European Shores Research Articles

The economic and social challenges of irregular African migrants in Europe: Questions for theological reflections

Irregular african migrants in Europe have increased tremendously in the last few years. With the on-going Mediterranean crisis, migratory flows from Africa make up the largest share of migration into Europe They come in rickety ships and boats, and arrive almost every day at the Southern European shores, most of them fleeing genuine human crisis. The Migration Policy Institute believes there are between seven and eight million irregular African migrants living in the European Union (EU), an increasing number coming from Western Africa, mainly Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal'

Immigrant and Refugee Students Across “Receiving” Nations: To What Extent Can Educators Rely on PISA for Answers?

ABSTRACTMassive population shift is a current global reality – especially given some of the latest development on European shores; some are calling it a humanitarian crisis. Although the United States (US) receives a large number of immigrants (documented and not) and about 70,000 refugees each year, it is certainly not the only nation to do so. Industrialized nations that receive migrants through immigration policies are typically referred to as “receiving” nations. The article addresses two main questions: (1) how well immigrant students across 17 receiving industrialized nations are doing according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (otherwise known as PISA), and (2) how are educators, immigrant and refugee parents and students experiencing integration in the school context. The education of immigrant and refugee students is a complex global issue that requires better understanding, collaborative attention, and long-term investment of several stakeholders.

Mental health services for asylum seekers and refugees: a snapshot.

As fellow human beings uproot their lives in search of protection, and for those who survive to reach European shores, many countries are faced with an unprecedented, highly complex challenge of managing huge and immediate need. Clearly, immigration agencies are front line in this scenario, but they are closely followed by accommodation, subsistence, community and health agencies. It is widely recognised that the mental health burden of asylum seekers is large and the stir of growing interest at a clinical level in addressing that burden is encouraging. Mental health services have been aware of asylum seekers and refugees for decades but we have grappled with our role, been confused by the relevance of a political dimension and overwhelmed with how to manage diverse need, in the face of endless competing demands. Mental health services for asylum seekers and refugees have largely evolved in many and varied ways, dependent on local need and interest.

Time to Activate the Temporary Protection Directive

The number of refugees and migrants arriving by sea in Europe is on the rise. According to unhcr, more than one million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea in 2015, whereas more than 3700 people lost their lives while trying to reach the European shores. As a response to the migration crisis, the eu has adopted a number of policies as proposed by the European Commission in the Ten point Action Plan on Migration and the European Agenda on Migration. This was followed by adoption of the second implementation package of the Agenda and initiation of eu-Turkey Joint Action Plan on migration management. In the light of the increasing number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe by sea, this article examines the policies adopted by the eu in 2015 to cope with the migration crisis in Europe, whether the Council Directive 2001/55/ec of 20 July 2001 on Minimum Standards for Giving Temporary Protection (Temporary Protection Directive) can be implemented to cope with the arrival of the mixed flows and the reason why this Directive can play a key role in solving the migration crisis. Through evaluation of these issues, this article argues that the Temporary Protection Directive should be part of the eu response to the migration crisis as it would provide crucial benefits to both Member States as well as persons seeking refuge in the eu.

Skimming the surface of underwater landslides

Around 8,200 years ago, a 180-mile-wide section of the ocean floor off the coast of Norway reached a tipping point. Several thousand years prior, ice streams from melting glaciers had been carrying trillions of tons of sediment to the ocean. Over time, the sediment had accumulated at the edge of the continental shelf, where the shallower ocean floor around Scandinavia plunges toward the depths of the Norwegian Sea. But finally, the underwater build-up became unstable; something set it off, perhaps an earthquake. An area of the seafloor roughly the size of Maine started collapsing, sliding down the shelf at speeds reaching more than 40 miles per hour. The vast slide continued for several hours, with material coming to rest as far as 500 miles downstream, halfway to Greenland. The massive movement also riled up the ocean, sending tsunamis racing toward a handful of northern European shores, eventually flooding areas as high as 20 meters above sea level in some places.

Chitons’ apparent camouflage does not reduce predation by green crabs Carcinus maenas

ABSTRACTChitons are very common molluscs on European rocky shores. They are common prey of fish and crabs and often display several colour morphs within a given habitat. Predation is one of the potential mechanisms accounting for chiton colour polymorphism. The colour variation is considered to provide a camouflage protection through a match with the substratum surface typology. However, the effectiveness of chiton polymorphism as a predation defence requires further investigation. Previously we found a relationship between chiton colour morphs and substrate characteristics, with chitons most commonly found on substrates that were of similar colour to their shells. Here, we examined whether each morph displayed an active choice for matching the substratum. Next, we assessed if the predation success of the intertidal common crab Carcinus maenas varied significantly with the absence/presence of an apparent camouflage effect created between the chiton colour morph and the substratum type. The present study indicates that chiton colour morphs probably actively choose substratum types where they blend in. Carcinus maenas was able to prey on all Lepidochitona cinereus colour morphs, regardless of the substrate camouflage effect. Surprisingly, the predation frequency was higher on camouflaged chitons than on contrasting chitons. It was concluded that chiton camouflage is probably not a defence mechanism against predation by the crab C. maenas, and that chiton colour polymorphism is probably promoted by other, more visual predators.

Migrants and Refugees: Christian Faith and the Globalization of Solidarity

Abstract This article examines how Pope Francis's Evangelii Gauclium, WCC's Together towards Life, and Third Lausanne Congress' Cape Town Commitment bring out three interrelated and overlapping dimensions of mission. When viewed in age of migration, these include a threefold process of denunciation, annunciation, and promotion. Evangelii Gauclium speaks of denunciation of a globalization of indifference that has made us unresponsive to plight of migrant poor. Together towards Life speaks about annunriation of God of life through a renewed commitment to justice and peace. The Cape Town Commitment speaks about promotion of reign of Jesus' kingdom through love and service, especially for those like migrants who are poor and marginalized. Underneath collective vision of these three voices, a more fundamental migration urges churches to move from established institutional comfort zones into new territories of risk, vulnerability, and possibility. While divisions remain, new strategies are emerging to engage in a common faith, a common humanity, and a common care for those considered least and last in human community. ********** In spring of 2011, a group of sub-Saharan migrants departed by boat from Libya in hope of fleeing violence in their homeland and finding refuge on European shores. As they departed coast of Africa and headed north, they were intercepted by Italian authorities, who escorted their ship to a nearby port. En route, ship's rudder broke, boat drifted, and it crashed into rocks on nearby island of Lampedusa. Many of migrants jumped into water, but because they were unable to swim, many of them drowned. In recent years tiny island of Lampedusa has become almost synonymous with maritime disasters involving migrants and refugees. Newspaper headlines give us a window into scale of human tragedy: New Migrant Boat Disaster Off Lampedusa; (1) Die as Burning Boat Capsizes Off Italy; (2)700 Migrants Feared Dead in Mediterranean Shipwreck. (3) The International Organization of Migration estimates that in 2014, more than 3,000 migrants died in Mediterranean region in places like Lampedusa. Add to these more than 40,000 documented migrant deaths globally since year 2000--although actual numbers are most certainly higher than these official estimates--and loss of life comes into even sharper focus. (4) Stories abound from around world about migrants who die in deserts, freeze in mountains, suffocate in train boxcars, and drown in rivers and seas. The scope of issue has become so widespread, and its implications so far reaching, that some scholars have referred to our own times as the age of (5) Not only does migration affect sending communities, but it shapes contours of mission as well. As church seeks to be a voice of life at this time in history, it must continually ask, what is relationship between bad news associated with these events and good news of gospel? This article seeks to look at responses of various Christian communities to growing challenges posed by international migration. In particular it will look at Evangelii Gaudium (EG) by Pope Francis, Together towards Life (TTL) by World Council of Churches (WCC), and The Cape Town Commitment (CTC) by Lausanne Movement. These documents not only share common vision of reaching out to person of Christ in person of immigrant, but they also point to how migration is transforming our understanding of Christian faith, Christian discipleship, and Christian mission today. My argument here is that amidst growing fragmentation of society manifested in phenomenon of migration, heart of Christian message speaks of call to globalize solidarity, beginning with most vulnerable and neglected members of human community. …

An experimental evaluation to determine the required thickness of passive fire protection layer for high strength concrete tunnel segments

The Eurasia Tunnel is a part of the Bosporus Strait Highway Crossing Project connecting the Anatolian and European shores of Istanbul. This paper evaluates the use of high strength concrete for the segments for the bored part of the tunnel under the effects of design fire conditions. High strength concrete enables the attainment of high early strength levels required for segment handling and increases the segment durability compared to segments designed by ordinary strength concrete. However, in the event of a tunnel fire, the increased concrete strength of the segments increases their likelihood of spalling compared to segments fabricated by ordinary strength concrete. Therefore, determination of the passive fire protection requirements must take into account the strength of the protected concrete. This paper will present and include a discussion of the results of small-scale fire exposure tests conducted to determine the required thickness of passive fire protection layer for the evaluated high strength concrete tunnel segments.

Making waves: Michigan's boat-building industry, 1865-2000

Michigan will always be known as the automobile capital of the world, but the Great Lakes State boasts a similarly rich heritage in the development of boat building in America. By the late nineteenth century, Michigan had emerged as the industryAEs hub, drawing together the most talented designers, builders, and engine makers to produce some of the fastest and most innovative boats ever created. Within decades, gifted Michigan entrepreneurs like Christopher Columbus Smith, John L. Hacker, and Gar Wood had established some of the nationAEs top boat brands and brought the prospect of boat ownership within reach for American consumers from all ranges of income. More than just revolutionizing recreational boating, Michigan boat builders also left their mark on history - from developing the speedy runabouts favored by illicit rum-runners during the Prohibition era to creating the landing craft that carried Allied forces to shores in Europe and the Pacifi c in WWII. In Making Waves , Scott M. Peters explores this intriguing story of people, processes, and products - of an industry that evolved in Michigan but would change boating across the world.

Physical and biological control of fucoid recruitment in range edge and range centre populations

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 518:85-94 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11016 Physical and biological control of fucoid recruitment in range edge and range centre populations João G. Ferreira1,3,*, Stephen J. Hawkins1,2, Stuart R. Jenkins1 1School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 5AB, UK 2Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK 3Present address: Ecotoxicology Unit (ITMx), Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden *Corresponding author: joao.l.g.ferreira@gmail.com ABSTRACT: The structure of rocky shore assemblages is determined to a large extent by the interaction between abiotic and biotic processes. Understanding of the strength and interactive nature of these processes over different spatial and temporal scales provides insight into key structuring mechanisms and clarifies what sets species’ distributions. Here we examine the potential interactive effect of physical environment (insolation stress) and grazing pressure on recruitment success of fucoid species (Fucus spp.) in North Wales and Portugal, in order to understand patterns of distribution at the centre and equatorward edge of their range. Contrary to expectations, amelioration of the physical environment through reduction of insolation stress did not improve recruitment in either geographical region. Grazing activity of patellid limpets was found to be an important process regulating fucoid recruitment only on northern European shores. The top-down control of fucoid recruitment at the northern latitude was apparent, even at half the normal densities of patellid limpets. The use of reduced light levels and reduced grazing pressure in southern regions was expected to improve fucoid recruitment, but results indicate amelioration of physical and biological pressures cannot compensate for an inherently low supply of propagules. Our study confirms that strong top-down control by grazers (Patella spp.) can directly determine the distribution and abundance of fucoid algae in core areas of its range, but toward the range edge factors other than those examined are responsible for low recruitment and, ultimately, the observed decline in fucoid abundance in southern European regions. KEY WORDS: Reproductive success · Geographical differentiation · Biotic stress · Grazing pressure · Abiotic stress · Solar radiation · Fucus spiralis · Fucus vesiculosus · Patella spp. Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Ferreira JG, Hawkins SJ, Jenkins SR (2015) Physical and biological control of fucoid recruitment in range edge and range centre populations. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 518:85-94. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11016 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 518. Online publication date: January 07, 2015 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.

Children's Rights as Human Rights

The image of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned on September 2, 2015, as he tried to cross the Mediterranean with his family to seek safety in Europe, may finally shock Europe and the world into offering greater protection to refugees fleeing from war and persecution in Syria and elsewhere. Aylan's death was a tragedy of a kind that has become all too familiar. In 2015 alone, thousands of people have died trying to reach European shores in unseaworthy, overcrowded boats. Many of those who drowned were children—including in a single instance an estimated one hundred children (out of a total of some eight hundred fatalities) lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya in April.

Southern Thought and Other Essays on the Mediterranean.

Southern Thought and Other Essays on the Mediterranean.

Icons of Becoming

Dramatic and spectacular images of destitute African migrants suffering in their attempts to reach European shores in ramshackle boats have become endemic in European media. However, these images rarely do more than produce the migrant as a political subject, a bare life from a destitute continent portrayed at the height of his suffering. Through ethnographic case material stemming from an ongoing research project documenting undocumented migration from West Africa to Europe, this article describes significant events in the migrants’ lives, which predate the departure from the African continent, thus providing rare ethnographic data from the perilous crossing of the Sahara desert. The article describes and argues how photography can be used as a productive research tool in ethnographic research and how it enables a particular form of collaborative storytelling, which holds promises for a new form of conceptual ethnography. Through the article, it is demonstrated how undocumented migration is essentially a matter of social becoming, which paradoxically involves an inverted becoming, in that those who migrate must continually denounce themselves, becoming nobody so as to avoid becoming nobody in the eyes of their families back home.

The EU and Death Penalty Abolition: The Limited Prospects of Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters as an External Policy Tool

After having eradicated the death penalty from its own territory about ten years ago, the EU shifted its focus towards retentionist states outside its borders. Given the importance of extradition and mutual legal assistance, the refusal of cooperation was a powerful tool to spread abolition beyond European shores. In the 21st century, however, the unstoppable growth of transnational mobility and communications has pushed traditional judicial cooperation to its limits. Transnational crime is flourishing and law enforcement simply cannot lag behind. In the framework of the ‘area of Freedom, Security and Justice’, the European Union started to create new forms of cooperation which simplify the burdensome procedures of traditional extradition and mutual legal assistance and which speed up the proceedings. The pragmatic new instruments make criminal law enforcement practice easier, so it is likely there will be a spill-over effect on cooperation between the EU or its Member States and third countries. The central thesis of this contribution is that this evolution is bound to lead to the demise or at least, the growing irrelevance of death penalty clauses as a tool in the EU's fight against capital punishment.

Histological staining approaches for high-quality imaging of Actinia equina and Anemonia sulcata anatomy

Sea anemones species identification of can be difficult, especially in the field. The taxonomic keys currently utilised are based mainly on histological differences and therefore require collection of whole animals. Furthermore, histological analysis of sea anemones requires considerable expertise and worldwide sea anemones histological descriptions are still limited. Here it is reported a detailed histological description of the internal structure of the two most conspicuous species in tidal pool communities in European shores, Actinia equina and Anemonia sulcata. This species description makes them excellent models for studying reproductive strategies that are instrumental in establishing and maintaining new populations. Therefore they are potential indicator species important both for micro and macro scale monitoring programs. The anatomy and histology of main organs of the studied sea anemones were described. The different colour morphs of the species were studied. Fine histological details of their muscular and digestive systems and appendages, down to the cellular level, were studied. They are two-germinal layer animals and possess radial symmetry in body form. Samples of the main organs of sea anemones including epidermis, tentacles, mesentery, gonads and digestive tract (mouth, stomodaeum and gastrovascular cavity) were processed for histological examination according to procedures described elsewhere [1,2]. The epithelia were composed of epithelio-muscular cells, in which many gland cells were distributed. Three types of cnidoblasts (nematooysts) were observed in the epithelioma of the tentacles, mesentery filament and stomodaeum. Cnidoblasts in different places have different functions. The gonads were of the follicular type and were composed of germ cells and nutritional cells. The investigation of the internal organization of invertebrate communities provides important information on the organism’s biology with special interest for the study of ecological processes to evaluate their reproductive modes in order to understand how they may reflect their dispersal strategies [1, 2]. Traits that influence reproduction in animal and plant species have been a central focus of evolutionary biology. Therefore, considering their basal position in evolution, the Anthozoa (Cnidaria) provide important models for further understanding processes affecting reproductive strategies in the eumetazoan (i.e., cnidarian-bilaterian) ancestor and in modern vertebrates.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology – Portugal and FEDER funds, through the Projects: PTDC/MAR/464729/2006 and FCT/CNPq (Brazil), Project 6818, Programme 19/ 004.

Morphological alterations of lake shores in Europe: A multimetric ecological assessment approach using benthic macroinvertebrates

Besides pollution, lakes are affected by human alterations of lake-shore morphology. However, ecological effects of such alterations have rarely been studied systematically. Hence, we developed tools to assess the ecological effects of anthropogenic morphological alterations on European lake-shores based on pressure-specific response patterns of littoral macroinvertebrate community composition. Littoral invertebrates were sampled from 51 lakes in seven European countries. Sampling covered a range of natural to heavily morphologically degraded sites including natural shorelines, recreational beaches, ripraps and retaining walls. Biological data were supplemented by standardized morphological data that were collected via a Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) protocol and subsequently used to develop a morphological stressor index. Two biotic multimetric indices were developed based on habitat-specific samples (Littoral Invertebrate Multimetric based on HAbitat samples, LIMHA) and composite samples (Littoral Invertebrate Multimetric based on COmposite samples, LIMCO) through correlations with the morphological stressor index. Similarity analyses showed strong spatial differences in macroinvertebrate community composition between four main geographical regions, i.e. Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The morphological stressor index as well as LIMCO and LIMHA have been developed for each geographical region specifically, thereby optimizing correlations of LIMCO and LIMHA with the respective morphological stressor index. The metric composition of LIMCO and LIMHA and their correlation coefficients with the morphological stressor index are comparable to existing national and regional methods that assess morphological lakeshore degradation via macroinvertebrate communities. Hence, LIMCO and LIMHA indices constitute a new stressor-specific assessment tool that enables comparable lake morphology assessment across Europe, as it has been developed involving a uniform methodology followed by regionalized optimization. These tools fulfil the standards of the EU Water Framework Directive and thus may complement existing assessment approaches used in lake monitoring focusing solely on lake eutrophication so far.

Morphological Behaviour of Costa da Caparica Beaches Monitored during Nourishment Operations

ABSTRACT Silva, R., Veloso-Gomes, F. and Pais-Barbosa, J., 2013. Morphological Behaviour of Costa da Caparica Beaches Monitored during Nourishment Operations. Coastal erosion is a common problem along sandy shores in Europe, a result of its dynamic nature, anthropogenic influences and the effects of climate change. The coastal stretch Cova do Vapor-Costa da Caparica, located south from Tagus River, evidences chronic erosion problems since the 60's. It was necessary to construct a series of defence structures that more or less stabilized the beaches for nearly 30 years, although subjected to occasional overtopping and to increasing urban pressure and tourism. A worsening of the erosion situation from the winter of 2000/01 required a new intervention, which was envisaged in several phases, including the rehabilitation of the structures and the annual nourishment of the beaches. The nourishment operations were accompanied by a topo-hydrographic monitoring program, which complemented a database for the time p...

Histological and Structural Analysis of Actinia equina L. (Cnidaria: Anthozoa)

The Anthozoa class is composed solely by marine benthic consumers, some with adaptations that enable them to inhabit even the most extreme habitats, like hydrothermal vents, the polar seas, and even whale falls. Anthozoans, such as corals and anemones, are important modulators of marine habitats in the coral reef communities, being also ecologically relevant due to their abundance and the trophic level they occupy. One of these is Actinia equina, the most conspicuous species in tidal pool communities in European shores, with a broad range of distribution from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and Aegean seas and South Africa. Histological and structural analyses allows for a more detailed biological and ecological study of these organisms, including their reproductive and metabolic behaviour. This work describes a morphologic and histologic analysis of A. equina, with these endpoints for the first time. Organisms, collected to the natural environmental were processed using a paraffin-embedding technique. Further, samples were processed following by Hematoxilin and Eosin (H & E) standard procedures with adaptations to Actiniidae conditions (the fixation time was 96 hours due to 98% of water body in these organisms). Results obtained confirm that, when compared to higher level animals, the Anthozoa are very simply organized (Figure 1). The body is built up of sheets of tissue (Figure 2 and 3), on the surface of each there is an epithelium, resting upon a middle layer of fibrous mesoglea. This generally contains no cellular elements other than some scattered amoebocytes and locally, genital cells (Figure 2). The aim of this work was to contribute to a new anatomic and histological baseline for these sea anemones family Actiniidae. In order to identify several taxonomic characteristics based on reproductive structures. The methods applied were standard to identify several structures that acid-basic groups ligands, such as phosphate of DNA, collagen and other nuclear proteins. The results obtained were the basic cnidarian structures such as tentacular and mesenteric anatomy. The reproductive structures are show in detail with septal filaments and mesenteric (Figure1). These structures is taxonomically relevant and into the own family (Actiniidae) could following the same patterns. The male and female A. equina mesenteries are different. The mainly conclusion of this study was that the male and female gonads can appear simultaneously in the same individual, or that it can have no defined sex.

Disarming Hatred: History Education, National Memories, and Franco-German Reconciliation from World War I to the Cold War

On May 4, 2006, French and German cultural ministers announced the publication ofHistoire/Geschichte, the world's first secondary school history textbook produced jointly by two countries. Authored by a team of French and German historians and published simultaneously in both languages, the book's release drew considerable public attention. French and German heads-of-state readily pointed to the joint history textbook as a shining example of the close and positive relations between their two countries, while their governments heralded the book for “symbolically sealing Franco-German reconciliation.” Beyond European shores, East Asian commentators in particular have taken note of Franco-German textbook collaboration, citing it as a possible model for how to work through their own region's often antagonistic past. Diplomatic praise is not mere hyperbole. From the Franco-Prussian War (1870) through World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945), France and Germany were widely perceived to be “hereditary enemies.” The publication ofHistoire/Geschichteembodies one of the most crucial developments in modern international relations: the emergence of France and Germany as the “linchpin” of the New Europe.

A cryptic alien seaweed spreading in Mediterranean coastal lagoons.

1 - Introductions of exotic macroalgae have increased recently on European shores. Each introduction involves at least one vector of transfer. For macroalgae, the potential vectors are aquaculture (intentional or accidental introduction), fouling on hulls, ballast water, aquarium trading, fishing nets. 2 - Coastal lagoons, including Venice and Thau Lagoon, developed into major hotspots of marine macrophyte introductions in the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, in shallow lagoons and estuaries, eutrophication processes have resulted in the development of macroalgal biomass. 3 - The most characteristic species of these macroalgal communities include members of the ulvophycean genus Ulva L. In foliose Ulvales, simple morphology and anatomy, rampant convergence, remarkable degrees of phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental factors tend to confound attempts at identification and make cryptic introduction difficult to detect. 4 - During a survey of macroalgal biodiversity in Venice Lagoon, among the pool of exotic species found, there was an Ulva differing from the Atlantic and Mediterranean species in both vegetative and reproductive features. Detailed observations consented us to identify the taxon as Ulva pertusa Kjellman, previously reported in the Mediterranean only for Thau Lagoon.