Dynamics between fragmentation and unity: Identity and nonprofit relationship management in the Asian American Community

Focusing on community-based nonprofits with specific missions of serving the Asian American community, this study examined the dynamics between various layers of identity, including ethnicity and panethnicity, and identified how intercultural relationship management contributed to a sense of community and empowerment among minority communities. Interviews from both nonprofit community organizations and community members revealed the following major findings. First, Asian American community nonprofits needed to manage a myriad of identities within their community, particularly the interplay between diverse ethnic identities and the pan-Asian ethnic identity. To help manage these identities, these nonprofits adopted a dual approach using both segmented outreach and coherent advocacy. Second, these community nonprofits used intercultural relationship management to build a sense of community and efficacy, promoting outcomes such as health awareness, communicative activeness, cultural shift, political engagement, and community alliances. This study contributes to relationship management literature through introducing identity-based relationship building strategies.     

To see and not be seen: Latin American illegal foreign workers in Jerusalem

The article describes the formation and characteristics of the new evolving community of illegal Latin American foreign workers in Jerusalem while adopting the ecological perspective, which examines human development and behaviour in various contexts of their social and cultural environments.
We have looked specifically at illegal Latin American foreign workers' reasons for and process of migration, their accommodation and living conditions, allocation of employment, daily cultural and social conditions, education and health issues concerning children and families, perceptions of relations with host culture and perceptions of well-being and future expectations.
Our findings are based on the investigation of perspectives offered by the foreign workers themselves, by representatives of the various sectors of the host culture who are well acquainted with these workers, and by the researchers themselves, demonstrating how by means of triangulation these perceptions achieve extra validity or differ.
The article further explores the contribution of the case study in the investigation of acculturation stress and migrant's well-being, and emphasizes the need to study specific populations of immigrants under specific ecological conditions.     

Cultural Valorization and African American Literary History: Reconstructing the Canon

The determinants of and variations in processes of cultural valorization are of increasing interest to sociologists. In the case of high-culture literary texts, the central evaluation process takes place through canon formation. We explore the mechanisms of canon formation and of cultural valorization processes more generally by analyzing the critical history of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Published in 1937 to lukewarm reviews, the novel is currently considered a core canonical text. We specify three processes involved in the reconstruction of Hurston's novel and in the establishment of the African American literary canon: (1) the application of new evaluative criteria, (2) the reconstruction of textual meaning through newly available interpretative strategies, and (3) changes in the institutional and organizational environment that allowed new claims on high-status critical positions to be made by those previously outside the literary hierarchy. The implications of this study for theoretical models of cultural valorization in sociology are considered.     

Cultural displays: An illustration from American immigration

Drawing upon Durkheim's analysis of solidarity ceremonies in primitive societies, this piece identifies a class of events called cultural displays in modern societies. Cultural displays are contrived ensembles that serve to dramatize basic cultural values, thereby contributing to the socialization of participants and encouraging political loyalty and social cohesion. Immigration procedures include the cultural display of naturalization ceremonies, media portrayals of immigrants, and government brochures disseminated to potential immigrants. After describing the cultural displays associated with immigration in the American case, I suggest that cultural displays play an integrative part in secularized liberal democracies but their success remains open to question.The whole universe is harnessed to men's attempts to force one another into good citizenship. Mary Douglas,Purity and Danger, 3.     

Language skill definition: a study of legalized aliens

"The robustness of the model for the acquisition of destination language skills is studied using the Legalized Population Survey (LPS) of aliens who received amnesty under the 1986 [U.S.] Immigration Reform and Control Act. The English language proficiency variables include self-assessed overall speaking skills (the census question), speaking and reading skills in specific situations, perceptions as to whether language skills limit job opportunities, and measures of speaking and reading proficiency at work. The model is found to be robust across definitions of proficiency. Proficiency increases with exposure, efficiency and economic incentives for English language acquisition. The panel feature of the data is used to analyze changes in proficiency over time."     

Legal pluralism and the Shari'a: a comparison of Greece and Turkey

The creation of a national and unified legal system was an important aspect of the rise of the modern state and national citizenship. However, this interpretation of legal rationalization has been challenged by sociologists of law such as Eugene Ehrlich (1862–1922) who claimed that this juridical theory of state‐centred law masked the presence of customary laws outside this formal system. In critical theories of the law, legal pluralism is proposed against the idea of legal sovereignty or legal centralism. In this article we explore the implications of the growth of the Shari'a as an example of legal pluralism. We take Turkey and Greece as two interesting but different examples of legal pluralism and consider the implications of these case studies for debates about liberalism, multiculturalism and citizenship in multi‐faith societies.     

Reconsidering the impact of behavior prediction questions on illegal drug use: The importance of using proper analytic methods

Social scientists often habitually employ ANOVA methods when analyzing data from experiments when other analytic approaches are required instead. This paper illustrates how traditional analytic approaches can lead to incorrect research conclusions by reanalyzing data from a recent study by Williams, Block, and Fitzsimons (2006a Williams, P., Block, L. G. and Fitzsimons, G. J. 2006a. Simply asking questions about health behaviors increases both healthy and unhealthy behaviors.. Social Influence, 1(2): 117–127. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Because the non‐negative dependent variable (illegal drug use) was super skewed and had a large majority of zero values, the use of improper statistical tests and the presence of just a few extreme, outlying observations produced the illusion that asking people to predict their likelihood of drug use increased that behavior significantly, when in fact it did not. The effect of behavior prediction questions on frequency of exercise also turns out to be non‐significant when analyzed properly. As this example illustrates, experimental researchers should choose and implement appropriate analytic approaches carefully.     

Temporary and illegal labour migration: the Israeli experience

In recent years, Israel has become a major recipient of documented and undocumented temporary labour migrants from many countries outside the Middle East region. The purposes of this article are to describe Israel's experience of temporary labour migration and its concomitant, illegal labour migration; and also to explore what her policies on temporary labour migration indicate about the nature of the policy-making process in this policy domain in Israel.
To these ends the article traces the evolution of temporary labour migration – legal and illegal – and recent policy initiatives of the Israeli government. It then considers some of the major conceptions of the policy-making process found in public policy literature. The article concludes by pointing to the uniqueness of Israel's experience of temporary labour migration and to the fact that her policies have been overwhelmingly reactive – inadequately considered, ill-conceived, ambivalent in relation to their ultimate purpose and, in the course of implementation, vulnerable to "privatization" (being taken over by vested interest groups).
Analysis of the most recent policy initiatives designed to reduce the number of legal labour migrants and address the problem of illegal labour migrants, reflect a policy-making process that is not followed by commensurate action.     

Immigration and expulsion of ECOWAS aliens in Nigeria

The immigration of ECOWAS (Economic Community of Western African States) citizens into Nigeria following the 1980 ECOWAS treaty on international migration is discussed. Consideration is given to international migration in Nigeria before and after the treaty, the effect of Nigeria's oil boom on immigration, and the impact of drought and war in other parts of Western Africa. Factors leading to the expulsion of ECOWAS aliens, and public response to the order, are also examined. Data are from official sources.     

The status and rights of undocumented aliens in the United States

At the most general constitutional level, American immigration law contains 3 structural features that directly affect the rights of aliens, including undocumented ones: 1) the plenary power of the national government over immigration and aliens, 2) the federal system per se, and 3) the separation of powers at the national level. 4 factors that affect the rights of undocumented aliens are 1) the possibility of formal relief from deportation, 2) the possibility of procedural challenges to deportation, 3) the possibility of delay and the resulting ineffectiveness of formal immigration enforcement, and 4) the informal system of enforcement to which the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been forced to resort. Undocumented aliens in the US have full acccess to state and federal courts, possess extensive procedural rights, and have acquired important substantive rights. Recent developments concerning the rights of undocumented aliens under domestic American law raise a number of questions that have not yet been squarely faced, much less resolved in satisfactory ways. These include: 1) the actual utilization by undocumented aliens of public benefits to which they are not legally entitled, 2) the appropriate criteria for determining which rights should be established, 3) the barriers that preve nt undocumented aliens from asserting those rights, and 4) the implications for an effective and fair US immigration policy of expanding undocumented aliens' rights.     

Telecommuting: The future of work, corporate culture, and American society

Conclusion Throughout American history, first on the family farm and now in modern day business institutions, the workplace has been a stabilizing institution in American society that has anchored the ongoing, informal interactions occurring outside the workplace. In 1900, few Americans had a private mode of transportation. Barely 4,000 passenger automobiles were sold in 1900, and while horses were common, they were used primarily for farming, public transportation, and commercial activity in cities. By 1930, nearly 40 million cars had been added to America’s streets. The automobile recast life and work in central cities and eventually the suburbs.     

British response to the involvement of the American Jewish joint distribution committee in illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine

Following the end of the Second World War Britain conducted a comprehensive campaign against the illegal immigration of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe to displaced persons’ camps in Germany and Austria, and to Palestine. British inquiries at the time revealed that the American Jewish philanthropic agency known as the ‘Joint’ was assisting the illegal movement. The British government failed to bring this assistance to an end. British failure in this regard was primarily a consequence of the concern of the American administration for the situation of Jewish displaced persons, an attitude which was accounted for by Washington's assessment of the political power of American Jews.