Participation in ethnic associations: the case of immigrants in West Germany

This paper gives the results of a 1981-1982 study of Greek, Italian, and Turkish immigrants in West Germany. Ethnic organizations such as those that presently exist in large numbers in West Germany are often viewed as indicating a lack of social integration and participation by immigrants in the host society. Whether these organizations segregate the immigrants and make their assimilation more difficult, as research on minority groups often claims, or whether they serve as mediating institutions to help integrate and assimilate the newcomers, as other theories would lead one to expect, will depend on the basic orientation of the ethnic organization itself toward the host country. Results indicate the distinctive characteristics of the organizations serving each of these 3 different groups, the extent to which persons of each nationality participate in these associations, the reasons they give for their participation, and the ways in which participation in organizations with different organizations affects the social integration and assimilation of the individual immigrants. Efforts to increase and support the political activities of minority groups at the local level will have positive consequences; this would be 1 modest but decisive step toward eliminating the mutual prejudices of minority and majority group members. As long as immigrants have a clear right to remain in their host country, a secure means of existence, and recognition and acceptance as members of an ethnic minority, their heritage and pride should not be seen as an indication of any lack of identification with the dominant society.     

Ethnic jokes and social change: The case of the Welsh

Ethnic minorities and immigrants in most societies tend to become the subject of jokes told by the dominant majority. The Welsh, England's nearest neighbouring people, an aboriginal remnant of the autochthonous inhabitants of Britain have been the subject of English jokes for well over 400 years. When under the Tudors, a dynasty with a Welsh name and a tinge of Welsh descent, Wales was merged with England both legally and politically by the Act of Union of 1536, the Welsh became England's oldest and most prominent ethnic minority and significant numbers of them migrated from their peripheral homeland to the more central areas of England.’ At this point jokes about the Welsh began to proliferate¹ based on a well‐defined comic stereotype, though one that was to change significantly over time. This article traces the history and assesses the character of these jokes     

The hidden majority/minority consensus: Minorities show similar preference patterns of immigrant support as the majority population

The acceptance of new arrivals has become an important topic regarding the social cohesion of the receiving countries. However, previous studies focused only on the native population's drivers of attitudes towards immigrants, disregarding that immigrant-origin inhabitants now form a considerable part of the population. To test whether the drivers for the willingness to support immigrants are the same for natives and immigrants and their descendants, we rely on a vignette study conducted in a representative German online panel (N = 3149) which contains an overrepresentation of immigrant-origin respondents. We presented participants with three vignettes of potential immigrants, varying, amongst other factors, economic prospects, safe and war-ridden countries of origin (to capture deservingness), as well as religious identity. While we find that minority members are generally slightly more welcoming towards immigrants than majority members, at their core are the same factors that drive attitudes to immigrants in both groups: economic cost, cultural similarity, and deservingness. However, we observe differences at the margins: Immigrant-origin respondents take into account economic prospects to a lesser degree than majority members do, and by trend, they are less likely to distinguish between immigrants from war-ridden and safe countries of origin. Furthermore, we can show that the preference for immigrants with the same religious identities not only occurs among majority members but also among minority members.     

Miao Identities,Indigenism and the Politics of Appropriation in Southwest China during the Republican Period

This paper examines the conception of Miao identities in the writings of three indigenous intellectuals during the Republican period. Being members of three different indigenous groups who are classified as Miao today, these writers imagined the Miao community differently in terms of geographical boundaries, cultural contents, and historical experiences. While these differences need to be explained by the writers' unique life histories unfolded in particular local, national and transnational contexts, these writers in general appropriated and domesticated Chinese ethnic categories to reformulate their own conceptions of the indigenous community in terms that stretched beyond the boundary of their own local groups, forming part of their political activism to struggle for official recognition of ethnic minority status in the Republican regimes' nation-building project. This politics of appropriation and recognition constitutes some indigenous groups' special form of activism in Southwest China to struggle for self-definition in the process of being integrated into the modern Chinese state. It shaped the historical conditions for indigenous responses to the Communist Party's minority policies, showing that indigenous people were not waiting passively for their historical fate of being classified according to some state-imposed supra-local ethnic identities after the Communist takeover.     

Promoting the mental well-being of older people from black and minority ethnic communities in United Kingdom rural areas: Findings from an interview study

Drawing from 81 interviews with practitioners in social care and housing with care services in the United Kingdom, this paper explores practice issues in rural areas when supporting the mental health and well-being of older people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper begins with a review of the literature which provides evidence that BME older people are likely to be increasingly part of the populations of rural areas. Next it presents interview data revealing that while practitioners are aware of such demographic changes in general terms; some feel that they lack training and skills in adapting their professional practice to support all older people. Others express feelings of professional isolation in seeking to support older people from minority groups and are concerned that older people from minority groups may be at risk of isolation and loneliness. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for rural practice, policy and research.     

Residential Segregation and the Electoral Participation of Immigrants in Australia1

This paper investigates whether immigrants in Australia residing in situations of residential segregation (federal constituencies with high concentrations of immigrants) participate more in electoral politics than other immigrants. The results indicate that immigrants participate more when living in federal constituencies with high concentrations of immigrants and also exhibit greater homogeneity in their partisan preferences. The analysis also indicates that the impact of residential segregation is primarily observed among immigrants from non‐English‐speaking countries. Immigrants from visible minority background, such as those from South East Asia as well as those from Southern and South Eastern Europe, tend to be more strongly affected by the ethnic composition of their constituencies than other immigrants such as those from the United Kingdom and Ireland.     

The Role of Premigration Status in the Acculturation of Chinese–Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans

Drawing from fifty in‐depth interviews, this research examines the role of existing parental language knowledge on the ethnic identity negotiation of two ethnically distinct children of immigrant groups—Vietnamese and Chinese–Vietnamese—whose families have emigrated from Vietnam to the Southern California region of the United States. While previous research focused primarily on the influence of premigration status on first‐generation immigrants, this article considers how a central aspect of premigration status (intranational ethnicity) applies specifically to the children of first generation immigrants. By taking the premigration approach of comparing the experiences of different ancestral‐origin groups from a single nation (the intranational ethnicity perspective), this analysis suggests that a family's premigration ethnic status shapes the 1.5 and second‐generation's ethnic self‐identification choices through the mediation of parental language knowledge. Specifically, for the children of immigrants with twice‐minority status (Chinese–Vietnamese Americans), parental language knowledge serves as an easy ethnic identity default during these children's early self‐identification process.     

Cultural Differences: Deaf and Hearing Researchers Working together

This article is based on several years of research done by the two authors, one of whom is Deaf and the other hearing. The paper discusses research done within the Deaf community using sign language. This is an estimated 50,000 people-the same number as those whose first language is Welsh. The Deaf community sees itself as a linguistic and cultural minority and as such is quite distinct from people with an acquired hearing loss, or those who are hard of hearing and who usually rely on written and spoken English through lipreading or writing things down. The paper sets this research in the context of cross-cultural research and looks at its connections with emancipatory research. The central discussion is in the form of a dialogue between the Deaf and hearing researchers and their personal responses to cultural differences. In the past Deaf people have been denied the opportunity of making their opinions known because research has used written or spoken language. Our research, using videocameras to record sign language and Deaf research using sign language to interview, provides a means of interviewing more suited to Deaf people than to hearing researchers. However, as the hearing culture is likely to be perceived as the dominant culture, there are bound to be differences when a hearing and Deaf researcher are working together within the Deaf community. These are the issues which we discuss within Deaf research.     

Changes in the Initial Destinations and Redistribution of Canada's Major Immigrant Groups: Reexamining the Role of Group Affinity1

This study examines to what extent Canada's recent immigrants have altered their geographic concentration over time, with a view of determining the role of preexisting immigrant communities in immigrants’ locational choices, looking specifically at community size. The results show a large increase in concentration levels at the initial destination among major immigrant groups throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and a much smaller increase in the following decade. However, redistribution after immigration was generally small‐scale and had inconsistent effects on changing concentration at initial destinations among immigrant groups and across arrival cohorts within an immigrant group. Finally, this study finds that the size of the preexisting immigrant community is not a significant factor in immigrant locational choice when location fixed effects are accounted for.     

Practising partnership--participative inquiry with older people

This paper examines the importance of approaching research with minority groups of older people in an inclusive way. For older people, ageism is a key feature of the discrimination and marginalisation they experience, but some are excluded and marginalised further on the basis of their ethnicity and sexuality. The 'invisibility' of these groups poses a challenge to social workers and social work educators, as assumptions about their experiences and needs may be made which do not reflect the subjective experiences of these older people. The use of Participatory Action Research as a method of including service users in knowledge and theory development will be analysed, and a research proposal undertaken in partnership with a local voluntary agency will be explored. The importance for social work education of pursuing 'inclusive' methods of research so that service users have more power over knowledge produced about their lives, will be discussed.     

Social Isolation Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Immigrant Youth

Despite the long sociological tradition that focuses on the social adaptation of racial/ethnic minority immigrant youth, little work investigates whether these groups are socially isolated. However, existing research provides a strong foundation from which researchers can further explore this important topic. This article begins by discussing relevant theories and ongoing debates regarding minority immigrant youth's social relationships. Next, the article surveys literature across social science disciplines that describes relationships minority immigrant youth have (or in some cases, do not have) with three important social actors: their peers, teachers, and parents. The article concludes by providing recommendations for future research.     

The salience of terminology: Housing research with older people from minority ethnic communities

In this article we focus on recent literature on the housing needs of older people from minority ethnic communities. Such research has undoubtedly benefited particular communities in demonstrating that their needs have been neglected to date. However, the terminology used to describe ethnicity often assumes an unproblematic black-white divide in that it defines communities as discrete and homogeneous groups. Moreover, whilst much research in this field is described as concerned with 'black and minority ethnic' communities, it is in effect about specifically defined 'black' communities with little or no room for other minority ethnic communities. We argue in this paper, using two examples, that this has consequences for resource distribution and for funding of initiatives to help minority ethnic communities.     

Representing the Views of Disabled People in Community Care Planning

The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act requires social services departments in Britain to involve representatives of service users in the preparation of their annual community care plans. This paper gives a critical account of the different ways in which the views of disabled people are sought and represented in community care planning; and of the organisational and practical barriers which disabled people and their organisations are likely to encounter in representing their views to service planners. People with learning disabilities, older disabled people, people with sensory impairments and disabled people from Black and ethnic minority communities are particularly likely to be excluded from current consultation procedures. The paper concludes that present methods of representation place considerable burdens on both individual disabled people and on their organisations. Consequently, disabled people may increasingly question the effectiveness and usefulness of their involvement in community care planning, in the light of the many other issues which are important to them.     

Feeling Attached and Feeling Accepted: Implications for Political Inclusion among Visible Minority Immigrants in Canada

Immigrants’ sense of belonging to their host communities is viewed as a core condition for their successful inclusion, but there is no consensus on which attributes of belonging are most relevant to understanding inclusion, nor is there agreement on how the sense of belonging ought to be measured empirically. This study examines how two related but independent dimensions of belonging help to better understand the political inclusion of visible minority immigrants in Canada. More specifically, it examines the role of feeling attached (immigrants’ feeling toward the host community) and the role of feeling accepted (immigrants’ sense of how their host communities feel about them). We assess the relationship between attachment, acceptance and political inclusion for both first- and second-generation visible minority Canadians; the results suggest there is analytical value in utilising separate measures of attachment and acceptance: political inclusion is more likely when both are stronger.     

Understanding the role of ethnic online communities during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Korean immigrant women's information-seeking behaviors

The rule of social distancing, coupled with the closing down of ethnic enclaves, has led immigrants to become isolated from their ethnic groups. In this study, we investigate the increasing role of ethnic online communities in immigrants’ information-seeking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of 726 posts in MissyUSA reveals how an ethnic online community helps Korean immigrant women deal with the pandemic, reflecting the essence of a community amid societal lockdown. The findings suggest that these online communities supplement immigrant women's medical knowledge, build non-medical knowledge helpful to disadvantaged immigrants, and offer transnational knowledge regarding medical systems, products, and travel. These results provide evidence of how ethnic online communities promote immigrants’ ongoing incorporation into society through the development of domestically and transnationally engaged medical and non-medical knowledge.     

Ethnicity-based movements and state’s response in Assam

Following reclamation of ethnic identity amid the gnawing scarcities, Assamese ethnic movement germinated in the 1950s, manifested in the form of language and anti-migrants agitations. It became more apparent in the early 1960s. Despite the Assam accord, signed in 1985, certain section of the society with radical leanings picked up arms for a mission of secession from India. Unfortunately, State’s intervention seemingly failed to contain armed conflict, rather convoluted the situation and gave rise to hybrid ethnic identities. In this manner, since the 2000s, the entire state is engulfed in internal feuds. How have the Assamese movements shifted from the socio-cultural to armed struggle for secession and then to internal feuds, and why has the State failed in curbing them are discussed in this paper.     

Constraints and opportunities for civic and political participation: perceptions of young people from immigrant and non-immigrant background in Portugal

Youth civic and political participation (CPP) has been a central concern of research and public policy. This situation has been motivated by growing signs of the disaffection of younger generations, at least regarding conventional forms of participation. Recent theoretical debates stress how forms of CPP are evolving; nevertheless it is obviously important to integrate young people's views in the discussion, particularly taking into account groups at risk of exclusion, such as immigrants. This paper intends to contribute to this discussion by considering the meanings that young people attribute to their civic and political experiences, using data collected with focus groups (N = 94) that address the factors that facilitate and/or inhibit the participation of young people from immigrant (Brazilian and Angolan) and non-immigrant (Portuguese) backgrounds. Data will be analysed according to three main dimensions: (1) participants' sources of knowledge, information and influence; (2) participants' views on civic and political engagement: relevance, resources, personal experiences, trustworthiness and efficacy; and (3) participants' perceptions of excluded groups and proposals to promote inclusion. Results show that the experiences and levels of participation of young people of Brazilian and Angolan origin are influenced by their immigrant background. In addition, they indicate a strong tendency of young people to emphasise constraints over opportunities. They feel like incomplete or in-the-making citizens, and state their claim for rights and opportunities to be heard and to be civic and politically engaged.     

Social inclusion through employment: the marketisation of employment support for people with learning disabilities in the United Kingdom

Employment for people with learning difficulties is considered key to their social inclusion. This contradicts the perceived un-employability of people with learning difficulties that has been part of their social identities throughout their history hitherto. The national rate of employment for people with learning difficulties remains extremely low and has barely changed in the 20?years between 1990 and 2010. This paper investigates links between learning disabilities and employment, drawing on interview-based research. It analyses the quality of experience of the minority in employment to consider whether employment can serve the inclusive purpose expected of it.