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THE SCHOLARSHIP ON TWENTIETH-CENTURY REFUGEE MOVEMENT highlights the persecution of national, ethnic, and religious minorities arising from state and nation-building. (2) The very structure and function of modern nation-states made [...]

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has designated 2007 as 'The European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.' A European Commission proposal for a directive against discrimination in the provision of services and goods, meanwhile, is supported by the Parliament. The proposed laws against discrimination in Austria are also discussed.

Impact of change in the unemployment benefits on the duration of joblessness of elderly people in Austria is analyzed.

In Austria, the provision of long-term care is strongly based on unpaid female work within family networks and is characterised by a highly unequal division of informal long-term caregiving. In 1993, a major reform has been introduced in the Austrian long-term care system with a payments for care programme and a state-provinces treaty regarding service development at its heart. The objective of this article is to investigate the implications of the 1993 programme on gender divisions and on whether and in what ways the programme and processes set in train by the programme influence the role of women as carers. The question is approached by applying and broadening the concept of defamilisation in a process oriented way. The analysis suggests that from the informal carers' perspective long-term care allowances in the Austrian context mean some financial relief via `symbolic payments'. At the same time, the overall long-term care system prolongs existing gender divisions and sets in train new stratification processes among women as main carers with gender, class and space as dimensions reinforcing each other.

The absolute and relative frequency of suicides in jails and prisons in Austria over the 50 years from 1947 to 1996 is described. Important legislational changes regarding the criminal justice system are discussed with regard to possible consequences for the incidence of prisoners' suicides. Within the five decades a significant increase in the absolute numbers of jail and prison suicides was evident in spite of the considerable decrease in the total inmate population. Therefore, the suicide rate of inmates of correctional facilities increased significantly. Possible reasons for this phenomenon are discussed in relation to changes of the criminal law.

Forced complementarity is a way of describing the legal position of immigrants in Austria. The position developed from the strength of Austrian labor unions, and is geared to protecting the indigenous Austrian labor force. The result has been that Austrians tend to suffer more from long-term unemployment. Immigrants are subject to pressures from a drive to employ a flexible labor force, but they are often preferred as more flexible. Demand for immigrant workers would thus increase if it were not for strict immigration controls.

Financial incentives in promoting childhood immunization can be cost effective. The success of such an approach as employed by Northern Ireland and Austria is informative. Equity and efficiency considerations support government involvement in the program. Studies show that there is a strong demand for childhood immunization and, although the US spends more per capita on medical care, it ignores the need for childhood immunization.

Copyright protection is a strongly defended right in Austria owing to the country's firm belief in the free market and private property. The country's intellectual property rights policy could become more effective if the market, and not the government, becomes the protector. Since intellectual property is not a scare good, the market would be a more efficient guardian than the state. The latter could easily create an artificial shortage to the detriment of the free dissemination of literary expression.

Austria has a national health care system with nearly universal access, few malpractice lawsuits and little abuse of medical resources. It is based on the principle that people are legally entitled to health care. Overall, the health status in Austria is one of the highest in the world. Infant mortality is about 20% lower than in the US, and there is almost 100% compliance with prenatal care visits. About 8% of the gross domestic product goes toward health care expenses, much less than in the US. At $1,124, per capita health care expenditures spending are about half that of the US. The national system is funded mostly by a 7% wage tax paid by all Austrians as well as federal contributions and such things as prescription copayments. As in the US, health care delivery in Austria is challenged by the demands of an increasingly aging population, drug use, HIV infection and tuberculosis.

Austria must adopt media policies to protect its indigenous culture. Austrian culture has consistently been overrun by American, British and German culture. The government has placed too much emphasis on linking culture to tourism. Lack of a developed cultural policy has led many Austrian artists and writers to look beyond their own borders for opportunity. An ideal policy would encourage small media outlets as the bearers of Austrian culture, assist cultural export and consider limiting foreign cultural incursion.

This paper focuses on the cultural aspects of new housing in the 1920s, especially on the large housing estates such as Berlin-Britz or Frankfurt-Westhausen. These housing estates played the role of prototypes and models for the possible development of society and more or less illustrated trends of dealing with modernity in general. After surveying the financing and construction of new housing in Germany and Austria, the context of Social Democratic housing policy is discussed. On the one hand, 'good housing' was regarded as a means of compensation for 'the bad world of labour'; on the other, it was embedded in the Social Democratic strivings to edify people (Kultursozialismus). Ennobling efforts aimed at a 'clean modernity', and were directed towards upgrading and modernizing people's taste and behaviour and rationalizing and hygienizing the everyday life of the tenants, as well as professionalizing women's housework. Comparing the German Social Democratic cultural strivings on the housing estates with those in Vienna, there is a striking difference to be seen between the political culture cultivated in Red Vienna and that developed on many new German housing estates. Furthermore, ties were loosened between the well-paid skilled workers moving into the new German housing estates on the edge of the cities and the mass of the working class mostly living in the centres of the cities or in older working-class neighbourhoods. For the former group this did not mean a separation from the workers' movement but a leap into cultural fragmentation of the working class itself.

Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy and Malta have received a reasoned opinion (second stage of infringement proceedings) for their failure to transpose Directivea2002/73/EC on the implementation of the principle of [...]

The EU Court of Justice has condemned Austria for failing to comply with EU rules by implementing excessively restrictive legislation on the entry of workers from non-EU countries posted in [...]

The informal meeting of Youth Ministers is traditionally an opportunity to send a somewhat hackneyed message to young people to show that Europe has not forgotten them. The meeting held [...]

Austrian Social Affairs Minister Ursula Haubner said 'the positive start to these discussions sends a clear message that important processes for a partnership on the broadest possible basis have been [...]

Notwithstanding the question of whether abortion is generally or exceptionally a legitimate means of family planning, it is basically agreed that abortion is not justifiable without free and informed consent of the pregnant woman. However, if abortion is held by the legislature to be a 'ground of justification' (i.e., a far-reaching exception to criminal liability), is it true that abortion may also be carded out for the benefit of a pregnant woman who is not able to give free and informed consent? Should a substituted-judgment approach be applied in cases where the woman is incompetent to decide? Or should the pregnant woman's relatives' interests be taken into account exclusively? The author tries to answer these questions, which were tackled by the Austrian Supreme Court in a recent case. Key words: abortion, free and informed consent, proxy decision-making, substituted-judgment approach.

VIENNA--The Austrian government earlier this week approved plans for a major shakeup of the country's university system. Proponents say the proposal, if approved by Parliament, would infuse fresh blood into [...]

Austria is proposing to create an entire new sector of non-university higher education. What problems will have to be resolved if this ambitious project is to succeed?(1) Last May Austria [...]

Strong far-right parties flourish in Austria, where Joerg Haider's Freedom Party warned against 'over-foreignization'; in Switzerland, where the Swiss People's Party's slogan is 'Stop Asylum Abuse', in Norway, where the [...]

Eleven innovation projects aiming to enhance the urban environment of selected areas in Austria are discussed. These projects represent the progress of town or city planning of the country. Among the projects being implemented are the residential housing development in Breitenfurther, Vienna, the Viennese reconstruction and urban improvement program and the development of St Poelten to become the capital city of lower Austria.