Bringing migrants' perspectives in ‘migration as an adaptation strategy’ discourses

Over the last few years, migration is increasingly being framed as an adaptation strategy to deal with climate change, to move away from apocalyptic representa-tions of migration in debates on climate change. While acknowledging the merit of this discourse, this commentary calls for more attention to include migrants' perspectives in debates on environmental migration and reflecting on how such discourses work out in practice. As most studies have focused on regions of ori-gin being impacted adversely by climate change, and the ability/willingness to migrate, the perspectives of migrants themselves and how they feel about their migration and integration, whether internally or internationally, facing slow- onset or sudden climate impacts, have not been discussed thoroughly. This point of view is needed to grasp the preconditions of success for such discourses, as migrants occupy vulnerable positions in immigrant societies, but are pressured to have a ‘double engagement’ towards both the region of origin and destinatio

Local community leaders on social resilience to environmental disasters:The case of El Niño in Lurigancho-Chosica in Perú

This study aims to investigate how community leaders of Lurigancho-Chosica, in Lima-Perú, perceive environmental (im)mobility in their community, because of El Niño-Southern Oscillation [ENSO]. ENSO is a recurrent climate event that will likely worsen with rising world temperatures. Lurigancho-Chosica is a highly vulnerable area and one of the most affected by ENSO in the country because of landslides. Using a qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with ten community leaders as key informants from Lurigancho-Chosica to explore their perspectives on the effects of ENSO on their communities and to understand the social resilience of their communities to deal with similar disasters and changes. Findings indicate that, although knowledgeable about the impacts of ENSO, community leaders emphasized that most community inhabitants used multiple coping strategies to deal with the structural limitations of their communities to deal with ENSO. Community leaders themselves opted to strengthen the adaptive capacities of their communities to be more socially resilient, preferring community organization over migration or relocation strategies

Examining the role of the diaspora in addressing the interconnections between human health and environmental change::The case of northern Senegalese communities

Diaspora communities are a growing source of external assistance and resources to meet unmet needs and to strengthen existing health systems in their home countries. Although a growing number of articles have been published in this realm, very few have looked at diaspora communities’ role and the place translocal communities give to health (care) in the various remittance dynamics, whilst including power relationships and environmental change. This article examines the motivations and practices through which Senegalese diasporas engage with the health system in their origin country and what barriers they face in their interventions. The results of the migration-environment-health nexus are critically discussed with a political ecology approach. We found that households and villages with a critical number of members abroad, and with strong political and/or international networks, are better off and less exposed to health risks in the face of adverse extreme climate impacts. <br/

Migrants’ perspectives on environmental change and translocal practices in Morocco, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

This qualitative study takes a translocal perspective by considering migrants’ views on environmental change, migration decisions and translocal practices in favour of environmental adaptation. This article addresses the following question: To what extent do migrants’ perceptions of environmental change in their region of origin influence their translocal practices in favour of adaptation to socio-environmental change? Our data show that while environmental change may not be the primary reason that people migrate, nor do they perceive it as such, their translocal practices may have very concrete impacts in environmentally fragile areas, especially with respect to non-migrants in the place of origin. Most practices (e.g. family economic remittances) are spontaneous and unintentionally adaptive to environmental change. In contrast, collective projects initiated through hometown associations, especially in Senegal and Morocco, often have a more intentional and proactive character, resulting in translocal adaptive socio-environmental dynamics

Migrants’ perspectives on environmental change and translocal practices in Morocco, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

This qualitative study takes a translocal perspective by considering migrants’ views on environmental change, migration decisions and translocal practices in favour of environmental adaptation. This article addresses the following question: To what extent do migrants’ perceptions of environmental change in their region of origin influence their translocal practices in favour of adaptation to socio-environmental change? Our data show that while environmental change may not be the primary reason that people migrate, nor do they perceive it as such, their translocal practices may have very concrete impacts in environmentally fragile areas, especially with respect to non-migrants in the place of origin. Most practices (e.g. family economic remittances) are spontaneous and unintentionally adaptive to environmental change. In contrast, collective projects initiated through hometown associations, especially in Senegal and Morocco, often have a more intentional and proactive character, resulting in translocal adaptive socio-environmental dynamics

Monitoring ethnic minorities in the Netherlands

Item does not contain fulltextThe article first summarises the history of ethnic minority policy in the Netherlands and the development of the ‘ethnic minority’ and ‘allochthonous’ categories, which are peculiar in comparative perspective in emphasising socio-economic disadvantage as a constitutive dimension of minority status and in setting the minority question within the broader Dutch political principle of ‘pillarisation’. The article then examines the use of statistics in public policy, in a context where the national census has been discontinued since 1971, focusing more specifically on the case of education, where major statistical efforts have been devoted to identifying patterns of disadvantage and integration. Finally, the article briefly examines current debates on the situation of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands in the context of growing questioning of established Dutch models of minority policy.13 p

Sleep and the heart: interoceptive differences linked to poor experiential sleep quality in anxiety and depression

Interoception is the sense through which internal bodily changes are signalled and perceived. Individual differences in interoception are linked to emotional style and vulnerability to affective disorders. Here we test how experiential sleep quality relates to dimensions of interoceptive ability. 180 adults (42 ‘non-clinical’ individuals, 138 patients accessing mental health services) rated their quality of sleep before performing tests of cardiac interoception. Poor sleep quality was associated with lower measures of interoceptive performance accuracy, and higher self-report measures of interoceptive sensibility in individuals with diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety. Additionally, poor sleep quality was associated with impaired metacognitive interoceptive awareness in patients with diagnoses of depression (alone or with anxiety). Thus, poor sleep quality, a common early expression of psychological disorder, impacts cardiac interoceptive ability and experience across diagnoses. Sleep disruption can contribute to the expression of affective psychopathology through effects on perceptual and interpretative dimensions of bodily awareness

Kultuurstereotipering in Nederlandse moedertaal-taalhandboeke

Based on the assumption that textbooks serve as a mirror of the social and political order, the purpose of this article is to provide insight into the role of textbooks in the maintenance and legitimization of ethnic power relations. This qualitative study investigates visual representations in Dutch mother tongue language textbooks. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) supported by a thematic analysis evaluate the visual material of one popular Dutch textbook series in terms of cultural stereotyping of the “other”. The conceptual framework comprises an explication of the concepts and theories on attitude, culture and visual studies. Influential issues on Dutch textbook representation are described in the literature study. The findings show that the rethoric confirming the “other”ness of the “other” in Dutch textbooks, has not changed much since the research of Teun van Dijk in 1987. The visual material in the Dutch data is polarised by the model example of the dominant white group on the one hand and the problematic, poor and primitive of the non-Western world on the other hand. The findings are presented as themes from the thematic analysis.gv201