Search

This paper intervenes in debates on Chinese higher education and social (re)production strategies in the contemporary African diaspora, developing the link between 'Chinese' capitals, social status and spatial mobility. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with both disadvantaged and middle-class African international students, I unpack how migration to China will enable them to accumulate prized forms of capital and position advantageously in different spheres of African society. The paper focuses on two 'Chinese' capitals--specifically high proficiency in the Chinese language, and exposure to and internalisation of Chinese lifestyles and practices--which are convertible to profit, distinction and secure coveted jobs in their respective home countries. By exploring how China's 'in the middle' position within the global political economy and exercising its soft power over peripheries are reflected in the ways these African students and their families play the 'class game' and make higher education choice, this paper moves beyond the 'West' vs. 'the Rest' gaze and nuances an emergent mobility pattern within the Global South. I conclude by presenting an argument that in seeking these 'Chinese' capitals, the students and their families may enhance China's geopolitical standing and facilitate its movement towards the 'core' within the arena of the world (knowledge) system.

The current push for more diverse populations to attend predominantly white institutions frequently overlooks the political nuances of racial and ethnic identity in higher education. When there is a push for Black students, who are they talking about? Do they want African American students, Black Caribbean students, or Black African students? Grouping students together in their diasporic group can result in identity confusion. Not every Black student is African American, and assuming such displays the invisibility of other Black ethnicities and encourages the disillusion of the Black community. This paper will identify student development theories, apply those to the related literature on the subject matter, and eventually develop conclusions that disprove the monolithic nature of Black student support. Understanding the different ethnic identities and their group relations within the Black community can improve policies, procedures, and overall campus climate regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Studies on migration and education have examined homeland returns as part of family strategies around acquiring desired cultural capital. However, the impact of return migration and transnational mobility on homeland educational landscapes remains under-researched. Using ethnographic data from Ghana, Senegal, the UK and the US, this paper shows how 'international' schools on the African continent have emerged as places where young transnational Africans can acquire cosmopolitan and Afropolitan competencies and outlooks.

Drawing on an ethnographic study of academic literacy practices in the applied social sciences, this paper builds on research which seeks to make visible the increasingly complex linguistic diversity in English-dominant universities (Universities in the Anglophone Centre: Sites of multilingualism. In L. Wei (Ed.). Applied linguistics review (Vol. 2, pp. 121-145). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton) by offering a detailed reading of the multilingual repertoires reported by students who identify with London's African migrant communities. The paper analyses data selected from in-depth interviews with under-graduate students who identify as speakers of English, but also Swahili and the other non-prestige language varieties comprising their complex repertoires (Blommaert, J., & Backus, A. (2011). Repertoires revisited: "Knowing language". In Superdiversity (Working papers in urban language and literacies 67). London, England: King's College). These repertoires are intertwined with life experiences and we argue that there is a need for a more nuanced faculty understanding of this. While the scope of multilingual repertoires poses some challenges for employing plurilingual pedagogies in curriculum spaces separate from linguistically-oriented programmes, namely the applied social sciences, we suggest that faculty initiatives such as teacher training courses could have a role in raising awareness of hidden repertoires.

In this paper, we explore moments of racial awakening among East African communities in Minnesota. We examine how the events around the George Floyd protests have opened up racial conversations (and gave permission) for many East African Americans in Minnesota, to voice their own pain of being racialized. We call these private and public stories of racial resistance. We highlight stories that take place in private spaces of the community, where experiences of racial violence are silenced, avoided, or outright denied because they cause shame, which mirrors other types of supremacist ideologies within East African societies. We find that these narratives add complexity to notions of Blackness and Black suffering. By looking closer, they are motivated by a desire to struggle against white supremacy. We draw on three of our own stories from two distinct contexts: community conversations and George Floyd protest site in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We do this to examine the different discourses surrounding notions of Blackness and Black sufferings. Through lived experiences of racialization, we interrogate the issue of Black voice, and particularly Black immigrant voice as a site of complex and competing interest that seeks to reconcile different ideologies around Blackness. We put phenomenology of race in conversation with Coloniality and anti-colonial literature to tease out tensions surrounding Blackness and Black suffering in US context. We end with suggestions on alliance building that recognizes and builds on the collective humanity of Black diasporic people.

This study examines the interaction between African immigrant students and their mainstream teachers. I am particularly interested in the influence of classroom practices on the literacy development of Francophone African immigrant children in the U.S. classroom. The student participants in this study (two French speaking African students) were all permanent residents in the United States. They were all born and schooled in their home countries and were fluent in French (the language of instruction in their home countries). Since their immigration to the U.S. with their parents, the children have been confronted to several linguistic, social, cultural, and economic challenges that slowed down their academic progress and achievement. This paper uses Krashen's (2005) discussion on language acquisition to argue that specific classroom practices can hinder the literacy development of immigrant children. The data used for this discussion was collected through the observation of a 5th grade classroom, informal conversations with two French speaking African students, and interviews with their mainstream teacher as well as their English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.

There is a need to embrace translingualism in order to avert covert tensions that emanate from the ascription of linguistic supremacy to "standard" English, especially among teachers of immigrant children and in overall public discourse. Drawing inspiration from the 1974 resolutions of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the 1996 Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights which advocate the empowerment of students to "own" their languages, this paper examines the diversity inherent in world Englishes in orthography, grammar, lexis, and phonology. A plethora of indigenous and European languages spoken across Africa have influenced the emergence of varied Englishes; as a result, Africans in the US speak English with varying accents and proficiencies. The following factors contribute to the translingual character of English spoken by most first- and 1.5-generation African immigrants in the US: medium of instruction in their countries of origin; duration of exposure to 'standard' English; age at immigration to the US; and their willingness to yield to social pressure to speak English like mainstream Americans. This paper foregrounds the historical as well as the contemporary socioecological linguistic realities of African immigrants' English speech and how these realities impact African immigrant acculturation in their host country.

Background: In the UK, African communities are a focus of public health efforts to increase uptake of HIV testing. Mobile phone interventions may be an innovative way of reaching migrant groups who are known to face multiple obstacles in accessing mainstream health services. This paper presents findings from a feasibility study that used participatory approaches to investigate the use of a text messaging intervention to encourage HIV testing among migrant African communities. Methods: Participants were recruited in the city of Nottingham by a team of community researchers. They were sent two text messages per week (one on HIV and one on general health) for 12 weeks. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were completed to measure HIV testing behaviour, HIV-related knowledge and attitudes and general health. Participants' views on the intervention were solicited. Results: One hundred and sixty-nine participants were enrolled in the study. Follow-up data on HIV testing were obtained for 76 participants (45%) and complete follow-up measures were available from 60 participants (36%). Eight reported seeking an HIV test during the study period. There were statistically significant positive changes in attitudes about HIV and a trend towards increased knowledge about HIV. One-third of participants reported improvements in physical activity levels, diet and stress management following the intervention. The intervention messages and structure were positively evaluated. Conclusion: Well-designed mobile phone messaging proved to be a feasible and acceptable intervention to promote both HIV testing and lifestyle behaviours among African migrant communities in the UK. When co-constructed with communities, they hold considerable promise for overcoming some of the health-related barriers faced by migrant populations in new countries. Future research and service development should focus on exploiting and evaluating this potential in relation to other key health priorities.

In this paper, we explore how white Catholic men talk about the indirect dilemma of non-intervention for black ethnic outgroups. We illustrate how they mobilise global categorisation (all humanity) and use various forms of denial to deal with their non-involvement. Having analyzed representative fragments of their prejudice avoidance talk, we conclude with some observation about the strategic deployment of categories and denial forms as part of identity management talk. In contrast to quantitative research that oversimplifies the ingroup-outgroup distinction, we show how the status and outgroupness levels of the needy appear to be both flexible and intricate, which depends on the often-ignored intersecting cultural factors, like the respondents' and victims' ethnic, racial and religious identities. (Contains 1 footnote.)

In democratic societies the level of citizens' civic engagement and inclusion in all forms of democratic participation is crucial in maintaining social cohesion and a vibrant democracy. In the historical development of Canada's demographic, political, socio-economic and cultural systems, immigration continues to play an influential role. Our paper presents conceptions of civic participation held by, inclusion and integration of recent African immigrants to Canada. We focus on volunteerism as one form of democratic participation. The findings show immigrants volunteer for the common good of society, making a difference, personal self-service gaining experience for advancement in their host society. Some are coerced into volunteering. Some of these findings concur with theoretical literature that positions various volunteering motives, bringing up implications for federal agencies involved in the settlement, adaptation programs for newcomers and educational curriculum planners attempting to widen conceptions of volunteerism, fostering engagement and promotion of citizenship education in general. (Contains 3 tables.)

As global migrations of both teachers and students have increased, so has the need to re-learn English in response to local parlances. Thus, the use of formal and informal language styles, the masking of accents, and the understanding of the differential use of certain specific words, expressions, and the like become critical for teachers and students. For international, cross-cultural educators who also face pedagogical culture shock, issues related to the differences in teaching and learning styles, curriculum, and assessment must also be addressed. Concomitantly, therefore, the identities of international educators become reconstituted into academic cosmopolites. Using data collected from 55 student evaluations as supporting evidence, this paper contends that international educators undergo personality differentiation in response to local forces, including socio-linguistic pressures. The hybridization of migrant academicians' native states with cross-cultural forces precipitates new permutations of international, transmuted identities, brewed in the crucible of educational cross-culturalisms.

Drawing on evidence from a PhD study, this paper raises questions about the appropriateness of English educational authorities to continue to refer to the Horn of Africa children, most of them born in the UK, as refugees. The word refugee, in its broad definition, seemingly masks fundamental differences and may reinforce stereotypical perceptions of immigrant children. Many Horn of Africa people tend to define themselves using their respective national identities. Thus, the paper recommends that when the educational authorities want to categorize children of Horn of Africa origin, they should consider using the Department for Children, Schools and Families' extended ethnicity codes or preferably refer to them simply as Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis and Sudanese. (Contains 3 tables.)

Blogging has emerged as one of the most popular forms of online discourse. The ease and lack of expense in setting up blogs has raised intriguing possibilities for language learning classrooms. The unique nature of their architecture and their low cost have not only affected how students can publish and distribute their work to a wider audience but also how they see themselves as authors. This paper focuses on the use of blogs in an L2 writing course concentrating on the controversies surrounding plagiarism. Blogs were used as a means of generating ideas for their academic papers and as texts that could be cited in their papers. This paper analyzes the blogs of a Somali immigrant student to explore blogs' relationship to the development of his academic writing. His purposes and strategies for using blogs are discussed both as a way of seeing the variety of writing strategies he developed in his blogs, as well as what his use of blogs could tell his teachers about the strengths and weaknesses of his writing. The paper attempts to improve our understanding of how blogging in L2 composition courses can contribute to the development of a student's writing. (Contains 3 notes.)

Purpose: The paper examines African immigrant parents' views on dental decay and whether such views affect their decision to obtain dental insurance for their children. The paper also examines the cultural underpinnings of the immigrants' oral health care practices. Design/methodology/approach: The data for the study were collected in the states of Indiana and Virginia. The data were collected in 2005 by the author and a research assistant. A total of 420 parents (220 males and 200 females) took part in the research, answering questions about 601 children. Findings: The results indicate that a sizeable number of African immigrant school-aged children are denied dental health due to a combination of cultural perceptions on dental health (such as families taking responsibility for cleaning their teeth themselves), parental ignorance on dental health, parents' perception of dental health practice in the USA, and the parents' weak financial standing. Originality/value: The study is of considerable importance to dental care providers, public health specialists, social workers, and more especially the school systems that have African immigrant children, because as people who provide information and guidance to such immigrants, knowing about how the immigrants' cultural backgrounds influence their decisions about dental care will help to serve the immigrants more effectively. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This study involves 35 research participants: 20 immigrant parents (primarily mothers from South America, North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and 15 primary school children, aged 10-11. These children were born outside Italy and primary school was their first encounter with the Italian educational system. We observed their processes of integration through their stories and those of their parents. Our investigation aims to identify factors that support or inhibit their school integration. We adopt an ecological research paradigm, proposing a vision of knowledge as rooted in natural life contexts, focusing on subjectivity. Analysis of the data led to identification of core categories concerning these families' experiences and their children's encounters with Italian schools. This paper focuses on the children's perspectives of their experiences with school.

This paper examines the phenomenon of West African parents living in Europe and North America who send their older children back home: from places of high immigrant aspiration to those of hardship and privation. Drawing on a project on West African immigration to Europe and on previous field studies in Africa, we conclude that West African immigrants fearing the consequences of their children's indiscipline in the West, where racism and hostility can endanger the entire family, may send unruly children back to the home country. In doing so, we believe, they build on long-standing African disciplinary efforts in hopes of toughening their children's resilience to the challenges in the new place and wait for the risk to dissipate.

Background/Context: This essay is part of a special issue that emerges from a year-long faculty seminar at Teachers College, Columbia University. The seminar's purpose has been to examine in fresh terms the nexus of globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants come from diverse fields of research and practice, among them art education, comparative education, curriculum and teaching, language studies, philosophy of education, social studies, and technology. They bring to the table different scholarly frameworks drawn from the social sciences and humanities. They accepted invitations to participate because of their respective research interests, all of which touch on education in a globalized world. They were also intrigued by an all-too-rare opportunity to study in seminar conditions with colleagues from different fields, with whom they might otherwise never interact given the harried conditions of university life today. Participants found the seminar generative in terms of ideas about globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants also appreciated what, for them, became a novel and rich occasion for professional and personal growth. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The goal of this paper is to open up a dialogic space where educators can learn from and with transnational immigrant youth who are already participating in civic learning opportunities as local and global citizens in and beyond the sphere of schools. Drawing on data from two qualitative research studies, I discuss the global lifestyle and civic engagement of Kwame, one transnational immigrant youth, who lives in New York and maintains close ties to Africa. The relationship between his transnational immigrant identity and civic engagement provide insights into how he is constructing, negotiating, and contesting citizenship norms, K-16 civic learning opportunities, and new technologies of civic engagement for the betterment of diverse democratic societies. Conclusion/Recommendations: The author argues that, in the midst of contentious debates on immigration and (mis)representations of immigrants in the media, dialogic spaces between and among educators and transnational immigrant youth can be created to grapple with notions of globalization, education, and citizenship. Moreover, as schools also serve as public civic space, educators can focus on engaging transnational immigrant youth's daily experiences and knowledge in the curriculum. In so doing, the curriculum opens up opportunities for teachers and students to dialogue and learn about what is already happening with youth to further encourage, motivate, and sustain youth's civic engagement at local, national, and global levels. Such learning carries the potential of a diverse action-oriented educated citizenry committed to human rights in a globalized world.

Levels and Dronkers (2006) showed that educational achievement differs between immigrant students from different regions of origin (Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia). This follow-up paper establishes whether these differences in educational achievement between immigrant students from different regions of origin can be explained by school segregation, whether along ethnic or socioeconomic lines. Ethnic and socioeconomic school segregation have a negative influence on the scholastic achievement of all students, although the impact of socioeconomic school segregation is greater than that of ethnic school segregation. Ethnic school segregation affects the scholastic outcomes of native and immigrant students from some regions of origin more than those of immigrant students from other regions. The analysis shows that neither ethnic, nor socioeconomic, school segregation explains the lower mathematics achievement of immigrant students from Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. (Contains 4 tables and 19 notes.)

Utilizing data on approximately 16,000 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Cohort and a rich set of mediating factors on 16 immigrant groups, this paper examined the associations between children's immigrant generation status and their academic performance. The changes in academic achievements during kindergarten and first-grade were also examined to explore the varying learning paces exhibited by children from different countries of origin. Results indicate that, compared to third and later generation non-Hispanic white children, children of Latin American regions tended to have lower reading and math scores, while children of Asian regions tended to have higher reading and math scores. In addition, although children of immigrants may have either higher (e.g., children from East Asia) or lower scores (e.g., children from Mexico) by first-grade compared to third and later generation non-Hispanic white children, the former generally learned skills at faster paces, thus widening (e.g., for children from East Asia) or narrowing (e.g., for children from Mexico) academic achievement gaps. Child and family characteristics accounted for a large share of the differences in children's academic achievements. Home, school, and neighborhood environments may also matter but to a lesser extent. Research implications are discussed. (Contains 8 tables and 8 footnotes.)

Despite recent immigration from Africa and the Caribbean, Blacks in America are still viewed as a monolith in many previous studies. In this paper, we use newly released 2000 census data to estimate log-linear models that highlight patterns of interracial and intraracial marriage and cohabitation among African Americans, West Indians, Africans, and Puerto Rican non-Whites, and their interracial marriage and cohabitation with Whites. Based on data from several metropolitan areas, our results show that, despite lower socioeconomic status, native-born African Americans are more likely than other Blacks to marry Whites; they also are more likely to marry other Black ethnics. West Indians, Africans, and Puerto Rican non-Whites are more likely to marry African Americans than to marry Whites. Interracial relationships represent a greater share of cohabiting unions than marital unions. The majority of interracial unions, including native and immigrant Blacks, consist of a Black man and White woman. The implications for marital assimilation are discussed.

Pope Francis has made the protection of our common home a central theme of his Papacy. This may be nowhere more important than in Africa, a continent that is already today highly vulnerable to climate shocks due in part to high levels of water stress in many countries, food insecurity, and forced displacement, among others. In this paper, we use household surveys from West African countries to explore the impact of covariate shocks (most of which are weather-related) and international migration as a potential response to shocks on educational outcomes for children of primary school age. The results suggest that shocks affect educational outcomes substantially, but that international migration may generate benefits for children of migrants. The paper also briefly discusses policy prescriptions on how to tackle climate change, arguing that education to sustainable development should be a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews events of 1978 in Francophone African journalism, literature, and film. (AM)

In recent years, the effects of migration on economic outcomes have gained significant attention among researchers and policymakers. In the African context, the complex interplay between migration and economic outcomes is of particular importance, as many countries face unique challenges, such as limited resources, ongoing conflicts, and uneven development. This paper explores the impact of immigration, international migrant cash transfers, and emigration on total factor productivity in Africa, and its implications for public policy. We used the World Development Indicators, the Pen World Table from 2000 to 2020, and instrumental variable estimation in an endogenous growth model. The findings indicate that emigrant human capital and remittances have a negative impact on total factor productivity, whereas immigrant human capital positively affects it. These results highlight the importance of well-defined public migration policies that promote brain circulation, attract skilled immigrants, enhance domestic human capital development, and foster regional co-operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the huge surge of African migrants in the West, especially in the post Covid-19 era, it becomes important to investigate these migrants' experiences as portrayed in literary texts by writers. Hence, this research examines the representation of migrant challenges in African literature through a critical discourse on two contemporary novels: Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart and Helon Habila's Travelers. Adopting Homi Bhabha's theory, hybridity, the study focuses on how these literary works depict the struggles of African Migrants as they navigate and interpret both cultures-West/African while in the diaspora in order to survive. The discourse highlights the issues of displacement, dislocation, alignment, cultural identity, and the struggle for survival in a foreign land. By exploring the similarities and differences between the two novels, the paper reveals the complexity and diversity of African migrant experiences as it provides insights into the broader issues of globalization, colonialism, and migration. Ultimately, the research argues that African literature plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of the migrant experiences and in promoting social justice and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese migration to Africa has been limited both in size and scope until relatively recently. It was only in the late 1990s and the 2000s that significant numbers of Chinese migrants began arriving in Africa, with the first significant waves hitting South African shores. Chinese entrepreneurs, fortune seekers, and professionals, together with temporary workers – from across China – made their way in increasing numbers to destinations across the African continent. Many entered Africa with or following Chinese state-owned and private companies, on contracts to work on construction, oil, and mining projects. Beyond these large state-sponsored and private-sector projects, reports of the development of Chinatowns, Chinese shops, and Chinese farms and factories across the African continent have been circulating for nearly three decades. This paper examines these new, intensified Chinese flows to Africa and explores the possibilities of their future on the continent. Based on my in-depth examination of developments in South Africa, I argue that while the Chinese state's global ambitions and African ambivalence towards these latest arrivals influence Chinese migrant lives and destinies, the migrants themselves are also having impacts on their African host nations and changing the way we understand human flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Index.Comunicación is the property of Index.comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Migration at international level is a global phenomenon. In recent years the world experienced the highest number of people who migrated abroad. For example, in 2020 approximately 3.6% of global population were international migrants. This was the highest proportion of the global population registered in the last thirty years. The paper analyses some general aspects of international migration. There are detailed migration patterns in various regions such as America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa. Based on the data provided can be drawn some policy implications. Countries of destination should apply policies in order to facilitate the integration of migrants and should provide labour market regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how sub-Saharan Africans do business in China, particularly in the province of Guangdong. Through a qualitative approach, the paper analyzes data obtained from twenty interviews with sub-Saharan Africans. It's a descriptive study that explores the strategies, tactics and attitudes adopted by those sub-Saharan Africans to cope with a particularly difficult Chinese business environment. Using the concepts of foreignness and adaptation, the study identified four categories of immigrant entrepreneurs: the assimilators, the conservatives, the adventurers and the cautious. Concomitantly, this research identified factors and skills that contributed significantly to immigrants' success in China. The paper also underlines challenges sub-Saharan Africans still face in China and the unconventional tactics they use. The study represents an insightful exploration of an increasingly important subject but still under-studied. It calls for a thorough research toward the understanding of African businesses in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trade creation effect of migrants is among the topics of interest of contemporary development economists. Using a 10-year interval comprehensive dataset of 136 countries for the period 1970–2000, this paper reveals African migrants promote homogeneous product exports, while Asians promote the export of manufactured and differentiated products. Unsurprisingly, however, both African and Asian migrants have a positive and significant impact on imports from the migrants' destination countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps out the shifting and restrictive nature of immigration laws on the wives of resident Indians moving to South Africa. The turn of the century witnessed a gradual entry of women seeking to join their spouses in South Africa. However, on arrival some discovered that they were ‘prohibited’ immigrants, as Indian customary marriages came under intense scrutiny from immigration officials, Appeal Boards and courts. This paper argues that immigration and judicial officials, at times, became a law unto themselves by becoming official gatekeepers determining who was really a ‘wife’ and who could therefore enter the country. It shows how immigration officials, through a system of documentation and verification procedures, carefully scrutinised and monitored the entry of resident Indian wives into the Union. Thus, ‘what is the meaning of the word “wife”’ became a highly contested and complex issue at the turn of the century. The shifting and restrictive nature of immigration laws limited citizenship rights to resident Indian wives. This article adds to current debates on gender and citizenship in historical migrations amongst non-indentured, free Indian women immigrants to South Africa - a topic that is yet to be fully explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When collecting migrants' life stories, researchers often report on the role of chance encounters in influencing the way migration trajectories have taken shape or how migrants have managed their lives in a new country. Aside from reporting on such encounters, however, there have been no explicit efforts to theorise chance or to make it central to in-depth analysis in migration studies. This paper aims to theorise the role of chance encounters in migrants' trajectories by drawing on insights from the psychology literature of chance encounters and life paths. Our analysis of the role of chance encounters, structured by the interplay between environmental and personal factors, suggests that how people deal with chance is an influential factor in the ways people migrate from the Global South to the Global North and manage their lives in transit. The paper makes use of evidence collected among 46 African migrants in Ukraine during 7 months of field research in 2011-2012 and reflects on the methodological implications in studying chance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the temporary home visits of African transnational migrants residing in South Africa. Many aspects of such return visits overlap with diasporic tourism, Visiting Friends and Relatives tourism and related types, but they are also uniquely different. Informed by narrative identity theory and an analytical lens focused on memory, the paper explores how memories of home influence the migrants' touristic activities, behaviour and experiences. A qualitative research approach involving in-depth interviews with 20 participants from two different sectors was pursued. Findings illustrate how the encounter with traces of the person's autobiographical past (spaces, objects, social relations) can lead to a shifting sense of self. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper examines African immigrant parents' views on dental decay and whether such views affect their decision to obtain dental insurance for their children. The paper also examines the cultural underpinnings of the immigrants' oral health care practices. Design/methodology/approach – The data for the study were collected in the states of Indiana and Virginia. The data were collected in 2005 by the author and a research assistant. A total of 420 parents (220 males and 200 females) took part in the research, answering questions about 601 children. Findings – The results indicate that a sizeable number of African immigrant school-aged children are denied dental health due to a combination of cultural perceptions on dental health (such as families taking responsibility for cleaning their teeth themselves), parental ignorance on dental health, parents' perception of dental health practice in the USA, and the parents' weak financial standing. Originality/value – The study is of considerable importance to dental care providers, public health specialists, social workers, and more especially the school systems that have African immigrant children, because as people who provide information and guidance to such immigrants, knowing about how the immigrants' cultural backgrounds influence their decisions about dental care will help to serve the immigrants more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arab Gulf region is one of the major destinations of labour migration besides Europe and North America. While the majority of migrants come from South and South East Asia as well as from neighbouring Arab countries, the region has also become an attractive destination for migrants from Africa. In particular, business hubs such as Dubai and Doha have attracted traders, jobseekers, and recently also students from various African countries. So far, little attention has been devoted to the growing presence and heterogeneity of these migrants, or to variations in their migration experiences. Moreover, several studies have highlighted social hierarchies as a structuring element of Gulf societies, and have identified multiple vectors of inequality, including ethnicity, gender, and class. In this paper, we will adopt an intersectional approach to studying the experiences of African migrants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in particular in relation to their integration into the labour market and the recruitment of business partners. Similarly to migrants from other parts of the Global South, African migrants and entrepreneurs are exposed to a variety of structural constraints that impact on their entry into the UAE economy, often channelling them into low-paying, elementary occupations. Yet once they have entered the system and regularized their stay, they may explore alternative routes to improve on their situation. As the case studies investigated in this paper will show, African migrants flexibly use their intersecting positionalities, in particular ethnicity, nationality, race, and gender, to renegotiate their place in the segregated UAE economy and seek upward professional and social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the development of a unique, grassroots, community-based organization, Nah We Yone (NWY), designed specifically to provide support to African refugees and asylum seekers, with a history of refugee trauma, war, and human rights abuses, who have fled to the New York City area. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the background to, the challenges faced and the services available at NWY. Findings – Described in this paper are the rationale for developing this type of organization; specific programs designed to promote well-being; and various challenges faced and lessons learned, while offering an alternate type of therapeutic intervention. Practical implications – NWY demonstrates the importance of drawing on cultural and community strengths and resilience when using limited resources to serve traumatized and displaced peoples who are struggling to adjust to a new cultural setting. Originality/value – This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on culturally informed therapeutic interventions developed by community-based organizations to enhance well being in forced migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that immigrant civic activism, which may at first glance seem to focus on diasporic ties and ethnic community building, becomes often a lever for transcultural capital and transcultural community building. The study is explorative of new repertoires and forms of transnationalism among sub-Saharan African immigrant activists in Europe. The findings suggest that immigrant civic activism, even if limited in size, proposes new types of transcultural societal networks and new forms of transcultural expression. In the first part of the study I discuss the theoretical background of transnationalism in migration studies and propose the notions of transcultural capital and transcultural community as working concepts. The second part of the study concentrates on the qualitative analysis of life story interviews with sixteen sub-Saharan African immigrants in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migrants account for 35% of HIV diagnoses in the European Union (ECDC/WHO 2014). Little is known about the impact of such a lifelong infection diagnosis on lives that are already disrupted by migration. In this paper, we assess the impact of HIV diagnosis on activity, union, well-being among African migrants living in France, the second group most affected by HIV after MSM. We compare it with the impact of the diagnosis of Hepatitis B, another lifelong infection affecting African migrants. Methods: We use the ANRS PARCOURS survey, a retrospective life-event survey led in 2012–2013 in 74 health structures in Paris greater area which collected 926 life histories of Sub-Saharan migrants living with HIV and 779 with Hepatitis B. We modelled the probability year by year since 18 years of age until data collection to lose one’s activity, to experience a conjugal break up and degradation of well-being and we estimated the impact of migration and of HIV and Hepatitis B diagnoses on these probabilities, after adjustment on other factors, thanks to discrete-time logistic regressions. Results: Migration entailed loss of activity and conjugal break up, though HIV diagnosis after migration did not statistically impact on these outcomes. Yet HIV diagnosis had a massive negative impact on well-being (aOR = 11.31 [4.64–27.56] for men and 5.75 [2.79–11.86] for women). This negative impact on well-being tended to diminish for persons diagnosed after 2004. The negative impact of HIV diagnosis on African migrants’ well-being seems to be attenuated in the last decade, which hints at a normalization of the subjective experience of HIV diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]