Abstract Securitization of refugees and migrants is a growing global phenomenon that is well illustrated by how refugee camps have emerged as governmental technologies of control in major host countries across the world. Policymakers and the media prominently feature the migration-security connection and depict refugees as threats to internal security, linking their presence to acts of terrorism and crime. This article examines how the securitization of Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia, the two main host countries for this refugee group, has hindered their formal integration and exacerbated policies of encampment in these countries. Drawing on securitization theory, we highlight the discrimination of Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia by demonstrating how this refugee group is seen as a specific security threat and treated differently from other refugee groups in these countries. A history of border conflicts that shaped the relationship between refugee hosting areas and the national governments long before the advent of camps, coupled with shared Somaliness between locals and refugees in hosting areas, and the back-and-forth refugee movements across international borders have created a confluence of factors that reinforce suspicion and distrust towards Somali refugees. The article adds a normative empirical dimension to securitization theory by providing a nuanced understanding of the concept as it applies to different refugee groups in similar contexts. It also contributes to refugee and migration literature by arguing that although shared Somaliness with locals has strengthened the informal integration of Somali refugees in the two study contexts, the same ties have also provided justification for securitizing this refugee group and denied it from benefitting from progressive laws on formal integration that are being implemented for other refugee groups.
V. Harbers, Frédérique C. M. Bouwman, Ingrid M. P. van Rijnsoever
et al.
Introduction Vascular malformations are rare congenital anomalies of the vascular system, which can involve the capillaries, veins, arteries, lymphatics, or a combination of vessel types. Patients with vascular malformations experience an impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) because of their symptoms (e.g., pain, swelling, and bleeding) and psychosocial distress. Sirolimus is an effective drug used in the medical treatment of these patients; however, relatively little is known about the effect of sirolimus on specific changes in the HRQoL domains and its magnitude. Methods The magnitude of change (effect size) following intervention is more informative to clinical practitioners than statistically significant but clinically unimportant changes; therefore, this study aimed to examine the magnitude and meaningfulness of change in the HRQoL of children and adults with vascular malformations following sirolimus treatment using low target levels. Results In total, 50 patients with vascular malformations (19 children, 31 adults) were included in this study. These patients experienced a lower HRQoL than the general population, with the adults reporting a significantly lower score in almost all domains. A 6-month sirolimus treatment improved the HRQoL in 29 patients, including 77.8% of the children (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory score [PedsQL]) and 57.7% of the adults (Short Form 36 [SF-36]). The effect sizes of sirolimus for each SF-36/PedsQL domain ranged from 0.19 to 1.02. The clinically relevant moderate magnitude of changes was seen in the domains of the children's reports: “Physical functioning” and “Social functioning” and in the domains of the parent reports: “Social functioning,” “School functioning,” and “Psychosocial.” A high-magnitude change was seen in the domains “Emotional functioning” and “Psychosocial” in the children's reports and “Physical functioning” in the parent reports. In addition, the moderate magnitude of changes was also seen in the adults SF-36: in all domains except for “Role limitations—physical problems,” “Role limitations—emotional problems,” and “General health perception.” Conclusion We believe this is the first study showing the magnitude of change in HRQoL after sirolimus treatment in patients with vascular malformations. Before treatment, these patients experienced an impaired HRQoL compared with the general Dutch population. A 6-month sirolimus treatment with low target levels led to moderate-to-high clinically relevant changes in multiple domains, which significantly improved the HRQoL. Clinical trial registration https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03987152?cond=Vascular+Malformations&cntry=NL&city=Nijmegen&draw=2&rank=1, identifier: NCT03987152.
Lucas G. Drouhot, Karen Schönwälder, Sören Petermann
et al.
Abstract During the 2015 “summer of welcome”, the mass arrival of refugees to Germany triggered widely publicised acts of pro-refugee solidarity among citizens. To date, scholarship has largely focused on hostility towards immigrants—including refugees-, and few studies shed light on the determinants of acceptance, so that refugee solidarity remains poorly understood. In this paper, we hypothesise that pro-refugee engagement does not just reflect humanitarian concerns, but also a more general acceptance of socio-cultural diversity in German society. Relying on unique survey data gathered in 2019–2020, we show that a majority of urban Germans indeed engaged in some form of support. We employ latent class analysis to capture the spectrum of diversity attitudes within the urban population. A series of regression models show that diversity attitudes are powerful predictors of pro-refugee engagement. Overall, our study helps advancing immigration scholarship by demonstrating that widespread support for refugees is strongly associated with more general diversity assent.
Although reasons for migration may differ, it can be argued that international migrants have a common goal: improving the living conditions and well-being for themselves and their families. However, we still know relatively little about how older migrants evaluate their well-being and the implications of migration for their life satisfaction. This paper aims to contribute to this body of research. In a first part, we focus on two comparisons: 1) The life satisfaction level of older Italian migrants in Switzerland compared to that of older Swiss natives, and 2) The life satisfaction level of older Italian migrants in Switzerland compared to that of older Italian stayers in Italy. In a second part, we investigate the determinants of life satisfaction in each of these three groups. The article draws on an original survey carried out in Switzerland and Italy (N = 1,654).
Against the current comparative literature on older migrants and non-migrants, we hypothesized that older Italian migrants in Switzerland display lower life satisfaction than older Swiss natives, and that older Italian migrants in Switzerland display higher life satisfaction than older stayers in Italy. We expected to observe these differences even when accounting for sociodemographic characteristics. While migrants’ average life satisfaction levels are lower than the levels of Swiss natives, this difference is fully mediated by sociodemographic variables. Migrants also report slightly lower life satisfaction levels than stayers; this difference remains significant at the p<0.1 level but diminishes as we control for sociodemographic characteristics. When investigating the life satisfaction determinants of each group, we find similarities among the three groups: being in good health and being able to make financial ends meet are positively correlated with life satisfaction, while experiencing age-related discrimination is negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Having a partner is only positively correlated with satisfaction for Swiss natives, and religiosity is only positively correlated with satisfaction for stayers.
The importance of this paper is threefold: 1) it investigates older migrants’ life satisfaction, an area of research that is underdeveloped, 2) it compares migrants to stayers, a comparison that is seldom found in the current literature but necessary to understand the implications of having a migratory background, and 3) it highlights the importance of policy interventions addressing the socioeconomic inequalities of older migrants.
Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Substantial evidence across disciplines indicates that children’s early years are critical for building the foundation for optimal development. In contexts of crisis, conflict, disaster and displacement, children are at particular risk. Primary caregivers often have fewer resources and less time to provide children with attention and necessary socio-emotional and cognitive stimulation. Risk factors for children are often multiplied in crises and conflict settings, and access to services becomes more challenging where family and social networks have been weakened and social service delivery interrupted.
To address the needs of young children, we must strengthen humanitarian response. Practitioners often use humanitarian standards and guidance to systematise planning, implementation and evaluation of programming. These documents describe the broad principles and essential elements (i.e. specific benchmarks and actions) for high-quality response, reflecting best practices at a global level.
We analysed the degree to which existing humanitarian standards and guidance documents explicitly recognise young children and their caregivers in humanitarian response and looked at gaps in the five areas that experts agree are essential for children’s holistic development: good health, adequate nutrition, security and safety, responsive caregiving and opportunities for early learning. We then made recommendations for achieving more comprehensive and consolidated guidance to address early childhood development in emergencies.
City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Bertrand Taithe, Mickaël le Paih, Fabrice Weissman
This roundtable was convened on 5 July 2022 and built on five years of collaborative work in Cambodia and ongoing collaborations within the Centre de Reflexion sur l’Action et les Savoirs Humanitaires (CRASH) at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) between Bertrand Taithe, Mickaël le Paih and Fabrice Weissman. The central question raised in this discussion relates to two profoundly intermeshed issues for humanitarian practitioners and organisations: the use of history for humanitarian organisations, and the need for them to preserve and maintain archives.
City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Patrizio Vanella, Miguel Rodriguez Gonzalez, Christina B. Wilke
Industrialised economies are experiencing a decline in mortality alongside low fertility rates – a situation that puts social security systems under severe pressure. Population ageing is associated not only with longer periods of pension claims but also smaller cohorts eventually entering the labour market. This threatens the sustainability of pay-as-you-go social security systems for implementing or further improving appropriate reform measures; adequate forecasts of the future population structure are needed.
We propose a probabilistic approach to forecast the number of pensions in Germany up to 2040. Our model considers trends in population development, labour force participation, and early retirement, as well as the effects of pension reforms. Principal component analysis is used to manage the high degree of complexity involved in forecasting trends in old-age and disability pension claims, which arises because of cross-correlations between old-age and disability pension rates, different age groups, and gender. Time series methods enable the inclusion of autocorrelations of the pension rate time series in the model. Monte Carlo simulation is used to quantify future risk. The latter is an important feature of our model, as the future development of the population and, eventually, the pension claims and the financial burden resulting from those claims, are highly stochastic.
The model predicts that, in the median trajectory, the number of old-age pensions will increase by almost 5 million between 2017 and 2036, alongside increases in the number of disability pensions by 2036. These numbers take account of the increase in legal retirement ages as part of the 2007 pension reform. After the mid-2030s, however, a moderate decrease can be expected. The results show a clear need for further reforms, especially in the medium term.
Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
In the wake of the demolition of the “The Jungle” at Calais, northern France, in October 2016, more than three thousand asylum seekers, refugees and other informal immigrants at any given time live in informal tent cities throughout the city’s northern areas. These makeshift camps appear to manifest a central issue in the French asylum system, that is applicants after making a claim for protection, and awaiting a hearing or decision, receive next to no formal support (financial, or residential) and are largely left to fend for themselves.Not all of the camp residents are asylum seekers wanting to stay in France. Some are migrants (or asylum seekers) en route to the United Kingdom; others are refugees who received French protection, with no housing. Between 2015–2017 there were multiple outbreaks of scabies in these tent cities leading to sanitation workers refusing to work in their vicinity. The current Covid-19 crisis has, moreover, further exacerbated concerns about the health of the unhoused asylum seekers and migrants in Paris - unaccompanied minors, in particular. This article will consider the repeated displacement, or dispersal, of this population in terms of the changing “politics of immigration”and policing in France under President Emmanuel Macron. In order to present the broader social context, it will also describe current events in Paris, including Macron government’s legislation relating to asylum/immigration, policing and more, amid the Covid-19 health crisis.
INTRODUCTION Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by flagellated protozoans of the genus Leishmania. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological status of Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) among patients admitted to a university hospital in Istanbul, located in western Turkey. METHODOLOGY This study included 160 and 77 patients with a pre-diagnosis of VL and CL, respectively, between January 2001 and December 2017. Detailed demographic data, including age, gender, nationality and the number and location of lesions were collected and recorded from the patient registries. RESULTS Among 160 bone marrow specimens that suspected as VL, 22 (13.7%) of the specimens that were evaluated with both culture and Giemsa staining detected as positive. Furthermore, 29 (37.7%) of the 77 patients suspected for CL showed evidence of Leishmania. CONCLUSIONS The increase in human immigration from neighbouring countries (with a high incidence of leishmaniasis) to Turkey might increase the risk of spreading the disease. This situation could result in a higher prevalence in metropolitan cities like Istanbul, where the country's population is concentrated.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing racial group in the United States over the past two decades, with an estimated 22.9 million Asian Americans comprising 5.7% of the U.S. population in 2019. Asian Americans are a diverse group tracing their roots back to more than 20 countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia. Often considered together with native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in the United States represents many ethnicities, languages, religions, histories, geographies, and cultures. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders occupy a fraught space in the racial fabric of this country. The “model minority myth” posits that AAPIs in the United States have attained high rates of educational achievement and financial success and implies that they therefore must not be subject to discrimination. However, there is a long history of anti-AAPI racism in this nation, from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barring immigration of Chinese laborers to the forcible internment of Japanese Americans duringWorldWar II. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rising tide of anti-AAPI racism and xenophobia. Between March 2020 and February 2021, the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center received 3795 reports of hate incidents directed at AAPIs that included verbal harassment, shunning, and physical assault. Sixty-eight percent of these hate incidents were reported by women. In recent weeks, there has been an alarming number of vicious attacks targeting AAPIs in cities across the country. Furthermore, in Atlanta onMarch 16, 2021, eight persons—including six Asian women—weremurdered at three Asian-ownedbusinesses. The following day, I felt compelled to break my silence on my own experiences with racism in a series of tweets. I was especially driven by anguish and fury when initial reports of the Atlanta shootings attributed the suspect's motivation to a “sexual addiction,” highlighting how AAPI women can be targeted by both racism and misogyny. As a child, I lived near Detroit during an era of rising tensions against Japanese automakers that led to the 1982 beating death of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man. I was regularly kicked, punched, and called “Chink” on the way to school. Yet, because I was one of only two AAPI children in the entire elementary school, I believed this was just the price to pay for being different. Media portrayals have often stereotyped AAPI women as submissive and exotic, and as a young adult I endured the leers of men telling me they “like Asian women.” I eventually realized that physical and verbal attacks were a common experience among my AAPI peers. However, the fact that these experiences were so common only served to impress upon me that there was no need to discuss this further and no point in doing so. We had all experienced racism, and there was apparently nothing to be done. Only recently, when the National Basketball Association announced it would investigate racism directed at player Jeremy Lin, my own astonishment made me realize how deeply I believe that anti-AAPI racism is ignored and dismissed. Even as I entered the field of medicine, racism persisted. Patients and classmates expressed surprise that I speak English “so well.” Professors and attendings told me, “You are too quiet,” “You all look the same,” and “I can't keep your names straight”—endless reminders that we never quite fully belong. Most AAPIs have been repeatedly asked the question that insinuates exclusion: “Where are you from?” If I respond that I was born in Texas, the inevitable reply is, “No, I mean where are you really from?” When I became an attendingmyself, I heard in teaching workshops that quiet students are problematic. The perception that AAPI medical students are quiet rather than thoughtful can lead to bias, especially in clinical clerkships when attendings' evaluations are largely subjective. From my personal experience reading letters of recommendation, I can attest that AAPI students are, indeed, frequently described as quiet. Although a growing number of studies is addressing gender and racial/ethnic biases in letters of recommendation, data on AAPI students are lacking. The model minority myth further serves to obscure the reality that many subgroups in the AAPI community face significant barriers to equity in medical education. Asian American and Pacific Islander students represent the second-largest racial group among entering medical students (22.9% of matriculating students in 2020) and are therefore not considered underrepresented in medicine; however, aggregating all AAPIs hides the fact that some AAPI subgroups, particularly those with roots in Southeast Asia, are underrepresented. Laotian, Cambodian, and Indonesian applicants together comprised less than 1% of AAPI applicants to medical school between 2018 and 2019. Burmese, Thai, and Hmong subgroups were not even counted. The model minority myth perpetuates sometimes dangerously high expectations among AAPI students and nullifies individual effort by reducing hard work into a single stereotype that “all Asians receive good grades.” This myth can also have the detrimental effect of pitting AAPIs against other minority groups, preventing a united stand for equity regardless of race and ethnicity. As faculty, AAPIs face hurdles to advancement in academic medicine. The Association of American Medical Colleges' 2020 Faculty Roster reveals that AAPIs make up 23.4% of assistant professors, 20.6% of associate professors, and only 14.2% of professors. Asian American and Pacific Islander women in academic medicine face intersecting barriers—the “glass ceiling” and the “bamboo ceiling”—that magnify these disparities. Although the percentage of AAPI women (11.2%) is similar to that of AAPI men (12.1%) at the rank of assistant professor, there are more than 2.5 times as many AAPI men (10.2%) as AAPI women (4.0%) at the rank of professor. Among internal medicine departments, 12.8% of chairs are AAPImen, but only 1.1% areAAPIwomen. Considering all AAPIs as a monolithic entity also disguises substantial differences in socioeconomic status and
Italy is one of the most important destination countries for Romanians. At the same time, the Italian care sector relies mainly on migrant labour, most of whom are Romanian women. Historically, Italy is considered one of the landmark countries for the southern or Mediterranean welfare state, characterised by its fragmented labour market, underdeveloped social protection system, informal economy and unpaid care work, usually done by the women in the family. Italy has one of the highest rates in Europe of both the elderly population and life expectancy at birth. In the last 20 years, the care work was gradually redistributed to migrant care workers, most of them women from former socialist countries, who often live in the household where they work. Migration from Eastern Europe, particularly Romania, has been facilitated, on the one hand, by rising unemployment and low-paid job opportunities in migrants’ countries of origin in the context of the deindustrialisation of state industry and, on the other, by the Italian elderly public-support system which is based on cash benefits granted to the family which can be redistributed to employ migrant care workers. In this paper we analyse three specific types of care work migration from Romania to Italy and the main challenges which they face, taking into account the specifics of the work and the type of migration chosen. The methodology is qualitative, based on 20 semi-structured online interviews with Romanian care workers and two interviews with stakeholders.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Khangelani Moyo, Kalyango Ronald Sebba, Franzisca Zanker
Abstract Both Uganda and South Africa were quick to respond to the global pandemic – Uganda for example imposing quarantine on foreign travellers after only a handful of cases before shutting off all international flights, and South Africa imposing one of the first lockdowns on the continent. Reflecting on the first 6 months of the pandemic responses in terms of refugee protection, the two countries have taken diverging pathways. South Africa used the pandemic to start building a border fence on the border with Zimbabwe, initially curtailed all foreign shop owners from opening under lockdown and excluded asylum seekers from emergency relief grants. In contrast, Uganda opened its borders to refugees from the DRC in June, when border closures were still the global norm. Whilst both responses are not unusual in light of their standard governance approaches, they highlight the own self-image the countries espouse – with Uganda positioning itself as the world’s premier refugee protector at a time when it is desperately in need of more funds and South Africa looking to politically capitalize internally from reiterating a division between migrant communities as a threat to poor and disenfranchised South Africans. Even during a pandemic, the practice of refugee protection does not happen in a political vacuum. This paper is based on over 50 in-person and digital interviews conducted in Uganda and South Africa in 2020, as well as nine focus groups with refugee and host communities.
This contribution examines the legal powers that Dutch authorities have to restrict the right to free movement of mobile but ‘unwanted’ EU citizens, including measures that seek to expel and ban EU citizens from re-entering the Netherlands. The article defines ‘unwanted’ EU citizens as mobile EU citizens in respect of whom national authorities seek to take measures to restrict their right of residence, either on the grounds of their being an unreasonable burden on the Dutch social assistance system or in respect of public policy and public security. We analyse the relevant EU legal rules, their interpretation by the Court of Justice of the EU and their national implementation and application in order to show the legal constraints faced by national authorities when seeking to restrict EU mobility. This legal study is supplemented by a discussion of existing data on the number of EU citizens expelled or removed from the Netherlands. Our analysis suggests that, due to the legal protection enjoyed by mobile EU citizens against measures restricting their residence rights, the Dutch authorities encourage voluntary departure as a pragmatic solution to the presence of ‘unwanted’ EU citizens.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Abstract This paper addresses the question of how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the labour market integration support (LMIS) organised for refugees in Austria and Sweden, and the potential consequences of the changes unfolding. LMIS for refugees is a complex phenomenon involving actors at different interwoven levels—the macro-national level, the meso-organisational level and the micro-individual level. However, the complexities and consequences of such processes for the labour market integration of refugees have so far received limited attention. The current Covid-19 pandemic actualises the need to gain a better understanding of how integration support is organised across the different levels and how the pandemic itself impacts such support. Thus, the article seeks to understand how the pandemic affects the LMIS organised for refugees in Austria and Sweden, two countries with a large refugee population and diverging responses to the pandemic. Based on 29 semi-structured interviews and three focus group workshops, the results highlight in particular three developments: (a) a further entrenching of broader, macro-national level developments related to integration support already underway prior to the pandemic; (b) further mainstreaming of activities; and (c) increased volatility of work. Overall, the pandemic has brought to the fore the interrelation of different levels in the organising of LMIS for refugees and has contributed to a stabilisation of already ongoing activities.
Abstract In this rejoinder for this special issue, we enter into dialogue with the various commentaries that our article "Between Fragmentation and Institutionalisation" received. In doing so, we address some of the commonly-identified limitations of our paper and clarify the interpretation of some of our findings. This includes key issues such as the uneven internationalisation of migration studies, the need to reveal a broader variety of disciplinary contributions to the field, and the need for some further clarification of the results of the co-citation analysis and caveats of its interpretation.
Geographical variations in fertility and the diffusion of fertility across space and social networks are central topics in demographic research. Less is known, however, about the role of neighborhoods and neighbors with regard to geographical variations in fertility. This paper investigates spatial variations in family size by analyzing third births in a neighborhood context. Using unique geo-data on neighbors and neighborhoods, this paper introduces a new geographical dimension of fertility variation and contributes to our understanding of geographical variations in fertility.
Flexible, ego-centered neighborhoods are constructed using longitudinal geo-data taken from administrative registers (2000-2014). Data on inhabitants’ residential address, their housing, family situation and fixed effects for statistical tracts are used to account for sorting into housing and urban versus rural districts.
The analysis shows that the likelihood of two-child couples having another child increases with the share of families in the neighborhood that have three or more children. This relationship remains unchanged, even after controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics of couples, the educational level attained by neighboring women as well as time-constant characteristics of neighborhoods. Results are consistent across various neighborhood definitions ranging from the 12 to the 500 nearest neighbors. However, the association between neighbors’ fertility becomes stronger as the number of neighbors increases, suggesting that selective residential sorting is an important driver. Consequently, this study indicates that transitions to third birth may be linked to social interaction effects among neighbors, in addition to well-known processes of selective residential sorting.
Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, City population. Including children in cities, immigration