Search

This paper examines the Russian migration and citizenship regime as encountered by forced migrants from Ukraine who fled to Russia during the period of 2014-2016. Based on legal and other official documents, media articles, and interviews, it gives an account of these migrants’ reception in Russia in theory and practice. Russia made great efforts to accommodate them, and in Russian media they were often spoken of as an easily integrated labor resource and as potential citizens. In 2015-2016, around 165,000 Ukrainians acquired Russian citizenship. While ethno-cultural similarity does privilege Ukrainian migrants in Russia, full asylum has been granted sparingly, and citizenship is not unconditionally granted. As this paper shows, Russian authorities have rather tried to control and distribute these forced migrants for the benefit of the state, according to principles of selectivity and economic interests - giving privileged access to permanent residency and citizenship to working-age people willing to settle in regions where population growth and more workers are deemed necessary. However, permanent residency and citizenship are also available to those able to circumvent or pay their way through the obstacles encountered - taking advantage of the flexibility inherent in a system that is not totally consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper incorporates a study of “re-ghettoization” among the Armenian Christians of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It focuses on how legal marginalization has led to the emergence of an entirely separate existence from the Muslim majority in Tehran among Armenians born after the revolution. By focusing on the spatial and social divisions of the hayashatner (Armenian neighborhoods) and the “social” ghetto of the Ararat Compound, this article addresses the question: what are the social implications for religious discrimination in the Muslim Middle East? This paper is based on three extensive blocks of fieldwork carried out in Iran from 2010 to 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While post-2004 Polish labour migration to the UK was underpinned by diasporic spaces instrumental in facilitating social and labour market adjustments, the institutions of the host society such as trade unions also sought to establish links with migrants. The analysis of interactions between UK unions and EU migrants focused on organising strategies and specific provisions such as English language learning. However, the discussion tended to ignore the impacts of diasporic influences, from ethnicity and native languages of migrants to the outcomes of migrant worker organising. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative data, this paper discusses how Polishness, in its ethnic, historic and linguistic manifestations, has affected the internal dynamics of a migrant worker organisation created by a major UK trade union. The explicit acknowledgement of diasporic particularities of post-2004 Polish migrants not only enabled labour organising activities but also shaped the migrant worker organisation from within. The strength of diasporic influences on one hand and the chosen form of union organising on the other created conditions for the development of diasporic spaces within the institution of the host society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the well-known triadic relationship between kin state, resident state and national minority needs to take into account a fourth dimension: that of European institutions. This is illustrated through a study of relational identities on the EU’s Eastern border where the reconfiguration of ethnic relations followed the end of the iron curtain and EU accession. It considers two neighbouring ethnic minorities. One minority is part of the EU – the Belarusians in Poland – and the other is not part of the EU – the Poles in Belarus. The paper argues that the intersection of these four relational dimensions result in contrasting kinds of ethnic identification for the two minority groups leading to either fluidification or solidification under different circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, several violent conflicts erupted in different parts of its (former) territory. The South Caucasus region has experienced three ethnically rooted violent conflicts, yet other ethnic disputes in the same region remained dormant. Despite an extensive literature on the South Caucasus conflicts, research on those ethnic disputes that could have erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union is scarce. This article discusses the case of the Armenian populated region of Javakhk (Javakheti) in Georgia. It explores the questions of how, unlike the Abkhazian and South Ossetian movements that were able to effectively mobilize against Georgian calls for sovereignty leading up to the Soviet collapse, Armenian populated territories in Georgia remained relatively quiet. Considering that the primary ethnic minority groups within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic could each be linked by concerns over demographic shifts, economic discrimination/resource allocation, and political representation, the absence of conflict in Javakhk, as well as in Kvemo Kartli, is somewhat surprising. Based on existing theories of nationalism and ethnic conflicts and field interviews with the leaders of the popular movements in Javakhk, the paper examines the underlying reasons for the lack of conflict there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interviews with 40 Polish migrants in the UK, ethnographic and autobiographical research, the article applies the concept of anchoring to theorise the flexibility of migrants' adaptation and 'settlement'. Simultaneity, multidimensionality and changeability of anchoring and the reverse processes of un-anchoring are examined here to bridge the divide between the 'sedentarist' and the mobility perspectives. The paper particularly focuses on anchors overlooked in the adaptation and integration literature, such as: performing gender; daily practices; spirituality; leisure activities; attachment to nature; material objects and technology; as well as constraining illnesses and addictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been estimated that about 700,000 Poles moved to the UK after Poland joined the European Union in 2004, with London receiving a large portion of Polish immigrants. In agreement with the British perception of migrants from Eastern Europe, the majority of Polish immigrants can be generally classified as labor migrants with close cultural and national ties to Poland. However, Polish migration to the UK also includes a growing group of professionals and social and financial elites who are often overlooked by academic research. This paper analyzes the migrant experiences of Polish professionals and elites in London, and the relationships between their transnational identities and immigrant spaces such as ethnic enclaves, private and social spaces. Furthermore, this paper uses Polish elites in London as a foundation to explore concepts of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, suggesting that global elites can maintain strong national affiliations, and their global ambitions can be fueled by local contexts and standards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The urban landscapes of Malaysia have witnessed a marked increase in the number of non-citizens with the influx of foreign workers to satisfy the needs of a rapidly expanding economy. This paper examines how notions of belonging might have changed through the subsequent interaction between citizens and non-citizens in the Klang Valley, the political and economic centre of the country. It focuses specifically on Arab migrants who find themselves in a region – the Malay world – with which they have had historical connections. Arabs, primarily from the Hadramaut in Yemen, have long formed creole communities in the region. Recent Arab migrants have arrived at a time of two noteworthy developments. First, there is a rediscovery of Arabness underway among creoles. Second, Malaysia's ethnically diverse citizenry has seen renewed and heightened challenges, based on historical arguments, to its sense of belonging. By focusing on novel migrants with historical connections, this paper relates the question of belonging to history and asks a number of questions. How are Arabs shaping the social landscape? How do the historical connections between Arabs and the Malay world matter? What are the implications of the new Arab presence for Malaysian society as a whole? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main research problem addressed in this article is the pattern of reacting to stigma based on ethnic origin expressed by the representatives of different generations of Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities in Poland living under different political and ideological conditions before and after 1989. This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study that comprised 22 in-depth biographical interviews with representatives of Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities, who varied in age. The research found that while the elderly see their minority identity in terms of danger or threat, the middle generation perceives it as an obstacle in fulfilling their life aspirations in a society fully dominated by the Polish majority. The youngest interviewees seem to be the most willing to perceive their minority characteristics positively in terms of uniqueness as well as particular competences, especially bilingualism, which may give them an advantage in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The developed countries have already marched a long way and accumulated rich experience in utilizing crop straw, which is fairly ahead of China particularly in the fields of the administrative policies and regulations. The total yield of crop straw in China ranks the first place in the world in recent years. Yet the policies and regulations of crop straw management in China are insufficient, and it is of great importance to learn the specific practice and advanced management measures from foreign countries. Based on a large amount of literature research and analysis, in the paper we reviewed the policies and regulations of crop straw utilization in foreign countries and summarized the successful experiences. The results show that crop straw in developed countries gives priority to recycle as fertilizer to the field, which plays an important role in forming reasonable fertilization structure. And major developed countries have established mature and efficient system of straw collection, storage and transportation, which is the key issue to develop crop straw utilization industry. In order to make full use of crop straw and reduce open burning, many developed countries have carried out some pertinent policies and regulations. Policies of straw utilization in foreign countries mainly focus on target strategy, government investment and financial support, tax incentives and concessional loans, as well as incentive mechanism. The main 2 types of laws and regulations on crop straw utilization in foreign countries are agriculture-type regulation and energy-type regulation. The former type mainly involves the regulations on tillage conservation and soil fertilization by crop straw returning. The latter one involves the regulations on renewable energy and biomass energy. The crop straw in China has the characteristics of large quantity, scattered distribution, and so on. Policies and regulations of crop straw utilization and management should be made according to the reality in China. Based on the advanced experiences in foreign countries, the recommended policies and regulations on how to improve straw utilization in China are proposed as follows: 1) Clarify targets and dominant modes of crop straw utilization; the goals of straw utilization will be broken into achievable goals, projects and actions in different years and areas, and straw returning is recommended to establish the fertilization system in China which also includes stable manure and chemical fertilizer; 2) Bring government’s function into full play to improve investment supporting in order to provide various financial supports, and the main measures are as follows: supports on technology equipment development and industrialization demonstration project, financial subsidy of green products, purchase allowance on agricultural machinery, and subsidies of mechanization of straw returning based on working area; 3) Make and implement tax, and credit and loan preference polices on straw processing and utilization of enterprises, as well as straw collection and transportation companies, carry out investment tax compensation and deduction of value added tax (VAT) policy on straw utilization projects, and formulate and implement different carbon tax policies, such as laying high carbon tax on fossil energy but free carbon tax on biomass energy; 4) Establish policy incentive mechanism by improving the incentives for investing, such as building fund-raising system including central and local government and management body, and implementing rural electricity price on straw collection, storage and processing, and reduction and exemption policy on road and bridge toll; 5) Formulate and promulgate laws and regulations of straw utilization and set up relatively mature law system; amend laws about crop straw utilization, for example, add regulations of raising animal with crop straw to Animal Husbandry Law, and add relevant regulations of conservation tillage to Soil and Water Conservation Law, and establish regulations on crop straw collection-storage system and “5F” (fertilizer, fuel, fodder, fiber, feed stock) utilization. Requirement and relevant standards of straw comprehensive utilization and safe handling should be clarified in regulation of new countryside and beautiful countryside construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the recent efforts by UNHCR (office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to combat statelessness by drawing on fieldwork conducted in summer 2012 among Palestinians of various ages, genders, and legal statuses living in France. By privileging my Palestinian informants' own understanding of what it means to be stateless, I question some of the assumptions that inform UNHCR's discourse on statelessness. I show that, while they echoed some of UNHCR's views on statelessness, several of my Palestinian interlocutors diverged from these views in that they expressed skepticism about the state's emancipatory potential. At a broader level, I show that the official categories associated with statelessness and that are used by UNHCR in its effort to end statelessness do not fully capture the predicament of Palestinians in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel application of a discrete choice experiment that seeks to contribute to a more accurate understanding of international education flows. The discrete choice experiment method is employed to identify the key factors underlying students’ international education choices. The specific focus in the study is on China as the largest origin country of international students in the growing global education market. Data are collected from a sample of prospective Chinese outbound students. The findings suggest that university ranking and destination safety are key decision drivers for Chinese students. The results have policy implications for Australia, as one of the key higher education destination countries, for instance, in relation to recently changed student visa systems and the potential effects of planned government budget cuts to higher education on educational quality and reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been very little international research on Arab entrepreneurs from the Middle East, who began to land on American shores during the late 1880s and on other parts of the world for decades. Little attention has also been given to Arab entrepreneurs from the Middle East, who began to land on Australian shores during the late 1860s, and who have been greatly contributing to the Australian economy and cultural diversity for almost 150 years. Thus, in an attempt to fill the gap, this paper investigates barriers to small business success, using a sample of Middle Eastern communities in Melbourne, Australia, specifically the Lebanese, Egyptian and Iraqi communities, the three largest in the state of Victoria with developed community infrastructures. Unfortunately, a list of the total target population did not conveniently exist for sampling purposes; and it was impractical to compile such a list, therefore, cluster sampling was utilized, particularly, area sampling, as geographic areas were identified. For pragmatic reasons, and to enhance representativeness of the sample, PPS technique was used to identify the proportion of each sample for each community for interviews. Thus, around ten per cent (n=16) in proportion to the total number of working population (N=165) were subsequently interviewed. Individual in-depth, semi-structured and audiotaped interviews were conducted using a list of open-ended questions relating to the barriers to business success. Interviews were manually content-analyzed using conventional content analysis and constant comparative methods. Thus, the analysis of participants' comments reflected the following barriers to business success: (i) dealing with difficult people; (ii) loss of support sources; (iii) personal idiosyncrasies of the owner/managers; (iv) financial barriers; (v) lack of specific business experience; and (vi) others. The analysis of participants' comments also indicated that dealing with difficult people as a barrier to business success was further analysed into (A) extended family, friends and people from own community, (B) employees and (C) customers, the other five barriers could not be analysed further. Quotations and excerpts from interviews were used to facilitate understanding interviewees' points of view, as well as to illustrate and support each the first and the second levels of analysis for each of the barriers. This study lies in its contribution to academic literature, and its results should improve understanding of entrepreneurial behavioral patterns through the development of teaching and training programs, which can assist government and relevant bodies in introducing public policy that helps improve entrepreneurs' success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison analysis of the ethno-national identity of Hungarian minorities living in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine is performed in the paper, including the identifications to majority community and the relationship with Hungary, respectively. According to the empirical results in every country, the community with the pan-Hungarian ethnocultural nation, and the identification with actual Hungary, is less important than regional Hungarianness in the minority identity of Hungarian minority members from outside the borders of Hungary. The primary in-group is the self-minority community in every country. This may be empirically grasped both on the level of the perceptions of social distances and on stereotypes toward Hungarians from Hungary and toward majority populations (Romanians, Slovaks, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the contemporary world, "ecological" food has been increasingly discussed. Several studies emphasize technical and economic aspects and consider agroecological production as opposed to conventional agriculture, which makes intensive use of agrochemicals. This paper presents the trajectory of a family of ecological farmers -- peasants of Pomeranian origin -- belonging to a community where the majority of farmers works with the production of tobacco in a rural locality in the town of São Lourenço do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Data collection took place through ethnography, performed along the year of 2012. From the attention to the differences, specificities and peculiarities of the family which constituted the main interlocutor of the research, elements of a common cultural substrate that connects family and community are identified. Thereby, the analysis shows that tradition, religion, cosmologies and meanings of work on land, more than creating divides between two production models, support the links between those who practice them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through this article I try to highlight the importance of Jewish and Armenian population which contributed to the development of Iasi County. They were a numerous population some centuries ago, contributing to commerce, being known as good merchants. Commerce was the base for establishing trade relations with foreign countries, therefore Armenians and Jewish helped in territorial and economic development of Iasi County. Also, they built churches, synagogues and schools for their community. Due to hard times, wars, discrimination, they had to leave the country for a better life, thus, their number decreased. As it is seen in the graphic and cartographic representations, the Jewish population decreased from 45,372 Jewish, in 1930, up to 257 Jewish, in 2011. As for the Armenian population, they decreased from 100 Armenian, in 1930, up to 14 Armenian, in 2011. Nowadays, they are not as numerous as they used to be, but they try to raise their visibility at local level through events on various occasions. I took into consideration the 1930-2011 censuses data from the National Institute of Statistics to observe the evolution of these two populations in Iasi County and how they diminished in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]