Mobilizing against Mosques: The Origins of Opposition to Islamic Centers of Worship in Spain

My dissertation investigates the sources of popular opposition to mosques in Spain. I contrast the metropolitan area of Barcelona, where opposition to mosques has been frequent and intense, with that of Madrid, where opposition has occurred in just one city, despite the fact that it hosts the country’s second largest Muslim population and suffered a terrorist attack in 2004. I find that conventional explanations that center on the presence of a strong national identity in Catalonia or growing concerns about Islamic extremism are inadequate for explaining the divergent reactions elicited by mosques in Barcelona and Madrid. Rather, I trace this difference to how mosques have been rendered meaningful within local narratives that connect their presence to broader struggles over urban privilege and public recognition. I place particular emphasis on how local interpretations of mosques have been influenced by the spatial development and social organization of large industrial cities where Muslim immigrants have tended to settle. From this historical vantage point, which uncovers early and significant regional differences in the timing of industrialization, the character of urbanization, and the stratification and resulting spatial distribution of migrant populations in each metropolitan area, I explain why opposition to mosques has been so much greater in Barcelona than Madrid. The findings of my dissertation contribute to existing literature on attitudes and practices toward Muslims and other stigmatized minorities in European and other Western contexts. I highlight the importance of looking at how general stereotypes and prejudices are inflected and invoked in distinct ways, and with varying levels of intensity, depending upon how they interact with more localized struggles over social justice and belonging. My conclusions also speak to broader debates concerning the production of symbolic boundaries and the sources of inter-ethnic conflict in settings undergoing processes of ethnic and religious diversification. Specifically, I illuminate how the configuration of urban space in such settings influences reactions to outsider groups and physical markers of their presence. I also bring attention to how ethnic boundaries are shaped by residents’ narrations of the past and present of their communities in the midst of demographic transformation.Ph.D.SociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86482/1/aastor_1.pd

Physician migration: Views from professionals in Colombia, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the Philippines

There has been much debate recently about several issues related to the migration of physicians from developing to developed countries. However, few studies have been conducted to address these issues in a systematic fashion. In an attempt to begin the process of generating systematic data, we designed and distributed a questionnaire addressing several core issues surrounding physician migration to respondents selected on the basis of their special expertise or experience in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Colombia, and the Philippines. The issues addressed relate to the reasons physicians migrate to developed countries, how migration is related to the structure of medical education, the effect that migration has on the health care infrastructure of developing countries, and various policy options for dealing with physician migration. Though responses varied somewhat by country, a desire for increased income, greater access to enhanced technology, an atmosphere of general security and stability, and improved prospects for one's children were the primary motivating factors for physician migration. A majority of respondents believed that physicians in developing counties are provided with highly specialized skills that they can better utilize in developed countries, but respondents were ambivalent with respect to the utility of educational reform. Responses varied significantly by country with regard to whether physician migration results in physician shortages, but there was widespread agreement that it exacerbates shortages in rural and public settings. With respect to policy options, increasing physician income, improving working conditions, requiring physicians to work in their home countries for a period following graduation from medical school, and creating increased collaboration between health ministries in developed and developing countries found the most favor with respondents.Physician migration Health policy Developing countries India Pakistan Nigeria Columbia The Philippines