Soviet Jewish Immigrants in Berlin and their Strategies of Adaptation to German Society

"Since spring 1990 approximately 5,000 Soviet Jewish immigrants have arrived in Berlin. They are part of a much larger influx to Germany which, to date, lies near 40,000 persons. Based on a three year research project among the immigrant population in Berlin, an analysis is offered of the types of adaptation strategies these immigrants follow in dealing with their new surroundings. Three (pairs of) variables appear to be especially significant in this respect. First of all, the level of compatibility of an immigrant's cultural capital with German society's institutional requirements (e.g. pertaining to labour market access). Secondly, the habitus an immigrant brings along, viz. Soviet cultural elite as compared to Soviet consumer habitus which are closely related to whether the immigrant has a Jewish identity or rather was socialised into the dominant culture. Thirdly, whether the immigrant's motives for emigration were of a conservative or innovative nature. The analysis results in a typology of four adaptation strategies." (author's abstract

The City as an Agent of Refugee Integration

In this contribution, we investigate how the role of cities in the governance of refugee integration has changed as a consequence of the Europeanization of asylum policies into a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in conjunction with the “refugee crisis” of 2015, which this CEAS turned out to be unable to adequately cope with. We will answer this question by first giving a quick overview of scholarly thinking on the role of the city in global issues in general, and in migration issues in particular. After this we provide an exploratory analysis of the role cities presently see for themselves as cities, as well as jointly organized in European networks

The Turkish and Moroccan second generation in the Netherlands: Divergent trends between and polarization within the two groups

This article examines the socioeconomic and sociocultural status of the second-generation Turkish young people in the Netherlands, comparing them to their Moroccan counterparts. The comparative perspective can better highlight the characteristic features of the Turkish second generation. The educational status of both the Turkish and the Moroccan young people is still weak, especially by comparison with their ethnic Dutch peers. The obstacles that second-generation migrants encounter in their educational careers are many and diverse, and these derive both from inside their own groups and from institutional structures and other forces in Dutch society. Among the latter has been the delay in introducing professional second-language training, which resulted in Dutch language deficiencies and poor primary school achievements. This, in combination with early school selection mechanisms at age 12, has consigned the vast majority of second-generation children to short, dead-end lower vocational or secondary school tracks. Unemployment is extremely high among the second-generation migrants with short educational tracks, and discrimination in the labor market hits this group especially hard. Despite all this, the number of second-generation young people who have succeeded in getting a better education is growing, and they are now well equipped to seek employment. An important factor in their success has been the mutual help and support they have received from family and community networks

The Future of the Common European Asylum System: Dystopian or Utopian Expectations?

After the end of the Cold War, a decade started within which the idea of European unity gained considerable traction. The Maastricht Treaty transformed the Economic Community into the European Union and the scope of collaboration between its member states widened to include justice and home affairs. By the end of the decade, it had become clear this was not enough to address the challenges caused by refugee migration. Thus the Amsterdam Treaty aimed at proper joint policy and law‐making in the sphere of migration and asylum. This ought to be done with full respect to the 1951 Refugee Convention. By 2004, when the Union was joined by ten new member states, the essence of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) had been formulated and turned into Regulations and Directives as part of the Union's body of common law. The system was further fine‐tuned during the next decade, but during the 2015 "refugee crisis" the system collapsed for lack of solidarity and solid agreements on responsibility‐sharing between the member states. Since then, the single goal member states share is that asylum seekers and refugees are best kept from finding a way into Europe - for once they arrive political stress is the unavoidable consequence. Paradoxically, precisely the ideal of a CEAS has introduced practices that deviate from the EU's norms regarding international protection. This thematic issue reviews some of those issues but also finds examples of harmonization and good practices

Del rechazo a la inquietud: inmigración e integración en los países bajos después del 11 de septiembre

La repercusión de los atentados terroristas del 11 de septiembre de 2001 en la política neerlandesa en los terrenos de la inmigración y la integración ha sido relativamente pequeña. Por lo que respecta a la reacción de las autoridades competentes, en términos generales se están adoptando políticas de inmigración más restrictivas y medidas de integración menos tolerantes, si bien su origen se remonta a mediados de los años noventa. De forma global, la relación entre inmigrantes musulmanes y determinados segmentos de la población nativa se ha deteriorado hasta cierto punto, o al menos resulta ahora más explícita, lo que se desprende, por ejemplo, de los resultados de las encuestas de opinión realizadas al respecto