Immigration,religious diversity and recognition of differences: the Italian way to multiculturalism

Migration entails, among other consequences, the presence of different cultures and religions. Italy, being a latecomer among immigration countries, has had specific difficulties in acknowledging the new cultural and religious pluralism brought by migrations, due to lack of knowledge and reflection in this sphere. In the more recent context of social and cultural change in Europe, Italian society is also going through a phase characterised by reactive identities and cultural conflicts. They are producing a diffused anti-multiculturalist opinion, even though multiculturalist policies have not been openly implemented. Thus, on the one hand, this situation has so far prevented a real recognition of cultural and religious differences, particularly concerning Islam. But on the other hand, positive actions in favour of migrants can also be observed, especially at the local level.     

The retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state: theory and policy

This article discusses a recent retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state. This retreat has occurred both at the level of theory and policy. With the help of some recent liberal critiques of multiculturalism, the first part maps out some shortcomings of the notion of minority integration through cultural recognition, particularly with respect to immigrants. The second part discusses a retreat from multiculturalism policies in three states that had been prominently committed to them: Australia, the Netherlands, and Britain. This practical retreat of multiculturalism is due to a variety of factors, their importance differing across cases: the chronic lack of public support for multiculturalism policies; inherent deficits and failures of multiculturalism policies, especially in socio-economic respect; and a new assertiveness of the liberal state to impose liberal principles.     

Clientelism and guanxi: Southern European and Chinese public relations in comparative perspective

This paper compares and analyzes the practice of public relations between Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) and China. The author argues Western countries are not a monolithic entity and there are a number of similarities, mainly focused on the importance of personal relationships, that shape the public relations field in Europe and Asia. A review of the concepts of guanxi and clientelism, both based on the asymmetrical character of relationships based on the abdication by the client of any potential autonomous access to the use of resources and to the setting up of public goods and services, revealed the importance of personal relationships and the emphasis of government relationships at the expense of other publics. Despite the consideration of the Anglo-Saxon symmetrical public relations model as a normative ideal among professionals, persuasive models are prevalent in the public relations practice in these societies.     

Child maltreatment in the family: a European perspective

Child maltreatment is generally referred to under the global categories of physical, sexual, emotional/psychological abuse and neglect. The Concerted Action on the Prevention of Child Abuse in Europe (CAPCAE) reports on the specific forms of harm and injury, actions and persons believed responsible in eight European countries. The most common actions across all participating countries responsible for harm were those of violent parenting or absent parenting. A review of prevention strategies found that few programmes focused on specific behaviours or included measures to indicate whether their actions were successful in preventing further harm to children. It is recommended that fathers need to be targeted in prevention as well as mothers and that specific data collection of actual harms, actions, persons responsible and outcomes needs to be implemented as a priority in all European countries. Such specificity avoids a focus on risk which is unacceptable in some countries, over inclusive of parents and resource intensive.     

Multiculturalism and welfare state integration: Swedish model path dependency

The present article offers an account of Swedish integration policies in the post-war period. The theoretical purpose is to assess Christian Joppke’s hypothesis that recent trends of integration policy convergence have rendered the national model approach analytically useless. The analysis shows that Sweden deviates, in some important respects, from the European trend by not formulating demands that link integration achievements to immigrants’ access to fundamental rights. The conclusion is that the Swedish case does not support Joppke’s hypothesis, but rather indicates that path dependency of national models is a valid explanation to ongoing developments. It is argued that the Swedish exception should be understood as an expression of the persistent impact of a policy logic according to which integration requires that all citizens have equal and universal access to certain fundamental rights. The article builds on general comparisons with European policy developments and uses Denmark as a more specific reference point.     

Artistic separation versus artistic mixing in European multicultural cities

This introductory article discusses the diversification of diversity in Europe. It then looks at the tension between ethnic separation and ethnic mixing in urban Europe in general terms. The next section elaborates on a similar tension in the field of popular arts. Finally, the article presents the main insights of the contributions to the special issue.     

Assimilation vs. multiculturalism: Views from a community in France

A recent American survey of attitudes toward societal multiculturalism vs. assimilation has found surprisingly widespread support for maintaining heritage cultures not only among immigrant minority groups but also among most subsamples of majority host groups, black and white. Working-class whites are the one exception. This pilot study explores the same attitude domain in a contrasting European setting. Randomly selected samples of middle- and working-class families (a mother, father, and teenage son or daughter) from a small city in France were interviewed. As a group, they were neutral to slightly favorable to immigrants maintaining heritage cultures and languages rather than losing them through assimilation. On measures of attitudes toward specific immigrant groups, there were marked intergroup dyfferunces with Maghrebian Arabs rated leist favorably and Southeast Asians, the model immigrants, most favorably. Comparisons of subgroups of respondents who varied in terms of (a) political left-right orientation, (b) social class standing, (c) degree of religiosity, and (d) generational level provide the base for a more general discussion of cultural assimilation and multiculturalism.     

Talks and disputes of racism in Colombia after multiculturalism*

ABSTRACT

This article examines the terms that shape the notion of ethnic group for black communities. This notion allows one to understand the singularity of Colombia’s turn to multiculturalism in the 1990s, and how it has impacted the political and theoretical imaginations of cultural otherness. I will argue that this shift to multiculturalism has not meant the disappearance of the talks and disputes of racism and the beginning of a kind of ‘post-racial’ social formation. On the contrary, old and new forms of talk and disputes of racism could be traced after this shift to multiculturalism, not only in relation to the dense legislation for the recognition of black communities as ethnic groups, but also in regard to other realms such as social media, activist struggles and academic paradigms.     

Making a place in Footscray: everyday multiculturalism,ethnic hubs and segmented geography

In this article, we explore through analyses of interviews the meanings and experiences of everyday multiculturalism in a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. The people we interviewed valued and experienced diversity in different, yet interrelated ways: as an experience of multiculturalism, as providing comfort in diversity and as embodied in ethnic hubs in a segmented geography. Everyday racism can make forging belonging and connections across diverse ethnic groups difficult. Yet, Footscray is constructed as a place in which diversity is regarded as normative and protective. Our focus on a local suburb has allowed us to develop insight into the diverse ways identities are constituted through multiple understandings and experiences of diversity.     

Migration aspirations of European youth in times of crisis

In recent years, the European Union (EU) passed through a significant economic crisis. All across Europe, European young people are among the groups which are hit hardest, with youth unemployment rates rising to over 50% in member states such as Greece and Spain. In the classical migration literature, it is suggested that such unfavourable economic climate would make people more likely to move abroad. Whereas in press releases we are regularly confronted with stories about South European young adults with tertiary education working in bars in Northern European cities, limited empirical evidence exists as such on the relationship between the recent Euro-crisis and migration aspirations. This paper addresses this gap in the academic literature. Using data from Flash Eurobarometer 395, I investigate which micro- and macro-level characteristics influence migration aspirations of young people across the member states of the EU. The results reveal the importance of individual characteristics and feelings of discontent with the current climate in explaining migration aspirations. Furthermore, I detect a negative relationship of relative welfare levels with migration aspirations, and a positive relationship of the youth unemployment ratio. Together, the results suggest that potential young intra-EU movers are positively selected from the population.     

Labour Migration and Competitiveness in the European Union

The study is about the characteristics and phenomena of the labour migration that fluxes from, through, and into the East Central European region. The typical groups of migrant workers are emphasized, like the qualified employees, the commuters, the illegal workers, or the migrants according to the family's income optimization. The brain drain is analyzed as a problem of the absence of experts in the region. The tools and possibilities of migration policy are discussed, too, to find suggestions for the state how to turn the direction of migration to the desired way. Through this topic, the countries of destination are introduced with the competitive position of the eastern migrants. The study also reflects on the problem of asymmetric flux of labour out of the region.     

State carnivals and the subvention of multiculturalism in Singapore

Increasing attention is being paid to the specificities of Asian multiculturalism in relation to ethnic pluralism, citizenship and developmental state formation. This article examines these relationships by analysing three carnival events in colonial and postcolonial Singapore that were organized by the state to promote its official multiculturalism. Through its cultural logics of horizontal racial segmentation, cascading symbolic authority from the state to co-opted communal representatives and multi-modal ritual iteration, the 1937 King George VI coronation celebrations proffered an imperial multiculturalism based on mediating plural groups and procedural norms. Adopting the same cultural logics in the 1970s, the newly-independent nation-state revived and transformed Chingay, a creole Chinese religious procession, into an annual parade celebrating the nation as comprising racially plural groups bound together by the modern ethos of progress the developmental state exemplified. In the 2000s, Chingay has been turned into an international spectacle celebrating Singapore as a cosmopolitan global city of hybridizing multiculturalism. But indicative of new racial-class segmentation, the old nation-building pluralism is promoted by Racial Harmony Day carnivals held in suburban public housing neighborhoods. This bifurcated multiculturalism reflects the developmental state's attempts to deal with new citizenship trends as they grind against the old ethnic pluralism. While faced with the same issues globalization brings, this postcolonial multiculturalism is distinctively different from liberal multiculturalism, not least because the subvention of multiculturalism is achieved through the state appropriation of vernacular cultural practices through its carnivals.     

Citizenship, immigration, and the European social project: rights and obligations of individuality

As envisioned by T.H. Marshall, social citizenship was a corrective to the injustices caused by the capitalist market. Entitlements and protections guaranteed by the welfare state would prevent social and economic exclusions that civil and political rights, on their own, simply could not. Such protections consequently would ensure social cohesion and solidarity, as well as a productive economy and market. European welfare states successfully followed this formula for the most part of the post-World War II period, however the last couple of decades witnessed significant changes. For one, the very meaning of 'work' and 'worker' on which the welfare state is based has changed - flexibility, risk, and precariousness have become defining elements of working life. The welfare state itself has gone through a transformation as well, increasingly moving away from a system of 'passive benefits' to 'social investment' in human capital. These developments are coupled with an emphasis on education in 'active citizenship', which envisions participatory individuals who are adaptable in an increasingly globalized society, and ready to contribute at local, national and transnational levels. The emergent European social project draws on a re-alignment between these strands: work, social investment, and active participation. In this article, I consider the implications of this project for immigrant populations in Europe in particular and for the conceptions of citizenship and human rights in general. In contrast to the recent commentary on the neoliberal turn and the return of nation-state centered citizenship projects in Europe, I emphasize the broader trends in the post-World War II period that indicate a significant shift in the very foundations of good citizenship and social justice. The new social project transpires a citizenship model that privileges individuality and its transformative capacity as a collective good. Thus, while expanding the boundaries and forms of participation in society, this project at the same time burdens the individual, rather than the state, with the obligation of ensuring social cohesion and solidarity, disadvantaging not only non-European migrants but also the 'lesser' Europeans. The new social project brings into focus the relationship between universalistic individual rights and their effective exercise. I conclude that rather than treating human rights and citizenship as a dichotomy we should pay attention to their entangled practice in order to understand the contingent accomplishments and possible expansions of citizenship in Europe.     

Representing harmony and diversity: media representations of multiculturalism and ethnicity in Singapore

This article investigates multiculturalism and ethnicity in Singapore. The study conducted a qualitative content analysis of articles appearing in the Straits Times newspaper over a three month period in 2010. It was found that multicultural harmony tended to be represented as unnatural, fragile, and requiring government intervention. There also tended to be a focus on distinct and fixed ethnic identities, reflecting an essentialist understanding of ethnicity. These beliefs about the nature of multiculturalism and ethnic identity were reflected in the coverage of three major social issues. These were the perceived needs to maintain the ethnic composition of Singapore’s population, efforts to prevent cultural corruption or neglect, and concerns about the impact of immigration on multicultural harmony.     

Transforming Korea into a multicultural society: reception of multiculturalism discourse and its discursive disposition in Korea

Since 2005, multicultural-based words such as multicultural society, multicultural family, and multicultural education have grown explosively in Korean society. Due to this social trend, adoption of the term multiculturalism has become a trend within the government and press to explain current social changes in Korea. Nevertheless, there have been few efforts to tackle multiculturalism as a crucial political project or a considerable academic theme of discussion. Thus, this study aims to examine how multiculturalism discourse in Korea has been received and draws its discursive disposition. It argues how the media, especially the press, incorporate other crucial issues such as ‘diversity’, ‘human rights’, and ‘minority politics’ in terms of multiculturalism. To analyse, a total of 275 journal articles were selected and scrutinised. This study contextualises Korean multiculturalism and suggests a meta-picture of the discursive economy of multiculturalism in Korea.     

Bitter strawberries: the construction of differences in a multicultural school: a case study

This paper presents the results of a case study looking at the views of teachers and other educational professionals pertaining to the academic progress and general integration of immigrant schoolchildren in multicultural schools in the province of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). It is organised into three sections: first, the geographical and social context of the study is described, focusing in particular on the impact on schools of migratory trends within the province associated with strawberry cultivation. This is followed by a presentation of the results of a field study into the educational panorama of immigrant pupils from various countries, drawing on verbal reports by teachers and school administrators. Finally, some conclusions are suggested for possible categories of analysis with a view to opening new lines of research in the future.     

International labour migration and tacit knowledge transactions: a multi‐level perspective

Abstract There has been limited research on the role of international migration in the transfer of tacit knowledge, as opposed to skills and capital. In part, this results from lack of engagement between research on migration and that on knowledge and learning, even in debates concerning the relative importance of distanciated versus localized knowledge transfers. However, positioning international migration in relation to the literature on knowledge management opens up new perspectives on its role in the overall transfer of knowledge in the economy. Starting from the premise that all tacit knowledge transactions are socially situated, in this article I set out a multi‐level approach to understanding the role of migrants in knowledge exchanges. The national, the urban and the firm constitute key levels in this study, although these are understood as interfolded rather than as discrete sites of analysis.     

Distributive justice: an ordering of priorities. A comparative analysis of European opinions

As far as distributive justice is concerned, an important issue is to know whether the different principles by which a given distribution of goods is judged fair or unfair are exclusive or complementary. The European Values Survey carried out in 1999 shows clearly the priorities of Europeans in this matter. The first concerns the guarantee that ‘basic needs are met for all’, then comes ‘recognizing people on their merits’ and finally ‘eliminating big inequalities in income’. The consensus on this hierarchy is not altered by national, demographical, social, economic or political divisions. These different divisions do indeed influence opinions on each criterion, but, with very few exceptions, they are not sufficient to upset this order of priorities. Thus, the usual applied principles of distributive justice do not define competing spheres. Their nested (or ‘lexical’) order is compatible with the purely procedural condition of ‘equal liberty’.     

Ethnic enclaves transcending space Chinese international students’ social networks in a European University town

ABSTRACT

Each ethnic enclave has its own idiosyncrasies, leading to disagreements as to the functions they serve for the migrants inhabiting them. However, three main functions may be identified across scholarly literature: shielding, economic and cultural. This article explores to what extent the spatial organization of the ethnic enclave is necessary for fulfilling these functions by taking the case of the Chinese international students in a Norwegian town. These students comprise a relatively cohesive group, and their conational social networks serve most of the same purposes of ethnic enclaves without the need for a separate neighbourhood. While most of their material needs are met, the students still express a lack of belonging, a need for a place that is ‘for us’, and they present an example of how an ethnic space is constructed without the need for a traditional ‘Chinatown’.     

A comparative study of experiences of client violence and its impact among Iranian and Swedish social workers

Client violence toward social workers has been recognized as a serious problem, and major concern has been raised with regard to its impacts on social workers' practice and physical and psychological health. There is recognition among researchers and policy-makers that it is time for the international social work community to develop conventions and agreements to address this issue globally. A cross-cultural study between Sweden and Iran was conducted to compare and contrast levels of violence between the two countries. Prevalence of violence was 72% in Sweden and 68% in Iran. Iranian social workers show a significantly higher increase in general mental health problems regarding client violence compared to Swedish social workers. Despite differences in rules and regulations between Sweden and Iran, client violence was found to be common in the two countries. Preventive policies for detecting potential violence situation are good but not enough. We suggest taking actions on building trust and supportive structures within organisations.