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This paper addresses the Multiobjective Travelling Salesman Problem (MoTSP) with the aim to study the effects of including random immigrants in the population of solutions processed by the evolutionary algorithm. Random immigrants are typically used in evolutionary optimization in order to increase the diversity of the population and to allow the algorithm to explore a larger area of the search space. Introducing random immigrants incurs a certain overhead which is especially significant in combinatorial optimization, because local search procedures are usually employed, which, while effective in improving the solutions, are computationally expensive. In this paper several strategies of introducing new specimens are tested with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the optimization process given a limited computation time. In the experiments the proposed approach was tested on kroABnnn instances of the MoTSP. It was found to improve the results of multiobjective optimization in terms of both the hy-pervolume and the IGD indicators. The most effective immigration strategy turned out to be to decrease the number of immigrants with time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution and labor mobility are two important social phenomena associated with China's pursuit of high-quality development. First, this paper matches China's urban characteristics data with China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2017. Then, the conditional logit model is used to empirically investigate the effects and heterogeneity of air pollution on employment location choice. Finally, combined with the concept of risk perception in psychology, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms. The main results are as follows: (1) Air pollution has a significant negative effect on employment location choice of labor force. Specifically, a 1 μg/m3 increase in PM 2.5 concentration in a city can result in a significant decrease of 0.917 percentage points in the probability that the labor force will choose to work in that city. (2) There are heterogeneous characteristics of the negative impact of air pollution on employment location choice. Those with higher education level, outdoor work, relatively higher individual income, and 1–2 minor children are more sensitive to air pollution when choosing employment sites. (3) The mechanism analysis shows that perceived air pollution is an important channel influencing labor's employment location choice, and the stronger the stimulus of air pollution, the greater the negative impact of perceived air pollution on labor force. • This paper matches China's urban characteristics data with China Migrants Dynamic Survey. • The effects and heterogeneity of air pollution on employment location choice is explored. • Combined with the concept of risk perception in psychology, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a controversial question of whether environmental regulation can achieve the double dividend of improving environmental quality and increasing employment and income. This paper takes Chinese migrant population as the main research object and uses the Chinese Household Income Projects data (CHIPS) and the emission data of major pollutants at the prefecture-level city jointly. Based on the classic Mincer wage equation, we investigate the impact and mechanisms of environmental regulation on the income of Chinese migrant population. The results show that: (1) The intensity of environmental regulation significantly improves the income level of the migrant population, and for every 1% increase in the intensity of environmental regulation, the wage income of the mobile population will rise by 4.96%. (2) The documented positive effect of environmental regulation is more significant in non-public firms, the eastern regions and high-skilled workers. Conversely, for the female and elderly group, 1% increase in environmental regulations will restrain their income growth by 4.95% and 0.37%, respectively. (3) The influencing mechanisms include both the direct effect of labor demand and the indirect effects of firm performance and technological innovation. (4) we find that 1% increase in environmental regulations respectively raise the income of the low- and moderate-income migrant population by 10.834% and 3.579%, while having no significant impact on the high-income group, thus reducing the income gap of the migrant population. The findings of this paper provide theoretical support and practical evidence for achieving a coordinated development of ecological environmental protection and income improvement for socially disadvantaged groups in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) technology has been used to document, investigate, and predict patterns that may be of utility in both forensic academic research and applied practice. In examining spatial and temporal trends of the mass disaster that is occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border, other researchers have highlighted predictive patterns for search and recovery efforts as well as water station placement. The purpose of this paper is to use previously collected spatial data of migrant deaths from Arizona to address issues of data uncertainty and data accuracy that affect our understanding of this phenomenon, including local and federal policies that impact the U.S.-Mexico border. The main objective of our study was to explore how the locations of migrant deaths have varied over time. Our results confirm patterns such as a lack of relationship between Border Patrol apprehensions and migrant deaths, as well as highlight new patterns such as the increased positional accuracy of migrant deaths recorded closer to the border. This paper highlights the importance of using positionally accurate data to detect spatio-temporal trends in forensic investigations of mass disasters: without qualitative and quantitative information concerning the accuracy of the data collected, the reliability of the results obtained remains questionable. We conclude by providing a set of guidelines for standardizing the collection and documentation of migrant remains at the U.S.-Mexico border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The French right and far-right have promoted a dehumanized vision of the migrants through their discourse in the last ten years. In this paper, we argue that this is the outcome of a diachronic linguistic process involving migration-related lexicon. A remarkable frequency increase enabled the progressive semantic bleaching of its [+human] trait and finally its functional recategorization as a simple trigger of a non-referential category where migrants and terrorism, but also the European Union and globalization, conflate to generically designate the "other". Combining corpus methods and critical discourse analysis through the quantitative, semantic, and distributional analysis of migration-related lexicon in a corpus of 5689 tweets by Marine Le Pen and other right-wing French politicians, we show the association between migration and several unrelated topics through pragmatic implicature at various stages. We find a robust tendency of migration-related lexicon to occur in lists and parallelisms, whose sematic-pragmatic function is specifically to implicate a relation between the members of a category construed in context. We claim that these structures are the main culprit for the emergence, the spread, and the entrenchment of manipulative categories in public discourse and for their expansion in ad hoc fashion, following the right's political agenda. • The French right used for years implicit strategies to spark hate towards migrants. • A relation between migration, terrorism, EU, globalization, finance was implicated. • Lists containing migr-lexicon are used to construct the category of the "enemy". • Migrants are now represented as dehumanized, while immigration as anthropomorphic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the relative weight of local contextual factors (including environment-related factors, labor market, social services, housing market, and migratory patterns) in shaping the "relative stickiness" of migrants at the city level in China. Previous studies focused on the volume, ratio, and pattern of migration while ignoring the complexity of the place-bound "political-industrial ecology" (PIE) that would reinforce or stiffen the migrants' "stickiness" to the destination city. This paper uses the city-level data of migrants' intention ratios of permanent urban settlement and home-buying, respectively, as a pair of proxy measures of the city's relative stickiness and attractiveness. We use Multi-Scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) to detect the variation of migrants' sensitivity to environmental reconstruction-related factors at the city level in China. Our analysis reveals a north-south divide in migrants' stickiness in China, which is opposite to the conventional understanding that the migrants are stickier to the high-wage and high-quality ecological environment. Different PIE in North China and South China can explain why migrants are stickier to North China that have negative environmental externalities, while rapidly flowing into and frequently out of the south-southeast coast which has richer environment-related amenities. It is revealed that the relative stickiness of migrants is also attributable to the specific migratory pattern, institutional context, and cultural distance, as embedded in the varied PIE in a country as geographically diverse as China. The findings support the notion of PIE where an uncertain and nonlinear relationship exists between the environment and migration. The social services and migratory pattern usually outweigh the environmental factors in the migrants' settlement and home-buying decision-making in China today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There was a substantial shift in the population at risk of COVID-19 in Singapore over time. • Successful control in the community protected an at-risk aging population. • There were large outbreaks in the younger migrant worker population, with less severe disease. • This resulted in one of the lowest case fatality rates globally. The vast majority of COVID-19 cases in Singapore have occurred amongst migrant workers. This paper examined trends in the hospitalised cases and tested the assumption that the low severity of disease was related to the relatively young affected population. All patients with PCR-positive SARS-CoV-2 admitted from February to April 2020 were divided into: (i) imported cases, (ii) locally-transmitted cases outside migrant worker dormitories and (iii) migrant worker dormitory cases. They were examined for underlying comorbidities, clinical progress and outcomes. Imported cases (n = 29) peaked in mid-March 2020, followed by local cases (n = 100) in mid-April 2020; migrant worker cases (n = 425) continued to increase in late April 2020. Migrant worker cases were younger, had few medical comorbidities and less severe disease. As the migrant worker cases increased, the proportion of patients with pneumonia decreased, whilst patients presenting earlier in their illness and asymptomatic disease became more common. Singapore experienced a substantial shift in the population at risk of severe COVID-19. Successful control in the community protected an aging population. Large migrant worker dormitory outbreaks occurred, but the disease incurred was less severe, resulting in Singapore having one of the lowest case fatality rates in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sustainability transitions are challenged by the social dynamics of people moving. • Migration is a driver of sustainability practices in low income urban settings. • Indepth study of sustainability practices using life histories in Accra. • Sustainability practices vary between internal and international migrants. • Transformation processes among internal and international migrants are not uniform. Development that is inclusive and sustainable requires significant social and environmental transformations from current trajectories, building on demographic realities such as changing profiles of populations, and increased levels of mobility. Migration is a major driving force of urbanisation in all global regions, partly facilitated through emerging technologies and declining costs of movement and communication. Social transformations associated with increased migration are highly uneven but include shifts in the location of economic activities, major urban growth, and changing individual incentives and social constraints on sustainability trajectories. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence on how observed population movements can both challenge and promote sustainable transformations. This paper examines how migration transforms places and societies, by providing new evidence on the behaviours and practices of individuals who are part of such transformations as they assimilate, converge or remain distinctive to prior populations. Focusing on individuals in rapidly expanding cities in the Global South, this study uses new biographical life-history survey data from Accra, Ghana, to examine the barriers and enablers of sustainability practices among diverse types of migrants and a sample of non-migrants. The study uses data from 1,163 individuals: international migrants from the West African sub-region (5 5 9), internal migrants (2 9 9), and non-migrants (3 0 5) in Accra. The findings show that sustainability practices established before migration are predictors of current sustainability practices, including proactive recycling, conservation activities, and choice of mode of transportation, but that there is some convergence between behaviours, reflecting assimilation, place attachment and other factors. Internal migrants in Accra exhibit stronger sustainability practices than international migrants. Individual levels of poverty, poor infrastructural development, and perceptions about life satisfaction in the neighbourhood negatively affect sustainability practices among all respondents. These results suggest that poverty and social exclusion are critical to addressing sustainability issues in urban contexts. It is important for policy makers to address issues of urban poverty, cumulative deprivation, and inequality as strong barriers to the adoption of sustainability practices in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic and humanitarian interventions deployed to address migrant death in US southwestern border states have become increasingly prevalent over the past four decades. In this paper we address two persistent issues specific to the Texas-Mexico border context. First, we present the first comprehensive geospatial analysis of migrant deaths in South Texas, establishing a twelve-year (2009–2020) mortality profile. And second, we introduce the concept of necrosilences and its implications to both forensic and humanitarian work and usage of geospatial tools. We applied ANOVA, spatial statistics, and cluster analysis to test the relationships of migrant mortality point locations throughout South Texas, an area comprised of ten counties with some of the highest reported migrant deaths in the state. Our findings demonstrated that unidentified human remains that corresponded to migrants were found most consistently in jurisdictions inland from the Mexican border. Further, the map visualizations highlighted vast areas seemingly devoid of migrant deaths. These "empty" areas are emblematic of necrosilences. That is, instances where there is a lack of access or accounting rather than no death incidences. We conclude by discussing the importance of visualizing necrosilences. • Significant mortality clustering was detected both in summer and winter months. • Significant clustering occurred more on private property inland from the border. • Mortality clustering occurred between or away from Border Patrol structure. • Necrosilences indicate areas with lacking or absent mortality accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Purpose: Most reports about oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) have been contributed by occidental countries, and most of the victims of this disease are racially white. In contrast, this disorder is rarely seen in Asians and has only one African report. Consequently, OPMD has been regarded as a disease of the Western world. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the accuracy of this concept. Methods: In a Chinese immigrant family, 3 patients manifesting signs related to OPMD were examined. Electromyography, nerve conduction studies, muscle biopsy and genetic analysis were performed on the proband. All the 322 papers about OPMD were reviewed and their country of origin was labeled to perceive the approximate prevalence of OPMD. Countries were categorized into groups according to the continents to which they belonged. Results: The proband''s muscle histopathology showed small angulated fiber with rimmed vacuoles, ultrastructural pathology exposed filamentous intranuclear inclusions, and genetic analysis of the polyadenylate binding protein nuclear 1(PABPN1) gene revealed 13 GCG trinucleotide repeats in one allele (GCG)13 while being normal in the other. The survey of the country of origin of OPMD reports showed that 80% of these papers were contributed by occidental countries and that the number of publications of OPMD among countries of Americas and Asia were unequal, when compared to those of European countries, which were fairly proportioned. An epidemiologic review of the literature is presented and the prevalence of OPMD is discussed. Conclusion: This is a China-born Chinese patient with both morphologically and genetically proven of OPMD. The very low OPMD report rate in developing countries of East Asia is due to the unfamiliarity of medical workers to OPMD and the unavailability of medical supplies to confirm the diagnosis. In addition, the present and previous reports provide clear evidence that OPMD in these areas is underdiagnosed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Sustainable development goals (SDGs) emphasize decent work and well-being, while sustainable career development is a key determinant of these two parts. Based on Psychological Capital Theory, we investigate the micro mechanism of new urban immigrants' sustainable career development which is good to their social incorporation and sustainability. Especially this paper constructs a model including job performance as mediator and origin region as moderator to propose the relationship between psychological capital and new urban immigrants' career successes. Several hypotheses are supported by empirical evidence of a sample of 306 questionnaires filled by supervisors and employees with 11 firms. We found that psychological capital has a significant impact on career development including opportunities and satisfaction through job performance. Employees' origin region moderates the relationship between psychological capital and job performance. Compared to urban employees, the psychological capital of rural employees has a stronger influence on job performance. Origin region also significantly moderates the relationship between job performance and career development opportunities. Namely at the same level of performance, supervisors give more career development opportunities to rural employees. In regard to career development, psychological capital is more important to new urban immigrants than urban aborigines. We suggest that government and firms should pay more attention to new urban immigrants' psychological capital to propel them achieve sustainable career development which is good to society sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores insights and understandings of multilingual dynamics within European-based migrant contexts where Portuguese plays a role. The intermediate position of Portuguese migration in Europe (simultaneously host and sending country) gives Portuguese a bipolar sociolinguistic status at the European scale, both as a ‘dominant’ and ‘non-dominant’ language, useful to use as an analytical springboard. Drawing on linguistic ethnographic work developed in two sites – Portuguese migrant women in London and Eastern European migrant children in Portugal – this paper discusses the tools used to (a) describe the informal emerging and creative multilingual use happening in local configurations of speakers, linguistic ideologies, artifacts, histories and institutions, and (b) explain how this creativity is re-scaled into dominant discourses situated in momentary yet simultaneously long-term historical sociolinguistic configurations, differently narrated by the multiple actors involved. A combined focus on personal trajectories and ‘history in person’, discursive dynamics of recontextualisation and re-scaling and an understanding of the power dynamics in intersubjective spaces helps develop the idea of polycentric speaking positions, affected by local creativities and constraints happening in conflicting historically configured hybrid spaces of verbal interaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The focus of this paper is on urban multilingualism in Europe. Crossnational and crosslinguistic perspectives are offered on both the distribution and the vitality of immigrant minority languages among primary school children in six multicultural cities across European nation-states. Going from North to South, these cities are Göteborg, Hamburg, The Hague, Brussels, Lyon and Madrid. The paper comprises eight sections. The first two sections offer the demolinguistic background against which the project was carried out. Section 1 deals with the European constellation of languages and population groups, section 2 with the importance of the language criterion for identifying population groups. The next sections focus on the rationale and goals of the Multilingual Cities Project, carried out under the auspices of the European Cultural Foundation (section 3), the method of research in the MCP (section 4), the distribution of languages across cities (section 5), the specification of language profiles and language vitality (section 6), crosslinguistic perspectives on language vitality (section 7), and conclusions (section 8). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper explores the incidence of over and under education and the effect on earnings for immigrants and natives who hold UK qualifications, drawn from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey 1993–2003. The paper also compares earnings penalties associated with over and under education across immigrant and minority ethnic groups for men and women. The results show that compared to Whites, Black African, Other Non-White and Indian men are more likely to be over-educated, whilst for women it is Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi''s who are more likely to be over-educated. Estimating earnings equations shows significantly large over-education penalties for South Asian immigrant and native men, as well as White immigrant men, Black women and White UK born women. However, there are large returns to occupational skills for some minority ethnic and immigrant groups, over and above the returns to qualifications. It is suggested that these groups may therefore find it easier to find a suitable job for their UK education level if higher or further education programmes for immigrants were combined with occupational specific training. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) from 2015 to 2017, this paper uses IV-Probit model to investigate the effects of air pollution on migrants' settlement intentions in China. The results show that: First, air pollution has a significant and negative effect on intentions in settling down of the migrants. Specifically, when the concentration of PM 2.5 increases by 1 μg/m3, the probability of migrants settling down in the city which they have moved to for work or business will significantly decrease by 1.89%. Second, there is heterogeneity in the effects of air pollution on migrants' settlement intentions. In detail, the sensitivity to air pollution is higher among female groups, who have higher education levels and prefer better air quality in the living place to settle down, and there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between age and settlement intentions. On the one hand, the conclusion of this paper enriches the relevant theoretical achievements of air pollution and migration. On the other hand, it also has a high reference value for developing more reasonable policies related to urban environmental governance and labor mobility. • The effects of air pollution on migrants' settlement intentions in China is explored. • The IV-Probit model is used in this paper. • The China Migrants Dynamic Survey from 2015 to 2017 is used in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks to what extent host language proficiency can insure immigrants against the risk of ending up in mismatched jobs. Using the 2003-2016 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA), the paper discriminates between three forms of mismatch, overqualification, underqualification and overskilling. Host language proficiency is instrumented using Bleakley and Chin (Rev Econ Stat 86:481–496, 2004) strategy, which exploits the fact that younger children learn languages more easily than older ones. To differentiate between local average treatment effects (LATE) and average treatment effects (ATE), the paper considers two alternative models, 2SLS instrumental variables and biprobit. We find that treatment effects are heterogeneous. English language proficiency among immigrants in Australia reduces the probability of ending up in overqualified jobs, by between 17.2 (LATE) and 36.7 (ATE) percentage points. The ATE of overskilling is also significant and about -8.9 percentage points. In contrast, language skills tend to raise the probability of being underqualified at the job, by approximately 8.6 percentage points according to the ATE. Local effects of overskilling and underqualification fail to be statistically significant, suggesting that host language proficiency may be innocuous for some workers. Overall, the results indicate that host language proficiency is a country-specific, valuable form of human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether native-immigrant differences in mathematics test scores can be accounted for by a lack of English proficiency. To identify the causal effect of English proficiency on test scores, I use the fact that language proficiency is closely linked to age at arrival, and that migrant children arrive at different ages from different countries. Using US data from the New Immigrant Survey, I find that English proficiency has no effect on mathematics tests and therefore they can be used to assess students’ ability net of language effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between occupational status and health has been taken to reveal the presence of occupational health inequalities. However, that interpretation assumes no influence of health status in climbing the occupational ladder. This paper documents evidence of non-negligible returns to occupation status on health (which we refer as ‘healthy worker effect’). We use a unique empirical strategy that addresses the problem of reverse causality. That is, an instrumental variable strategy using the variation in average health in the migrant’s country of origin, a health measure plausibly not determined by the migrant’s occupational status. Our findings suggest that health status exerts significant effects on occupational status in several dimensions; including having a supervising role, worker autonomy, and worker influence. The effect size of health is larger than that of an upper secondary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese government did great contribution in improving the residents’ housing characteristics and was quite successful especially in urban area. However, in the big cities, the negative interrelationships between housing overcrowding characteristic and people’s life still emerge and seriously affect people’s life. In this research, the researcher will investigate the capital city Beijing as the target and to know the situation of housing overcrowding problem, also do some implication to the rural migrants’ life. By the way, some suggestions will be forward in solving the housing overcrowding problem in Beijing among rural migrants. At the end, the Beijing local government should take some necessary actions to carry out the housing policy. In this research, the researcher obtains the data from two types of interviews: rural migrants and government officers. It is also supported by the utilization of secondary data. The findings of this research indicate that majority of the rural migrants endure by the housing overcrowding problem, also this housing problem seriously implies to their regular life in Beijing. Therefore, the Beijing government should provide some necessary assistance to this group people. This paper reports the housing overcrowding problem in Beijing and does the implications to the rural migrants’ life. It also provides some suitable advice to other urban areas in solving the housing overcrowding problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of potential fetal malnutrition on the academic test scores of Muslim students in Denmark. We account for the endogeneity of fetal malnutrition by using exposure to the month of Ramadan as a natural experiment under the assumption that mothers of some of the Muslim students might have fasted during Ramadan when they were pregnant. We also complement our Muslim sample with a control group comprised of immigrant children from predominantly non-Muslim countries in a difference-in-differences framework. Our outcome measures are the standardized test scores from the national exams on the subjects of Danish, English, Mathematics, and Science administered by the Danish Ministry of Education. Our results indicate that fetal exposure to Ramadan is likely to have a negative impact on the achievement scores of Muslim students, especially among females. Our analysis further reveals that the estimated relationship is stronger among children with a relatively low socio-economic background. Our findings lend support for the importance of interventions designed to assist economically disadvantaged women during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists have long recognized the influence of friends on various outcomes among immigrants, and also observed the benefit of acculturation. This paper lies at the intersection of the above two topics: by focusing on a typical behavior of acculturation, namely English-name usage, I examine the extent of acculturational homophily among Chinese students. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between self English-name usage and English-name usage of close friends using online social networking data on students who receive undergraduate education in China and graduate education in the U.S. The empirical analysis relies on an instrumental variable strategy: I use the indicator of the difficulty of pronouncing the Chinese name in English to instrument for English-name usage. Results suggest the presence of acculturational homophily: students with English-name usage have more close friends who are also English-name users, and the relationship is not based on the number of close friends overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a reduction in the cost of college for undocumented students affects college enrollment and adolescent risky behaviors. Prior to 2001, undocumented students in the United States faced high out-of-state tuition costs at public colleges and universities. From 2001 to 2014, twenty-one states passed in-state tuition policies, reducing the average cost of college by more than half for these students. To the extent that teens are forward-looking and aware that lower tuition increases the likelihood of attending college, this price reduction should decrease the incidence of risky behavior during adolescence among the undocumented. Exploiting the variation in timing of in-state tuition policies across states and using Mexican foreign-born non-citizenship as a proxy for undocumented status, I find that these policies increase college enrollment by about 1.2 percentage points (12% of the sample mean), decrease high school dropout incidence by about 5 percentage points for female youth (27% of the sample mean), and decrease the likelihood of first birth before age 20 by 2 percentage points (9% of the sample mean). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study 1 1 The authors are grateful to the ASLAN project (ANR-10-LABX-0081) of Université de Lyon for its financial support for their ongoing research within the programme ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ (ANR-11-IDEX-0007). The ASLAN project is funded by the French government, via the National Research Agency (ANR). explores social encounters in which ‘social mediators’ (SM) offer assistance to migrants and help them access social, legal and healthcare services in France. One recurrent activity in this context is the understanding and subsequent explanation of procedures for dealing with administrative paperwork, obtaining civil or legal rights, etc. Such activities may encompass several forms of mediation: firstly, providing information about the required documents or procedures to gain access to a public service; secondly, the reading and oral reformulation of any written documents migrants may have; thirdly, the oral translation of talk, provided by a lay interpreter 2 2 In this paper lay interpreter is used to refer to a person doing oral translation without having received any type of formal training in interpreting. when participants do not speak a common language. Participants are thus called upon to construct an understanding of the required service and procedure. This is achieved by putting together the information offered by the migrant, the information found in the documents, and the social mediator's and interpreter's own knowledge and experience in dealing with the procedure or issue in question. The analysis specifically focuses on the organisation of participation and on the use of the users’ documents, which become the object of close inspection. It shows in detail that understanding the documents’ content and the procedure, and explaining them to the user is not a one-way process but rather a complex and multiparty enterprise. In this sense, the interpreter's activity is oriented to co-occurring activities. Our methodological framework includes conversation analysis and multimodal interaction analysis to analyse the data, drawn from a corpus of video-recorded encounters in a French social centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that a substantial part of income and education is passed on from parents to children, generating substantial persistence in socioeconomic status across generations. In this paper, we examine whether another form of human capital, health, is also largely transmitted from generation to generation. Using data from the NLSY, we first present new evidence on intergenerational transmission of health outcomes in the U.S., including weight, height, the body mass index (BMI), asthma and depression for both natives and immigrants. We show that between 50% and 70% of the mothers’ health status persists in both native and immigrant children, and that, on average, immigrants experience higher persistence than natives in BMI. We also find that the longer immigrants remain in the U.S., the less intergenerational persistence there is and the more immigrants look like native children. Unfortunately, the more generations immigrant families remain in the U.S., the more children of immigrants resemble natives’ higher BMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Low-attention disasters cause overwhelming impacts but receive little resources. • Low-income immigrants and renters face unique recovery hurdles in low-attention disasters. • Recovery lags where low-income immigrants and renters live in old poorly maintained homes. • Inadequacy of policy in considering vulnerability cause delayed and unequal housing recovery. Tornados are among natural hazards that many towns in the Midwest region of the United States (US) experience frequently, sometimes with relatively overwhelming impacts and little attention and resources from media or government entities. Low-attention disasters that affect vulnerable populations create unique recovery challenges that are rarely addressed in the disaster literature. This paper presents a qualitative case study of impacts and recovery of housing in Marshalltown, Iowa, US after an EF3 Tornado in 2018 which affected a large portion of the town, in particular neighborhoods with high concentration of immigrant, low-income households in old and poorly maintained housing. Our analyses highlight the long-term challenges created by delayed and unsuccessful recovery of housing as a result of the intersection of pre-disaster social and physical vulnerability and inadequate housing recovery policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there any return to education in criminal activities? This paper is one of the first to investigate whether education has not only a positive impact on legitimate, but also on illegitimate activities. We use as a case study one of the longest running criminal corporations in history: the Italian-American mafia. Its most successful members were capable businessmen, orchestrating crimes that required abilities that might be learned at school: extracting the optimal rent when setting up a racket, weighting interests against default risk when starting a loan sharking business or organizing supply chains, logistics and distribution when setting up a drug dealing system. We address this question by comparing mobsters to a variety of samples drawn from the United States 1940 Population Census, including a sample of their closest (non-mobster) neighbors. We document that mobsters have one year less education than their neighbors on average. We find that mobsters have significant returns to education of 7.5–8.5% , which is only slightly smaller than their neighbors and 2–5 percentage points smaller than for U.S.-born men or male citizens. Mobster returns were consistently about twice as large as a sample of Italian immigrants or immigrants from all origin countries. Within that, those charged with complex crimes including embezzlement and bookmaking have the highest returns. We conclude that private returns to education exist even in the illegal activities characterized by a certain degree of complexity as in the case of organized crime in mid-twentieth century United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyzes the influence of housing characteristics on rural migrants’ living condition in Beijing Fengtai District, China. The researcher will identify rural migrants in Beijing, examine their housing characteristics (housing crowding, housing privacy and housing facility) and the influence on their living condition. Also, some suggestions are given to improve their housing characteristics and living condition. The government should revise the migrant housing policy and hukou management. Also, the rural migrants should try to increase their education level and social skills. For the occupation, the local government should give the rural migrants more job opportunity. These issues are analyzed in relation to local government attitudes toward the rural migrants. The analysis is based on data collected from two types of interviews: rural migrants and management interviews which examine the rural migrants’ housing and managerial aspects of this research, respectively. It is also supported by the utilization of secondary data. The findings of the study indicate that the rural migrants’ housing characteristics (housing crowding, housing privacy and housing facility) highly influence their living condition in Beijing Fengtai District. Therefore, the local government should give some assistance to this group people in the big cities. This paper reports on the findings of a study to seek acknowledged definitions of the terms Project and Project Management. The study was based on a conventional review and analysis of the definitions from a series of texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines results from a large Australian study of migrants and a matched native-born sample on their perceptions of the quality of their cancer care. We find substantial differences in the perceived quality and propose pathways to redress this imbalance.Background Recent data show a falling cancer mortality in the general population without a similar shift in immigrant outcomes, leading to a greater cancer burden and mortality for immigrants. Our aims were to compare perceived patterns of care in immigrants and native-born cancer patients. Patients and methods This was a hospital-based sample of first-generation immigrants and Australian-born Anglo patients in the first year following diagnosis. It was restricted to Chinese, Arabic, or Greek speakers. Eligible participants, recruited via 16 oncology clinics, were over 18, with cancer (any type or stage), and having commenced treatment at least 1 month previously. Five hundred and seventy-one CALD patients (comprising 145 Arabic, 248 Chinese, and 178 Greek) and a control group of 274 Anglo-Australian patients participated. Results Immigrants had difficulty communicating with the doctor (73% versus 29%) and understanding the health system (38% versus 10%). Differences were found in ‘difficulty knowing who to see’ (P = 0.0002), ‘length of time to confirm diagnosis’ (P = 0.04), wanting more choice about a specialist and hospital (P < 0.0001); being offered the opportunity to see a counselor (P < 0.0001); and actually seeing one (P < 0.0001). There were no significant self-reported differences regarding how cancer was detected, time to see a health professional, or type first seen; however, immigrants reported difficulty knowing who to see. Previous studies showed differences in patterns of care according to socioeconomic status (SES) and educational level. Despite adjusting for age, sex, education, marital status, SES, time since diagnosis, and type of cancer, we did not find significant differences. Instead, we found that understanding of the health system and confidence understanding English were important factors. Conclusions This study confirmed that immigrants with cancer perceive an inferior quality of cancer care. We highlight potentially modifiable factors including assistance in navigating the health system, translated information, and cultural competency training for health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines whether the framework developed in the educational mismatch field of research can be generalized to language skills. It uses data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database and both “Worker Self-Assessment” and “Realized Matches” procedures to quantify expected levels of English skills in each of over 500 occupations in the US Census. Earnings data from the 2000 US Census for adult male immigrant workers are then examined in relation to these occupational English requirements using the over-education, required education, under-education (ORU) approach. The analyses show that earnings are related to a “correct” matching of an immigrant's language skills with what is expected in his occupation. Mismatches have a small effect on earnings – positive for proficiency in excess of the norms in the occupation and negative for deficits in proficiency. The findings are robust with respect to a range of measurement and specification issues typically examined in ORU studies. It is concluded that the ORU model offers a framework for analysis which can be readily generalized to other forms of investment in human capital. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Traditional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have difficulty in addressing dynamic optimization problems (DOPs). This is because once the algorithm converges to a solution and a dynamic change occurs, it is difficult for the population to adapt to a new environment since high levels of pheromone will be generated to a single trail and force the ants to follow it even after a dynamic change. A good solution to address this problem is to increase the diversity via transferring knowledge from previous environments to the pheromone trails using immigrants schemes. In this paper, an ACO framework for dynamic environments is proposed where different immigrants schemes, including random immigrants, elitism-based immigrants, and memory-based immigrants, are integrated into ACO algorithms for solving DOPs. From this framework, three ACO algorithms, where immigrant ants are generated using the aforementioned immigrants schemes and replace existing ants in the current population, are proposed and investigated. Moreover, two novel types of dynamic travelling salesman problems (DTSPs) with traffic factors, i.e., under random and cyclic dynamic environments, are proposed for the experimental study. The experimental results based on different DTSP test cases show that each proposed algorithm performs well on different environmental cases and that the proposed algorithms outperform several other peer ACO algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper relaxes the assumption of homogeneous rates of return to schooling by employing nonparametric kernel regression. This approach allows us to examine the differences in rates of return to education both across and within groups. Similar to previous studies we find that on average blacks have higher returns to education than whites, natives have higher returns than immigrants and younger workers have higher returns than older workers. Contrary to previous studies we find that the average gap of the rate of return between white and black workers is larger than previously thought and the gap is smaller between immigrants and natives. We also uncover significant heterogeneity, the extent of which differs both across and within groups. Finally, we uncover the characteristics common amongst those with the smallest and largest returns to education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper studies the relations between bilateral FDIs and immigrant networks of France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain, and the emigrant diasporas of Italy and Spain. It focuses on skilled and unskilled immigrants and on ties with developing and developed countries. Results evidence two different network models: FDIs of UK, Germany and France are prompted by the ties of skilled immigrants, while those of Italy and Spain are only influenced by their respective diasporas. The disparity may stem from history. Differently from the findings of previous literature, the effects of networks with developing countries are similar to those with rich economies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we study the impact of parental human capital background on ethnic educational gaps between second-generation immigrants using a large data set conducted in France in 2003. Estimates from censored random effect ordered Probit regressions show that the skills of immigrants explain in the most part, the ethnic educational gap between their children. Fluency in French and the length of their parents’ stay in France also matter. The impact of the immigrants’ education on the educational attainment of their children further depends on their country of origin, their place of schooling, and their proficiency in French. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines whether the results of the earnings equation developed in the over-education/required education/under-education (ORU) literature are sensitive to whether the usual or reference levels of education are measured using the Realized Matches or Worker Self-Assessment methods. The analyses are conducted for all male native-born and immigrant workers in the US, by level of skill, and by occupation. While point estimates differ, particularly when earnings equations are estimated for the smaller samples of sub-groups of the workforce, the general findings are robust to this measurement issue. Thus, the answers provided to the typical research questions in the ORU literature on the productivity of schooling are independent of the measure of the usual or reference level of education used in the analyses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recently particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been successfully applied in identifying contours that are originated from different views of the same object. As compared with similar approaches based on simple genetic algorithms (SGA), the PSO exhibits higher success rates, faster convergence speed and in general more stable performance. Despite these favorable factors, there are scenarios where the failure rates in matching certain contours are prominently higher than its peers, and the overall performance also deteriorates rapidly with decreasing swarm size. These shortcomings could be attributed to the lack of an initial swarm community which has the quality to reach the global solution. In this paper we first propose a solution to overcome this problem by integrating PSO and the static migrant principle (SMP). The latter is analogous to migrant policy in real life, introducing a fixed and continuous influx of foreign candidates to the swarm community to promote the diversity, and hence the exploration power in the population. Evaluations show that method is less sensitive to the swarm size, and exhibits moderate enhancement in the success rates as compared with the use of PSO alone. To further improve the performance, we introduce the dynamic migrant principle (DMP) to adjust the balance between exploration and exploitation throughout the optimization process. With this approach high success rates are attained for all test samples based on a small swarm community. In addition, the incorporation of both versions of the migrant principle does not impose any overhead on the complexity of the matching scheme. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The strong adverse selection that immigrants face in hosting labour markets may induce them to adopt some behaviours or signals to modify employers’ beliefs. Relevant mechanisms for reaching this purpose are personal reputation; exploiting ethnic networks deeply rooted in the hosting country; and high educational levels used as an indirect signal of productivity. On this last point, the immigrant status needs a stronger signal compared to that necessary for a native worker, and this may lead the immigrant to accept job qualifications which are lower than those achievable through the embodied educational level. The aim of the paper is to investigate whether the above mentioned mechanisms are adopted by immigrants in Italy, a crucial country for EU immigration flows, and if they are useful in increasing immigrants’ likelihood of employment. The empirical analysis has been conducted using the dataset from a national Labour Force Survey which provides information on thousands of documented immigrants. We estimate a logit model for immigrants’ likelihood of being employed, focusing on the above mentioned mechanisms: reputation, ethnic networks and educational level. Moreover we concentrate on the interaction effects of the mechanisms and investigate whether one of them wins on the others. Results show that each of the three mechanisms is statistically and economically significant and exerts positive influence: all factors contribute to increase the immigrant''s probability of being employed. Anyway, a high level of education increases the probability of being employed more than the belonging to ethnic networks deeply rooted in Italy. The specific embodied capital of workers matter relatively more. This is relevant for labour public policies in this specific realm since the human capital lever is a possible direct target in various public policies and private human capital investments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of the local availability of Head Start, a public preschool program for low-income children, on the participation of immigrant children. We use propensity score methods to flexibly control for numerous individual and neighborhood characteristics and availability of other services aimed at low-income families. We find that having a Head Start center in a child''s census tract significantly raises participation of immigrant children, and these results are robust to several sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, the impacts are larger for recent migrants and for those with less access to private transportation, consistent with both information and transportation costs as important factors affecting program participation for immigrants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper studies the association between weight and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries using the first nationally representative survey of such individuals. We find that being overweight or obese is associated with a lower probability of employment among women who have been in the U.S. less than five years, but we find no such correlation among men who have been in the U.S. less than five years, or among women or men who have been in the U.S. longer than five years. We generally find no significant association between weight and either wages, sector of employment, or work limitations for either women or men. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper uses the approach in the under/over education literature to analyze the extent of matching of educational level to occupational attainment among adult native born and foreign born men in the US, using the 2000 Census. Overeducation is found to be more common among recent labor market entrants, while undereducation is more likely among older workers. Among immigrants, greater pre-immigration labor market experience is associated with poorer job matches, presumably due to the less-than-perfect international transferability of foreign experience. A longer duration in the US, however, is associated with a lower probability of being overeducated and a greater probability of being undereducated. This is consistent with immigrants being favorably selected for occupational advancement but this effect becomes realized only after overcoming the disadvantages of the less-than-perfect international transferability of their pre-immigration skills. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cities that have passed living wage ordinances often do so because of the strong political appeal of local living wage campaigns as a response to the declining value of the minimum wage, the outsourcing of municipal services, and rising income inequality. These campaigns generally consist of coalitions of community organizations, religious groups, and often times labor organizations. Organized labor is not the primary force behind most living wage campaigns, but they are an important constituency. Unexplored, however, are the labor market and other characteristics of those cities that have passed ordinances. This paper looks at data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and compares cities that passed living wage ordinances to those that did not. Cities in states with high union density, and with higher levels of income inequality and larger immigrant populations appear to be more likely to pass living wage ordinances than those cities that do not have these demographics. But as important as union support may be, without key demographic and economic characteristics, it is nonetheless insufficient to achieve living wage ordinances in most cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper argues that sweeping proclamations about the effects of globalization relate to a world which is antithetic to that of real people. While, for example, politicians strive to meet what they 'know' to be the demands of socio-economic globalization; people contending with the problems such policies raise, deploy a repertoire of local knowledge and concomitant practices. Their knowledge combines traditional lore and lessons learned over a lifetime from dealings in ordinary local contexts. With the help of theorizations of globalization and of everyday life, it is possible to show how local knowledge interacts with the global, and to touch on indicators which are potentially decisive for the differential evolution of the 'glocal'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the largely ignored issue of the determinants of the educational attainment of adults by immigrant generation. Using current population survey (CPS) data, differences in educational attainment are analyzed by immigrant generation (first, second, and higher order generations), and among the foreign born by country of birth and age at immigration. Second-generation American adults have the highest level of schooling, exceeding that of the foreign born and of the native born with native-born parents. Teenage immigration is associated with fewer years of schooling compared to those who immigrated at pre-teen or post-teen ages. The gender difference in educational attainment is greatest among the foreign born. Hispanics and Blacks lag behind the non-Hispanic Whites in their educational attainment, with the gap narrowing for higher order immigrant generations among Hispanics, but rising among blacks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The fact that recent immigrants to the United States continue to participate in the daily life of the society from which they emigrate is true for religious identities and behaviours as well as in political, economic and family life. This paper describes transnational religious ties between immigrants in six American religious congregations; and family, friends and co-religionists in the home country. In addition to monetary exchanges that benefit religious purposes, there are also exchanges of norms, practices, and social capital. The varied pathways whereby remittances are exchanged are also described. The religious exchanges between home and host countries impact global religious systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of language practice on earnings among adult male immigrants in Canada using the 1991 census. Earnings are shown to increase with schooling, pre-immigration experience and duration in Canada, as well as with proficiency in the official languages (English and French). Using selectivity correction techniques, it is shown that there is complementarity between language skills and both schooling and pre-immigration experience. That is, greater proficiency in the official languages enhances the effects on earnings of schooling and pre-immigration labor market experience. Language proficiency and post-migration experience appear to be substitutes, that is, those with greater proficiency have a smaller effect of time in Canada on earnings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the postsecondary enrollment decisions of immigrant students, expanding on previous work by explicitly considering their choices among institution types and by examining differences across generations and racial/ethnic categories. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88), we estimate a multinomial logit model of enrollment choice. We find that first- and second-generation Asians are significantly more likely to enroll in both two- and four-year public colleges and universities, while second-generation Hispanics and native blacks have a higher probability of enrolling in both public and private four-year colleges and universities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In October 2018, a migrant caravan formed in northern Honduras and grew to approximately 7000 individuals along its journey towards Mexico and the United States, capturing media attention and the label of a global migration "crisis" (Semple, 2018). Expanding upon rhetorical arena theory (Frandsen & Johansen, 2010), this paper challenges the perception of globalized humanitarian issues as inherent crises by critically considering the recursive negotiation of an event as a crisis by multiple publics in a global rhetorical arena. Uncovering intricacies of a Mexican and U.S. national rhetorical arena alongside a counterpublic rhetorical arena, findings underscore that humanitarian events cannot be simplified as assumed crises. Rather the interpretations by various voices in the global rhetorical arena showcase important dynamics of power and complexities of blame in the negotiation of an event as a crisis. Ultimately, this suggests the need for a broader definition of crisis in scholarship that acknowledges its rhetorical construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, immigration flows among developing countries have grown at a faster pace than immigration to advanced economies. Despite the documented welfare benefits of immigration, adverse policies and negative public opinion toward immigrants appear to be as common in developing countries as in developed ones. In such a context, understanding natives' attitudes toward immigrants may help inform measures to smooth free human mobility. This paper applies choice experiments to elicit individual preferences with regard to immigrants' attributes, the first such application in a developing country. Aligned with previous literature, the results indicate that younger immigrants with greater levels of education, higher-skilled professions, and fluency in the local language are preferred by natives. An interesting result is that foreigners from developed countries tend to receive greater support for admission. Also, there is significant heterogeneity in the estimations that is not explained by observable characteristics of the respondent, suggesting that most heterogeneity is idiosyncratic. Lastly, the experimental designs compare choice settings with a 'neither' option versus those with a forced choice, indicating that the former, arguably a more realistic setting, returns a lower probability of admission. • What drives natives' attitudes toward immigrants? • We apply choice experiments to elicit individual preferences with regard to immigrants' attributes. • The results indicate that younger immigrants with greater levels of education, higher-skilled professions, and fluency in the local language are preferred by natives. • Foreigners from developed countries tend to receive greater support for admission. A large share of variability in attitudes seems to be driven idiosyncratic factors. • Proving neither-option in choice experiment returns a lower probability of admission than forced-choice settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Performance in lower secondary education are higher for migrants who arrive younger ages than their siblings arriving at older ages. • The age at migration effect is larger for those origin from countries with low net enrolment in education. • The difference in the age at migration effect is largest in mathematics. • In language intensive subjects, the impact of age at migration is substantial for all migrants. This paper studies the effect of migration age on school performance. We exploit that siblings have different migration age, but share the same family background to identify the effect of migration age on educational attainment in lower secondary education in Norway. We estimate a separate effect for migrants from countries with low access to a high quality school system. We find negative effects of migration age on exam results, and larger effects for migrants from countries with low school access. Language intensive subjects are substantially affected for all migrants, while there are differences according to school access for mathematics performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]