Bringing the border to baby: birth registration as bordering practice for migrant women’s children

ABSTRACT

Babies born ‘out of place’ to migrant mothers pose a challenge to states seeking to restrict access to migration and citizenship. In places as diverse as Texas, Tel Aviv, and Santo Domingo, policymakers have been modifying administrative requirements to limit access to birth certificates for babies born to migrant women with temporary or irregular status as a measure aimed at discouraging their permanent settlement. This raises concerns regarding the gendered ways in which women can be controlled via their reproductive lives when childbirth is made a juncture of migration enforcement, and children’s right to an identity and a nationality violated as a result. Rights advocates are pushing back against this practice using existing human rights frameworks. This article provides an overview of what birth registration as a bordering practice looks like so that scholars, policymakers, and practitioners around the world can recognise and resist it. It focuses on the case of the Dominican Republic’s denial of birth certificates for people of Haitian descent, and an action-research project aiming to facilitate access to the Dominican civil registry for children of mixed couples (migrant mother and Dominican father). It concludes by highlighting the implications for the babies born ‘in between’ – who are at risk of statelessness and other rights violations – and pointing to international frameworks for upholding children’s right to a nationality.     

上海户籍迁入人口的变化与政策导向

随着社会经济的发展和本地户籍人口老龄化速度的上升,上海加大了人口迁入的力度,户籍迁入人口规模逐渐扩大。但是,迁入人口的类型主要是求学类迁入和投靠类迁入,户籍制度在导入人才和就业类迁入方面的作用并不大。上海的户籍准入尚未在整体上建立起公开与公平的机制,人口迁移管理体制和政策有待统筹协调。根据全国城乡协调发展和上海自身可持续发展的形势要求,上海必将加大人口迁入的力度,为此,上海必须进一步完善户籍人口迁入导向政策。     

Voter Registration

Abstract

Historically, social workers have used voter registration to politically empower their clients. This paper describes the agency-based voter registration project of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work, including the project's implementation, and evaluation. Voter registration principles emerge from analyses of successful agency-based voter registration programs.     

广东积分落户管理政策的经验及其对上海的启示

居住证积分管理已成为广东珠江三角洲地区城市户籍改革的重要模式。积分制政策的公开、透明特性为外来人口融入本地社会生活提供了稳定的预期以及相应的归属感和安全感,这有助于政府对流动人口的动态管理与城市安全体系的建设。对于上海而言,借鉴广东的积分管理制度模式,有助于进行制度设计和制度实施上的改良和完善。     

Reconsidering Explanations for Regional Convergence in Voter Registration and Turnout in the United States, 1956–20001

In the United States, voter turnout rates have been declining for the last 4 decades; however, this pattern differs substantially by region. Southern states have actually seen a fairly dramatic increase in turnout since the 1950s and currently the South and non‐South have almost identical rates of voter registration and turnout. Using a series of Heckman probit models, which examine voting as a two‐step process of registering and casting a vote, we systematically investigate differences in rates of registering and voting across regions and test explanations for regional convergence over time. Using data from the American National Election Studies (1956–2000), we find that regional convergence in voter registration is primarily due to the removal of formal and informal barriers to registration and voting in the South and declining efforts to mobilize potential voters in the non‐South. In addition, we find some fairly distinct differences in which predictors are important to each stage of the voting process; for example, race is a better predictor of registering to vote than voting. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results.     

改善上海国际航运中心船舶登记服务的对策研究

上海国际航运中心建设进入改善软环境的关键阶段,其中船舶登记服务的改善是重要方面之一。良好的船舶登记服务有利于上海国际航运中心对船舶要素聚集及其相关航运资源配置能力的提升,是实现上海国际航运中心建设向航运服务发展转型的重要途径。在探讨改善船舶登记服务的重要意义的基础上,分析上海国际航运中心的船舶登记服务的现状和存在主要问题,结合当前最新政策动态提出上海国际航运中心船舶登记服务发展的对策。     

Public Attitudes Toward Sexual Offenders and Sex Offender Registration

This study explores the relationship between fear of various types of sexual offenders and a belief that those sexual offenders should be subject to sex offender registration. We hypothesized that those who offend against children would elicit the most fear; consequently, the most feared offenders would be rated as most requiring registration. As part of a telephone survey, 733 participants answered questions about fear of sex offenders and agreement with requirements about registration for offenders convicted of incest, statutory rape, marital rape, pedophilia, date rape, and an offense committed more than 10 years prior. Results indicated that all types of sexual offenders elicited some fear from respondents, and fear was related to support of registration requirements.     

Adoptees' and Birth Parents' Therapeutic Experiences Related to Adoption

ABSTRACT

This study examined adoptees' and birth parents' experiences in therapy, including the perceived level of helpfulness and preparation by therapists relating to adoption issues as a function of the year these experiences occurred. Participants consisted of 152 adoptees and 66 birth parents, with the majority (78%) of the respondents being female. Overall, adoption inquiry, addressing adoption issues, helpfulness, and preparedness by therapists increased from 1965 though the 1990s. Therapists who inquired about adoption (54%) or addressed adoption (72%) were perceived as being significantly more prepared and helpful compared to those therapists who did not inquire about or address adoption issues.     

What Social Workers Need to Know About the Right to Vote

Abstract

Policy advocates and social workers who provide services to low-income and other marginalized populations must be involved in helping members of these groups develop political power. Lobbying for progressive policy reforms is difficult unless members of historically oppressed groups can actually cast votes that will be counted. This paper examines barriers to full participation in the voting process and describes strategies that can be used to link disenfranchised groups to the electoral process. These strategies include involvement in voter registration, voter education, the mobilization of prospective voters, and support for legislation that improves access to the voting booth.     

从农民工进城住房入手改革户籍制度

现阶段城市户籍实际代表了三项公共服务:以城市最低生活保障为主的社会救助服务,以经济适用房和廉租房实物或租金补贴为主的政府补贴性住房安排,以及迁移人口子女在城市公立学校平等就学的机会。户籍制度改革的关键,就在于如何通过有效的政策改革方案,为外来人口提供可支付的住房,以及为其子女教育建立有效的融资机制,从而使外来务工人员主要是农民工可以在城市定居下来。土地制度改革可以作为突破口,通过城中村政府和村民有效的公私合作,充分利用市场机制为外来人口提供可支付住房,辅以相关财税体制改革,同时可以有效解决外来务工人员子女的教育问题。在通过土地制度改革和相关财税体制改革有效解决了外来人口住房问题和子女教育问题后,户籍制度改革也就完成了实质性突破。     

Does Opening Adoption Records Have an Adverse Social Impact? Some Lessons from the U.S., Great Britain,and Australia, 1953–2007

This study provides an international history of the adoption reform movement in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia from 1953 to 2007. It empirically tests how safe birth parents and adopted adults are in countries that have opened their adoption records, usually birth registration records, using contact preference forms and contact vetoes. The results of this investigation reveal that a vast gap exists between the fear by birth parents and adopted adults that their privacy will be invaded and their family disrupted and the reality that few or no offenses are committed. It follows that opening adoption records with contact preference forms or contact vetoes provides a balanced adoption disclosure system and is a viable alternative to the sealed adoption policies currently used in the vast majority of American states and Canadian provinces.     

Factors associated with hispamic teenagers' attitude toward the importance of birth control

Attitudes of 240 female Hispanic teenagers in 1984-85 in New York City toward the importance of birth control (ATIBC) are examined as a reflection of the following: demographic factors, educational aspirations, maternal characteristics, religiosity, clarity of longterm goals, and perception of friends' behavior, i.e., the degree, formation, and variation of these factors. The nonrandom sample was recruited from pregnancy prevention classes. The questionnaire was available in English or Spanish. 9 research questions were of interest including whether girls in female-headed households were more likely to be sexually active and have higher ATIBC scores, whether Catholics will have lower ATIBC scores, whether spanish preference speakers have lower ATIBC scores, whether working mothers' children, or more highly educated mothers' children were more sexually active and have higher scores, whether religiosity lowers scores, whether higher educational aspirations increases scores, whether childrens' beliefs that most of the friends use contraceptive is related to higher cores, and whether clearer longterm goals are related to higher scores. The attitude scale was based on Kirby's and Cvetkovich and Grote's work and focused on peer influence, parental attitudes, and strength of intention to use contraceptives. Other measures are identified by specific questions, i.e., clarity of longterm goals is measured by the question: I have a clear idea of where I'm headed in the future, and I know what I want out of life. The results indicated that 4 variables were significantly associated with ATIBC scores: 1) lower scores were associated with teenagers who had mothers with low education (2nd-9th grades), and 2) teenagers who spoke Spanish best; 3) perceived importance of religion was significantly related to lower ATIBC scores such that great importance was related to low scores and little importance was related to high scores; and 4) teenagers' belief about their friends' potential use of birth control was significantly related such that if 75% of friends were thought to use birth control. These 4 predictors (primary language, mother's education, importance of religion, and friends' perceived birth control use) yielded an R of .55 and and R2 = .31. The strongest single predictor is friends' perceived birth control use at 15% and mother's education at 14%.     

Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Couples in Open Adoption Arrangements: A Qualitative Study

Little research has attended to the role of gender and sexual orientation in shaping open adoption dynamics. This qualitative, longitudinal study of 45 adoptive couples (15 lesbian, 15 gay, and 15 heterosexual couples) examined adopters' motivations for open adoption, changes in attitudes about openness, and early relationship dynamics. Key findings revealed that heterosexuals often described feeling drawn to open adoption because they perceived it as the only option, insomuch as few agencies were facilitating closed adoptions. In contrast, sexual minorities often appreciated the philosophy of openness whereby they were not encouraged to lie about their sexual orientation in order to adopt. Attitudes about openness varied over time, and changes in attitudes were attributed to a variety of factors such as perceived birth parent characteristics and the perceived nature of the birth parent relationship. Overall, although some participants reported tensions with birth parents over time, most reported satisfying relationships.     

The GED certificate and the poverty status of adult women

Are women who hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate less likely to ever be in poverty? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the probability of entering poverty for women. Given that a woman is poor, the study also examines the probability of exiting poverty. The analysis differentiates between high school dropouts, GED certificate holders, and high school graduates, and it is restricted to the first entry into poverty and the first exit out of poverty. In general, the results show that the GED certificate may be an economically beneficial route for women to achieve short-term earnings growth and remain out of poverty, as compared to dropping out of high school. The analysis shows that women with a GED certificate have a significantly higher probability of entry into poverty than high school graduates. However, a GED certificate increases the probability that a woman will exit poverty, compared to high school dropouts. This finding differs from other studies about the economic impact of the GED certificate.     

Certificates of optimality: the third way to biproportional apportionment

The biproportional apportionment problem (BAP) must be faced in many proportional electoral systems where seats must be allocated to parties within regions. BAP is a non-trivial optimization problem, and only sophisticated algorithms are currently available for solving it. The issue is: are they “writable” as an actual law? Citizens rightly demand simple, easy to understand, voting systems. The alternative, though, seems to have simple, but unsound electoral laws. We propose the following way out of this dilemma: leave to a mathematically sophisticated algorithm the task of producing an optimal apportionment, but attach to it a “certificate of optimality”, that is, describe a simple procedure whereby anybody can check, through some elementary operations, that the seat allocation output by the algorithm is indeed an optimal apportionment. We discuss one such certificate, based on the Max flow- min cut Theorem, relative to a parametric max flow method of ours for BAP.     

Child-care burden and intentions to have a second child: effects of perceived justice in the division of child-care

Fertility rates have fallen dramatically in Western Europe during the last 50 years. Initially explanations were tied to women taking on work obligations and choosing to reduce their fertility. But this explanation is no longer valid in Western Europe because those countries where women are least likely to work, the Mediterranean countries, are also among the countries with the lowest fertility rates. A more recent explanation rests on the availability of child-care; for example, Sweden and France have universal child-care and fertility rates near replacement. Much of this discussion has focused on socio-political conditions and structural explanations outside of the family, e.g. state policies and programs to support working mothers, as well as institutional models of the family as a breadwinner family or as a non-breadwinner family (cf. McDonald 2000a). Clearly there have been many important changes in this area. But, perhaps, even more important to understanding fertility decisions may be what is happening to interpersonal relationships within the couple. One aspect of this decision which has not been fully explored is an understanding of the perceived justice of the couple situation after the birth of the first child and its impact on the decision for a second child. This research will review the concept of justice, with a focus on justice in the division of child-care, and indicate how it can be used to understand a woman's fertility plans after the birth of the first child.     

Temporal stability of entries and predictors for entry into out-of-home care before the third birthday: A Danish population-based study of entries from 1981 to 2008

Objective

Placing a child in out-of-home care is one of the most radical measures a child protection system can decide to take. There is an essential interest in understanding the probability of entering care and what circumstances are related to the decision to place a child in out-of-home care. This study investigates the temporal stability of rates and predictors for entry into care.

Method

Data were obtained by linking several registration systems. The study population was defined as all children entering care before their third birthday from birth cohorts 1981–2008 (N = 11,034). Furthermore, a control population consisting of a randomly assigned quarter of the Danish child population from the same birth cohorts was used (N = 515,773). Rates of entry and Cox regression models from six periods from 1981 to 2008 were used to model co-variates associated with entry into out-of-home care.

Results

The overall likelihood for entering care is found to be decreasing over time. Furthermore, results reveal two trends: relative rates of entry are significantly decreasing for children whose mother has a psychiatric history prior to the child's birth; relative rates are significantly increasing for children whose mother or father was unemployed in the year prior to the child's birth.     

Cultural Differences and Perceived Belonging During Korean Adoptees' Reunions With Birth Families

The majority of past research on adoptees' reunions with birth families has focused on domestic adoptees, with little scholarly attention given to the reunions of transnational adoptees despite their large presence in western countries. To address this shortcoming in existing research, the current study explored adult Korean adoptees' reunions with their birth families, focusing on experiences of cultural differences and their perceived impact on relationships with birth family members. Nineteen adult Korean adoptees were interviewed about their reunions and relationships with their Korean birth (a.k.a., first) families. Participants reported cultural differences in family roles and expectations, standards for beauty and femininity, expectations for interactions, and past and present circumstances. These differences were reported to have a range of impacts on participants' subjective sense of belonging with birth families. Whereas some participants experienced estrangement resulting from these differences, others expressed a deep sense of belonging with their birth families. Scholarly and practical implications are discussed.     

发展陷阱：城镇化建设何去何从？

中国历经30多年的高速经济增长,重返社会建设既是现实的需要,也是发展规律的内在要求。随着城乡社会的融合,村庄在消逝,城市人与农村人的权利心理在走向趋同。乡土社会经济正在消逝,取而代之的是城市社会的快速扩张,非农、非正规经济在农村土地上快速长成,而这一过程其实又是一次试错运动。推进中国的城市化,不是解除户籍和土地制度的束缚,而是依靠生产方式转变和农民收入提高,以及农村的土地经营模式的改变。城镇化道路的选择,关注重点应该是农村而不是城市,出路在于城市建设稳步推进以及其与农村社会经济发展之间的协调。