There is little basis for viewing migrants in the Mediterranean as a threat to the ‘indigenous’ population of Europe

Figures released in June by the International Organisation for Migration estimate that over 100,000 migrants have made the journey across the Mediterranean since the start of 2015. Christopher J. Ayres argues that while some actors have sought to portray this situation as a case of ‘indigenous Europeans’ coming under threat from large-scale migration, there is little to justify this narrative in practice. He writes that Europeans should do more to appreciate the human dimension to the crisis, particularly given their own ancestors once pursued the same route from Africa

Managing Migration: Time for a New International Regime?

For anyone concerned with understanding the complex factors behind contemporary migration and its impact on international refugee law, and especially for those attempting to develop policies to manage migration, this book makes a valuable contribution. This collection of articles from a wide range of contributors of diverse academic disciplines and experiences is a product of the project NIROMP (New International Regime for Orderly Movements of People), operating under the auspices of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and directed by Bimal Ghosh, who is well known to the migration academic community for his previous, extensive work in this area

European generation link: promoting European citizenship through intergenerational and intercultural learning

In the past decades, Europe has experienced several waves of internal migration, including displaced persons before, during and after World War II, in the 1960s when “guest workers” were invited from South Europe to the richer states, after the fall of the Iron Curtain and through conflict in the former Jugoslavia. There are, therefore, millions of older people who are “European citizens” in the sense that they have lived in several European countries, cultures and societies and who have thus collected considerable experience of “a wider Europe”. Promoting European citizens’ awareness of Europe has been one of the main objectives of European policy for many years, but prejudices and attitudes linger on, especially among those who have little or no European experience with migration and multicultural approach. Furthermore, the treasure of those older people who have experienced a multilingual and multicultural life in Europe has hitherto been under-researched. The project “European Generation Link” has, therefore, developed a web-based platform that contains recordings of people who have, during their lifetime, lived in more than one European country. The site is arranged like a real library, with individual volumes containing the “stories”. They are based on structured interviews, mainly carried out by young people, and complemented with photographs, audio files and videoclips. Visitors may search the library using a variety of search parameters, including include countries, periods, cultures and languages. This presentation will introduce some of the stories uncovered so far and a preliminary analysis of the contents of the library

Waves of Extremism: An Applied Ethnographic Analysis of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Terraces

This article offers an overview of a four-month research project, conducted in 2019/2020, which studied extremism in the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) football terraces. This work was funded by the International Organisation for Migration - United Nations and by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The research focused on risk factors and how these may govern the “entry” of BiH youth into extreme hard-core football fans groups (Ultras1) and prolong their involvement in them. The study highlighted the nature of these groups and their activity providing detailed recommendations for BiH policymakers, security agencies, and football federations and clubs who wish to understand and effectively respond to this emergent threat for public security in BiH

Communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care in Europe: the case for improvement. The rationale for the RESTORE FP 7 project

The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the importance of research about barriers and levers to the implementation of supports for cross-cultural communication in primary care settings in Europe. After an overview of migrant health issues, with the focus on communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care and the importance of language barriers, we highlight the fact that there are serious problems in routine practice that persist over time and across different European settings. Language and cultural barriers hamper communication in consultations between doctors and migrants, with a range of negative effects including poorer compliance and a greater propensity to access emergency services. It is well established that there is a need for skilled interpreters and for professionals who are culturally competent to address this problem. A range of professional guidelines and training initiatives exist that support the communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care. However, these are commonly not implemented in daily practice. It is as yet unknown why professionals do not accept or implement these guidelines and interventions, or under what circumstances they would do so. A new study involving six European countries, RESTORE (REsearch into implementation STrategies to support patients of different ORigins and language background in a variety of European primary care settings), aims to address these gaps in knowledge. It uses a unique combination of a contemporary social theory, normalisation process theory (NPT) and participatory learning and action (PLA) research. This should enhance understanding of the levers and barriers to implementation, as well as providing stakeholders, with the opportunity to generate creative solutions to problems experienced with the implementation of such interventions

Combating Trafficking in Persons: A directory of organisations

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ASI_2003_HT_UK_Combating_Trafficking.pdf: 445 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Trends in first union formation in post-Soviet Central Asia

This study used recently available survey data to examine trends in the rate of first union formation in the post-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. For the first time, it shows that the rate of first union formation in each republic is much lower than the Soviet-era level at the end of the 1980s. These results have three implications. First, they complement the literature on Central and Eastern Europe by illustrating the scale of post-socialist demographic change in very different cultural and demographic context. Second, post-Soviet Tajikistan and Uzbekistan here provide interesting examples of countries experiencing dramatic declines in first union formation in a conservative Moslem setting and at the same time as an increase in religiosity and a decrease in female higher education enrolment. Third, more generally, they serve to illustrate profound changes in demographic behaviour during dramatic social and economic change

Locating and mitigating risks to children associated with major sporting events

Despite recent efforts to blend sport and human rights, activism for children's rights in sport has historically been marginalised. The positive 'social legacy' of sport events frequently masks more problematic issues, including child exploitation. We argue that harms to children in hosting communities of major sporting events (MSEs) should be a focus for both research and intervention since the plight of such children is currently a political blind spot. The article examines the evidence for four major sources of risk for children associated with such events: child labour, displacement resulting from forced evictions for infrastructure development and street clearance, child sexual exploitation, and human trafficking affecting children. The weakness of the resulting evidence is explained in relation to the methodological and ethical difficulties of conducting research on such hidden and marginal populations and to the fact that risks to children are often masked by adult social problems. It is argued that much more robust research designs, focused specifically on children, are essential in order to verify the many assertions made about risks to children associated with MSEs. Some mitigating interventions are briefly examined and an action plan for risk-mitigation work at future MSEs is proposed. Finally, drawing on wider debates about Centres and Peripheries in social and economic theory, we question whether major international sport organisations might choose to engage with projects like child protection for strategic rather than humanitarian reasons, using them as a kind of ethical fig leaf in order to bolster their power bases against threats from the margins. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.The Oak Foundation under Grant code OCAY-13-052

Diaspora Connections: Engaging with Diaspora Organisations at Multiple Geo-political Levels

Through surveys and case studies of a sample of UK based Diaspora organisations, this research found the following: The majority of Diaspora organisations surveyed were involved in advocacy work, mostly at the international, followed by the national then local levels, and to a comparatively lesser extent the regional and UK regional levels. Overlapping stakeholders included the United Nations at the international level, as well as the respective government of the country of heritage. At the regional level, examples include work with European, Asian and African regional bodies, demonstrating the range and breadth of existing advocacy work among even the relatively small sample of Diaspora organisations that responded to the initial mapping survey

Business as Usual: The response of the corporate sector to the May 2008 xenophobic violence

This work set out to fulfil two principal objectives: to investigate the contribution of the corporate sector with particular reference to the mining sector with its reliance on foreign labour, and thereafter to reflect on civil society's response to the xenophobic violence of May 2008. Explicitly in terms of the future, this work looks to offer insights into the future of civil society activism as reflected through the lens of the xenophobic violence