| Retour à la page d'accueil |
| Back to Home page |
JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES, 2000, Vol. 26, N° 1
Economic self-interest or cultural marginality? Anti-immigration sentiment and nativist political movements in France, Germany and the USA.
Many previous studies of mass nativism have used abstract psychological explanations or sociological 'micro-theories' to account for public opposition to immigration or support for nativist political movements. On methodological and policy grounds, however, both of these approaches are unsatisfying. This article instead articulates two theories that usually avoid such pitfalls: first, economic self-interest and second, marginality (especially in its cultural version). The study tests these two explanations using public-opinion surveys on opposition to immigration in France, Germany, and the USA and polls on support for the French Front national, the German Republikaner, and California's Proposition 187. Multivariate analysis weakly supports economic self-interest but generally confirms the cultural if not economic form of marginality. These results may suggest that the current battles over immigration have as much to do with whose cultural values will triumph as with whose economic wellbeing will be protected.
(FRANCE, GERMANY, UNITED STATES, IMMIGRATION, PUBLIC OPINION, NATIONALISM, THEORY, CULTURE).
English - pp. 5-23.
J. S. Fetzer, Department of Political Science, Central Michigan University, 247 Anspach Hall, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, U.S.A.
joel.s.fetzer@cmich.edu.
***
MADDENS, Bart; BILLIET, Jaak; BEERTEN, Roeland.
National identity and the attitude towards foreigners in multi-national states: the case of Belgium.
As an example of a multinational state in which various nationalities compete for public support, Belgium is a case in point. The citizens can identify with the official Belgian identity or with sub-national identities in Flanders and in Wallonia. How are these identities of the citizens related to their attitudes toward foreigners? Are citizens who have a strong identification with the national state (Belgium) or with the regions (Flanders or Wallonia) more likely to adopt hostile attitudes toward foreigners? A structural modelling approach was applied to the data of the 1991 election survey to map out the relationship between national identity and the attitude towards foreigners in Belgium. This shows that both attitudes are inversely related in Flanders and Wallonia. In Flanders, citizens with a strong Flemish identification tend to have a negative attitude towards foreigners, while those with a strong Belgian identification are more positive. In Wallonia, the stronger the Walloon identity, the more positive the attitude towards foreigners; the stronger the Belgian identity, the more negative the attitude towards foreigners. This finding indicates that the relationship between both variables is not intrinsic but is at least to some extent determined by the social representation of the national identity in the social and political context.
(BELGIUM, NATIONAL MINORITIES, FOREIGNERS, ATTITUDE, PUBLIC OPINION, NATIONALISM).
English - pp. 45-60.
B. Maddens, Department of Political Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; J. Billiet, Department of Sociology, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; R. Beerten, Survey Methodology Unit, Office for National Statistics, London, U.K.
bart.maddens@soc.kuleuven.ac.be. Jaak.billiet@soc.kuleuven.ac.be. roeland.beerten@ons.gov.uk.
***
Mechanisms of migration from Poland before and during the transition period.
This article explores Polish migratory movements with particular attention being paid to the mechanisms determining outflows before and after communism. The developments and changes that took place in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 had tremendous impact, both direct and indirect, on many spheres of life, including international migration. Migration became one of the distinct components of the transition period, and it changed markedly in character. This article reports both official statistics and results from an empirical research exercise on migration from Poland since the mid-1970s.
(POLAND, TRANSITIONAL SOCIETY, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, MIGRATION TRENDS).
English - pp. 61-73.
K. Iglicka-Okolska, Center of Migration Research, Institute for Social Studies, Warsaw University, Stawki 5/7, 00-183 Warsaw, Poland.
kiglic@samba.iss.uw.edu.pl.
***
Refugee settlement in Britain: The impact of policy on participation.
The settlement of refugees and asylum-seekers in countries of asylum depends on a range of factors that include the policies of the country of asylum as well as the experiences to and attitudes of individuals to exile. This article examines the direction of social policy towards refugees and asylum-seekers in Britain and the impact of policy on participation. Drawing on a sample of 180 refugees and asylum-seekers from the Somali, Tamil and Congolese communities, in the London Borough of Newham, this article shows the importance of immigration status, and the associated citizenship rights, on the social and economic settlement of refugees and asylum-seekers. Labour market participation is known to be a key factor affecting the settlement of refugees. Labour market activity is explored along with the impact of policy on participation. The article concludes that the direction of government policy, which continues to erode access to social and economic institutions, has an adverse affect on the settlement of refugee people in Britain.
(UNITED KINGDOM, REFUGEES, POLITICAL ASYLUM, IMMIGRATION, GOVERNMENT POLICY, SOCIAL POLICY, CIVIL RIGHTS).
English - pp. 75-88.
A. Bloch, Department of Social Policy and Policy at Goldsmiths College, London, U.K.
a.bloch@gold.ac.uk.
***
Immigration policy and research in Canada: pure or applied?
A review of Canadian immigration research, published between 1980 and 1998, suggests that research had only a limited impact on policies and programmes. Economists seemed to have more influence than psychologists, sociologists or demographers. Alternative models of the way research may enter the policy decision-making process are described. A 'systems' model recognises the competing influence of special interest groups and the influence of public opinion. Emphasis is placed on the need for academic researchers to make their conclusions known expeditiously, in order to create a more enlightened public.
(CANADA, RESEARCH, IMMIGRATION POLICY, DECISION MAKING, PUBLIC OPINION).
English - pp. 109-125.
A. H. Richmond, Department of Sociology, York University, 4700 Kelle St., Toronto, Ontario M3J 1PJ, Canada.
richmond@YorkU.CA.
***
MARKOVIC, Milica; MANDERSON, Lenore.
European immigrants and the Australian labour market: A case study of women from the former Yugoslavia.
This research note focuses on an ethnic minority of humanitarian immigrants from the former Yugoslavia in Australia to explore employment-related issues, which Majka and Mullan (1992) and Weiner (1996) suggest are the main indicators of immigrants' adjustment to a host society. The authors analyse immigrant women's labour force participation, their job-search strategies, and the extent to which ethnic informal networks facilitated or impeded their access to commensurate employment. On the one hand, these networks are proven to alleviate poverty, reduce financial and socio-psychological costs of immigration, and lessen the immediate stresses of immigration and marginal social position (Angel and Tienda, 1982; Chavira-Prado, 1992; Davis and George, 1990; Menjivar, 1997). On the other hand, well-established ethnic networks may aggravate immigrants' long-term adjustment if they restrict immigrants in terms of entering mainstream society (cf. Hugo, 1994; Pohjola, 1991). In Australia, communities from the former Yugoslavia are characterised by strength of family and kin chains (Tisay, 1985), providing one reason to explore the extent to which women received ethnic community support in the area of employment and their more general settlement.
(AUSTRALIA, YUGOSLAVIA, IMMIGRANTS, LABOUR MARKET, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION, EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, ETHNIC GROUPS).
English - pp. 127-136.
M. Markovic and L. Manderson, Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, 720 Swanston Street, Carlton Vic 3053, Australia.
m.markovic@kcwh.unimelb.edu.au.
***
JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES, 2000, Vol. 26, N° 2
Toward a political sociology of entry policies: Conceptual problems and theoretical proposals.
This article presents a critical survey of the state of the current research on immigration policies. The first part highlights the social and disciplinary changes that have recently made "immigration policy" a legitimate topic of social inquiry. It is argued that we are currently witnessing a fairly large wave of studies of the topic and that there is evidence of initial attempts to move from idiosyncratic case histories to theoretically-informed frameworks. The second part surveys the main conceptual framework currently employed to make sense of such policy fields. The article also argues that most of such frameworks end up taking for granted that it is possible to "extend" to immigration policy the basic toolkit employed in relation to other better-known policy domains. Moreover, the study of immigration policies has not yet paid adequate attention to the underlying policy-making, frequently ending up taking at face value the accounts of the actors involved. The third part highlights selected features of immigration policy that are distinctive of such a field.
(IMMIGRATION POLICY, RESEARCH, THEORY, METHODOLOGY, SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS).
English - pp. 213-228.
G. Sciortino, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo, Università di Trieste, Piazzale Europa, 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
sciortino@pug.univ.trieste.it.
***
Institutional theories of immigrant ethnic mobilisation: Relevance and limitations.
Using an institutional framework analysis, this article aims to explain patterns of mobilisation among immigrant ethnic minorities. The first part of the argument is comprised of a critical discussion and conceptual deconstruction of interpretative models of political opportunity structures. This assessment of the relevance and limitations of available institutional explanation emphasises four central problems that call for refinement. The second part consists of an alternative framework. The main argument posits that our understanding of ethnic politics is biased by an overemphasis on institutional channels of political demands and by an underspecification of internal differentiation within immigrant ethnic communities at both the level of strategy and of identity. An alternative understanding of the field of ethnic politics within European cities may take as its point of departure what may be labelled the infra-political dimension of ethnic processses. While the argument primarily takes the form of a conceptual discussion, the example of the recognition of a representative organ for Moslims in Belgium is presented as an illustration of infra-political mobilisation.
(EUROPE, BELGIUM, CITIES, POLITICS, IMMIGRANTS, ETHNIC GROUPS, MINORITY GROUPS, SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS).
English - pp. 229-245.
H. Bousetta, Faculty of Political and Social Science, Katholieke Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
hassan.bousetta@kubrussel.ac.be.
***