Construction and Import of Ethnic Categorisations: “Allochthones” in The Netherlands and Belgium

Schematically one can distinguish two traditions related to ethnic statistics in Europe. In France, Germany and most southern European countries, the dominant statistical categorisations merely distinguish individuals on the basis of their nationality. In contrast, most northern European countries have been producing data on the ethnic and/or foreign origin of their populations. Belgium is caught somewhere in between these two traditions. The French speaking part of Belgium tends to follow the French tradition of refusing ethnic categorisation, while the Flemish (the Dutch speaking part) try to copy the Dutch model in distinguishing “allochthones” and “autochthones”. This contribution wants to offer an analysis of the construction of ethnic categories as it has been undertaken in the Dutch context. It equally wants to shed light on how the category of “allochthones” has been (partially) imported into the Belgian context and what the consequences are.Ethnic Categorisation, Statistics, “Allochthones”, the Netherlands, Belgium

Les ambivalences de l’État social-sécuritaire

L’article envisage le changement du paradigme des politiques publiques liées à l’insécurité en milieu urbain. À l’encontre de ceux qui voient l’émergence d’un État pénal se substituant à l’État social, l’article soutient, à partir de l’étude de la situation existant en Belgique, que les nouvelles politiques urbaines reposent sur un changement de paradigme de certaines politiques publiques. La pacification urbaine, paradigme de ce qui qualifie l’action de l’État social-sécuritaire, repose sur des mesures visant simultanément à la sécurisation des personnes et des espaces publics et à la réaffiliation sociale dans les territoires résidentiels précarisés. Les nouvelles politiques urbaines produisent de la régulation sociale tout en inscrivant leur rôle un cadre normatif renouvelé du contrôle social.This article identifies a public policy paradigm change related to insecurity in urban settings. While some describe a penal state replacing the social state, this article instead claims, drawing on the Belgian case, that new urban policies mark a shift towards a paradigm that emphasises both security and the social. Urban peace is the goal of this paradigm, with programmes being designed both to make persons and public places safe and to maintain social cohesion in marginal residential areas. These urban policies involve social regulation via new norms of social control

Belgium's Undocumented Hold Lessons for EU

peer reviewe

Brussels youth: between diversity and adversity: survey of secondary school students in downtown Brussels

Brussels is a city which is highly segmented on both the social as the cultural level. This diversity is also reflected among the youth. In this article we present the results of a survey undertaken among the last year students of the francophone schools of the city of Brussels. The survey, which focusses on life styles, racism and insecurity, confirms the multifaceted character of the Brussels youth. Important sources of diversity and division are social background, ethnic origin and school choice. Our findings attest that the relations amongst young people are built on identities that are rooted in references to socio-economic class and ethnic origin, while their intensity varies with the type of education. The ethnicisation of the young people’s social relations seems to be very widespread. The survey attests to a paradox: racist insults are quite common, and are not only oriented towards ethnic minorities, but at the same time almost everyone supports the dominant antiracist discourse

The end of national models? Integration courses and citizenship trajectories in Europe

Several European countries have recently introduced, or are planning to introduce, citizenship trajectories (voluntary or obligatory inclusion programmes for recent immigrants) or citizen integration tests (tests one should pass to be able to acquire permanent residence or state citizenship). Authors such as Joppke claim that this is an articulation of a more general shift towards the logic of assimilation (and away from a multicultural agenda) in integration policy paradigms of European states. Integration policies would even be converging in such a fashion that it would no longer make sense to think in terms of national models for immigrant integration. The empirical fact of diffusion of civic integration policies throughout Europe cannot be denied. This paper claims that there is, however, still sufficient distinctiveness between immigrant integration policies in order to continue and use an analytical framework that distinguishes national models

Discovery of a strongly phase-variable spectral feature in the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125

We present the discovery of a strongly phase-variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of the nearby, thermally-emitting, isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125. The absorption line was detected performing detailed phase-resolved spectroscopy in 20 XMM-Newton observations, covering the period May 2000 - September 2012. The feature has an energy of ~750eV, an equivalent width of ~30eV, and it is significantly detected for only ~20% of the pulsar rotation. The absorption feature appears to be stable over the timespan covered by the observations. Given its strong dependence on the pulsar rotational phase and its narrow width, a plausible interpretation is in terms of resonant proton cyclotron absorption/scattering in a confined magnetic structure very close to the neutron star surface. The inferred field in such a magnetic loop is B_loop ~ 2 x 10^{14} G, a factor of ~7 higher than the surface dipolar magnetic field.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; ApJ Letters accepte

Les nouvelles figures du travailleur immigré : fragmentation des statuts d’emploi et européanisation des migrations

Bien que la rhétorique politique insiste depuis plus de quarante ans sur la fin de l’immigration de travail, la Belgique comme de nombreux autres pays européens connaît un accroissement de travailleurs migrants. Cet afflux de travailleurs étrangers résulte principalement de demandes formulées par des segments du marché du travail en quête de travailleurs acceptant des emplois relevant des 3D-Jobs (Dangerous, Demanding and Dirty). Ces demandes sont satisfaites par trois processus migratoires contemporains : l’élargissement de l’UE aux pays de l’Est, l’accroissement des demandeurs d’asile ayant obtenu le statut de réfugié et la régularisation des sans-papiers. L’augmentation de travailleurs étrangers se caractérise aussi par une féminisation de cette nouvelle main-d’œuvre et par une diversification des statuts de travail. L’article soutient que les élargissements de l’UE ont permis une internationalisation du bassin de recrutement de la main-d’œuvre immigrée. Par ailleurs, la libre circulation des services constitue un nouvel instrument de la migration de travail s’ajoutant à l’utilisation de la politique des permis de travail, faisant du détachement du personnel une « délocalisation intérieure ».Although political discourses have been announcing the end of work migration for more than 40 years, the number of migrant workers increases in Belgium like in other European countries. The flow of foreigner workers mainly results from those labour market sectors demanding workers who accept to take a job in the 3D-Jobs sector (Dangerous, Demanding and Dirty). Three contemporary migratory processes satisfy such demand: Enlargement Europe to Eastern European countries; increasing numbers of asylum seekers who obtain the refugee status; regularizing undocumented people. The increase of foreign workers is also characterized by the feminization of this new workforce and by the diversification of work statuses. The paper argues that the EU Enlargement has allowed the making of an internal space of migrant workers recruitment. Since the free movement of services is a new tool of work migration policy that is coupled with the use of work permits policy, the posted workers could be seen as an “internal outsourcing”.A pesar de la retórica política ha anunciado más de 40 años al final de la migración laboral, el número de trabajadores migrantes aumenta en Bélgica, al igual que en otros países europeos. El flujo de trabajadores migrantes se compone principalmente por la demanda hecha por los sectores de trabajadores que acepten un puesto de trabajo en el 3D-Jobs (Dangerous, Demanding and Dirty). Estas demandas están satisfechas por tres procesos migratorios contemporáneos: la ampliación de la UE a los países del Este de Europa, el aumento del número de solicitantes de asilo que hayan obtenido la condición de refugiado, y la regularización de los sin papeles. El aumento de los trabajadores extranjeros también se caracteriza por una feminización de esta nueva fuerza de trabajo y una diversificación del estatus de trabajo. El papel sostiene que la ampliación de la UE ha permitido la creación de un espacio interno de la contratación para los trabajadores migrantes. Incluso la libre circulación de servicios es una nueva herramienta de las políticas migratorias de los trabajos que junto con el uso de la política de permisos de trabajo permite ver el desplazamiento de trabajadores como una “externalización interna”

Filtrate seaweed extract as biostimulant in nursery organic horticulture

Many naturally-derived products are used as growth promoters or biostimulants on vegetables, even if their mechanisms of action are not still now completely clarified. Among them, seaweeds and seaweed products are inserted as admissible organic fertilizers in the Annex I of the Reg. (EC) No. 889/2008, even if their biostimulant properties are not recognized in organic farming. After a previous bioassay on maize germination for defining the optimal water dilution ratios of the filtrate seaweed extract (FSE), in the present research we applied the FSE at two diluted doses to a greenhouse organic lettuce, for assessing its biostimulant effect on vegetable growth and nutrient uptake. The greenhouse pot trials were conducted on Lactuca sativa L., by applying FSE at 1/250 and 1/500 v/v water dilutions. After 90 days, root fresh/dry weight, shoot fresh/dry weight and dry matter, number of leaves, LAI, specific leaf fresh/dry weight, total dry biomass, leaf macro and micro elements (P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Na, Mn, Cu, Zn, B) content and total chlorophyll were determined. Obtained results indicated that FSE plays a role in promoting the increase of lettuce shoot dry weight and related nutrient uptake, with particular efficacy in relation to P and K macroelements. This property is better expressed at the highest dilution, confirming that the biostimulating activity of the formulate acts without any nutritional effect: thus, the FSE appears to be a good opportunity for promoting the early-stage development for organic nursery productio

Magnetar-like activity from the central compact object in the SNR RCW103

The 6.67 hr periodicity and the variable X-ray flux of the central compact object (CCO) at the center of the SNR RCW 103, named 1E 161348-5055, have been always difficult to interpret within the standard scenarios of an isolated neutron star or a binary system. On 2016 June 22, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard Swift detected a magnetar-like short X-ray burst from the direction of 1E 161348-5055, also coincident with a large long-term X-ray outburst. Here we report on Chandra, NuSTAR, and Swift (BAT and XRT) observations of this peculiar source during its 2016 outburst peak. In particular, we study the properties of this magnetar-like burst, we discover a hard X-ray tail in the CCO spectrum during outburst, and we study its long-term outburst history (from 1999 to July 2016). We find the emission properties of 1E 161348-5055 consistent with it being a magnetar. However in this scenario, the 6.67 hr periodicity can only be interpreted as the rotation period of this strongly magnetized neutron star, which therefore represents the slowest pulsar ever detected, by orders of magnitude. We briefly discuss the viable slow-down scenarios, favoring a picture involving a period of fall-back accretion after the supernova explosion, similarly to what is invoked (although in a different regime) to explain the "anti-magnetar" scenario for other CCOs.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters; replaced to match the version accepted for publication on 2016 August 1