The politics of evidence-based policy in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’

Significant increases in the number of refugees and other migrants arriving across the Mediterranean to Europe during 2015 were associated with an increased emphasis on gathering research evidence to enable policymakers to better understand the complexities of migration and improve the policy response. In the UK, the emphasis on evidence-based policy was reflected in funding by the Economic and Social Research Council for a Mediterranean Migration Research Programme. Drawing on the evidence gathered through this programme, the articles in the volume explore the nature of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and the extent to which the development of new migration management policies was grounded in evidence about the causes, drivers and consequences of migration to Europe. The authors conclude that there is a substantial ‘gap’ between the now significant body of evidence examining migration processes and European Union policy responses. This gap can be attributed to three main factors: the long-standing ‘paradigm war’ in social research between positivist, interpretivist and critical approaches which means that what counts as ‘evidence’ is contested; competing knowledge claims associated with research and other forms of evidence including the management data to construct and/or support particular policy narratives; and, perhaps most importantly, the political context within which migration policymaking takes place. The politics of policymaking, perhaps nowhere more evident than in the area of migration, has resulted in policies based on underlying assumptions and vested political interests rather than the evidence, even where this evidence has been funded directly by European governments

Regularisations and employment in Spain. REGANE Assessment Report

This report presents the results from the collection of background information, interviews with experts and stakeholders conducted in Barcelona and Madrid in May 2013, and qualitative semi-structured interviews with migrants in these two regions of Spain. Section one provides an overview of Spain’s relatively recent emergence as a major receiver of labour immigration, along with policy responses and outcomes. The succeeding section details the current policy on regularisation (changed in 2011) and also presents the most detailed statistics available on policy outcomes, for Spain as a whole, by region, and also recent detailed data provided by the Government of Catalunya. Some older data, concerning the period 2006-2010 are also presented for Catalunya, since these data reflect a regularisation policy that has been seen as not operating with particularly good results. The third section provides in the first instance a summary of the more important literature concerning labour market outcomes of regularisations in Spain. This is followed by a synopsis of the results of the 20 interviews conducted with immigrants in Barcelona and Madrid. Some broad patterns are identified, along with tabular presentation of some major variables concerning the responses. The report concludes with some thoughts on the problematic of conducting large-scale surveys in Madrid and Barcelona to establish the impact of regularisations on the labour market and on immigrants themselves

Culture, Utility or Social Systems?:Explaining the Cross-National Ties of Emigrants from Borsa, Romania

Emigrants from Borşa, Romania, display two quite distinct patterns of ties with their community of origin: migration to Italy is discernibly transnational, with a strong reliance on migrant networks; while migration to the UK is more individualistic, with emigrants shunning interaction with compatriots and retaining only weak ties to Borşa. We argue that prevalent theories of cross-national ties fail adequately to explain this divergence. Instead, we draw on systems theory to explain the discrepancy in terms of divergent conditions for societal inclusion. In Italy, incorporation into parallel, unofficial structures of work, welfare and accommodation encouraged a reliance on cultural criteria for maintaining social ties. In the UK, migrants were obliged to integrate into state-sponsored systems, encouraging the relinquishing of ethnic ties in favour of more strategic networking to facilitate societal inclusion

Regularisations and employment in Italy REGANE Assessment Report

This report presents the results from the collection of background information, interviews with experts and stakeholders conducted in Milan and Naples in May 2013, and qualitative semi-structured interviews with migrants in these two regions of Italy. Section one provides an overview of Italy’s relatively recent emergence as a major receiverof labour immigration, along with policy responses and outcomes and recent legislative changes. The succeeding section details the various regularisations and other forms of amnesty since 1990, along with estimates of changed stocks of irregular migrants over time,and for the first time estimation of Italy’s irregularity rate over the last decade. The third section provides in the first instance a summary of the more important literature concerning labour market outcomes of regularisations in Italy. This is followed by a synopsis of the results of the 20 interviews conducted with immigrants in Milan and Naples. Some broad patterns are identified, along with tabular presentation of some major variables concerning the responses. Four case studies are presented in some detail – each representing a fairly common pattern of interaction with the immigration legislative framework of Italy. The report concludes with some thoughts on the problematic of conducting large-scale surveys in Naples and Milan to establish the impact of regularisations on the labour market and on immigrants themselve

Building the English health visitor workforce as a result of the Health Visitor Implementation Plan 2011-2015: a survey study of career progression and retention for newly qualified health visitors

Aim: This study aimed to explore the extent to which health visitors who trained and qualified in both Greater London and the South West of England between September 2011 and January 2016 were employed in health visiting posts and have remained in the profession. Background: In 2011, the UK Government launched the Health Visitor Implementation Plan ‘A Call to Action’ (Department of Health, 2011) to develop the health visitor workforce by training 4200 health visitors over a four-year period. By April 2015, 4000 additional health visitors were trained, but the total workforce has since fallen back to pre-Implementation Plan size. Methods: Data were collected using a survey, completed online by participants. All participants had undertaken a health visitor education programme at one of two participating universities. The survey was distributed in January 2017 and completed by 180 individuals. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS; association was assessed using individual chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact test. Free-text responses were thematically analysed. Findings: Most (153; 87%) participants were still working as health visitors. Length of time spent working in the community prior to completing health visitor training was associated with staying in the role ( χ2 (with Fisher’s exact test = 7.998, P = .027). Current pay was associated with attrition from the health visitor workforce ( χ2 (with Fisher’s exact test) = 67.559, P < .001.). The majority who had left the health visitor role were on higher pay bands in their new post compared to those that had stayed (12; 60%). Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) theory of socio-ecological development was used as a framework to interpret the results. While participants made an active choice to join the profession, leaving was influenced more by factors outside their control. To influence health visitor retention, both local and strategic changes are required

A threat to climate-secure European futures? Exploring racial logics and climate-induced migration in US and EU climate security discourses

Whether formulated as a security risk, a form of climate adaptation, a legal dilemma, or an issue of (in)justice, the debate on climate change and migration draws upon multiple, oftentimes contradictory, discourses. This paper examines the role of racial identities in debates about the security implications of climate-induced migration (CIM). The paper proposes a reconceptualization of ‘racial logics’: a form of discursive construction that connects naturalized assumptions about racialized Others with possible outcomes in conditions of future climate insecurity. The paper argues that 'Muslim' and 'African' migrant populations – in the context of possible CIM from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to the EU – are racialized with a potential capacity for radicalization and terrorism. Constructed as racialized Others, 'Muslim' and 'African' migrant populations could face exclusionary containment policies in climate-insecure futures. The article concludes with a call to challenge racial logics and the restrictive, unjust possibilities they suggest for future climate security politics

Synthetic Alkaloid Treatment Influences the Intestinal Epithelium and Mesenteric Adipose Transcriptome in Holstein Steers

Holstein steers (n = 16) were used to determine if a synthetic alkaloid, bromocriptine, would alter the transcriptome of the small intestine and adjacent mesenteric adipose. On d 0, steers were assigned to one of two treatments: control (CON; saline only) or bromocriptine (BROMO; 0.1 mg/kg BW bromocriptine mesylate injected intramuscularly every 3 d for 30 d). Steers were slaughtered and midpoint sections of jejunal epithelium and associated mesenteric fat were collected for RNA isolation. Transcriptome analysis was completed via RNA-Seq to determine if BROMO differed compared with CON within intestinal epithelium or mesenteric adipose mRNA isolates. Differential expression thresholds were set at a significant P-value (P \u3c 0.05) and a fold change ≥ 1.5. Only two genes were differentially expressed within the intestinal epithelium but there were 20 differentially expressed genes in the mesenteric adipose tissue (six up regulated and 14 down regulated). Functions related to cell movement, cell development, cell growth and proliferation, cell death, and overall cellular function and maintenance were the top five functional molecular categories influenced by BROMO treatment within the intestinal epithelium. The top molecular categories within mesenteric adipose were antigen presentation, protein synthesis, cell death, cell movement, and cell to cell signaling and interaction. In conclusion, BROMO treatment influenced the intestinal epithelium and mesenteric adipose transcriptome and identified genes and pathways influential to the effects associated with alkaloid exposure which are important to beef production

A study of starch gelatinisation behaviour in hydrothermally-processed plant food tissues and implications for in vitro digestibility

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the plant food matrix in influencing the extent of starch gelatinisation during hydrothermal processing, and its implications for starch digestibility. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to provide a detailed examination of the gelatinisation behaviour of five distinct size fractions (diameters <0.21 to 2.58 mm) of milled chickpea and durum wheat. Gelatinisation parameters were obtained from the DSC thermograms and concomitant microscopy analyses were performed. The estimated terminal extent of gelatinisation (TEG) was compared with our previously published data for in vitro starch digestibility of the same food materials. We observed clear differences in the gelatinisation behaviour of matched size-fractions of chickpeas and durum wheat. In chickpea materials, the TEG values (34–100%) were inversely related to particle size, whereas in durum wheat, no sizedependent limitations on TEG were observed. The TEG values were completely consistent with the extent of starch amylolysis in all size fractions of both durum wheat and chickpea. Microstructural analysis following hydrothermal processing confirmed the presence of some partially gelatinised birefringent starch within intact chickpea cells. Birefringent starch granules were not present in any of the processed fractions of durum wheat. The differences in gelatinisation behaviour of these plant species seem to reflect the individual cell wall properties of these materials. These findings demonstrate the applicability of DSC to real food materials to provide insight into the mechanisms by which the food matrix (particularly the plant cell walls) influences gelatinisation, and consequently, starch amylolysis