The Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the Limits of United Nations Advocacy in Guerrero,Mexico (1998-2000)

This essay examines the visit to Mexico in February 2000 by Erica-Irene Daes, then chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. I use the occasion of this visit to analyze the relationship between a regional indigenous organization in the state of Guerrero, the Mexican national state, and the United Nations within the larger context of the development of international law. I argue that the persistence today of a centuries-old bias in international law that privileges the "nation-state" and a related individualistic bias in the conception of human rights make UN support for indigenous self-determination highly equivocal. I begin with an examination of the Consejo Guerrerense and how its experience helps to illustrate the issues confronted by the indigenous rights movement in Mexico today. Then I provide background to place this movement and the United Nations in the context of the development of international and human rights law. The discourse of international human rights and the ways in which these rights are defined and advocated by the UN has serious limitations for Indians in Mexico. This is a cautionary tale about the real possibilities for social change in our global world.     

Indigenous peoples,the city and inclusive urban development policies in Latin America: Lessons from Bolivia and Ecuador

The historical construction of indigeneity as essentially rural policy category represents a key cause for the ongoing exclusion of urban indigenous peoples and blocks progress in delivering Agenda 2030 in Latin American cities. Even in Bolivia and Ecuador, where urban indigeneity is recognized through constitutional reforms, there are obstacles to the delivery of policies shaped to urban indigenous interests. By reviewing experiences from these countries, this article highlights that policy delivery problems are a result of multiple factors, including (1) rural constructions of indigeneity, (2) conflicting development priorities, and (3) difficulties in promoting universal rights while simultaneously guaranteeing indigenous rights. The article concludes with policy recommendations for more inclusive urban development approaches which leave no indigenous person behind.     

Making Space at the Nations' Table: Mapping the transformative geographies of the international indigenous peoples' movement

Social movement scholarship has focused increasingly upon the roles played by symbolic resources and movement discourses in the process of social transformation. Current socio-political approaches, often characterized by an excessive focus on movement structure to the exclusion of larger cultural considerations, still struggle to address adequately the process of transmutation from idea to form, from symbolic shift to material change. Through an examination of the international indigenous peoples' movement, this article illustrates the ways that space constitutes a mediating dimension of the transformative processes through which the symbolic potential of movement discourses may be manifested. The alternative spatialities and new geographies generated, deployed and legitimized by this movement have provided critical locations for indigenous peoples to enact the creative work of mobilization. It is argued that incorporating the work of critical geographers into existing sociological and political perspectives will contribute to the better apprehension of these transformative processes as well as those associated with the particularly spatialized phenomena related to globalization, development, nationalism and geopolitics.     

Decolonizing Vision on Borderlands: The Mexican Southern Borderlands in Critical Review

This article critically examines the Mexican southern borderlands, understood both as a concrete borderline region and as a concept constructed by scholars. Building on recent borderlands debates, the article constructs a decolonizing vision, which provokes us to ask: To what extent is the borderlands perspective colonialist? By dividing the world into centers and peripheries, do we automatically repeat the centrist interpretations? Are the habitants of the borderlands thinking they are living in a periphery? By exploring academic literature on Mexican southern borderlands and decolonizing criticisms set forward by the Zapatista movement, the article brings forth epistemological challenges related to colonialist imagery and vocabulary on borderlands, suggesting a decolonizing vision from which to shed a new light to the world political centers and peripheries. This way, the article attempts at bridging critical borderlands studies with the field of international relations.     

The Cedar Project: Understanding Barriers to Consistent Condom use over Time in a Cohort of Young Indigenous People who use Drugs

ABSTRACT Little information exists on the use of condoms as protective barriers to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among indigenous people in Canada. This study explores risk factors of inconsistent condom use (during consensual sex) over time among participants in the Cedar Project, a prospective cohort study of indigenous young people living in Vancouver and Prince George, British Columbia, who use drugs. Due to the serial measurements for each study subject, generalized estimating equations modeling with logit link was used to accommodate the temporal correlation within subjects. For young women, inconsistent condom use over time was predicted by having a recent STI (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.12, 2.79]), smoking crack daily (AOR = 1.63, 95%CI [1.02, 2.61]), and having experienced recent sexual abuse (AOR = 2.07, 95%CI [1.20, 3.56]). Among young men, living in Prince George (AOR = 1.63, 95%CI [1.14, 2.39]) and daily crack smoking (AOR = 1.56, 95%CI [1.02, 2.40]) were associated with inconsistent condom use over time. Among participants who used injection drugs, inconsistent condom use was associated with smoking crack daily (AOR = 1.59, 95%CI [1.04, 2.43]) and sharing needles (AOR = 1.78, 95%CI [1.26, 2.51]). The availability and effectiveness of sexual health services must be prioritized for indigenous people, and the design of culturally safe sexual health programs requires the meaningful involvement of young indigenous people.     

Urban and Indigenous: The Challenges of being a Native American in the City

The United States is home to more than 4 million Native Americans, the majority of whom live in urban areas. Urban Native Americans often experience significant social, health, and economic problems while having access to substantially fewer Native-specific resources than their reservation-based counterparts. They also face challenges with access to tribal services and political processes, as well as identity-sustaining cultural resources. This article describes the urban nature of many contemporary Native American communities. Examples from various urban Native American communities highlight the challenges faced by urban Native people, as well as creative initiatives developed to serve this population. This paper draws on and synthesizes the literature on contemporary urban Native communities, thus providing needed information for service providers and researchers working in these communities.     

Towards a Structural-Environmental Model of Risk for HIV and Problem Drinking in Latino Labor Migrants: The Case of Day Laborers

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to describe a researchable conceptual model of structural-environmental (SE) risk for HIV and problem drinking in Latino labor migrants (LLMs) in the United States, with an emphasis on day laborers. Implications for developing SE prevention interventions that target risky situations, embedded in stressful living and working conditions, and not simply risky behaviors are discussed. Presently, most HIV and alcohol-related research on LLMs in the U.S. has focused almost exclusively on assessing and modifying behavioral risk, which, while important, teaches us very little about the broader environmental context of risk in this unique population of Latinos. Literature is reviewed regarding what is known about risk for HIV and problem drinking, as well as contextual factors in LLMs in general and day laborers in particular, as a prelude to describing a SE risk model and basic research methods necessary for its exploration and development. Foundational SE risk frameworks in the HIV/AIDS literature are discussed as well as examples of SE prevention interventions that enhance environmental resources and activities and hence coping with risky situations at the individual level.     

Framed Encounters with Conservation and Mining Development: Indigenous Peoples' use of Strategic Framing in Suriname

While studies on the use of framing as a strategy for social movements have proliferated in the past 20 years, little is still known about how and why the frames vary across social movement actors and/or events. This article addresses this knowledge lacuna by comparing and contrasting Indigenous peoples' use of rights and identity frames in response to conservation and development events in Suriname. The variation in frames, and possible reasons for these variations, was compared across actors and events by considering (1) alignments of the global Indigenous rights movement with different movements and organizations over time, and (2) participants' level of involvement with national and global Indigenous rights movements. Evidence of strategic frame variation in this study demonstrated Indigenous peoples' ability to creatively and strategically pursue their interests by asserting their collective identity and rights in encounters with conservation and development projects. They accomplished this through the presentation of frames that called into question the logic and fairness of protected areas, their innate capacity to protect the environment, as well as their rights to land, and economic interests in mining. The greater use of rights frames by participants reflected networks generated with human rights organizations. Frame inconsistencies were apparent across conservation and development events that indicated uneven levels of involvement with Indigenous rights movements, which may yet produce unintended consequences for Indigenous communities. However, this case could also signal new possibilities for Indigenous peoples in terms of greater maneuverability in being able to assert their rights and negotiate their identities in relation to conservation and development, and ultimately to gain more power and autonomy over their own affairs.     

Canada is #IdleNoMore: exploring dynamics of Indigenous political and civic protest in the Twitterverse

Social media have been playing a growingly important role in grassroots protest over the last five years. While many scholars have explored dynamics of political cyberprotest (e.g., the ongoing transnational Occupy movement, the 2012 Quebec student strike, the student-led protest movement in Chile between 2011 and 2013), few have studied sub-dynamics relating to ethno-cultural minorities’ uses of social media to gain visibility, mobilize support, and engage in political and civil action. We fill part of this gap in the academic literature by investigating uses of Twitter for political engagement in the context of the Canada-based Idle No More movement (INM). This ongoing protest initiative, which emerged in December 2012, seeks to mobilize Indigenous Peoples in Canada and internationally as well as their non-Indigenous allies. It does so by bringing attention to their culture, struggles, and identities as well as advocating for changes in policy areas relating to the environment, governance, and socio-economic matters. Our study explores to what extent references to aspects of Indigenous identities and culture shaped INM-related tweeting and, by extension, activism during the summer of 2013. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 1650 #IdleNoMore tweets shared by supporters of this movement between 3 July 2013 and 2 August 2013. Our study demonstrates that unlike other social media-intensive movements where economic and political concerns were the primary drivers of political and civil engagement, aspects of Indigenous culture influenced information flows and mobilization among #IdleNoMore tweeters.     

A Recipe for Change: Reclamation of Indigenous Food Sovereignty in O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation for Decolonization,Resource Sharing,and Cultural Restoration

Abstract

O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation (OPCN), an Indigenous community in northern Manitoba, Canada, was flooded and forced to relocate from ancestral lands to a nearby settlement under such circumstances. Regaining strength from their inherent cultural values grounded in their relationship with the land, OPCN eventually formed a community-based food program called Ithinto Mechisowin (IMP) (‘food from the land’). This article uses OPCN's concept of resource (wechihituwin) and decolonization (pasekonekewin) to present a nuanced understanding of Indigenous food systems in Canada. We argue that the ways in which IMP inspires reconnection with land, thereby improving access to culturally appropriate healthy food, are steps forward in strengthening Indigenous food sovereignty.     

Vertical Farming: Social Work and Sustainable Urban Agriculture in an Age of Global Food Crises

Abstract

Environmental concerns, including issues of ecological justice, attention to sustainability, and focus on issues of food security have gathered increased momentum in social work. This article will trace the background of sustainable urban agriculture as a partial solution to the issue of global food insecurity and its impact on marginalised urban populations. It will review the development of a sustainable agricultural initiative called vertical farming and suggest that it holds promise for communities struggling with chronic food security problems. It will outline some tentative steps social work may consider in order to become more fully involved in support of vertical farming initiatives.     

Politics of Identity and Identity Policies in Europe: The Case of Peruvian Immigrants in Spain

The indigenous quest for self-determination is an attempt to give voice to local injustice in a universal language, and to make claims to difference via a right that applies equally to all peoples. This article explores recent developments in the transnational indigenous movement's struggle for the right of self-determination by pointing out that this polyvalence-like the indeterminacies of the concepts of "peoples" and "indigenous"-is a productive one that enables indigenous activists to make a unique intervention in international law. Their work aims at creating a new international legal personality based on collective rather than individual rights, and on an understanding of "peoples" as self-determining entities not necessarily aspiring to statehood. This new understanding hinges, in turn, on an emerging perception of the capacity to culture as a general human right. This article addresses recent anthropological texts critical of the transnational indigenous movement to show that the "self" in self-determination as articulated by indigenous activists is not only not accounted for and not protected under current international legal regimes, but is also "a self" through which radical claims to culture and territory are being made.     

Migrants of Privilege: The Political Transnationalism of Americans in Mexico

This article applies the literature on political transnationalism to the unique case of a growing population of Americans, born and bred in the United States, who are choosing to live in Mexico. With few exceptions, this population, moving from north to south, fits the model of transnational migrants who reside in a country of settlement while maintaining ties, political and otherwise, to their country of origin. They vote in U.S. elections, raise money for U.S. campaigns, meet with U.S. politicians, and form civic organizations dedicated to the values of their homeland all while residing in Mexico. The exceptions in the case, however, point to the need for minor refinements in the literature on transnationalism to take account of a sending state that is privileged in relation to the receiving state and migrants who are privileged relative to their host society. The case also has important political and policy implications given that this population of U.S. emigrants, many of them retirees, is likely to increase in coming years, as is their cross-border political engagement.     

Internal Migration of Ethno‐national Minorities: The Case of Arabs in Israel

Recent scholarship emphasizes differences among ethnic groups' internal migration patterns. Yet, with few exceptions, research has focused on the Anglo‐American world, neglecting experiences from other regions. This paper is part of a larger research project that studies mobility among the Arab minority in Israel and its driving forces. In this paper we examine patterns of internal migration by analysing the propensity to migrate as well as migrants' individual and social characteristics. First, we survey the theoretical backdrop that is suggested by recent geographic literature on internal migration among ethnic and racial minorities, including native groups. Second, we contextualize the group studied, providing necessary background information on the political, socio‐economic and demographic conditions of Arabs in Israel. We briefly discuss attributes that are – or have been – potential hindering factors to Arab mobility in the Jewish state. Finally, we analyse 1995 national census data at the micro scale and provide a basis for future explanations of the phenomenon. We conclude by outlying some future directions in the study of internal migration of minorities in Israel.     

The health consequences of trafficking in women in Mexico: findings from Monterrey city

There has been little research on the health consequences of trafficking in women in Mexico and this study examines the effects of trafficking in women. Twenty internally trafficked women were interviewed in Monterrey city, Mexico, during the years 2007 and 2008. Although the study found that trafficking of women in Mexico results from multi-causal factors, we found that in general trafficked women suffer a wide range of physical and sexual violence. This has direct consequences on their physical and mental health and in particular their sexual health.     

Commemorating Narratives of Violence: The Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day in Israeli Schools

Based on an analysis of ceremonies in thirty Israeli schools, this article focuses on the way in which the Israeli educational system grappled with the problematic narrative of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, a narrative that challenged the system's basic assumptions about commemorative logic. The challenge was met by playing with the narrative's multiple frames of meaning (protagonist, act, and context). Rabin's image and biography were elevated and nearly sanctified, while the assassination itself was individualized and the context in which it occurred was de-politicized and virtually bypassed. Thus, the commemoration of even a problematic narrative of political violence could be held on school premises, where it could meet the challenge of enhancing unity and proud national identity. Even events that are not heroic, even shameful, and which do not enjoy a consensus can be reframed in a consensual manner.     

The Banking Network as a Transmission Channel of Migrant Remittances: The Case of Greek and Italian Banks in Albania

The paper examines the role of the banking network of foreign banks, namely Greek and Italian banks, on the transfer of remittances of Albanian immigrants. Remittances through the official network that is formed mainly by the banking network, grew much higher in comparison to non-official network during the period 1994–2006. The paper finds that the growth of the amount of remittances conveyed through the official network as part of the total amount of remittances is related to the evolution of branches of Greek and Italian banks in Albania.

The Relational Contexts of Migration: Mexican Women in New Destination Sites

This article assesses Mexican immigrant women's experiences of isolation and autonomy in three new destination sites in Montana, Ohio, and New Jersey. We highlight six case studies from our cross‐comparative data set of in‐depth interviews and field work with 98 women to illustrate the intersections between contexts of reception and gender relations in shaping women's settlement experiences. We find that women in sites with a concentrated Mexican population and a well‐developed social service infrastructure are relatively autonomous in accomplishing daily activities independent of their relationships with husbands or partners. In contrast, for women living in sites with few social support services, relationships with the men in their lives, what we call their “relational contexts,” matter for women's experiences of isolation or autonomy outside the home. Relational contexts have not been emphasized in previous literature on gender and migration but may be significant in shaping women's experiences across varying contexts of reception.