Poor Ethnic Minorities Research Articles

Factors affecting incomes of ethnic minority households: a case study in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province

This study aims to determine factors affecting incomes of poor ethnic minority households in the Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province. Through survey data of ethnic minority households in Khanh Vinh district, this study used an econometric model to analyze the influence of factors on the incomes of ethnic minority households in the area. The research results found that the factors having the impact on the incomes of ethnic minority households in this area include: ethnic characteristics, household size, number of livelihood activities, leisure time during the year, and time to access productive land. The results of this study provide more empirical evidence in the study on factors affecting the income of ethnic minority households in Vietnam in general and in Khanh Hoa province in particular. By detailed analysis the factors affecting the income of ethnic minority households in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province, the study enriches the literature on poverty and livelihoods in ethinic minority household’s community and provides useful information for policymakers and practitioners in designing effective programs to improve household incomes and develop sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minority households in this area.

Dietary diversity is associated with nutrient adequacy, blood biomarkers and anthropometric status among preschool children in poor ethnic minority area of Northwest China.

This study aimed to evaluate the status of dietary diversity, nutrient adequacy, blood biomarkers of nutrients, and anthropometric status, as well as to determine the predictors of dietary diversity score (DDS) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR) among preschool children in poor ethnic minority areas of northwest China. A total of 578 healthy preschool children aged 3-6 from 17 kindergartens were selected to assess dietary intake, anthropometric status (height-for-age z-score (HAZ), weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), weight-for-height z-score (WHZ), and blood biomarkers. DDS and nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) were adopted to assess dietary diversity and micronutrient adequacy, respectively. The mean DDS (ranging from 1 to 9) was relatively low (4.67 ± 1.56). Most participants consumed starchy staples, but few participants consumed organ meat. DDS was associated with serum potassium, serum iron, WAZ, HAZ, all NARs, and MAR (all p < 0.05). Living in urban areas (β = 0.158), higher household wealth (β = 0.116), and more caregivers' nutritional knowledge (β = 0.022) were positively associated with DDS (all p < 0.01), while living in urban areas (β = 0.031), higher education of caregivers (β = 0.0.027), and higher DDS (β = 0.049) were positively associated with MAR (all p < 0.01). In conclusion, dietary diversity was associated with nutrient adequacy and other health outcomes. Nutritional education and poverty alleviation are integral to improving the nutritional status of preschool children.

The child education and health ethnic inequality consequences of climate shocks in Vietnam

This paper provides a new explanation for ethnic disparities in education and health in Vietnam by studying the relationship between frequent, small-scale adverse rainfall shocks and child human capital. Exploiting plausibly random year-to-year variation in weather data that are linked to a longitudinal household- and individual-level dataset over the period 2008–2017, I find that excess rainfall during the annual typhoon season results in lower child subjective health status and school enrollment, with disproportionate effects on children of ethnic minorities. The negative lagged effects on education are concentrated in children at primary school start age, suggesting delaying children’s school entry is a shock–coping strategy for poor ethnic minority households, albeit with potentially big negative long-run effect on their child lifetime earnings. Estimates suggest that rainfall shocks can explain approximately 28% of the observed ethnic gap in enrollment rates of children age 16–18 in the sample during the study period, and most is due to heterogeneous effects of rainfall shocks among ethnic groups, not differences in exposure to rainfall shocks.

Home-Grown School Feeding: Implementation Lessons From a Pilot in a Poor Ethnic Minority Community in Vietnam.

Background:Undernutrition threatens the health and future of preschool children in disadvantaged remote communities. Home-grown school feeding (HGSF) in nursery schools could positively impact children’s nutrition while creating multiple benefits for the whole community. However, evidence is lacking on implementation of HGSF within multi-sectoral programs in remote areas.Objective:This study assessed an HGSF pilot intervention, part of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) program, in a mountain ethnic minority community in Vietnam. It aimed to identify the changes brought about by the intervention, in particular diversity of children’s food, food sources, barriers and facilitators to change, and future challenges and strategies.Methods:Mixed-methods assessment covered school meal diversity, cost, and food sources but the key focus was on observed changes resulting from the HGSF intervention and perceived barriers and facilitators to its implementation. Data were collected mainly through semi-structured interviews (n = 30) and seven focus group discussions (n = 76).Results:School meals contributed to increasing diversity of food consumed by children. Above 30% of foods used were home-grown. Respondents reported increased school attendance; children’s food preferences and hygiene practices improved as did parents’ caring and feeding practices. Local food systems became less cash-crop-oriented and more self-reliant, contributing to household food security and income generation. Social capital increased. Positive changes were attributed to HGSF and synergy among NSA program components. Poverty and limited resilience to external shocks threatened sustainability.Conclusions:Implementing HGSF within an NSA program in a mountainous ethnic minority area with a high prevalence of undernutrition benefitted children and their communities.

Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics by Mark McKinney

Reviewed by: Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics by Mark McKinney Benjamin Sparks McKinney, Mark. Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics. Leuven UP, 2021 ISBN 978-94-6270-241-7. Pp. 399. Comics as a form of popular culture derive from highly influential cartoonists like Hergé and Saint-Ogan, whose works were foundational to the ninth art. Colonialism played a significant role in these cartoonists’ works and inspired the development of this art form in aesthetics, genre, and serialization. Evidence of colonialism’s role in the works of Hergé is displayed in his depiction of Africans in Tintin au Congo and his critique of communism in Tintin au pays des Soviets, wherein he openly disseminates far-right ideologies. McKinney’s previous works, The Colonial Heritage of French Comics (FR 86.2) and Redrawing French Empire in Comics (FR 88.1), discuss the colonial themes of comics, including an emphasis on Indochina and Algeria. This work focuses on the postcolonial era in France since the end of the Algerian War, focusing on migration and postcolonial ethnic minorities. McKinney begins by creating a historical framework for understanding the transition in comics toward the postcolonial with cartoonists like Mœbius, who transformed the field with a new realistic approach in his socially engaged Cauchemar blanc. This work ushered in a tradition of antiracist, postcolonial comics through reworkings of his pivotal comic by future generations. McKinney then looks at major artists through a dialogical approach to analyze the mutation from colonial to postcolonial, emphasizing ethnic minorities and migration. Arguing that postcolonialism and migration have played a more significant role in these new realist comics than previously acknowledged, McKinney then considers the comics of Boudjellal and the role of migration of Algerians to France in his works. The following chapter examines pastiche and working-class migration in the comics of Baru. McKinney moves on from counter narratives of Mœbius’s work to the concept of citadel culture formulated by Werckmeister to understand the relationship between poor ethnic minorities and wealthier white inner-cities. Continuing the analysis of ethnic minorities, the author looks at how far-right cartoonists represent these migrants and foreigners in France with an example of Chard and Faye, whose comics satirize the attempted assassination of Jacques Chirac by a far-right activist in Chirac contre les fachos. McKinney argues that this and other far-right comics provide a helpful window into the ideologies of this group in France today. The author also looks at avant-gardism and how art and comics engage with the issues of postcolonial minorities. This work ends with an analysis of the situation of les sans-papiers and their representation in comics, drawing attention to their condition in order to humanize and gather support for them and to discourage governmental repressive anti-migrant policing. This is an engaging text for all readers interested in French comics. [End Page 232] Benjamin Sparks University of Memphis (TN) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Stunting, maternal investment, and early child development in Serbian Roma children aged 36-59 months

Stunting has shown negative associations with poor child developmental indicators. However, in poor ethnic minority populations the evidence for associations of anthropometric growth indicators and child development is limited. This study examined associations between stunting, height for age z scores (HAZ) and other determinants, with Early Child Development (ECD) among children in poor Roma communities. Publicly available data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys for Serbian Roma settlements were used to assess a cohort of 1075 Roma children aged 36-59 months. Indicators of child growth and nutrition included children?s HAZ scores and stunting. ECD assessed physical, learning/cognition, literacy/numeracy and socio-emotional developmental domains. Multiple regressions were used to assess the association between HAZ and stunting with ECD, controlling for maternal and child confounders. Sum score for ECD in Roma children was low, and 18% of children were stunted. After adjusting for potential confounders, HAZ and stunting revealed no significant associations with developmental outcomes. Instead, increasing maternal investment was positively associated with overall ECD score and higher scores in each of the individual developmental domains, except socio-emotional. In a low-resource setting, maternal investment appeared a good predictor of child development: it may buffer against the effects of poverty and stimulate child development.

Natural hazard's effect and farmers' perception: Perspectives from flash floods and landslides in remotely mountainous regions of Vietnam

Understanding perceptions of indigenous people toward natural disasters is essential in social and environmental research to facilitate further studies in investigating the impacts of the events, as well as in examining the adaptive strategies and having implications for policymakers and relevant institutional bodies. We took this essential feature to study the perceptions of local people toward the two common natural disasters: flash floods and landslides. We selected the case study in three communes (An Binh, An Thinh, and Dai Son) in Van Yen district, Yen Bai province in Vietnam. This is because flash floods and landslides are two frequent natural disasters that highly adversely affect these areas where major poor ethnic minority communities reside. We conducted six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and household surveys (405 households) in 2016. The results showed that a decline in productivity, a decrease in income, more hard-working conditions, and an increase in daily expenses were the most observed impacts of these natural disasters in the communes. The analysis also revealed that almost 45% of farmers perceived an increasing trend in the frequency and impacts of flash floods and landslides over the past 15 years. A Multinomial Logit (MNL) model was used to analyze the determinants of farmers' awareness of flash floods and landslides, which indicated that farmers' perceptions of flash floods and landslides are associated with socio-economic characteristics, such as gender, agricultural experience, ethnic groups, climate information, and household income conditions. We suggested that local governments should pay more attention to strengthen farmers' awareness to help improve perceptions of local people toward common natural disasters so that they would gain better adaptive capacities and become more sustainable, which are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Governments and international institutions should urgently attend to the unjust disparities that COVID-19 is exposing and causing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders should pay more attention to those populations living in the poorest conditions, such as the homeless, those in prisons, poor ethnic & racial minorities, and millions of distressed migrants and refugees in unsanitary camps, settlements, shelters or detention centres. These vulnerable groups are most likely to suffer the consequences of inadequate and inequitable access to testing, treatment and medical care [1]. Socio-economic circumstances determine the distribution of health conditions in populations and the severity of outcomes.

Opportunities to Access to General Education of Children Living in Poverty Families in Ethnic Minority in Vietnam Nowadays

Education is a basic right of people and everyone has the right to access to education. The right is stated in Clause 1, Article 26 of 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In Vietnam, the Constitution passed by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 2013 also stipulates that education is a right of people and the State, families and the society must protect, take care of and educate children. To ensure children&amp;rsquo;s right to access to education as well as to enable them to access to learning opportunities, Vietnam has promulgated many policies to create favorable conditions for all children in education, especially those from poor families and ethnic minority families in the past years. However, compared to children from well-off families, children from poor families in ethnic minority regions still face difficulties in education. Based on statistics, this article focuses on analyzing the opportunities to access to general education of children from poor families in ethnic minority regions in Vietnam nowadays.

STEM education in non-formal learning institutions in ethnic monority and mountainous areas: a look from Ha Giang city’s community learning centre

Community Learning Centre (CLC) is an non-formal learning institution working at grassroots level of the society. It derives from the initiative of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched in 1988, as part of the Education for All Target Program in the Asia-Pacific region. The idea of building a lifelong learning society to promote the economy and appeal to participation of all social groups through education and the role of the CLC as a special autonomous community is the spirit and reason of CLCs’ existence [7]. In Vietnam, As of 2015 there have been more than 11,900 CLCs established in 10,600 communes and wards nationwide [4], working as informal and non-formal educational institutions in the commune level. STEM education has been a new trending method of teaching and learning in the last decades originated from US under the demands of educating and training new labour generations with expertise in practical knowledge and skills. STEM education can be in forms of formal and informal learning, in schools and in lifelong learning institutions. STEM education has been imported to Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam in the last recent years and become a trending word in educational discourse. In Vietnam, STEM education has been piloted in a few public schools of big cities of designed in international schools and private institutions of the nation. Yet it is a luxury educational product and strange in remote areas of Vietnam where most people are poor and live under disadvantaged conditions. While, CLCs as part of continuing educational institutions of the country have exited in all provinces, but struggling with the crisis of operation. In this context, there has been a model of CLC choosing STEM education as its main operating component and working with mostly children in informal ways such as supporting STEM clubs in local schools, running mobile STEM in villages and connecting STEM experts with local teachers. This is a groundbreaking pilot model in the ethnic and mountainous context, with close link between science - education - research and private sector participation with local government budget and government-led activities: Ha Giang City’s Community Learning Centre (HCLC) in Vietnam. It can probably be considered as a good example for other places to learn. The STEM education program of the HCLC is designed with the purpose of promoting formal and informal STEM education for ethnic minority students within the city. The three main aspects for changes after operating this STEM element are (1) improvement of learning environments and accessing to hands-on learning materials for children through a formal and informal science-integrated education system; (2) teachers’ and education managers’ professional development, and the enhancement of their provision of teaching learning material and through capacity building programs; And (3) opportunity of accessing better quality education for community, especially poor and ethnic minority children within remote suburbs of the city through free of charge enrollment for the community STEM program. In line with the content of the workshop, the following analysis focuses on the third aspec the STEM program that has been contributing to the improvement of better quality education for poor ethnic minority children in the 3 rural communes of Ha Giang city. This presentation will also provide some suggestions to the operation of STEM integrated education in CLCs or other community-based learning institutions in ethnic minority areas.

The severity, consequences and risk factors of child abuse in China – An empirical Study of 5836 children in China's mid-western regions

Based on empirical studies of 5836 children in six provinces of China's Mid-Western regions, this paper contributes to existing knowledge by analyzing the severity, consequences and risk factors of child abuse. There are three major findings. Firstly, significant regional disparities of the severity of child abuse exist in China and non-Han ethnic minority regions have higher reported child abuse rate. Secondly, psychological trauma of child abuse is tremendous and children's psychological wellbeing in all domains is seriously affected when suffering from different forms of abuse. Children in poor ethnic minority regions and younger children experience severe trauma consequences. Thirdly, family relationships including the quality of couple relationships and intergenerational relationships are significant risk factors of child abuse, indicating the necessity of improving relationships for addressing child abuse. Implications of the empirical findings for future policies and actions for alleviating child abuse are summarized in the end.

Re-delineating mountainous areas with three topographic parameters in Mainland Southeast Asia using ASTER global digital elevation model data

Tropical mountainous areas not only provide substantial carbon storage and play an important role in global biological diversity, but also provide basic livelihood for a large number of poor ethnic minorities. However, there is no unified and explicit definition for mountainous areas. The local elevation range (LER) is a crucial structural parameter for delineating mountainous areas. However, current LER products are limited by the subjective selection of an optimum statistical window or coarser spatial resolution of topographical data. In this study, we presented an approach using thresholds for three topographic parameters, elevation, slope, and LER, derived from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model (ASTER GDEM) to redelineate the vast mountainous areas of mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). The mean change-point analysis method was applied to determine the optimum statistical window of the 1 arc second (approximately 30 m)-resolution GDEM LER. The results showed that: First, the optimum statistical window is 38 × 38 cell units (width × height) in a rectangular neighborhood, or an area of about 1.30 km2 for calculating GDEM LER in MSEA. Second, the LER of more than 80% of the area ranges from 30 m to 499 m in MSEA. The LERs in the northern and northwestern MSEA are greater than their counterparts in the south and east. Third, the area of the re-delineated mountainous areas was 83.52 × 104 km2, about 38.71% of the total area. Spatially, the mountainous areas are mainly distributed in the north and northeast of MSEA. The re-delineated 30-m resolution map of the mountainous areas will serve as a topographical dataset for monitoring mountainrelated land surface changes in MSEA. The parameter-modified mountain extraction procedure can be expanded to delineate global mountainous areas.

Low income college-educated people: recognition, self-fulfillment and protest

ABSTRACTA new strand of writing in political philosophy deals with the linkage – rather than the tension – between politics of recognition and politics of redistribution. This scholarship usually deals with two-dimensionally subordinated groups (e.g. poor ethnic minorities). In this case study, I explore empirically how such linkages may be manifested in regard to a mismatched status group. Focusing on low-income college-educated people (LICEP), and going beyond the traditional status inconsistency approach, I have explored how LICEP frame their social positioning mostly in terms of self-fulfillment and recognition. This is at odds with LICEP having a pivotal role in social protests globally. Taken together, the findings yield a configuration of a few recognition-redistribution interactions: Low material reward is experienced as misrecognition; LICEP-centered social protests are also about recognition of their lifestyle and are characterized by self-fulfillment potential for this group (i.e. creative environment); and the different modalities of self-fulfillment work as sources for LICEP activists’ biographies. This specific configuration takes us beyond abstract notions of the recognition-redistribution linkage and the double subordination examples.

Constraints to smallholder tree planting in the northern mountainous regions of Viet Nam: a need to extend technical knowledge and skills

ABSTRACT This paper presents a literature review and case study on constraints to smallholder's tree planting in northern mountainous areas of Viet Nam. It reveals that existing literature primarily highlights constraints within the ‘input domain’ that relates to inputs to tree system establishment such as land availability, or ‘output domain’ associated with market of tree system products, but sparsely report constraints within ‘knowledge domain’ namely knowledge in tree management practice. Our case study exploring farmer's perspectives also finds those related to input and output domain but identified lack of knowledge as the prime constraint, especially to poor farmers and ethnic minorities. We recommend that the dissemination of knowledge on tree system management, farmer's skill capacity building, and improvement in the national extension system as well as its linkage with research and education, be placed in the forefront of policy to sustainably expand and intensify tree planting in the country.

Utilization of Services Provided by Village-Based Ethnic Minority Midwives in Vietnam: Lessons From Implementation Research.

Global progress in reducing maternal mortality requires improving access to maternal and child health services for the most vulnerable groups. This article reports results of implementation research that aimed to increase the acceptability of village-based ethnic minority midwives (EMMs) by local communities in Vietnam through implementing an integrated interventions package. The study was carried out in 2 provinces in Vietnam, Dien Bien and Kon Tum. A quasi-experimental survey with pretest/posttest design was adopted, which included 6 months of intervention implementation. The interventions package included introductory "launch" meetings, monthly review meetings at community health centers, and 5-day refresher training for EMMs. A mixed-methods approach was used involving both quantitative and qualitative data. A structured questionnaire was used in the pre- and posttest surveys, complemented by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with EMMs, relatives of pregnant women, community representatives, and health managers. Introductions of EMMs to their local communities by local authorities and supervision of performance of EMMs contributed to significant increases in utilization of services provided by EMMs, from 58.6% to 87.7%. Key facilitators included information on how to contact EMMs, awareness of services provided by EMMs, and trust in services provided by EMMs. The main barriers to utilization of EMM services, which may affect sustainability of the EMM scheme, were low self-esteem of EMMs and small allowances to EMMs, which also affected the recognition of EMMs in the community. Providing continuous support and integration of EMMs within frontline service provision and ensuring adequate local budget for monthly allowances are the key factors that should allow sustainability of the EMM scheme and continued improvement of access to maternal and child health care among poor ethnic minority people living in mountainous areas in Vietnam.

E-GOVERNMENT FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIETNAM

E-Government in Vietnam has wide-spread implementation over the country by enormous initiatives and programs by Government from central to local offices. Thathas led to big advancement of E-Government Index for last 3 years from 2015, the point of issue of Government Resolution No. 36a/NQ-CP on E-Government. Even that, the situation of E-Government in Vietnam has shown up many problems, barriers to catch up international level, especially many challenges are facing up with ethnic minority’s peoples and areas. The paper is arming to short review on E-Government concept and current situation and ending with a proposal of specific E-Literacy Model for remote, poor ethnic minority’s areas, that would be bring more opportunities for successes of E-Government.

E-GOVERNMENT FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIETNAM

E-Government in Vietnam has wide-spread implementation over the country by enormous initiatives and programs by Government from central to local offices. That has led to big advancement of E-Government Index for last 3 years from 2015, the point of issue of Government Resolution No. 36a/NQ-CP on E-Government. Even that, the situation of E-Government in Vietnam has shown up many problems, barriers to catch up international level, especially many challenges are facing up with ethnic minority’s peoples and areas. The paper is arming to short review on E-Government concept and current situation and ending with a proposal of specific E-Literacy Model for remote, poor ethnic minority’s areas, that would be bring more opportunities for successes of E-Government.

Race to End Poverty? The Roles of Ethnicity and International Economic Law in the Eradication of Extreme Poverty by 2030

Target 1.1 of the un Sustainable Development Goals commits the international community to eradicating “extreme poverty” by 2030. This article asserts that raising the standards of living of one billion extremely poor people will require navigating two perilous seas. The first is racial discrimination. With emerging evidence that ethnic minorities dominate the extremely poor, international action must involve “calling out” racial discrimination where it is inhibiting efforts to reduce extreme poverty. The second is international economic law. States with extremely poor ethnic minorities are obliged, under international human rights law, to introduce temporary “special measures” (affirmative action) to raise those minorities to a position of equality. However, special measures which are directly targeted at reducing racially-delineated extreme poverty may not comply with international economic law disciplines. The article investigates the compliance problems which such measures might encounter and concludes by suggesting steps for a smoother passage towards achieving Target 1.1.

Child Poverty Among Hong Kong Ethnic Minorities

This paper analyzes the data from the Population Census of 2011 to identify the characteristics of poor ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong and the factors that are associated with child poverty among these ethnic minorities. The results show that the child poverty level varies between different ethnic groups and that ethnic minorities from developing nations are likely to have a higher poverty level. In particular, Pakistani children have the highest poverty rate among all ethnic groups. The results also show that Pakistani, Nepalese, and Mixed (Chinese and Asian) nationalities have a higher child poverty rate than that of Chinese individuals who constitute the majority of the Hong Kong population. The main reason for this is that, unlike their Chinese counterparts, some of these ethnic minority households have not benefited from their own human capital or their length of exposure in the local society in Hong Kong. And even if they have benefited, the positive impact of these factors on ethnic minority households was much weaker compared to that of Chinese households. These results suggest that ethnic minorities need to be categorized as a separate group in order to assess their specific needs, and assimilation policies, especially support on Chinese language learning, need to be an integral part of the government’s poverty reduction strategy to reduce child poverty among ethnic minorities.

Teaching Poor Ethnic Minority Students: A Critical Realist Interpretation of Disempowerment

ABSTRACTThis article aims to supplement the literature on the role of school context with regards to the disempowerment of teachers in their work with poor ethnic minority students. We use a critical realist framework to analyse the empirical data collected for an in-depth school case study and we suggest the existence of real, interrelated, emergent and localised disempowering contextual factors.