Oppositional identities and the labor market

We develop a model in which nonwhite individuals are defined with respect to their social environment (family, friends, and neighbors) and their attachments to their culture of origin (religion or language), and in which jobs are mainly found through social networks. We find that depending on how strong peer pressures are, nonwhites choose to adopt “oppositional” identities because some individuals may identify with the dominant culture and others may reject that culture, even if it implies adverse labor market outcomes.      

Negotiating multiple identities in a queer Vietnamese support group

My participant-observation with O-M?i, a support group for Vietnamese lesbians, bisexual women and female-to-male transgenders, and interviews with members, focusing on how different identity issues are negotiated, suggest that despite O-M?i's claim of supporting its members' multiple marginalized identities, group processes in everyday pragmatic interactions construct a hierarchy that centers and normalizes experiences of bilingual Vietnamese lesbians. This renders the marginalization of bisexual women, transgender men, and Vietnamese/English monolingual members. Using the concept of "identity work" to examine the intersection of race/ethnicity, class, and gender/sexuality as everyday (counter)hegemonic processes, I discuss how organizational structure, discourse resources, and personal politics orient and mold members' talk and interactions leading to normalization and/or marginalization of certain groups' experiences.     

Negotiated identities: Male migration and left-behind wives in India

This paper examines the impact of husbands’ migration on the lives of women left behind. Using data from the India Human Development Survey 2005, we focus on two dimensions of women’s lives: women’s autonomy and control over their lives; and women’s labour force participation. Results suggest that household structure forms the key mediating factor through which husbands’ absence affects women. Women not residing in extended families are faced with both higher levels of responsibilities and greater autonomy, while women who live in extended households do not experience these demands or benefits.     

On Integrating Immigrants in Germany

Immigration to Germany in the decades following World War II made the Federal Republic the host of the largest number of immigrants in Europe. The size of the population with an immigration background is on the order of 15 million, nearly one‐fifth of the total population. (Many of these are ethnic German returnees.) Although restrictive policies and a less dynamic economy in recent years slowed the annual number of immigrants and asylum seekers, the interrelated demographic influences of very low fertility, negative natural population increase, and population aging make continuing future immigration likely and, judged by influential domestic interests, desirable. Anxieties about inadequate integration of immigrants in German society are, however, apparently strongly felt by large segments of the native population. The “Grand Coalition” government that took office in November 2005 considers the formation of an effective policy of integration a high priority. On 14 July 2006 an “Integration Summit” was convened in the Chancellery with the active participation of representatives of immigrant groups. Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Summit “an almost historical event.” Reproduced below in full is a non‐official English translation of a government statement (entitled “Good coexistence—Clear rules”) presented to the participants at the opening of the meeting. Intended as a “start of the development of a national integration plan,” the statement highlights existing deficiencies of integration, especially problems with second‐ and third‐generation immigrants: lack of mastery of the German language, weaknesses in education and training, high unemployment, lack of acceptance of the basic rules of coexistence, and violation of the law. The importance of these issues is underlined by a demographic fact noted in the statement: by 2010 it is expected that in Germany's large cities 50 percent of the population under age 40 will have an immigrant background. The statement recognizes the government's responsibility to help immigrants learn German and become better informed about the country's laws, culture, history, and political system. In turn, it demands reciprocal efforts from migrants living permanently and lawfully in Germany. The original German text of the statement is available at the Bundeskanzleramt home page: « http://www.bundesregierung.d »     

Egyptian girls acquire skills,jobs, and new identities

Maqattam, with a population of 17,000, is the largest of Cairo's garbage settlements. Twice a day, girls and young women aged 12-20 years sift through garbage in search of food scraps to feed their pigs, bundle animal bones, pick through glass and metal, and separate paper and plastic. 20 years ago, the Association for the Protection of the Environment (APE), an Egyptian nonprofit organization, began working in the settlement in an effort to improve both the standard of living in the community and women's status. A composting plant for pig manure was first installed, removing the product from yards and generating income for development. A second project involved 500 Cairo families who separated organic and inorganic garbage before pick-up by the garbage-collecting families, reducing by 50% the hours which Maqattam women and girls spend sorting. Particular effort was made to connect girls to nonfamilial institutions in the attempt to create employment which was close to home, acceptable to the community, readily learned, requiring low material investment, and having a market. To develop girls' skills and offer them a chance to earn income, the developers chose rug weaving, patchwork, and papermaking, while some young women have become home-visiting health workers. Project leaders are now looking into how to encourage men to be supportive of young women who assume new roles. The development project also opened an infant and child care center.     

Integrating family planning with development programmes

20 experts at an ESCAP meeting discussed linking family planning programs to such development programs as rural health projects or maternal and child health projects. Linkages must occur to integrate specialized programs and between programs on central and local levels. The human needs in various areas determine the linkages that can be formed. Linkages which already exist can serve as models for future linkages. Barriers of authority in the bureaucracy must be broken down. Personnel to administer these linkages must be trained, and money to fund the linkages must be obtained. Studies should be done which evaluate such integration projects, how each of the component programs is affected, and how the processes in forming the linkages differ.     

Integrating parasite control and family planning

A pilot project started recently in 4 locations by the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines in cooperation with the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning and the Asian Parasite Control Organization uses de-worming as an entry point to establish credibility for family planning workers among the target population. The ultimate goal of the project is to encourage community participation to such an extent that family planning and related efforts are sustained by the community itself and the field worker is no longer needed. Integrated parasite control/family planning projects have already gone through the 4 principal developmental stages of strategic planning, project design and development, implementation and assessment, and program maintenance in some areas since their beginnings in 1976. Support for such programs has been obtained from 3 international bodies working in family planning, and 2 others have recently indicated interest. Activities to develop criteria for project expansion are now underway. The 4 projects in the Philippines, located in Binakayan, Cavite; San Pedro, Laguna; Caramoan, Camarines Sur; and Davao City, are each staffed by a project manager, doctors, nurses, and medical technologists. The projects, especially the Caramoan project, have been quite successful, and efforts are being made to include nutrition in the integrated program.     

Racisms, heterosexisms, and identities: a semiotic phenomenology of self-understanding

This article examines the contributions of lesbians of color to the developmental relationship between queer theory and qualitative research methodology. Its thesis is that the contributions of lesbians of color in this context have been overlooked despite being featured. This oversight is explained through an examination of theoretical perspectives that dominate our current understanding of the relationship between queer theory and qualitative research. Postmodernism is revealed as susceptible to liberal bias and racist exclusions common in U.S. culture. Semiotic phenomenology is offered as a non-essentialist approach to queer theory and qualitative research that reduces the liberal bias and racist exclusions often perpetuated in postmodern theorizing that have led to the exclusion of contributions of lesbians of color in queer theory.     

Integrating Comprehensive Reform with Quality of Care

Xianyang City is located in the center of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. In 2001, it was designated as one of the pilot cities for comprehensive reform of family planning work initiated by the National Population and Family Planning Commission. This has provided a good opportunity for the city to better implement the quality of care approach. Weicheng, a district of Xianyang City, is the pilot site for the quality of care project. Over the past few years, local authorities have succ…     

Integrating Turkish communities: a German dilemma

The social and economic integration of the Turkish minority into German society reflects a systemic problem to which policy makers have not yet found a response. Marginalized by the larger society and separated by cultural and religious life styles, a significant proportion of the Turkish minority is becoming part of a “parallel society” reinforced by discrimination, restricted educational achievements, and a low socioeconomic status.     

"Fag church": men who integrate gay and Christian identities

It is usually assumed that being gay or lesbian and being Christian is contradictory. The eight men who participated in this qualitative inquiry demonstrate otherwise. I investigated the ways in which these men integrated their gay and Christian identities meaningfully into their lives. From the interview data, I discerned and describe in this paper a variety of strategies that these men adopted in order to facilitate identity integration of seemingly mutually exclusive identities. In the bid for social and political equality with heterosexuals, gays and lesbians typically have not received support from Christians, at least not from politically active Christians, many of whom participate in explicitly antigay campaigns. Given such a contentious context, I discuss the personal and political implications of integrating gay and evangelical Christian identities.     

Reactions to issues concerning sexual orientations, identities, preferences, and choices

Most etiological theories of homosexuality suffer from unomania, the preoccupation with single causes. Unomania, in MacDonald's terms, reflects a singularistic, as compared with a pluralistic cognitive set. It also reflects the rigid dichotomization of feminine roles for females and masculine roles for males. It is hoped that current research on bisexuality will be spared the unomania that has afflicted research on homosexuality.     

Integrating family planning with nutrition and parasite control

At the Inter-Governmental Coordinating Committee Workshop on an Integrated Approach towards Family Planning and Health Programs held at Kuala Lumpur from March 23 to 25, 1977, the feasibility of integrating family planning with nutrition and parasite control through the proper planning of motivational considerations, resource allocation and coordination was studied in detail. Discussion focused on the experience of participating countries in generating community participation in total health programs. Malaysia reported that in the expansion of the national program into the rural areas functional integration has been the approach. In Indonesia nutrition has been an important objective of maternal and child health services. A total integrated development approach has been the objective in the Philippines where family planning information-education-communication has been integrated with nutrition programs and a pilot project on integration of family planning and parasite control has been conducted. Thailand reported on the introduction of an integrated family planning and parasite control program, while Sri Lanka reported on an integrated approach that included family planning with maternity and child health services. A recommendation of the meeting was that experimental pilot projects be established which include nutrition and parasite control elements within the framework of family planning services.     

Integrating reproductive health services into family planning programs

A recent Population Council publication, Reproductive Health Approach to Family Planning, discusses integration of reproductive health into family planning programs in a series of edited presentations that Council staff and colleagues gave at a 1994 meeting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperating agencies. The presentations reflect the Council's view that family planning programs ought to help individuals achieve their own reproductive goals in a healthful manner. The report discusses four areas of reproductive health: reproductive tract infections (RTIs), including sexually transmitted diseases; prevention and treatment of unsafe abortion; pregnancy, labor, and delivery care; and postpartum care. Christopher Elias (Senior Associate, Programs Division) argued that family planning programs ought to provide services that target RTIs, given that these illnesses afflict a significant proportion of reproductive-age women. The family planning community has an ethical responsibility to provide services to women who experience an unwanted pregnancy. They must have access to high-quality postabortion care, including family planning services. Professional midwives are ideally suited to serve as integrated reproductive health workers trained to combat the five major maternal killers: hemorrhage, sepsis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, obstructed labor, and unsafe abortion. This was demonstrated in a highly successful Life-Saving Skills for Midwives program undertaken in Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda, and soon to start in Vietnam in conjunction with the Council's Safe Motherhood research program. Family planning services should be viewed as part of a comprehensive set of health services needed by postpartum women, which include appropriate contraception, maternal health checks, well-baby care, and information about breastfeeding, infant care, and nutrition. Family planning programs should incorporate breastfeeding counseling into their services. When programs aim to help individuals meet their own reproductive goals in a healthful manner, this implies that services will not increase clients' risk of morbidity.     

Drag queens' use of language and the performance of blurred gendered and racial identities

Building on Barrett (1998), this study provides a sociolinguistic analysis of the language used by Suzanne, a European-American drag queen, during her on-stage performance in the southeastern United States. Suzanne uses wigs and costumes to portray a female character on stage, but never hides the fact that she is biologically male. She is also a member of a predominantly African-American cast. Through her creative use of linguistic features such as stylemixing (i.e., the use of linguistic features shared across multiple language varieties) and expletives, Suzanne is able to perform an identity that frequently blurs gender and racial lines.     

Contemporary American stepparenthood: Integrating cohabiting and nonresident stepparents

Our understanding of contemporary stepfamily life requires incorporating emerging trends in cohabitation and nonresident stepparenting into our `traditional' definition of a stepparent (married adult with resident stepchildren). Using the National Survey of Families and Households, I provide a demographic profile of stepparents that includes cohabiting and nonresident stepparents. Adopting this revised view of stepparenthood alters our knowledge of both the prevalence and composition of stepparent families. The `traditional' definition of a stepparent is shown to describe less thanhalf of all stepparents today. Results also highlight diversity in stepparents' parenting obligations and sociodemographic characteristics. This revised view of stepparenthood has implications for future research on and policy targeted at stepfamilies.     

From an oppressed citizenship to affirmative identities: lesbian and gay political participation in Portugal

In this paper we intend to articulate a multidimensional perspective on citizenship with a psychological understanding of lesbian and gay identities' development in the context of a Southern European country: Portugal. We begin by reviewing some legal statements and institutional regulations around gay and lesbian issues and the lack of opportunities for the affirmation of a non-hegemonic (sexual) identity in Portugal. Next, we describe participation efforts developed by the Portuguese LGBT nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the actual results that such efforts already produced in the political and cultural attitudes toward gay men and lesbians: particularly, the legal approval of domestic same-sex partnership is emphasized as a symbolic achievement of such political struggle. Finally, we explore the implications of communitarian participation for gay and lesbian identities' development, not just in terms of collective empowerment but also in what concerns individual development and well-being.