Recent Refugee Research Articles

Risk Determinants of Dental Caries and Oral Hygiene Status in 3\u201315\xa0Year-Old Recent Immigrant and Refugee Children in Saskatchewan, Canada: A Pilot Study

This study aimed to identify the risk determinants of caries and record oral hygiene status in recent immigrant and refugee children residing in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Convenience samples of 133, 3–15 year-old recent immigrant and refugee children, and 86 adult guardians were recruited. Clinical examination of children and survey of their guardians explored the presence of at least one decayed tooth in the child’s mouth; and the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, among other aspects in adult participants. Refugee children had statistically significant higher decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) scores (mean dmft/DMFT score 5.80 ± 4.24) than immigrant children (mean dmft/DMFT score 3.52 ± 3.78 (p < 0.001). Adult immigrants had significantly higher proficiency in English language, knowledge about preventive components like fluoride and dental floss compared to refugee adults. The results of this study confirm the poorer state of oral health among refugee and immigrant children compared to Canadian children.

Security Implications of Forced Migration and the Refugee Flows

This article analyzes the current migration and refugee flows and the security implications that it poses to the receiving as well as the transit countries. Recent public debates, underline the importance and concerns of the ever wider character of the mixed mass flow phenomena, followed by its implications in the humanitarian, economic, financial, social, political and security domain. It does so, by highlighting the concept of a broadened comprehensive security through the lens of the Copenhagen School. The broadened concept of comprehensive security provided by the aforementioned school, offers the most inclusive approach in analyzing the linkage between the migration and security nexus. The purpose of the paper is to present the point of interaction between the established rules of the receiving nations and the anarchic situation that migration and forced refugee flows may spur. The recent refugee flows into Europe brings to attention this very complex discourse, as it generates public debates which in turn call for extra ordinary institutional measures, namely by securitizing migration. The securitization of migration has significant implications for the analysis and the construction of national security policies at local and regional level.

Security Implications of Forced Migration and the Refugee Flows

This article analyzes the current migration and refugee flows and the security implications that it poses to the receiving as well as the transit countries. Recent public debates, underline the importance and concerns of the ever wider character of the mixed mass flow phenomena, followed by its implications in the humanitarian, economic, financial, social, political and security domain. It does so, by highlighting the concept of a broadened comprehensive security through the lens of the Copenhagen School. The broadened concept of comprehensive security provided by the aforementioned school, offers the most inclusive approach in analyzing the linkage between the migration and security nexus. The purpose of the paper is to present the point of interaction between the established rules of the receiving nations and the anarchic situation that migration and forced refugee flows may spur. The recent refugee flows into Europe brings to attention this very complex discourse, as it generates public debates which in turn call for extra ordinary institutional measures, namely by securitizing migration. The securitization of migration has significant implications for the analysis and the construction of national security policies at local and regional level.

Gültigkeit international verbindlicher, normativer und technischer Standards der Flüchtlingshilfe auch in den deutschen Erstaufnahmeeinrichtungen

In recent refugee migration into Germany the responsibilities and reactions of health authorities are still lacking general co-ordination. Can the ethical and technical standards of international humanitarian assistance serve as an appropriate and even acompulsory guideline for relief agencies, public health and regulatory authorities in Germany? Documents from the field of medical ethics, medical law, international humanitarian law and disaster medicine will be examined and checked for practicability by consulting experiences during the 1990s Balkan wars refugee movement and international missions of relief agencies. Ethical and technical standards of international humanitarian assistance have been developed, improved and evaluated for 20years, and are valuable tools for emergency management. Victims of disaster or conflict have aright to live in dignity and therefore have aright to receive health care according to international standards. International ethical and technical standards for refugees should be considered in the Federal Republic of Germany like in any other country.

The Effects Of The Refugee Crisis On The EU-Turkey Relations: The Readmission Agreement And Beyond

The recent refugee crisis has created a new momentum in the EUTurkey relations which have been going through an impasse in the last couple of years. With the latest EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement, the European Union’s promise of visa liberalization, financial aid as well as the opening of a new chapter in accession negotiations, it has become possible to talk about a rapprochement between the two parties. This paper aims to examine the effects of the refugee crisis on the EU-Turkey relations in the light of these recent developments. The paper also aims to analyze the possibility of further cooperation and improvement of relations between the two parties as a result of this rapprochement.

Cologne, Scene of Fantasies

Cologne, Scene of Fantasies

Majority Educators in a United States Minority/Immigrant Public School District: The Case of Garden City, Kansas

Increasingly, immigrants are settling in rural “new destinations,” where low-wage, low-skilled jobs have been created as part of a broad restructuring of the United States economy. This trend has spurred not only the rapid growth of many small towns but also their demographic, linguistic, and cultural transformation. Nowhere is this more evident than in Garden City, Kansas, a micropolitan community Stull has studied for three decades. This changing geography of immigration is manifest in its public schools, where four of five students are members of so-called minorities, many of them recent immigrants or refugees, and three of four are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Studying educators' experiences in this unique district can enrich the otherwise generic notions of diversity that so often inform teacher educators and educational policy makers. This article is based on a five-month ethnographic study involving participant observation and in-depth interviews with administrators and teachers in G...

Que Mal Fiz Eu a Deus

The French film Serial (Bad) Weddings will provoke the critical sense of the spectators, challenging them to experience a diversity of emotions and to construct and reconstruct ideologies. In this film we are confronted with a panoply of concepts already studied in the academic subject of Intercultural Studies, exposing stereotypes that govern contemporary French society, but which could be applied and observed in most European societies, including Portugal. The latent terrorist threat and the recent refugee problem make the film even more significant since pertinent cultural issues are again discussed. Culture, in the sense of a people's or community's way of life or if we understand it as the production and circulation of meanings, implies that there are always members who are included in it and others who are excluded, which does not go unnoticed in this French comedy, which directly indicates the problem affecting Europe and all its cultures. Camouflaging or ignoring the existence of certain thought structures, value judgements and social identities associated with all subjects could have negative repercussions in the future, in addition to those already existing. The following work will then establish a link between the reality represented in the film and the terminology and theories covered in the Intercultural Studies curricular unit.

‘Forever Temporary’: Migrants in Calais, Then and Now

AbstractThis article examines two recent refugee crises in Calais: the debate around the Sangatte refugee camp, which was resolved in 2002, and the ongoing problems in Calais, which have been escalating since autumn 2014. It asks: why are these events repeating? What, if anything, has changed between 2002 and now? It points to a number of new developments since 2002, such as growing numbers of migrants worldwide, and a changing European political and legal landscape. But it also argues that a number of the same factors that led to the Sangatte crisis are still shaping events and responses in Calais today. They concern the persistent shortcomings of European states’ immigration controls, the failures to reach Europe‐wide and international agreements on migration, and the inadequacies of international bodies such as the UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention which it upholds.

Moving Feelings, Intimate Moods and Migrant Protest in Cardiff

In a public mood of marked hostility around asylum, emotion overflows protest media produced as part of recent migrant mobilisations. Protest media seeks to touch audiences, to stir public feeling for migrants, to build a sense of collectivity, and to move the collective to action, but the emotional modes used also work sideways to produce uneasy and unpredictable affects. This article examines the ‘cultural politics of emotion’(Ahmed 2004) in three pieces of media produced as part of recent refugee protests in Cardiff, Wales: a book of asylum-seeking women’s testimonies, a series of antideportation blog posts and videos, and a ‘Refugee House’ museum installation. Feelings declared outright, such as love, rage and despair, work to move publics outright, but also relegate participants into confined genres of action and subjectivity. Uneasy effects generated through the media’s aesthetics and materiality stir up other, more ambivalent and mobile emotional modes. This article explores the qualities of these uneasy affects, and how they might alter moods around asylum for political effect.

“Community Cup, We Are a Big Family”: Examining Social Inclusion and Acculturation of Newcomers to Canada through a Participatory Sport Event

While sport is widely understood to produce positive social outcomes for communities, such as the inclusion of diverse and marginalized groups, little researched has focused on the specific processes through which these outcomes may or may not be occurring. In this paper, we discuss the Community Cup program, and specifically a participatory sport event which seeks to connect newcomers to Canada (recent immigrants and refugees) in order to build capacity, connect communities, and facilitate further avenues to participation in community life. For this research, we worked collaboratively with the program to conduct an intrinsic case study, utilizing participant observation, document analysis, focus group, and semi-structured interviews. We discuss how the structure and organization of the event influences participants’ experiences and consequently how this impacts the adaptation and acculturation processes. Using Donnelly and Coakley's (2002) cornerstones of social inclusion and Berry’s (1992) framework for understanding acculturation, we critically discuss the ways that the participatory sport event may provide an avenue for inclusion of newcomers, as well as the aspects of inclusion that the event does not address. While exploratory in nature, this paper begins to unpack the complex process of how inclusion may or may not be facilitated through sport, as well discussing the role of the management of these sporting practices. Furthermore, based on our discussion, we offer suggestions for sport event managers to improve the design and implementation of programming offered for diverse/newcomer populations.

Risk of cardiovascular events and mortality among a population-based cohort of immigrants and long-term residents with diabetes: Are all immigrants healthier and if so, for how long?

Cardiovascular events are responsible for half of all deaths among individuals with diabetes. Immigrants to Western countries may experience an acceleration of cardiovascular risk in the first 10 years of arrival because of a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, or barriers to accessing care, leading to higher levels of obesity and diabetes. To compare the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality between immigrants to Canada and long-term residents with diabetes and to assess whether immigrants experience acceleration in risk after arrival. We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study using linked health and immigration data from Ontario, Canada, of 87,707 immigrants who immigrated to Canada between 1985 and 2005 matched to 87,707 long-term residents with diabetes (age ≥20 years). Individuals were followed up from April 1, 2005, until February 29, 2012, for the primary composite outcome of a cardiovascular event (acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, congestive heart failure, transient ischemic attack, stroke) or all-cause mortality. There was a lower adjusted risk of cardiovascular events or mortality among immigrants (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.76, 95% CI 0.74-0.78) after accounting for differences in baseline age, gender, socioeconomic status, neighborhood, and health care utilization-which persisted beyond 10 years from immigration. However, this healthy immigrant advantage was not found among more recent refugees (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.81-1.08), immigrants with no previous education (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.84-1.40), and those who were unmarried (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.62-1.03). Immigrants with diabetes are at lower risk for cardiovascular events and mortality compared with long-term residents, an effect that persists more than 10 years after arrival. Not all immigrants demonstrate this health advantage.

Working-Class Power and Spirituality

Working-Class Power and Spirituality

Challenges in recruiting hard-to-reach populations focusing on Latin American recent immigrants

Purpose – Recruiting immigrant populations, particularly recent arrivals, is challenging due to lack of sampling frames and other factors. The purpose of this paper is to report the feasibility of using a quasi-random sampling strategy for recruiting recent Latin American (LA) immigrants. Design/methodology/approach – The initial recruitment strategy included random selection of two census tracts (CTs) with high concentrations and numbers of recent LAs in Toronto, and door-to-door recruitment. Based on challenges encountered this strategy was modified by consulting trusted community members and recruiting participants residing in selected CTs using cultural venues. Findings – Door-to-door recruitment of the target group is difficult. Challenges included accessing individuals living in apartment buildings, lack of trust and fear of deportation, transitory residency, and difficulty recruiting very recent arrivals. The modified strategy was more efficient and yielded higher recruitment rates, and was more acceptable to participants. Research limitations/implications – The limited timeframe of the study and lack of timely census data may have prevented full exploration of study methodologies. Originality/value – The study demonstrated that recruitment rates of recent immigrants and refugees can be improved by randomly selecting CTs with high concentrations and numbers of recent immigrants and using culturally appropriate recruitment strategies. These groups may not be homogeneously distributed in selected geographic areas (e.g. CTs); it may be necessary to focus on pockets of high concentration as identified by community members who are familiar with the area.

Towards Gender Equality through Equity in Community-Level Evaluation

The calls by donors for gender equality to be an outcome of community development projects, locally and internationally, have been a constant for many years. While gender equality is not normally an explicit requirement of community-level evaluations, it should be. However, entrenched social and religious mores and economic systems have most often proved too difficult to change and gender equality remains a challenge. When it comes to the evaluation of community development projects, most donors and practitioners call for participatory evaluations to ensure that real input into evaluation findings is obtained from those most affected by the development intervention. However, gender equality in evaluation is faced with the same barriers as in development—the gendered barriers to participation. Gender equality means equal access, equal value, equal numbers and equal rights in participation in the activities. But the barriers to participation are most often the result of the gendered nature of society. These barriers include literacy, time availability, the timing of an activity, public standing and access. Common participatory practices, such as surveys, focus group discussions and positivist approaches, do not break down these barriers. While this situation is very often the case in developing countries, it is also seen as an issue in Australia's multicultural society, in particular among recent refugee groups. This article highlights that participation, together with gender equity (as distinct from equality), in the design, implementation and monitoring of an evaluation is also a requirement for ensuring gender equality in the outputs of evaluations. The article focuses on the importance of the informants’ understanding of what is being evaluated, and minimising the impact of barriers in ensuring gender equity (that is, fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs), so that all voices are heard. Tools and approaches that bring fairness and justice to participatory evaluation can help to ensure gender equality in the findings, conclusions and resultant recommendations of communitylevel evaluations.

The Looming Shadows of the Walls. Is a Cosmopolitan Europe still Possible

In a Europe of many lights and shadows, cosmopolitan sociology provides a valid theoretical framework to distinguish one from the other. If cosmopolitan sociology is an attempt to understand how individuals, social groups and institutions deal with the challenges of ever more transnational social processes, then the European issue can be fully inserted within such an approach. From this point of view, following the austerity policies and recent events involving Syrian refugees and the attack by Daesh activists at the heart of Europe, sociology has started to enquire whether a cosmopolitan Europe is still possible. Conversaly, in the history of Europe and in its Constitutional Treaties, traces of cosmopolitanism are to be found almost everywhere. In this context, our study examines the crisis pervading Europe today and highlights the standing back to a certain extent of cosmopolitan sociology. At the same time, it stresses the hope that a change of direction will occur and the opportunity grasped of reflecting more deeply on the founding principles of cosmopolitan Europe.

Bringing global health home

Dr Bhayana is a family physician in London who also works with the London InterCommunity Health Center (LIHC) and the Newcomer Health Project, a Schulich initiative. She graduated from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1985, after which she worked in Toronto for 5 years. She is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi, and utilizes all 3 in her community work with recent immigrants and refugees. We met with Dr Bhayana over the phone to hear her thoughts on global health, to understand her involvement with multicultural initiatives and to gather advice for medical students interested in global health.

A ‘fair go’ on Australian beaches

Equality of opportunity is an ideal not always realized in community sport settings. This research explores if the symbolic notion of a ‘fair go’ can be enabled, and if so how participation opportunities can be enabled in community sport programme design to accommodate the variety of needs found in diverse population groups. We answer the research question, how is social inclusion interpreted in the mechanisms that support and sustain locally based community sport programmes? Using a mixed methodology, multiple case study approach, in the setting of an iconic Australian Civil Society Organization, programmes designed to engage recent migrants or refugees unfamiliar with Australian surf conditions and people with disabilities are analysed. Programmes were analysed using Bailey's social inclusion framework, encompassing spatial, relational, functional and power dimensions. Through comparative analysis, fundamental practices that allowed sustained implementation of socially inclusive programmes are identified. Additionally, the framework draws out the elements of the programmes that could be improved.

Migration, Human Dislocation and the Good News

At the dawn of the nineteenth century the British were keen on introducing a civilizational progress into what was perceived to be superstitious and regressing British India. Several strategies to achieve this objective were considered, of which one was to start by influencing the Indian communities that showed greatest promise and had a friendly disposition towards the British, and through their instrumentality reach the other Indian communities. The Parsees figured prominently among the handful communities the British were interested in for this purpose. Amongst nineteenth-century Christian missionaries in western India, John Wilson of Bombay shared this interest and vision. It encouraged him to adopt Enlightenment-inspired methods of determining truth and falsehood in the Parsee socio-religious system with the hope of inducing moral and religious change amongst the Parsees. When this strategy met with strong resistance he diverted his efforts to educating the Parsees. Wilson’s mission did not produce the results he hoped for. Instead his rigorous engagement with their beliefs and customs served a warning to the Parsees of the need to introduce reform within their community in order to survive in a milieu of intense social change.India’s tropical climate, its fertile and diverse landscape, the reputation of its elite religious and philosophical culture and the welcoming demeanor of its people have drawn conquering princes, tradesmen, travelers, missionaries and even economic and political refugees to her for several millennia. Today’s eclectic India with its multi-racial and culturally diverse population is the result of migration that happened since ancient times, especially from the regions to her north and west. Amongst the ethnic groups that migrated to become part of India were the Persians. Contact between Persia and India has existed for more than three thousand years. Those Persians who made India their home in ancient times lost their exclusive identity over time and amalgamated with the mainstream people groups of India. A later migration under desperate circumstances at the beginning of the Islamic era and as a result of Islamic persecution brought Persians once again to the shores of India. These relatively recent refugees retained their identity and came to be known as Parsees. This paper is about them and about the efforts of one of British India’s leading Christian missionaries of the nineteenth century – John Wilson – to Christianize them. Not many Parsees converted to the Christian faith as a result of Wilson’s efforts, but the entire episode has much to offer by way of lessons for Christian mission amongst migrants and dislocated people.

Refugees in Vermont: mobility and acculturation in a new immigrant destination

This paper explores the idea of mobility for recent refugees who have resettled in a non-traditional immigrant destination in the northeastern U.S. It is based on a multi-year qualitative study of travel behavior, preferences, and needs amongst these new arrivals in a small city in the state of Vermont. As a result of their experiences of both forced displacement from their home as well as stasis within camp settings and the refugee determination process, refugees are an example of what some have called “a dialectic of movement/moorings” (Urry, 2003: 125), both on the move and trapped in place. Their resettlement in the U.S., as this paper illustrates, may represent a further extension of this dialectic—placed by government agents in new immigrant reception areas not of their own choosing, forced to commute long distances and into unfamiliar environments for work and limited in their abilities to access healthcare, education and employment (amongst other services) due to a range of transportation barriers. I argue in this paper that refugee mobilities in a new settlement site are about more than inconvenience: barriers to movement may constitute obstacles to acculturation, integration, self-empowerment, and community building.