The demographic situation as a factor in emigration from the USSR

This is an analysis of recent trends in internal migration within and emigration from the former Soviet Union. The study focuses on domestic social tensions and interethnic conflicts affecting migration. The author concludes that continued growth of the rural population, particularly in Central Asia, combined with growing unemployment, declining living standards, and economic stagnation will mean that Russia will have to repatriate a considerable proportion of Russians from other republics. Consideration is also given to a predicted demand for immigration from the non-Russian population of Central Asia. This is a translation of a Russian article in "Migratsiia naseleniia", Moscow, Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1992, pp. 6-31.     

Images of transit: the experiential traces of Soviet Jewish emigration

ABSTRACT

Between 1971 and 1990, approximately 185,000 Soviet Jews who immigrated to countries other than Israel traveled through Austria and Italy. This period of transit migration through the “Vienna–Rome pipeline” left deep impressions on most emigrants, as it entailed their first encounter with the West as well as their first steps in their new identity as immigrants. This essay focuses on photography of remnants of the journey – of objects, of old photographs, and of landscapes – in order to explore ideas about immigrants' relationship to the passage of time and their migration experiences. It emphasizes the embodied though often unacknowledged tenor of the past rather than treating it as a distant object of nostalgia. This essay further shows that immigrants draw not only on their experiences in the Soviet Union or the United States to reflect on their lives; the places of transit migration also hold lasting meaning for them.     

Some thoughts on emigration from the Mediterranean basin

In addition to emphasizing that the kind of migration characteristic of the 1960s between Mediterranean and western European countries has serious implications for the former, this discussion explores the more questionable consequence of "lassez-faire" emigration for employment and development; proposes a method of analysis--the human resources approach--which facilitates insight into undesirable development, incipient or future bottlenecks, and how far they may be caused by outmigration or could be removed by the purposeful organization of return migration; and raises for examination various principles and instruments of emigration policy connecting international movements of human resources with development in general and employment policy and manpower planning in particular. Wherever migrant workers go abroad temporarily, which has been claimed to be the feature of Mediterranean western European migrations, they are not totally lost to their country of origin. They may be considered to remain part of the national labor force. Consequently, the human resources available for the country's development (hereafter termed the "national" labor force) comprise both the domestic population and the temporarily absent population. Migration streams may consist of seasonal (S), temporary (T), and permanent (P) workers according to the intentions of the migrants or their legal status. To obtain the effective numbers of S, T, and P migrants, it is necessary to weigh the figures of intending S, T, and P migrants with the actual emigration experience of each category. Applying hypothetical proportions to the known S (15%), T (80%), and P (5%) figures for Yugoslavia would give the following effective rates (as percentages of total outmigration: S = 13.5%; T = 49.25%; and P = 37.25%. In the case of Yugoslavia, which may be considered fairly representative, the temporarily absent workforce would be less than 2/3 of the annual outflow postulated. Thus, 1 in 3 migrants leaving Yugoslavia is irrelevant for manpower planning purposes. Net outmigration at seasonal peaks or throughout the year reduces the available labor supply directly. It also does so disproportionately, for it involves the most able bodied persons. To obtain positive effects, the contribution of migrants to the home country's economy would have to be larger than before migration. The question is what effect does foreign emigration have on the spatial, economic, and social modernization of the rural sector. Most Mediterranean countries are characterized by widely scattered settlements, many of which are unviable and costly to service. The economic organization of the rural sector may be affected through labor shortages inducing wage pressure and mechanization. The traditional social organization of the rural sector may receive jobs from outmigration that could speed up its replacement by modern structures.     

Jewish marriages in the USSR: a demographic analysis

Marriage trends among Jews in the former Soviet Union are examined for the period 1979-1989. Consideration is given to intermarriage, the percentage of the population that is currently married by sex, and marriage age. Data are presented for the whole country and for selected republics.     

The changing nature of work among the self-employed in the 1990s: Evidence from Britain

We use British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data to examine the changing nature of work among the British self-employed in the 1990s. In the process we uncover several surprises and puzzles given the body of “received wisdom” about growing flexibility of work and employment patterns in that decade. Conventional wisdom implies three hypotheses: (1) growing female self-employment; (2) growing flexibility of employment involving more part-time work, temporary employment, and multiple job holding; and (3) a convergence in work hours between males and females. The principal surprises are that the data refute the first two hypotheses outright and provide only partial support for the third. An outstanding puzzle is why own-account, self-employed males work such long hours for wages that are generally lower than those of employees. At the same time, the self-employed are less satisfied with their work hours than employees are, despite being more satisfied on average with other characteristics of their jobs and with their lives in general. We estimate a panel data work hours equation by instrumental variables in an effort to resolve the puzzle and to shed light on self-employed labor supply behavior.     

Women's and men's subjective class identification from the 1970s to the 1990s

This study examines the subjective class identification of employed married women and men during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Using data from the General Social Survey, we test three competing models of subjective class identification: status borrowing, independent status, and status sharing. The findings indicate that the predictors of class identification for both women and men have changed considerably over the past three decades. The model for men has shifted from an independent model in the 1970s to a sharing model that depends on their gender‐role attitudes in the 1980s, and, further, to a sharing model irrespective of gender‐role attitudes in the 1990s. The model for women has moved away from a complex borrowing model of the 1970s toward a sharing model in the 1980s and 1990s, with women's gender‐role attitudes shaping their class identification process in the 1970s and 1980s, but not in the 1990s.     

Working after childbirth: a lifecourse transition analysis of Canadian women from the 1970s to the 2000s

In this paper we compare cohorts of mothers who had their first children between 1970 and 1999, in terms of their probability of beginning work shortly after childbearing. Using the 2001 General Social Survey, Cycle 15 on Family History, we investigate the effects of women's socioeconomic characteristics on labor force withdrawal. Our discussion focuses on the analysis of the transition as a type of life course analysis. We underline the differentiation of the transition by cohorts, educational attainment, income, et cetera. We show that since the mid-1980s, mothers with low educational attainment are dramatically excluded from the labor market within the two years following the birth of their first child.     

Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson Brigade and the Anticapitalist Underground of the 1970s

The purpose of this profile is to address the Spanish 15M movement from a gender perspective, focusing, on the one hand, on the role played by feminist demands within it and, on the other, on how feminism may have contributed to the 15M, its internal debate and its further developments unfolding in the current Spanish political context. In order to do that, we first explore how feminist demands were initially received in the camps and the reactions they raised among the media and citizenship. Second, we tackle how this case of overlap between a larger group and feminist groups is different from previous collaborations and confrontations. Finally, we focus on how the 15M movement has transformed (or not) as a result of feminism and the implications of this process towards rethinking the role of feminism within contemporary Spanish politics.     

Wedding the dragon: The powerful feminine as seen in Jewish women’s dreams

Abstract

This article addresses the theological and liturgical problem of incorporating mythic traditions of the divine feminine into contemporary practice, given the typically essentialist nature of these traditions. The article considers the dream practice of a Jewish women’s learning community, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, and applies this practice to several “dragon dreams” in which dragons appear as powerful, erotic, sacred figures that “queer” the divine feminine by offering a norm-upending vision of what the feminine is and does. These dragon dreams provide a powerful alternative to traditional Jewish images of the female dragon in which the dragon represents the demonic feminine. I suggest that dreams can offer a “queering” of mythic images of the sacred feminine because they contain images that have mythic depth but also upend norms and expectations. The article then explores how these dragon images have made their way into the liturgy and theology of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.     

Statistical analysis of the emigration flow from Greece

The emigration flow from Greece between 1971 and 1976 is analyzed. Migrants are categorized by sex, region of origin, and whether they migrated permanently or temporarily. Results show a decrease in permanent migration from Greece, an increase in migration from urban areas, an increase in temporary migration, and an increase in male migration. A stochastic model for predicting trends in migration is also presented and analyzed. (summary in FRE, SPA)     

Organizational theory: From classical sociology to the 1970s

Organizations are the fundamental building blocks of modern societies. So it is not surprising that they have always been at the center of sociological research, starting with Marx and Weber. And although Durkheim did not explicitly analyze organizations, his work has clear implications for the study of organizations. We review the insights of these three pioneering sociologists and then discuss ideas about organizations proposed by other scholars, from both management and sociology, from 1910 to the mid‐1970s. Marx, Weber, and Durkheim's theoretical frameworks were tools for understanding the transition to modernity. Marx and Weber saw organizations as sites of class struggle and rationalization, respectively, while Durkheim focused on social cohesion and collective sensemaking, both of which underpin organizations. Later theorists focused more closely on the meso‐level and micro‐level processes that happen within and between organizations. These later theorists emphasized pragmatic concerns of optimizing organizational efficiency and labor productivity (scientific management and human relations theories), processes of affiliation and hierarchy (Simmel), limits to rational decision‐making (the Carnegie School), and environmental conditions that shape organizational processes and outcomes (contingency theories). A companion paper describes the three perspectives (demographic, relational, and cultural) that have dominated sociological research on organizations since the mid‐1970s.     

Some socio-economic aspects of population growth in the USSR

This summarizes population trends in the U.S.S.R. since the early 19 00's. On August 9, 1973, the population topped 250 million, almost precisely double that of Russia at the time of the 1st general census in 1897. Since 1922 it had increased by more than 84%. Russia has suffered more population loss in wars than any other country in modern times. The First World War, the Civil War, and the Second World War took a toll of more than 30 million, more than 20 million during the Second World War alone. The extent of these loses can be judged from the following: between 1897 and 1913 the population of Russia increased at the rate of 1.55% per annum or 34.6 million; if this had continued the population would have been at least 182.8 million by the end of 1922. As it was, the population was 136.1 million by 1922 and the hypothetical 182.8 million was not reached until 1952. More than 4/5 of today's population have been born since the October Revolution. Only 43 million were born before the revolution and only 7.5 were born in the last century. The economic base has grown much more rapidly than the population. For the period 1940-1972 the population increased 1.27 times, national income 9.51 times, fixed assets, 8.76 times, industrial production, 13.65 times, agricultural output, 2.14 times, and capital investment 14.52 times. The birthrate has been falling since World War 1 but total population growth has increased steadily. Birthrates have declined from 45.5/1000 in 1913 to 17.8/1000 in 1972 and a slight upturn is seen. It is expected that the birthrate will continue to increase slightly, then stabilize. Much of the population increase has come from significantly reduced mortality rates. 1st and 2nd children now account for 71% of all births. Family allowances, child care, free health care, and other social benefits encourage births while high employment levels for women, a shortage of men in the marriageable age ranges, and late marriages tend to depress the birthrate. The shortage of men is directly the result of the losses during World War 2. Employment opportunities have changed dramatically. The country has gone from a primarily agricultural nation to one in which 80% of the people are working class wage or salary earners. The current problem is closing the urban-rural gap and equalizing population density. 3/5 of the people are town-dwellers. To fight declining population in the villages and in the areas of Siberia and the Far East, new towns and new industrial and cultural centers are being established such as Bratsk, Ust-Ilim, Norilsk, and others.