïti en tant que cas traceur

In Canada, the care provided by families occurs in an increasingly multiethnic context. Against this backdrop, the present qualitative study aims to explore the needs/expectations and solutions not only of (female) natural caregivers of an elderly relative hailing from Haiti (presented in terms of tracking cases) but also of remunerated home care providers - all with a view to developing a culturally sensitive service offering. As such, this study works from a conceptual framework centring on the negotiation of a common area of agreement between the stakeholders involved (i.e., natural caregivers and home care providers). To this end, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted among 15 caregivers and 37 home care providers. The three recurrent themes emerging from the data analysis concern, in context, the needs/expectations and solutions surrounding the experience of service use, barriers to use, and the relationships between natural caregivers and home care providers. The statements of both groups evidenced a consistency of views and have thus provided a basis for developing some recommendations acceptable to all stakeholders from the perspective of making culturally-based adjustments to the service offering.

`A Darker Shade of Pale?' Whiteness, the Middle Classes and Multi-Ethnic Inner City Schooling

Drawing on data from interviews with 63 London-based families, this article argues that there are difficult and uncomfortable issues around whiteness in multi-ethnic contexts. Even those parents, such as the ones in our sample, who actively choose ethnically diverse comprehensive schools appear to remain trapped in white privilege despite their political and moral sentiments. This is a complicated question of value; of having value, finding value in, getting value from, and adding value. Even those white middle classes committed to multi-ethnic schooling face the perils of middle-class acquisitiveness, extracting value from, as they find value in, their multi-ethnic `other'. In such processes of generating use and exchange value a majority of both the white working classes and the black working classes, those who are perceived not to share white middle-class values, are residualized and positioned as excessive. Symbolically, they come to represent the abject `other' of no value.

Immigration and Civic Participation in a Multiracial and Multiethnic Context

This article seeks to understand civic participation among Asians and Latinos in a multiethnic, multiracial context. We investigate the usefulness of an expanded model of civic engagement, one that makes central factors related to migration, such as length of residence, language acquisition, and citizenship, for groups that include a large number of immigrants. The 1992–1994 Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality allows us to test a model of civic participation that incorporates variables previously neglected – migration-related factors, but also multiracial contexts and interracial ties – to better explain participation differences among a diverse population.

Racial authenticity among second generation youth in multiethnic New York and London

This paper analyzes racial authenticity in the multiethnic context, by showing how second generation teenagers in New York and London evaluate and express racial authenticity among diverse peers. In these multiethnic contexts expectations of racially “authentic” cultural practices vary between groups but are nonetheless important for social status across groups. The data suggest that in multiethnic contexts both in-group members and out-group members help to maintain the boundaries of ethnic and racial identities. I show how teens engage both ethnic cultures as well as (black-identified) popular culture, using South Asians in both cities to illustrate the hybrid consumption practices influenced by both. Because expectations of racial authenticity limited boundary crossing, South Asian consumption practices blurred the boundary between “black” and “South Asian” taste cultures. A multi-method approach triangulates this research: ethnographic observations in 2 high schools (1 in each city), a random survey of 191 students in each school, and 120 in-depth interviews.

Nature and Nation: The Bedrock of Identity at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

With 'the creation of a symbol of national pride and identity' as the main programmatic objective, no later-twentieth-century Canadian building project reveals a more explicit agenda of homogeneous nation-building than the Canadian Museum of Civilization at Ottawa. Since opening in 1989, the museum building has received a largely favourable reception from both press and profession. However, within the multi-ethnic context of late-twentieth-century Canada, the creation of a physical monument to symbolise a cohesive or unilateral national imagination was undeniably both challenging and contentious, and this article considers the uniting agency of the architectural fabric in this reflection and/or creation of national consciousness. A particular aspect of the design is argued to be the representation of ethnic and national identities in relation to the museum's immediate urban, civic contect, as well as the wider geographical and cultural context.

The assessment of credibility: An analysis of truth and deception in a multiethnic environment.

Abstract Credibility assessment involves the ability to distinguish a liar from a truthful person. In the traditional homogeneous societies, we can find some relatively strong consensus, as well as common learned indicators, that enable the participants in legal procedures to use more or less similar factors to assess the of the testimonies given. Now, what about our current multiethnic societies where the different actors do not always have the same ethnic background and do not necessarily share the same cultural values? Can we find a similar consensus as well as common indicators? After examining what contemporary research tells us about the concept of and its assessment, I will undertake to explain how truth and deception are distinguished in a multiethnic context, and I will look at the rates of such judgments. Are they better or worse than judgments made by people of the same ethnic background? What criteria are used? The same or different ones? In conclusion, it is suggested that familiarity with the specific aspects of different cultures can produce more adequate judgments of credibility. In most legal procedures, starting from the interrogation of suspects to the evaluation of testimonies given during the actual trial, the different actors involved, that is, the police officers, the investigators, the trial judge, and the jury, all have, at some point, to decide whether the victim, an eyewitness or the accused are indeed telling the truth. This is what is called credibility It is also a type of assessment used daily by customs officers. To perform this type of evaluation and to obtain the best possible results, the assessors use personal strategies and indicators tfiat derive from their own knowledge and from previous learning on what can be used with the best possible efficiency to distinguish a liar from a truthful and honest person. In the traditional homogeneous societies, we can find some relatively strong consensus, as well as common learned indicators, that enable the participants in legal procedures to use more or less similar factors to assess the of the testimonies given. They are not necessarily most efficient in all cases, but they are perceived to be and are readily used. Now, what about our current multiethnic societies where the different actors do not always have the same ethnic background and do not necessarily share the same cultural values? Can we find a similar consensus and common indicators? In order to answer this question, which, as we all can imagine, has serious implications for the proper functioning of the judicial system, I will first examine what contemporary research tells us about the concept of and its assessment. The Concept of Credibility By definition, deception is an act whose deliberate intention is to create in others a belief or a conception that the deceiver knows to be false or erroneous (Zuckerman, DePaulo, & Rosenthal, 1981). In this sense, the of a testimony refers to the will or the intent of the witness in relation to die formulation of a trutfiful or deceptive statement (Kohnken, 1989). This notion is to be distinguished from that of the reliability or accuracy of the testimony, which basically refers to the degree of congruence that exists between the original stimulus situation and the statement made about what actually happened (Kohnken, 1989). Reliability or can be modified or altered by unconscious and involuntary errors made by the witness, errors that derive most of the time from memory failures, from misleading postevent information or biased instructions associated with die interrogation or from suboptimal conditions of perception in the original situation (see Lloyd-Bostock 8c Clifford, 1983; Shepherd, Ellis, & Davies, 1982; Wells & Loftus, 1984). There is a debate surrounding the meaning of the notion of and it can be described in relation to two conceptual approaches or strategies (Kohnken, 1989; Undeutsch, 1989). …

The Dark Side of the Moon: Rivalry and Riots for Shelter and OccupationBetween the Greek and Jewish Populations in Multi-ethnic Nineteenth-century Odessa

<p>This article aims to shed light on the competition between Greeks and Jews in the multi-ethnic context of Odessa, suggesting that rivalry was "the dark side of the moon", while the other side was characterised by conviviality, basically through assimilation and upper-class solidarity.</p><p> </p>

Some Consideration on the Cultural Competence of Service Providers About Migrants in Apulia

The social experience of being a refugee and having to develop practical coping strategies are closely related to processes of identification in the multi-ethnic contexts and situations under study, where ethnic identity becomes a central issue. To know the best practices and need analysis of immigrant integration in Apulia (Italy), data were collected by self-administered questionnaires to different service providers who had significant experience with adolescent immigrants in the target period. The survey of service providers’ experiences of immigration was conducted through the administration of questionnaire to a convenience sample of service providers, with interviews carried out in the period between April and June 2006. Altogether, 114 questionnaires were found to be useful for the purposes of the survey. They were subdivided according to the type of operator: 21.9% were secondary school heads; and the same percentage were social workers and psychologists/psychiatrists; substantial proportions of the total were formed by doctors with 24.6% and finally cultural mediators, 9.6%. The results of the empirical survey reveal a widespread perception on the part of the operators in the sector of the importance of an adequate and specific cultural preparation in the problems of adolescents. In this sense, the service providers favour a preparation that also involves training exchanges with the countries with the greatest migratory flow towards this country and the creation of adequate structures that can guarantee a better reception and the raising of the quality of life of all those who choose to come here for a new start in life.

Connectedness with parents and behavioural autonomy among Dutch and Moroccan adolescents

This study investigates connectedness with parents and behavioural autonomy in a sample of fifty-one Dutch and fifty-one Moroccan adolescents living in a multi-ethnic context in The Netherlands. None of the three hypotheses on ethnic differences in connectedness with parents was completely confirmed, because the link between ethnicity and connectedness between parents was found to depend on age and gender of the adolescent. However, convergent with international research, the ethnic groups differed in respect of behavioural autonomy. Moroccan adolescents experienced less personal choice in comparison with their Dutch counterparts.

Adolescents’ Identification with the National Group

Adolescents' identification with the national and ethnic categories was investigated within the multiethnic context of Mauritius. A sample of 202 subjects (107 girls, 95 boys) in age group of 12-16 years answered the self-report questionnaire. The study aimed to (a) assess the nature of national identity along cognitive, affective and evaluative lines, (b) investigate whether there were links between national and ethnic identities, and (c) explore ethnic, sex and age differences in national identity. Results revealed only sex differences on the dimensions of national identity, with boys reporting higher levels of national identity than girls. There was a significant positive correlation between identification with the national category and identification with the ethnic category. The results were discussed in terms of nested identities, the peculiarities of the social context, and social representations theory.

Self-Medication and the Trade in Medicine within a Multi-Ethnic Context: A Case Study of South Africa from the Mid-Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Centuries

The article analyses the distinctive experience of self-medication in South Africa, where the preferences of racial and ethnic groups structured a differentiated consumption of herbs, home and folk remedies, patent and proprietary medicines, and pharmaceuticals. Also examined are the interlocking agencies of missionaries, traders, storekeepers and pharmacists in the creation of regional diversity within an evolving medical market. The article indicates that sufferers developed hybrid and plural forms of self-medication that were historically and culturally variable as a result of natural and manufactured products becoming increasingly accessible and affordable. These provided attractive substitutes and/or complements to the medicines of both 'western' and traditional doctors.

Ethnic variations in orthodontic treatment need in London schoolchildren

BackgroundThe study was carried out to determine the prevalence of orthodontic treatment need in children from minority ethnic groups and compare the need to the white population. The second objective was to explore variations in agreement between subjective and objective treatment need in a multiethnic context using the aesthetic component of Orthodontic Treatment Need Index (IOTN AC).MethodsA cross-sectional study in North West London, 14 schools were randomly selected from the 27 schools in the two boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon. Comparison between objective and subjective treatment need was carried out using IOTN AC index. Clinical orthodontic treatment need was also recorded using the dental health component of Orthodontic Treatment Need Index (IOTN DHC).Results2,788 children were examined and completed the questionnaire. 16% of the study population were already wearing appliances or had finished orthodontic treatment. Of the remaining children; 15% had definite need for treatment using the dental health component of the IOTN. There was no significant variation in the need for orthodontic treatment between different ethnic backgrounds (P > 0.05) whether using the AC or DHC components of the IOTN index. However, poor agreement was detected between professional and subjective assessment of ethnic minority of orthodontic treatment need using IOTN AC index.ConclusionOrthodontic treatment need in children of ethnic minorities does not differ significantly from the vast majority of white children. However treatment need based on aesthetic index continues to vary in all ethnic groups from the professional aesthetic assessment

Practising Performativity

Performativity is a theory of how reality comes into being. It is also a deconstructive practice. This article addresses the question of performativity as an emergent mode of working in social and cultural research. It does so by way of exploring a research project focusing on prostitution in a multiethnic context in north Norway, carried out by two researchers doing collaborative work on men, sexuality and knowledge. The author’s interest is in exploring performativity as a mode of engaging, aimed at achieving transformations in the terms through which the real is constituted. The author argues that practising performativity requires an openness within the research process to the possibility that researchers and their practices themselves must alter. Such transformative modes of relating seem to be called for in order to develop effective ways of engaging with the present.

Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in Malaysia: The Construction of the "Others" in a Multi-Ethnic Context

AbstractThis article concerns a dilemma that can be observed world-wide: nation-states are seeking to maximize the opportunities from economic globalization processes and transnational cooperation, and are simultaneously closing their doors to the forms of migration that these economic shifts have stimulated. In Malaysia, for example, migrant workers have contributed to the remarkable economic success, but are hardly ever mentioned in analyses of this "miracle economy". Due to economic restructuring and the economic downturns, migrants are increasingly treated as scapegoats for all kinds of problems Malaysia is facing. By analyzing the "Othering" of the Bangladeshi migrant community in Malaysia within this transformation process, it will be shown how through the interlocking aspects of movement and industrial growth concepts like national identity, citizenship and culture are getting challenged and renegotiated.

Brown, Black, and Yellow: Desegregation in a Multi-Ethnic Context

The Brown decisions have become part of our collective American memory. Students know that the 1954 decision ended legalized segregation in elementary and secondary schools and rightly understand it as a benchmark in educational history. However, when pressed for information on the decisions, few have ever read the original court documents and even fewer realize there were two separate decisions, that four states and the District of Columbia were involved, and that the South fought aggressively for years to nullify their effect on school attendance. To teach Brown is to deconstruct simple notions of Civil Rights Movement triumphs and visions of a country eager to right historical wrongs. I incorporate Brown into three of my courses, but for the purposes of this piece I will focus on my Education for Liberation class since I believe that its comparative approach to Brown—as well as the entire class syllabus—teaches the worth of looking at educational reform through a variety of lenses.

Intergroup Prejudice in Multiethnic Settings

This article examines how out‐group perceptions among Asian Americans, blacks, Latinos, and whites vary with the racial composition of their surroundings. Previous research on the contextual determinants of racial attitudes offers mixed expectations: some studies indicate that larger percentages of proximate out‐groups generate intergroup conflict and hostility while others suggest that such environments promote interracial contact and understanding. As most of this research has been directed at black‐white relations, the applicability of these theories to a multiethnic context remains unclear. Using data that merge the 1992–1994 Multi‐City Study of Urban Inequality and 1990 Census, we find that in neighborhood contexts, interethnic propinquity corresponds with lower levels of out‐group prejudice and competition, although intergroup hostility is higher in metropolitan areas with greater minority populations. Further tests suggest that these results do not occur from individual self‐selection; rather ethnic spatial and social isolation bolster negative out‐group perceptions. These findings suggest the value of residential integration for alleviating ethnic antagonism.

Beyond Black and White: Metropolitan residential segregation in multi-ethnic America

Whether greater racial and ethnic diversity in the United States is being accompanied by greater integration remains unclear. This analysis examines segregation in the multi-ethnic context over the 1980–2000 period by using the multi-race information theory index (H), which simultaneously takes the presence of many groups into account, and by also looking at the segregation of each group separately. Results indicate that segregation has been decreasing, mainly due to declines in African American segregation and White segregation with little change or slight increases in Asian and Hispanic segregation. Growing diversity was associated with increases in overall segregation, White segregation, Hispanic segregation, and Asian segregation, though strongly associated with declines in Black segregation. For Hispanics and Asians, it was the growth in Hispanic and Asian and Pacific Islander populations, respectively, that were associated with increases in segregation, suggesting that this population growth likely buttressed ethnic enclaves.

Effective School Leadership: The multi-ethnic context

The literature on schools has emphasised the importance of leadership for the effectiveness of institutions. Effectiveness has largely been defined in terms of the academic success of students in standardised tests. Although it has been well established that students of certain minority ethnic backgrounds do not achieve as well as their peers, the literature has failed to address effectiveness in relation to this issue. Discussions of school leadership have therefore neglected to examine the specific challenges for leaders in multi-ethnic contexts and the qualities necessary to reverse the trend of underachievement among identified groups. This article examines the notion of effectiveness and of effective leadership, and attempts to delineate some of the qualities of leadership necessary for success in multi-ethnic contexts.