Migration trajectories of ‘highly skilled’middling transnationals: Singaporean transmigrants in London

10.1002/psp.569Population, Space and Place171116-12

Eurocity London: a qualitative comparison of graduate migration from Germany, Italy and Latvia

This paper compares the motivations and characteristics of the recent migration to London of young-adult graduates from Germany, Italy and Latvia. Conceptually the paper links three domains: the theory of core–periphery structures within Europe; the notion of London as both a global city and a ‘Eurocity’; and the trope of ‘crisis’. The dataset analysed consists of 95 in-depth biographical interviews and the paper’s main objective is to tease out the narrative similarities and differences between the three groups interviewed. Each of the three nationalities represents a different geo-economic positioning within Europe. German graduates move from one economically prosperous country to another; they traverse shallow economic and cultural boundaries. Italian graduates migrate from a relatively peripheral Southern European country where, especially in Southern Italy, employment and career prospects have long been difficult, and have become more so in the wake of the financial crisis. They find employment opportunities in London which are unavailable to them in Italy. Latvian graduates are from a different European periphery, the Eastern one, post-socialist and post-Soviet. Like the Italians, their moves are economically driven whereas, for the Germans, migration is more related to lifestyle and life-stage. For all three groups, the chance to live in a large, multicultural, cosmopolitan city is a great attraction. And for all groups, thoughts about the future are marked by uncertainty and ambiguity

Caradura: Migration, Informal Labor, and the Problem of Enacting Trust in a Spanish Enclave in Morocco

Some social scientists have argued that state legal institutions are not effective at protecting immigrants. Proper evaluation of ethnographic data, they argue, shows that migrants integrate themselves by forming strong, personal relationships of trust and friendship minimally grounded in discourses of ethnicity or kinship. They also transcend legal and cultural categories and assign roles other than those of the state. This article tests this model against the experience of migrants, refugees, and transfronterizos/as (cross-border laborers) engaged in informal ties of confianza (trust) in Ceuta, a small Spanish enclave in Morocco. Workers claim that while ties of confianza can transform into kinship, they are also ridden with suspicion and vulnerable to exploitation. Therefore, migrants claim they must show a caradura (literally, a hard face) and be ready to stand up to their employers to protect their interests. Ceutan employers, by contrast, use confianza to manage the risks of dealing with hostile foreigners, to regulate state interference, and to integrate the migrant on their terms. Building on anthropological theories of informal and domestic work, this articles suggests that Ceutan confianza is better explained as an ambiguous, ethnically informed discourse both migrants and employers use to navigate Ceuta's unregulated shadow economy

Reference Force Field and CDW Amplitude of Mixed-Valence Halogen-Bridged Pt Complexes

The spectroscopic effects of electron-phonon coupling in mixed-valence chlorine-bridged Pt chains complexes are investigated through a parallel infrared and Raman study of three compounds with decreasing Pt-Pt distance along the chain. The e-ph interaction is analyzed in terms of the Herzberg-Teller coupling scheme. We take into account the quadratic term and define a precise reference state. The force field relevant to this state is constructed, whereas the electronic structure is analyzed in terms of a simple phenomenological model, singling out a trimeric unit along the chain. In this way we are able to account for all the available optical data of the three compounds, and to estimate the relevant microscopic parameters, such as the e-ph coupling constants and the CDW amplitude.Comment: 10 pages, compressed postscript, 6 Tables and 5 Figures also in a compressed ps.Z file. Revision is in the submission format only (postscript instead of tex

New Middle-Class Labor Migrants

Migration researchers have tended to focus on social extremes: either highly skilled elites, on the one hand, or low-wage workers on the other. Less attention has been directed toward “ordinary” middle-class professional movers, and there have been no reviews of this literature to date. The chapter addresses this gap and identifies five important themes to guide future class-orientated migration research. First, the complex relationship between migration, social mobility, place, and middle-class membership is examined. Second, age is shown to be an important consideration in middle-class migration decision-making. Third, the cultural versus economic basis of the mobile middle-class is explored, and the role of lifestyle factors in shaping migration is critically examined. Fourth, middle-class migration decisions are connected to gendered household strategies, with the preponderance of dual-career couples now taking migration decision-making well beyond the individual career path. Finally, the social and communal emplacement of middle-class migrants is considered as an important but neglected dimension of research. Overall, it is clear that the class-based analysis of migration is an important yet neglected field of study, and this is especially true for middle-class movers

Multiplexed identification, quantification and genotyping of infectious agents using a semiconductor biochip

The emergence of pathogens resistant to existing antimicrobial drugs is a growing worldwide health crisis that threatens a return to the pre-antibiotic era. To decrease the overuse of antibiotics, molecular diagnostics systems are needed that can rapidly identify pathogens in a clinical sample and determine the presence of mutations that confer drug resistance at the point of care. We developed a fully integrated, miniaturized semiconductor biochip and closed-tube detection chemistry that performs multiplex nucleic acid amplification and sequence analysis. The approach had a high dynamic range of quantification of microbial load and was able to perform comprehensive mutation analysis on up to 1,000 sequences or strands simultaneously in <2 h. We detected and quantified multiple DNA and RNA respiratory viruses in clinical samples with complete concordance to a commercially available test. We also identified 54 drug-resistance-associated mutations that were present in six genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, all of which were confirmed by next-generation sequencing

Multiplexed identification, quantification and genotyping of infectious agents using a semiconductor biochip

The emergence of pathogens resistant to existing antimicrobial drugs is a growing worldwide health crisis that threatens a return to the pre-antibiotic era. To decrease the overuse of antibiotics, molecular diagnostics systems are needed that can rapidly identify pathogens in a clinical sample and determine the presence of mutations that confer drug resistance at the point of care. We developed a fully integrated, miniaturized semiconductor biochip and closed-tube detection chemistry that performs multiplex nucleic acid amplification and sequence analysis. The approach had a high dynamic range of quantification of microbial load and was able to perform comprehensive mutation analysis on up to 1,000 sequences or strands simultaneously in <2 h. We detected and quantified multiple DNA and RNA respiratory viruses in clinical samples with complete concordance to a commercially available test. We also identified 54 drug-resistance-associated mutations that were present in six genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, all of which were confirmed by next-generation sequencing

New isotope technologies in environmental physics

As the levels of radionuclides observed at present in the environment are very low, high sensitive analytical systems are required for carrying out environmental investigations. We review recent progress which has been done in low-level counting techniques in both radiometrics and mass spectrometry sectors, with emphasis on underground laboratories, Monte Carlo (GEANT) simulation of background of HPGe detectors operating in various configurations, secondary ionisation mass spectrometry, and accelerator mass spectrometry. Applications of radiometrics and mass spectrometry techniques in radioecology and climate change studies are presented and discussed as well. The review should help readers in better orientation on recent developments in the field of low-level counting and spectrometry, and to advice on construction principles of underground laboratories, as well as on criteria how to choose low or high energy mass spectrometers for environmental investigations