Abstract Migration governance is one of the most contentious issues of our time, not just between political orientations but also between different levels of government. At the local level, the reality of undocumented migrants’ existence often places municipal authorities in an awkward split between acting in accordance with intransigent national policies and the need to guarantee public order and provide basic care. The academic literature on the ‘local turn’ in migration governance has not given attention to how municipal authorities may navigate the interplay between contestation and consultation in their relations with their national government. Focusing on two periods in which Amsterdam’s executive authorities tried to establish a form of shelter for undocumented migrants, we find that municipal authorities may publicly contest national authorities and privately consult with them at the same time. While the escalation of front stage contestation actually gives birth to back stage consultation, back stage consultation is continually constrained and threatened by the pressures on both municipal and national political actors to act out expected positions on the front stage. Over time, increased knowledge and trust between municipal and national actors can mitigate this vulnerability and stabilise backstage consultation to some extent.
<p dir="ltr">Fertility rates, especially in developed countries, are declining rapidly, and there is broad consensus that population size will also decline and age concurrently. This demographic shift is expected to produce a support crisis as the growing proportion of elderly individuals will place increasing demands on social and medical services. A solution often proposed is increased immigration, which can bolster the working-age population. A fundamental question that arises is “will there be enough immigrants, and from where? This paper, building on and expanding a 2000 study by the Guttmacher Institute, presents evidence that by 2050, higher-income and upper-middle income nations will be facing significant shortfalls of support cohort populations and will also be facing immigration deficits as well. This paper estimates population support ratios (PSR) available in 2050 for U.N. national and regional geographies. The PSR uses support cohort populations 15 to 64 year old and net migration forecasts made by the U.N. to estimate support population shortfalls by 2050. The PSR are the number of support (or working) population 15 to 64 years of age to the number of 65+ year old populations in U.N. geographic regions, subregions, and nations.</p>
This autoethnographic study explores the dynamics of teaching English to two homeschool students, aged 6 and 13, within their home environment, focusing on personalized instructional strategies. The researcher, serving as both teacher and observer, examines the interplay of the students' unique learning styles, preferred teaching resources, and attention spans. Student A, a kinesthetic learner, benefits from interactive games and physical activities, while Student B, a visual learner, excels with structured lessons and visual aids. The use of diverse online resources, such as British Council and Duolingo, enhances engagement through gamification and multimedia elements. The study highlights the necessity of adaptable teaching methods to address varying attention spans, with Student A requiring frequent activity changes and Student B benefiting from periodic breaks during in-depth exploration. The findings underscore the effectiveness of tailored educational approaches in fostering student engagement and learning outcomes. By documenting and reflecting on these experiences, the study contributes to the broader field of educational research, advocating for the integration of personalized and technologically enriched teaching strategies in homeschooling settings. This research affirms the transformative potential of individualized instruction in nurturing academic growth and a lifelong love for learning.
Keywords: Autoethnography, homeschooling, English for Young Learners, personalized instruction, educational technology.
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Recent decades have seen major changes in the educational profiles of the populations of Western industrialised countries, notably a sharp rise in educational attainment and a reversal of the gender gap in education. These trends are likely to have affected patterns of educational assortative mating and its consequences. In this editorial, we first review the empirical evidence on educational assortative mating patterns over the last two decades. Specifically, we examine whether educational homogamy has increased among the highly educated, whether women are now less likely to marry upward across cohorts, and whether the rates of relative educational homogamy in populations have increased. We also examine the factors that explain trends and cross-country differences in educational homogamy. Second, we review the consequences of educational homogamy for several important social outcomes, in particular partnership stability and union dissolution, fertility, and children’s educational attainment. Is educational homogamy increasingly affecting these outcomes, and if so, in what ways and why? Third, we identify research gaps regarding educational assortative mating and its consequences. The six empirical studies in this special issue attempt to fill some of these gaps. We briefly outline these studies and their main findings and point to implications for future research.
* This editorial has been peer reviewed.
Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Ayu Sinta Ramadhani, Utami Dewi, Mufida Syahnaz
et al.
The phenomena of technological growth in English instruction are expanding quickly all over the world.This progress happens not just in wealthy nations, but also in emerging nations, where the instructor mustdevelop technology-based teaching strategies and tools when teaching English. Indonesia, a developingnation, places a strong emphasis on expanding the use of technology in EFL instruction. English wassubsequently included in the general curriculum and even taught to kids in elementary schools as a directresult of this choice. This study will use Padlet as a digital tool that may be used in a writing class topique kids’ interest in learning English, especially in a writing class. Additionally, this study intends topromote the use of collaborative writing to make it simpler for elementary school pupils to use Padlets inwriting lessons. Through the use of qualitative research techniques, this study set out to learn more abouthow elementary school kids perceived using Padlets for group writing projects. A total of 52 elementaryschool kids in grades 4 and 5 participated in this study. We conducted semi-structured interviews toget data from participants. After the data has been collected, it will be processed using various contentanalysis techniques. Researchers received feedback from students who claimed that the usage of Padlets inEFL classes, particularly in collaborative writing, produced several themes. These themes include thatusing Padlet in collaborative writing can increase students’ self-confidence, that Padlet also helps studentsimprove their fluency in writing, and that Padlet is easy to use, has attractive features, and is simple tooperate.
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Syarfina Syarfina, Siti Masruroh, Nur Masyitah
et al.
Children’s numeracy skills significantly influence their readiness to enter primary school. However, teaching
numeracy to children in concrete periods is still a big challenge for teachers. Moreover, technologybased
learning media must still be considered appropriate for early introduction. This research aims to
develop an interactive digital learning media to improve early childhood numeracy skills. This Research
and Development (RD) method used the 4-D model, which consists of Defining, Designing, Developing,
and Disseminating. Expert validators who test the feasibility of the product consist of material, media, and
language experts. Respondents in this study were ten children aged 4-5 years at PAUD Nurul Aisyah, East
Aceh. The results showed that this digital game is feasible as a learning media to improve early childhood
numeracy skills. The average validator score for product feasibility is in the very good category, and
children’s numeracy skills are in the good category. With this learning media, "Numb Game," children
learn the concepts of counting, grouping, and simple statistics. Through an interactive approach, the
development of Numb Game media can stimulate children’s engagement in the numeracy learning process
by utilizing visual elements, games, and interactions that stimulate curiosity and desire to understand
mathematical concepts. Therefore, this interactive digital learning media presents an interesting, adaptive,
and effective learning experience according to children’s needs in improving numeracy skills at an early
age. Further research on the long-term effects of using digital learning media on the development of early
childhood numeracy skills and the implications for their academic achievement is warranted.
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
The turn of the century has brought the issue of internal displacement to the forefront of the international agenda, recognising it as a matter of global concern. Scholarly research has also taken an interest, examining important aspects such as the integration of internally displaced persons into their resettlement areas. This paper examines the case of Greek-Cypriot ‘refugees’, a population which has experienced internal displacement for the past 50 years. Despite enjoying certain privileges granted by the Greek-Cypriot government and sharing a common language, religion and cultural practices with the non-displaced population, oral narratives collected and analysed in this study reveal a complex interaction with non-refugees during resettlement. These narratives highlight the challenges of internal displacement and emphasise that a shared ethnicity alone is insufficient to ensure social inclusion. In order to comprehend these complexities, the paper sought to engage with theories of refugee integration, with this engagement revealing the limitations of indicator-oriented conceptualisations in cases of internal displacement. The way in which these oral narratives contradict an observable indicator such as ethnicity is a point which we should take into serious consideration.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
When free-roaming in natural areas, the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) is ranked high among the most destructive alien species. Near human dwellings, it might risk humans, impair sanitation, and suffer from poor welfare. Cats’ popularity as companion animals complicates their population control. Thus, culling is often replaced by a fertility control method called “Trap-Neuter-Return/Release (TNR),” which is considered more humane. Despite the extensive application of TNR, a long-term controlled study was never performed to test its effectiveness. We present a uniquely designed controlled field experiment for examining TNR effectiveness. The study was performed over a twelve-year period, divided into pre-intervention, mixed- and full-intervention phases, and spanned a 20Km2 urban area. Trends of cat, intact-female, and kitten counts, cat reproduction, and carcass reports were compared among study phases and areas with different neutering intensities. The cat population increased during the first two study phases and did not decline in highly neutered populations, presumably due to cat immigration. Expansion of high-intensity neutering to the entire city in the full-intervention phase (>70% neutering percentage) reversed cat population growth, reaching an annual ca. 7% reduction. This population reduction was limited by a rebound increase in cat reproduction and longevity. We conclude that cat population management by TNR should be performed in high-intensity, continuously, and in geographic contiguity to enable population reduction. To enhance management effectiveness and mitigate compensatory effects, we recommend further evaluating an integrated strategy that combines TNR with complementary methods (e.g., vital resource regulation, ill cat euthanasia, and adoption). Significance Statement Though popular companion animals, domestic cats pose numerous problems when free-roaming, including predation of wildlife, hazards to humans, impaired sanitation, and a decrease in their welfare. Thus, managing their populations is essential. The Trap-Neuter-Return method (TNR, capturing, sterilizing, returning/releasing) is widely employed for managing cat populations. However, there is a lack of long-term controlled evidence for its effectiveness. We examined the outcomes of high-intensity TNR by performing a twelve-year controlled field experiment, the largest to date. Neutering over 70% of the cats caused population decline when applied over contiguous areas. However, it was limited by a rebound increase in reproduction and survival. These findings provide a robust quantification of the limitations and the long-term effectiveness of TNR.
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a zoonotic pathogen commonly found in humans and animals all over the world. Here, we investigated the occurrence and genotype constitute of E. bieneusi among the individuals from Haikou city of Hainan, China. A total of 1,264 fecal samples of humans were collected, including 628 samples from patients with diarrhea (325 adults and 303 children) and 636 samples from the asymptomatic population (383 college students and 253 kindergarten children). E. bieneusi was detected using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using a neighbor-joining tree construction method. The overall prevalence of E. bieneusi was 3.7% (47/1,264), while it was 5.6% in the patients with diarrhea (5.8% in adults and 5.3% in children) and 1.9% in the asymptomatic population (2.9% in college students and 0.4% in kindergarten children). The prevalence of E. bieneusi in humans with diarrhea was significantly higher than that in the asymptomatic population (χ2 = 36.9; P < 0.05). A total of 28 genotypes were identified, including ten known genotypes: CHG2 (n = 3), CHG3 (n = 5), CHG5 (n = 10), CM21 (n = 1), EbpA (n = 1), EbpC (n = 1), PigEBITS4 (n = 1), PigEBITS7 (n = 1), SHR1 (n = 4), Type IV (n = 2), and 18 novel genotypes (HNH-1 to HNH-18; one each). All these genotypes were categorized into three groups, including group 1 (n = 6), group 2 (n = 14), and group 13 (n = 8). This was the first study on the identification of E. bieneusi among humans in Hainan, China. The correlation between E. bieneusi infection and diarrhea was observed. The high diversity and distinctive distribution of E. bieneusi genotypes found in this study reflected the unique epidemic genetic characteristics of E. bieneusi in humans living in Hainan.
Abstract The present review synthesizes lines of emerging evidence showing how several samples of children populations living in large cities around the world suffer to some degree neural, behavioral and cognitive changes associated with air pollution exposure. The breakdown of natural barriers warding against the entry of toxic particles, including the nasal, gut and lung epithelial barriers, as well as widespread breakdown of the blood-brain barrier facilitatethe passage of airborne pollutants into the body of young urban residents. Extensive neuroinflammation contributes to cell loss within the central nervous system, and likely is a crucial mechanism by which cognitive deficits may arise. Although subtle, neurocognitive effects of air pollution are substantial, apparent across all populations, and potentially clinically relevant as early evidence of evolving neurodegenerative changes. The diffuse nature of the neuroinflammation risk suggests an integrated neuroscientific approach incorporating current clinical, cognitive, neurophysiological, radiological and epidemiologic research. Neuropediatric air pollution research requires extensive multidisciplinary collaborations to accomplish the goal of protecting exposed children through multidimensional interventions having both broad impact and reach. While intervening by improving environmental quality at a global scale is imperative, we also need to devise efficient strategies on how the neurocognitive effects on local pediatric populations should be monitored.
Background When an emergency-care patient is diagnosed with an emerging infectious disease, hospitals in Korea may temporarily close their emergency departments (EDs) to prevent nosocomial transmission. Since February 2020, multiple, consecutive ED closures have occurred due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Daegu. However, sudden ED closures are in contravention of laws for the provision of emergency medical care that enable the public to avail prompt, appropriate, and 24-hour emergency medical care. Therefore, this study ascertained the vulnerability of the ED at tertiary hospitals in Daegu with regard to the current standards. A revised triage and surveillance protocol has been proposed to tackle the current crisis. Methods This study was retrospectively conducted at 6 level 1 or 2 EDs in a metropolitan city where ED closure due to COVID-19 occurred from February 18 to March 26, 2020. The present status of ED closure and patient characteristics and findings from chest radiography and laboratory investigations were assessed. Based on the experience from repeated ED closures and the modified systems that are currently used in EDs, revised triage and surveillance protocols have been developed and proposed. Results During the study period, 6 level 1 or 2 emergency rooms included in the study were shut down 27 times for 769 hours. Thirty-one confirmed COVID-19 cases, of whom 7 died, were associated with the incidence of ED closure. Typical patient presentation with respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 was seen in less than 50% of patients, whereas abnormal findings on chest imaging investigations were detected in 93.5% of the study population. The chest radiography facility, resuscitation rooms, and triage area were moved to locations outside the ED, and a new surveillance protocol was applied to determine the factors warranting quarantine, including symptoms, chest radiographic findings, and exposure to a source of infection. The incidence of ED closures decreased after the implementation of the revised triage and surveillance protocols. Conclusion Triage screening by emergency physicians and surveillance protocols with an externally located chest imaging facility were effective in the early isolation of COVID-19 patients. In future outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, efforts should be focused toward the provision of continued ED treatment with the implementation of revised triage and surveillance protocols.
ABSTRACT This paper highlights the politics of mobility through investigating Singaporean-Chinese imaginaries of mobility which are tied to the racialization of mainland Chinese migrants in Singapore. Host societies imbue (im)mobility with meanings; in the case of Singapore, mobility is imagined as transience and even immorality. The myth of migrants’ transience, both in time and in space, posits them as simultaneously marginal and threatening, and is pertinent in the case of Singapore where 29% of the population is recorded as transient labour. As a state whose population growth owes more to immigration than natural increase, Singapore must maintain its mobile labour to fulfill its aspirations to keep moving forward as a mobile city. Its high-wage mobile labour also provides a pool from which Singapore sources its potential citizens, to make up for low birth-rates and to maintain an ethnic Chinese dominance in the state. As such, a substantial number of migrants including the mainland Chinese have attained permanent residence or citizenship in Singapore, to the discontent of its Singaporean-Chinese majority. Imagined as embodiments of mobility and of a lesser Chineseness, Chinese migrants are racialized as more transient than other groups of migrants and made ‘stranger than other others.’
T. Dzinamarira, Kondwani Ngoma, Nooliet Kabanyana
et al.
Female sex workers (FSWs) are one of the populations most at risk for becoming infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with the worst disease burden globally. In Rwanda, there are an estimated 15,000 FSWs [1]. The HIV prevalence among FSWs in Rwanda was estimated to be approximately 46% in 2015. The 2015 Behavioral and Biological Surveillance Survey among female sex workers enrolled 1978 FSWs [2]. In this study, 4% and 10,4% of the FSWs in Kigali city and other provinces respectively were aged 15–19 [2]. Nearly a quarter (22%) reported conducting their business from home as opposed to other hotspots [2]. Participants largely (70%) reported that they had sexual intercourse for their first time at the age of 15–19 [2]. Among them, 43% were engaged in the sex work for the first time within the same age range with 5.5% reporting engaging in their first commercial sex under the age of 15 years [2]. Despite the progress made in HIV interventions amongst FSWs as evident by the decreased prevalence, little work has been done on their children, an equally vulnerable population. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) defines sex work as the receipt of money or goods in exchange for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally. Sex work has been historically illegal in Rwanda. This meant identifying FSWs’ children was difficult and thus increasing the children’s vulnerability and marginalization. However, through civil society advocacy, Law No68/2018 of August 30, 2018 determining offences and penalties in general decriminalized sex work in Rwanda [3]. Despite this notable intervention, children of FSWs continue to face various vulnerabilities that include: separation from parents, sexual abuse, early sexual debut, low school enrolment, psychosocial issues arising from witnessing their mothers’ sexual interactions with clients, and social marginalization [4]. There is also the likelihood that they are introduced to sex work as adolescents. This intergenerational transmission of risks has also been shown, for example, through the problems that children of sex workers face in succeeding at school due to issues such as discrimination on the part of teachers and classmates [5]. Compromised educational success is especially dangerous for the female children of FSWs, as it may continue the cycle of poor, uneducated women who engage in sex work to survive. Despite this, very little work has been done on children of FSWs in our setting, and to our knowledge, there is no published study that provides data on their HIV rates. The health and welfare of FSWs’ children should be prioritized. In conclusion, children born to FSWs in Rwanda are potentially at high risk for many serious and fatal health problems, including HIV. An analogy can be made with the enrollment into antiretroviral therapy among HIV positive children of HIV-positive FSWs enrolled in the 2015 behavioral and biological surveillance survey in Rwanda. The study revealed that almost half (48%) were not enrolled in ART [2]. This low engagement in HIV care and treatment services is an important public health problem that warrants urgent attention. The presence and magnitude of other health problems among these children are poorly understood. To address these issues, there is a need to partner with sex workers and sex worker organizations to fund and conduct research on the sexual and reproductive health of FSWs’ children. Such studies could aid in the implementation of programs specifically for FSWs children at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Development and implementation of family centered interventions to address FSWs’ children welfare should be informed by research findings.
Abstract This article analyses how organizations shape migration trajectories. More specifically, by looking at the Philippine migration industry, this ethnographic research highlights how organizations such as recruitment agencies, and governmental organizations, frame migration trajectories in terms of directionality, spatiality, but also by marketing migrants in the case of domestic workers. By looking at organization’s rationalities, it shows how migration flows have become institutionalized and ruled by organizations based on economic and protection rationalities in order to remain competitive on the global domestic labor market. Moreover, it underlines the crucial role played by these organizations to ensure the matching between the employers and the employee. This article highlights thus how agencies proceed by mobilizing migrant sociodemographic data to market skills such as docility, hardworking and flexibility. In addition, this research describes in detail how age, religion, marital status become key information mobilized by agencies in order to market migrants, meet employers’ expectations, and remain competitive on the global market of domestic labor. Finally, this article emphasizes the contribution of the organizational approach in the field of migration studies.