Let $\{Z_n^i = (Z_n^i(r))_{1 \le r \le d}: n \ge 0\}$ be a supercritical $d$-type branching process in an i.i.d. environment $ξ= (ξ_0, ξ_1, \dots)$, starting from a single particle of type $i$. The offspring distribution at generation $n$ depends on the environment $ξ_n$, and we denote by $M_n = (M_n(i,j))_{1 \le i,j \le d}$ the corresponding (random) mean matrix. Recently, Grama et al. (Ann. Appl. Probab. \textbf{33}(2023) 1213-1251) extended the famous Kesten--Stigum theorem to the random environment case with $d>1$. They improved upon previous work by innovatively constructing a new normalized population process $(\tilde{W}^i_n)$. Under several simple assumptions, they proved that $\tilde{W}^i_n$ converges almost surely to a limit $\tilde{W}^i$, and that $\tilde{W}^i$ is non-degenerate if and only if a $\mbb{E}X\log^+ X<\infty$ type condition holds. In this paper, we study the situation where an immigrant vector $Y_n$ joins the population $Z_n^i$ at each generation $n \ge 0$; the distribution of $Y_n$ also depends on the environment $ξ_n$. Following the approach of Grama et al., we construct a normalized process $(W^i_n)$ for the model with immigration, establishing a Kesten--Stigum type theorem that characterizes the non-degeneracy of its almost sure limit. Moreover, we provide complete $L^p$-convergence criteria for $(W^i_n)$, treating separately the cases $1 < p < \infty$ and $0 < p < 1$. As an important byproduct, a sufficient condition for the boundedness of the maximal function $\sup_n \tilde{W}_n^i$ is also obtained. Our results show that, under a mild restriction on the number of immigrants, the inclusion of immigration does not affect the almost sure convergence property of the original normalized process, but it does have an impact on the criterion for $L^p$ convergence.
This article examines myths that have been disseminated through arts and culture about so-called “Gypsies”, confining them to “anti-worlds”. There is always a “glamour that enwraps the Gypsy race” (Sampson 1935a, 10). Romantics and some nineteenth-century writers considered them to be positive symbols of resistance to newly born capitalism and rampant industrialization. This constituted a sort of “légende rose” (Descola 2019, 13), or pink legend, as Philippe Descola put it about Achouars, that is, a very positive gaze upon a people yet labelled “primitive”. However, this article intends to focus on the negative “black legend” (Ibid.), the idea that “Gypsies” form a dark and hostile people belonging to a dark and hostile fantasized territory. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century playwrights first depicted “Gypsies” as thieves, monsters, or inferior beings displaying dubious morality. They were ascribed mysterious powers, and “Gypsy” women were depicted as witches connected to their natural and dangerous territory, an occult Gypsyland. In all cases, they were shown as somewhat uncivilized (Grellman 1787, 24) and primitive beings, very much attached to their own traditions: a figure of the “Orientals within” (Lee 2000, 132). This Gypsylorism – understood here broadly as an orientalism about “Gypsies” – imposed a vision about them, now deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the gadjos. “Gypsies” of fiction have been created and re-created until they occupy, in the Western imagination, foreign and/or dark territories yet these are situated inside Europe.
Surprisingly, they can be found to this day wandering in books and movies, in other spaces or “espaces autres”, and in fetishized beyonds or heterotopias (Foucault 1966, 31). “Gypsy” characters inhabit the margins of the dominant societies of the countries in which they settled centuries ago, as if constantly bringing along with them, in the fantasies of the gadjos, their own frontiers which would isolate them from the rest of the population; or they live in exotic Gypsylands inside the very West. Their assigned territories are “absolutely different”, they are counter spaces, or “contre-espaces” (Foucault 1966, 24), constituting a huge reserve of imagination, “une grande réserve d’imagination” (Foucault 1967, 36). A “Gypsy” para-history thus has been told and written over and over again, “evacuating” (Barthes 2010, 240) the history of Gypsies, and questioning the role of artists and responsibility of social players. This article will also seek to raise the issue of “double consciousness” (Du Bois 1903, 8) among “Gypsy” Travellers.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, Communities. Classes. Races
Resumo Este estudo visa discutir as Representações Sociais dos brasileiros sobre o fenômeno do refúgio no Brasil, com base na Teoria do Núcleo Central de Abric. Participaram da pesquisa 956 brasileiros de todas as regiões do país. A técnica de evocação livre de palavras utilizou os termos indutores "refugiado" e "refugiado no Brasil", sendo a análise prototípica conduzida no software Iramuteq. O termo “refugiado” apresentou um núcleo central composto por "guerra", "fuga" e "sofrimento", remetendo ao contexto atual de conflitos e deslocamentos forçados. Para “refugiado no Brasil”, o núcleo central incluiu "Venezuela/venezuelano", "acolhimento" e "Haiti/haitiano", evidenciando as particularidades do fenômeno no país. A Análise de Correspondências Múltiplas revelou variações regionais nas representações. Os resultados indicam que, embora o acolhimento seja reconhecido como importante, persiste a presença de preconceito e a baixa frequência de referências às contribuições positivas dos refugiados, sugerindo uma visão predominantemente assistencialista.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
This article examines the role of ethnic networks in the development of migrant communities by focusing on modern-day Armenian migration to Russia. While much existing research on migrant networks tends to focus on newly arrived migrants’ experiences of gaining support in the destination countries through ethnic networks, little has been said about the impact of ethnic networks on migrant community development. Additionally, studies on the Armenian communities’ development are mainly focused on the historical context and scholars see little interest in studying modern-day Armenian migration and migrant community development. Drawing on empirical data from Armenia, this study explores how post-Soviet migration to Russia shapes contemporary Armenian communities there. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research conducted in 2020−2021, the article studies the significance of ethnic networks at both individual and collective levels. The quantitative research results offer insights into the role of ethnic networks in shaping migratory routes, while qualitative research highlights how these networks contribute to community construction, driven by regional affiliations that differ from traditional Armenian diaspora institutions. The study reveals the multiple roles of ethnic networks, including their influence on migratory behaviour, their persistence and importance across generations and their impact on community organisations’ development and leadership. It also highlights migrants’ preferences for engaging with their regions or villages of origin.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
In this work we address the analysis of discrete-time models of structured metapopulations subject to environmental stochasticity. Previous works on these models made use of the fact that migrations between the patches can be considered fast with respect to demography (maturation, survival, reproduction) in the population. It was assumed that, within each time step of the model, there are many fast migration steps followed by one slow demographic event. This assumption allowed one to apply approximate reduction techniques that eased the model analysis. It is however a questionable issue in some cases since, in particular, individuals can die at any moment of the time step. We propose new non-equivalent models in which we re-scale survival to consider its effect on the fast scale. We propose a more general formulation of the approximate reduction techniques so that they also apply to the proposed new models. We prove that the main asymptotic elements in this kind of stochastic models, the Stochastic Growth Rate (SGR) and the Scaled Logarithmic Variance (SLV), can be related between the original and the reduced systems, so that the analysis of the latter allows us to ascertain the population fate in the first. Then we go on to considering some cases where we illustrate the reduction technique and show the differences between both modelling options. In some cases using one option represents exponential growth, whereas the other yields extinction.
Ashraf Hosseini, Melanie Davern, William P. Evans
et al.
Migration is often a challenging and stressful experience but there is significant variation in the response of individuals to migration-related challenges. This study investigated factors that contribute to resilience among Iranians living in Australia and the relationship between resilience, migration, and socio-demographic variables. Data was collected from 182 Iranian immigrants and refugees. This study used a mixed-method design comprised of an online questionnaire and 12 semi-structured interviews. Lower levels of resilience were found among individuals who had experienced higher levels of discrimination compared to those who had experienced moderate levels (p < 0.05). Refugees reported lower levels of resilience and a higher experience of discrimination than immigrants (p < 0.05). Interview findings reveal the two main themes that contributed to resilience, which were protective factors including personal and social competencies, social and family support, and longer duration in Australia and risk factors such as unemployment, discrimination, and loneliness. Several possible approaches to assist immigrants and refugees are suggested, including strategies that could lessen the challenges of the migration process and enhance protective factors associated with resilience.
Background: Migration is a common and visible feature of global mobility where the driving factors would be the search for better livelihood opportunities. Due to economic hardships in Zimbabwe, women have also been noted to migrate to neighbouring countries in search of opportunities to look after their left-behind families. However, the COVID-19 restrictions and other state regulations have become facilitators of illicit migration as irregular migrants (including women) devise more complex means to traverse borders and gain access. This paper assesses the vulnerabilities and the lived realities of female irregular migrants between Zimbabwe and Botswana during the clandestine migration journeys. Methods: A qualitative descriptive survey that targeted nineteen (19) participants was conducted using semi-structured and unstructured interviews. The participants included fifteen (15) Female irregular migrants and four (4) Key Informants who worked at Plumtree Border Post. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded and thematically analysed. Results: Four vulnerabilities were reported/experienced by the participants: violence and robbery, Rape and sexual harassment, Psycho-emotional harassment, and health vulnerabilities in detention. The participants reported that these vulnerabilities are experienced at different levels of the migration process and deportation. Conclusions: Female migrants are generally at risk as they are bound to be taken advantage of at different levels during migration and deportation. Therefore, there is a need to relook at the policies implemented at the ports and ensure women are subjected to humane treatment even during the deportation process.
Public aspects of medicine, Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
The notion that “even health systems that are considered ‘universal’ restrict the access” of migrants (Chapter 1, p. 24) is the main takeaway from Borders across Healthcare, an important, well thought-out collection of nine essays edited by Nina Sahraoui (Centre de Recherches Sociologiques et Politiques de Paris, CNRS, France). Published in 2020, the collection was arguably written and compiled before the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, far from diminishing its relevance, the timing makes the book prescient and even more insightful.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, Communities. Classes. Races
Post-World War II , there was massive internal migration from rural to urban areas in Japan. The location of Sumo stables was concentrated in Tokyo. Hence, supply of Sumo wrestlers from rural areas to Tokyo was considered as migration. Using a panel dataset covering forty years, specifically 1946-1985, this study investigates how weather conditions and social networks influenced the labor supply of Sumo wrestlers. Major findings are; (1) inclemency of the weather in local areas increased supply of Sumo wrestlers in the period 1946-1965, (2) the effect of the bad weather conditions is greater in the locality where large number of Sumo wrestlers were supplied in the pre-war period, (3) neither the occurrence of bad weather conditions nor their interactions with sumo-wrestlers influenced the supply of Sumo wrestlers in the period 1966-1985. These findings imply that the negative shock of bad weather conditions on agriculture in the rural areas incentivized young individuals to be apprenticed in Sumo stables in Tokyo. Additionally, in such situations, the social networks within Sumo wrestler communities from the same locality are important. However, once the share of workers in agricultural sectors became very low, this mechanism did not work.
Flora Ascione, Sergio Caserta, Speranza Esposito
et al.
Coordinated rotational motion is an intriguing, yet still elusive mode of collective cell migration, which is relevant in pathological and morphogenetic processes. Most of the studies on this topic have been carried out on confined epithelial cells. The driver of collective rotation in such conditions has not been clearly elucidated, although it has been speculated that spatial confinement can play an essential role in triggering cell rotation. Here, we study the growth of epithelial cell colonies freely expanding (i.e., with no physical constraints) on the surface of cell culture plates, a case which has received scarce attention in the literature. We find that coordinated cell rotation spontaneously occurs in cell clusters in the free growth regime, thus implying that cell confinement is not necessary to elicit collective rotation as previously suggested. The collective rotation was size and shape dependent: a highly coordinated disk-like rotation was found in small cell clusters with a round shape, while collective rotation was suppressed in large irregular cell clusters generated by merging of different clusters in the course of their growth. The angular motion was persistent in the same direction, although clockwise and anticlockwise rotations were equally likely to occur among different cell clusters. Radial cell velocity was low as compared to the angular velocity. A clear difference in morphology was observed between cells at the periphery and the ones in the core of the clusters, the former being more elongated and spread out as compared to the latter. Overall, our results provide the first quantitative and systematic evidence that coordinated cell rotation does not require a spatial confinement and occurs spontaneously in freely expanding epithelial cell colonies.
This article explores the migration of Zimbabwean women to South Africa to
undertake various types of care work within the broader domestic work sector. Studies
on care migration have largely discussed South to North migration flows. This is
despite evidence showing that there are significant flows of migrants within countries
in the Global South. This article seeks to understand the recruitment and job-seeking
strategies employed by women in this South-South migration flow in light of their
migrant status and processes related to their migration. It is based on a qualitative
study and utilizes data collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with
key informants from four domestic worker recruitment agencies and 23 care workers
in two cities – Johannesburg and Pretoria. The leading findings were that Zimbabwean
migrant care workers in South Africa faced exploitative working conditions as the
majority of them were undocumented or irregular. They faced challenges in obtaining
valid work visas and therefore, migrant care workers could not seek employment
through formal channels such as recruitment agencies. They used informal channels
such as social networks and the ‘market’. The article discusses the implications of using
such strategies with regards to the subsequent working conditions and the protection
of care workers’ rights.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
The health of migrant children is a pressing issue. While most African migration takes place within Africa, a significant number of African migrants travel to outside of the continent. This article reports findings from a scoping review on the health of African immigrant children from sub-Saharan Africa now living outside of Africa. A systematic search for studies published between 2000 and 2019 resulted in only 20 studies reporting on the health of children up to 18 years of age migrating from sub-Saharan Africa. Data from these articles were thematically analyzed, highlighting concerns related to the children's nutrition status (n = 8), mental health (n = 7), and physical health (n = 5). Study participants were primarily from Somali and Ethiopia, and most studies were conducted in Australia or Israel. The review highlights several gaps related to the scope, range, and nature of evidence on the health of African immigrant children living outside of Africa. In particular, most focus on children's nutritional and mental health, but pay little attention to other health concerns this specific population may encounter or to the benefits associated with effective responses.
Public aspects of medicine, Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
In this paper, we consider a critical Galton-Watson branching process with immigration stopped at zero $\mathbf{W}$. Some precise estimation on the generation function of the $n$-th population are obtained, and the tail probability of the life period of $\mathbf{W}$ is studied. Based on above results, two conditional limit theorems for $\mathbf{W}$ are established.
Abstract This paper presents an overview of the Canadian state’s refugee determination processes for persons lodging asylum claims in Canada on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity expression (SOGIE). Canada has an international reputation for being a welcoming nation to SOGIE (as well as other categories of) refugees, a reputation that is much promoted by the Canadian government and mainstream media. However, in my ethnographic research with SOGIE refugee claimants navigating the Canadian refugee determination process, I reveal that claimants must quickly learn how to construct an ‘authentically’ gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender narrative that meets refugee adjudicators’ standards of credibility, or risk being identified as a ‘fake’ refugee, and thus face incarceration and/or deportation. I argue that sexuality now forms a crucial component of the nation-state’s gate-keeping apparatus, with uneven effects for queer migrants.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Sourav Mukherjee, Tim Oates, Vince DiMascio
et al.
In this paper, we consider the problem of organizing supporting documents vital to U.S. work visa petitions, as well as responding to Requests For Evidence (RFE) issued by the U.S.~Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Typically, both processes require a significant amount of repetitive manual effort. To reduce the burden of mechanical work, we apply machine learning methods to automate these processes, with humans in the loop to review and edit output for submission. In particular, we use an ensemble of image and text classifiers to categorize supporting documents. We also use a text classifier to automatically identify the types of evidence being requested in an RFE, and used the identified types in conjunction with response templates and extracted fields to assemble draft responses. Empirical results suggest that our approach achieves considerable accuracy while significantly reducing processing time.
We propose a novel explanation for classic international macro puzzles regarding capital flows and portfolio investment, which builds on modern macro-finance models of experience-based belief formation. Individual experiences of past macroeconomic outcomes have been shown to exert a long-lasting influence on beliefs about future realizations, and to explain domestic stock-market investment. We argue that experience effects can explain the tendency of investors to hold an over proportional fraction of their equity wealth in domestic stocks (home bias), to invest in domestic equity markets in periods of domestic crises (retrenchment), and to withdraw capital from foreign equity markets in periods of foreign crises (fickleness). Experience-based learning generates additional implications regarding the strength of these puzzles in times of higher or lower economic activity and depending on the demographic composition of market participants. We test and confirm these predictions in the data.
This work provides a brief introduction to continuous-state branching processes (CB-processes) and continuous-state branching processes with immigration (CBI-processes) accessible to graduate students with reasonable background in probability theory and stochastic processes. In particular, we give a quick development of the stochastic equations of the processes and some immediate applications. The proofs given here are more elementary than those appearing in the literature before. We have made them readable without requiring too much preliminary knowledge on branching processes and stochastic analysis. In Section 1, we review some properties of Laplace transforms of finite measures on the positive half line. In Section 2, a construction of CB-processes is given as rescaling limits of Galton--Watson branching processes. This approach also gives the physical interpretation of the CB-processes. Some basic properties of the processes are developed in Section 3. The Laplace transforms of some positive integral functionals are calculated explicitly in Section 4. In Section 5, the CBI-processes are constructed as rescaling limits of Galton--Watson branching processes with immigration. In Section 6, we present reconstructions of the CB- and CBI-processes by Poisson random measures determined by entrance laws, which reveal the structures of the trajectories of the processes. Several equivalent formulations of martingale problems for CBI-processes are given in Section 7. From those we derive the stochastic equations of the processes in Section 8. Using the stochastic equations, some characterizations of local and global maximal jumps of the CB- and CBI-processes are given in Section 9. In Section 10, we prove the strong Feller property and the exponential ergodicity of the CBI-process under suitable conditions using a coupling based on one of the stochastic equations.
We consider the parameter synthesis problem of parametric timed automata (PTAs). The problem is, given a PTA and a property, to compute the set of valuations of the parameters under which the resulting timed automaton satisfies the property. Such a set of parameter valuations is called a feasible region for the PTA and the property. The problem is known undecidable in general. This paper, however, presents our study on some decidable sub-classes of PTAs and proposes efficient parameter synthesis algorithms for them.