The effect of culture on home-ownership

In this paper, we analyze the role of culture in determining whether, or not, an individual is a homeowner. We use data on first-generation immigrants who arrived in the United States under 6 years old. Following the epidemiological approach, any dissimilarity in the proportion of homeowners by country of origin may be interpreted as a consequence of cultural differences. Our estimates indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the cultural proxy and the immigrants’ choice of home-ownership. Additionally, we present evidence of different mechanisms of transmission of culture, which reinforces our results on the cultural effect.     

Cultural geographies of the contact zone: Gaels,Gallsand overlapping territories in late medieval Ireland

In writing about the social and cultural geographies of the past, we frequently reinforce notions of difference by using neatly delineated ethnic terms of reference that often superscribe the complexities of reality on the ground. Referring to ‘Gaels’ and ‘Galls’, demarcating ‘native’ and ‘foreign’ worlds in late medieval Ireland, is but one example. We often exaggerate, too, the boundedness of geographical space by speaking more of frontiers and less of overlapping territories. Using the context of late medieval Ireland, I propose in this paper the application and broadening of the concept of the contact zone—prevalent in postcolonial studies for a number of years—to address this specific issue of overstating social and cultural geographical cohesion and separation in the past. The use of the concept of the contact zone in geography has been largely confined to the modern period, which in the extant literature has received priority for various reasons, not least of which is the wider availability of source material. However, in this paper, I suggest that its relevance to the study of the medieval period is equally as strong, and perhaps its application can serve to deflect our imaginings of earlier geographical worlds as somehow more static and less complicated, and instead open the possibility of reading the fluidity and interconnections of the more distant past.     

A man for the people

Abstract

This study focuses on hospitality in Tanzania, as a topic of historical importance. Although there are many references to hospitality within both primary and secondary sources and anecdotal accounts, hospitality is effectively unexplored in the historical scholarship for any part of sub-Saharan Africa. Looking at southwestern Tanzania between 1600 and 1900 as a case study, this work aims to make hospitality, for the first time, primary focus of historical study rather than a peripheral and passing allusion. Towards that end, I examine why and when some societies chose to extend hospitality to outsiders and strangers. In southwestern Tanzania between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, extending hospitality to guests, strangers, and ‘foreign residents’ was a paramount value and social expectation, which could result in inclusion of outsiders. Hospitality towards newcomers became a cultural norm. I contend that direct, immediate, and personal gain was far less important than a circulation of hospitality. In the long term social and political institutions were buoyed by this moral expectation. In order to demonstrate these claims, I employ proverbs, oral traditions, and explorers’ accounts as historical evidence for hospitality's enduring salience in shifting contexts in southwestern Tanzania from precolonial times into the twentieth century.     

罗马尼亚中国新移民研究：新华商与新市场

论文以既往学界关注较少的罗马尼亚中国新移民社群为例,追溯了20多年来罗马尼亚中国新移民社群的形成和发展历程及其与先后在布加勒斯特兴建的欧罗巴、尼罗、红龙、新唐人街等四大华商市场的兴衰替代之间的密切关系,着重探讨罗马尼亚新华商与罗马尼亚新市场的互动、矛盾与调适,指出罗马尼亚中国新移民社群具有来源地广泛、人员流动频繁、从业领域单一、对中国感情深厚四个特性。认为罗马尼亚新华商经济应在完善自身经营的同时,主动承担起为当地社会创造商机、创造税收、创造就业的社会责任,这将是中国新移民在移入国实践和谐共生、良性发展的必由之路。     

Enacting parenting policy? The hybrid spaces of Sure Start Children's Centres

This article draws on research in three UK Sure Start Children's Centres which explored them as particular kinds of spaces, with the intention of understanding how policy imperatives and discourses interact with other dynamics. The role of the material spaces of the buildings, of ambivalent interactions of users with staff, and friendship groups among users are seen as key to understanding the centre as a ‘hybrid’ space in which policy intentions were exceeded by other aspects of everyday life. This has implications not only for understanding policy programmes in action, but also for how academic analysis and theory positions itself in relation to these spaces.     

西奥多·罗斯福对中日移民问题的不同态度及其原因——读他致国会的两份年度咨文

罗斯福在1905年和1906年致国会的年度咨文中分别花了较长的篇幅谈美国排斥中国和日本移民问题,态度与拟要采取的措施却大不一样.对中国移民,他态度生硬、冷漠,强调要严格排斥劳工;对日本移民,他热情洋溢,说要采取一切措施加以保护.此种差异仅以罗斯福的种族主义思想加以解释是不够的.他对实力的崇信才能说明问题.     

Homecoming or tourism? Diaspora tourism experience of second-generation immigrants

Diaspora tourism is often considered a form of ‘homecoming,’ but for the children of immigrants who are born in the new country, the question remains as to whether they perceive their parents’ homeland as ‘home’ or destination. Moreover, advancements in transportation and communication technologies allow contemporary immigrants to maintain transnational ties to their homeland, which in turn may affect the nature of diaspora tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of second-generation immigrants when they travel to their ancestral homeland, and explore the extent to which second-generation transnationalism shapes their diaspora tourism experiences. Using a phenomenological approach, 26 second-generation Chinese-Americans who had the experience of traveling in China were interviewed. Four themes were identified from semi-structured interviews: language and appearance, search for authenticity, family history, and sense of ‘home.’ Proficiency in their parental language was found to be a main cause of negative experiences, yet occasionally a source of pride and attachment. Their search for authentic experiences was not unlike other tourists, while familial obligations sometimes limited their experience. Traveling back to the homeland not only allowed them to understand their parents and family history, but also reflect upon their life through experiencing contemporary China. Finally, as the transnational attachment of second-generation immigrants was not rooted in a specific locale, they could feel connected to the homeland without actually visiting their family's place of origin. Findings contribute to transnationalism and diaspora tourism literature by comparing first- and second-generation immigrants and identifying the difference between contemporary transmigrants and classic diaspora groups with regard to their diaspora tourism experience.     

A Question of Access: Education Needs of Undocumented Children in Malaysia

In 2002, the Government of Malaysia amended the Education Act of 1996 (Act 550) to, in effect, limit access to free education to Malaysian citizens. This means that children of foreigners who do not have proper documentation but reside in Malaysia cannot attend government schools. Those affected are the children of foreign workers, asylum seekers and refugees. This paper attempts to outline the background to the education needs of Filipino children and map out existing initiatives by non-government organisations to mitigate the problems of illiteracy and poverty. It also attempts to describe the aspirations of these children in terms of education. The first section discusses the circumstances behind being undocumented in East Malaysia, while the second section describes existing local non-government organisation initiatives and the challenges such organisations face in providing free education to undocumented children. The findings are drawn from two fieldwork sessions, conducted in 2006–07 and 2013–14. Both research sessions used observation, semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions (FGD) with children aged 7–17 years in Sabah, Malaysia. This study finds that children are in a desperate situation as a result of being denied an education. While there are non-formal learning centres available in their communities, these local initiatives are insufficient to provide a clear path to education in towns and rural villages.     

Who Deserves Solidarity? Unequal Treatment of Immigrants in Swiss Welfare Policy Delivery

Rising immigration rates in Western Europe concur with increasing anti‐immigrant attitudes. While assessments of welfare eligibility in the United States demonstrably hinge on how public servants perceive different racial groups as deserving, we know less about ethnically motivated discrimination in the European context. This paper argues that Switzerland is a critical case for studying such developments. It combines social construction theory and the deservingness heuristic to analyze how social constructions of Swiss natives and immigrants influence 90 disability benefits insurance procedures. Findings reveal that immigrants are perceived as less deserving and less powerful than Swiss applicants. Thus, Swiss welfare workers do not allocate welfare benefits independently of an applicant's nationality. Our results raise fundamental questions about the equal treatment of welfare applicants in times of rising immigration and anti‐immigrant attitudes. The feed‐forward effects of social constructions imply longer‐term consequences for good administrative practices and society that require scholarly attention.     

The nation in the region: flamenco and canzone napoletana as national icons in modern Spain and Italy (1880–1922)

Although the relationship between music and nationalism has been at the centre of recent cross‐disciplinary research, many areas remain unexplored. Among them are forms of ‘national music’ that nest overlapping identities, functioning simultaneously as vehicles of regional, ethnic, urban, global and diasporic belongings. This article focuses on the national dimension of these multilevel identities, concentrating on the swings and transmigrations between the national and the regional. It compares two Mediterranean traditions which, particularly between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, have served as multilevel identifiers of national and regional belongings: flamenco and canzone napoletana (Neapolitan song). I argue that, besides geographically bounded identities, both genres were constructed as ‘national’ primarily abroad, rather than in their home countries, thus contributing to a theory of the ‘international’ dimension of ‘national’ music. In the case of flamenco, I focus on the irradiation centre of the time, Paris, although the modern notion of musical Spanishness was first associated with national identity in Russia. The canzone consolidated its international position mostly through the Italian diaspora, achieving a much wider reach than is ordinarily thought, both nationally and globally.