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This article provides an overview of trends in fertility of foreign and national women in Greece, Spain, and Italy during the last decade and before the Covid pandemic. It focuses on the fertility of foreigners and compares this with that of ‘nationals’. The main analysis focuses on a period marked, firstly, by the economic recession and stagnation, and then by the recent wave of the ‘refugee crisis’. Foreigner fertility in the three south Mediterranean countries differs significantly from that of nationals, with the former having higher fertility rates and lower mean age at childbearing. However, although foreigners make a large contribution to births, their impact on period fertility (total fertility rate or TFR) is limited. At the same time, although the fertility of both groups decreased during the first years of the recession, foreigner TFRs fell faster in both absolute and relative terms in Italy and Greece. However, after 2014, the foreigner period fertility among the three countries differs as a relative stabilisation is observed in Spain and Italy, while indicators rise in Greece. This divergence is due to the various composition changes in the settled after-2014 foreigners in the three countries and the strong recovery of foreigner births in Greece (as fertility in Greece was much more affected by the recession). Este artículo ofrece una visión general de las tendencias de la fecundidad de las mujeres extranjeras y nacionales en Grecia, España e Italia durante la última década y antes de la pandemia del Covid. Se centra especialmente en la fecundidad de las extranjeras y la compara con la de las “nacionales”. El análisis principal se centra en un periodo marcado, primero, por la recesión y el estancamiento económico, y luego, por la reciente ola de la “crisis de refugiados”. La fecundidad de los extranjeros en los tres países del sur del Mediterráneo difiere significativamente de la de los nacionales, ya que los primeros tienen tasas de fecundidad más altas y una edad media de maternidad más baja. Sin embargo, aunque los extranjeros contribuyen en gran medida a los nacimientos, su impacto en la fecundidad periódica (TFR) es limitado. Al mismo tiempo, aunque la fecundidad de ambos grupos disminuyó durante los primeros años de la recesión, la TFR de los extranjeros cayó más rápidamente en términos absolutos y relativos en Italia y Grecia. Sin embargo, a partir de 2014, la fecundidad del periodo de los extranjeros difiere entre los tres países, ya que en España e Italia se observa una estabilización relativa, mientras que los indicadores aumentan en Grecia. Esta divergencia se debe a los diferentes cambios de composición de los extranjeros asentados después de 2014 en los tres países estudiados y a la fuerte recuperación de los nacimientos de extranjeros en Grecia, ya que su fecundidad se vio mucho más afectada por la recesión. This article’s writing was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (Research Project ‘Demographic Imperatives in Research and Practices in Greece’).

A proposta desta dissertação é abordar as relações familiares e os encontros étnicos em Ijuí (RS), entre finais do século XIX e início do XX. Este contexto foi marcado pelas políticas governamentais de fundação de colônias mistas no Brasil, resultando no contato dos camponeses nacionais com os imigrantes europeus. Os casos analisados mais detidamente são os conflitos denunciados à justiça e relatados nos processos criminais, fontes principais da pesquisa. Além de investigar as motivações para a ocorrência destas situações de tensão, buscamos identificar elos entre os envolvidos nos processos, especialmente réus, acusadores e testemunhas. Os referenciais teóricos tratam dos modelos de família, das classificações dos grupos sociais e dos códigos de conduta. Para cumprir com a proposta deste estudo foram utilizadas outras fontes, como: documentos da comissão de terras, jornais locais, documentos da Intendência municipal, dados estatísticos e registros civis. The proposal of this master thesis it´s to deal with the family relationships and the ethnic encounters in Ijuí (RS), between late XIX century and early XX. This context it was marked by government policies of foundation of mixed colonies in Brazil, resulting in the contact of the national’s peasants with the European immigrants. The cases analyzed more closely are the conflicts denounced to justice and report in criminal lawsuits, top search sources. Besides investigation the motivations for the occurrence of the these stress situations, we search to identify links between those involved in the lawsuits, especially defendants, accusers and witnesses. Theoretical references deal with the types of families, the classification of social groups and the codes of behavior. To comply with the proposal of this study were used other sources, as: land commission documents, local newspapers, town hall documents, statistic data and civil records.

Four members from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) student chapter recently competed against 16 collegiate teams during the AIS Student Chapter Leadership Conference and Competition in Bloomington, Indiana. Allan Follett, Dallin Lewis, Abhishek Shukla, and Caleb Wilkinson began preparing for the competition last fall. The team had to review preparatory material, attend a four-hour training session on the night before the conference, and then participate in the nine-hour competition itself. The actual competition consisted of eight, one-hour sessions, interspersed with short breaks., https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/huntsman_news/1279/thumbnail.jpg

The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least part of their life outside their home country. Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and effectiveness of these agreements have not yet been investigated; thus, important guidance for policy makers in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries is missing. To shed light on how BSSAs work in practice, this document is part of a series providing information and lessons from studies of portability in four diverse but comparable migration corridors: Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco. A summary policy paper draws broader conclusions and offers overarching policy recommendations. This report looks specifically into the working of the Belgium-Morocco corridor. Findings suggest that the BSSA is broadly working well, with no main substantive issues in the area of pension portability, except for the non-portability of the noncontributory top-up pension and issues with widows’ pensions in case of divorce and repudiation, and in health care, the pending introduction of portable health care for retirees with single pensions from the other country. Process issues around information provision in Morocco and automation of information exchange are recognized.

The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least a part of their life outside their home country. Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and effectiveness of these agreements have not yet been investigated; thus important guidance for policymakers in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries is missing. To shed light on how BSSAs work in practice, this document is part of a series providing information and lessons from studies of portability in four diverse but comparable migration corridors: Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco. A summary policy paper draws broader conclusions and offers overarching policy recommendations. This report looks specifically into the working of the Austria-Turkey corridor. Findings suggest that the BSSA between Austria and Turkey is broadly working well, with no main substantive issues in the area of pension portability and few minor substantive issues concerning health care portability and financing. Process issues around information and automation of information exchange are recognized and are beginning to be addressed.

The Zambia Mining Investment and Governance Review (MInGov) collects and shares information on mining sector governance, its attractiveness to investors and how its activities affect national development. It reviews sector performance from the perspective of three main stakeholder groups– government, investors in the mining value chain and civil society – and identifies gaps between declared and actual government policy and practice. The review's key findings are: Performance across the value chain is strongest in topics most closely associated with mining and which are related to the content of laws and regulations, though implementation of these is wanting in some instances; Sector development is constrained by a number of bottlenecks; According to investors, a number of areas are constraining mining investment and returns; The three key stakeholder groups agree on a number of topics they believe are particularly important to strengthen sector governance, investment and development impact; Civil society believes there is a number of weaknesses sector governance, including the poor handling of environment and social impacts of mining; problems with human rights associated with the sector; ineffective development planning as it relates to mining; issues concerning land access, compensation and resettlement; and the absence of revenue sharing between national and local government.MInGov’s methodology focuses on the status of governance and investment conditions in the mining sector from the perspective of stakeholders, and as reported in primary and secondary sources. However, less-well covered areas include the quality of its infrastructure services, the security of property from theft, the underlying strength of institutions, and ways to enhance mining’s contribution to local and national development.This report presents data on mining investment and governance indicators for Zambia that are current as of October 2015.

This paper documents the influence of diaspora networks of highly-skilled individuals -- that is, inventors -- on international technological collaborations. Using gravity models, it studies the determinants of the internationalization of inventive activity between a group of industrialized countries and a sample of developing and emerging economies. The paper examines the influence exerted by skilled diasporas in fostering cross-country co-inventorship as well as R&D offshoring. The study finds a strong and robust relationship between inventor diasporas and different forms of international co-patenting. However, the effect decreases with the level of formality of the interactions. Interestingly, some of the most successful diasporas recently documented -- namely, Chinese and Indian ones -- do not govern the results.

Turkey now hosts the largest refugee population in the world. The Government of Turkey (GoT) estimates the total number of registered Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTPs) at 2,225,147. The objective of this policy brief is to collate existing publically available material on the situation of SuTPs in Turkey and to summarize: (i) the strategy and principles of Turkey’s unique response to its displacement crisis; (ii) the challenges in managing the socioeconomic dimensions of displacement; and (iii) remaining critical policy issues and the road ahead for Turkey, as well as implications for other countries’ refugee response efforts.

Most reports on refugees deal with the immediate needs of displaced people. This paper seeks to go beyond the emergency phase and explore the challenges surrounding protracted refugee situations. The paper examines the refugee situation in Sub-Saharan Africa from a long-term angle, from the perspective of refugees own agency as well as from the perspective of the host community. The paper aims to shed light on the economic lives of refugees in their host communities. Starting with an overview of the situation of refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper draws on findings from the literature to debunk some entrenched beliefs about refugees. The discussion of refugee crises in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda draws some lessons. The decision to return is discussed and it is argued that the decision depends on the socioeconomic condition in the host country versus the country of refuge, integration versus return policies in place, the individual set of skills of each refugee, and his or her subjective perception of the political climate in both countries.

This study examines the long-term impacts of international migration by comparing immigrants who had successful ballot entries in a migration lottery program, and first moved almost a decade ago, with people who had unsuccessful entries into those same ballots. The long-term gain in income is found to be similar in magnitude to the gain in the first year, despite migrants upgrading their education and changing their locations and occupations. This results in large, sustained benefits to the migrants’ immediate family, who have substantially higher consumption, durable asset ownership, savings, and dietary diversity. In contrast, the study finds no measureable impact on extended family.

Social norms affect almost every aspect of people’s lives, and can be an obstacle to or support economic development. This paper outlines what social norms are and how they work, providing examples from everyday life and from development case studies. Sometimes not much can be done about changing undesirable social norms. In those cases, development economists need to be aware of how the existence of those norms can impact the effects of the policies they advocate. But of particular importance to development economists is the ways in which social norms can be changed, at least under some circumstances. Understanding of social norm change is still patchy at best, but the paper outlines the theoretical underpinnings of change, with empirical evidence from various policies aimed at changing social norms. However, some of those policies raise ethical concerns that would require attention.

Somalis face a daunting development challenge to overcome the legacy of two decades of sustained conflict and fragility, but substantial progress is now being made. Since 1991 and the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, Somalia has experienced cycles of conflict and fragility that fragmented the country, undermined legitimate institutions, and created widespread vulnerability. The new government that emerged following the Transitional Federal Government and the Roadmap to End the Transition in 2012 inherited a dysfunctional economy facing high levels of poverty and inequality, a youth bulge, high unemployment, and large infrastructure gaps. Against a backdrop of political progress marked by the emergence of new Federal Member States (FMSs) within the new constitutional framework and continued insecurity, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has embarked on a process of structural, legislative, and institutional reform. The economy is starting to respond: Somalis are returning from abroad to invest, shops are opening, and the property market is booming. This is the first economic update for Somalia since the 2005 World Bank country economic memorandum for Somalia. The long conflict made monitoring of economic and social data nearly impossible since the late 1980s. With the relative stability of the past few years, new data have become available. The update is divided into two parts. Part one presents information on the social, economic, and governance status of Somalia. Part two focuses on intergovernmental fiscal relations.