Demographic changes in East European countries and Russia

The authors outline demographic trends in Eastern Europe and Russia since 1970. Aspects considered include population size, birth rate and number of births, marriage and divorce, death rate, infant mortality, natural increase, sex ratio, and life expectancy.     

The print media and aging policy: how differential coverage of Medicare Catastrophic led congress astray

This article examines the role of the print media in covering complex policy issues. Two models of journalism are considered. "Pack journalism" predicts that print media coverage will be highly consistent in content due to the reliance by those in the media on the same sources of information. In this article, another model--"Beltway journalism"--is proposed. It implies that coverage by the print media indigenous to the Washington, D.C. area (inside the Beltway) will diverge from that of other print media, presenting a potentially distorted view of the world to policymakers in Washington. Using the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as possible indicators of the two models, aging policy is addressed through a case study of newspaper coverage during passage and repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. Findings suggest that Congress was unduly influenced by the way that Medicare Catastrophic was framed in the Washington Post, lending credence to the Beltway journalism model. By paying insufficient attention to the way Medicare Catastrophic was being framed by sources of print outside the Beltway area, lawmakers allowed themselves to assume a grassroots-level understanding of the issue and support for the bill, both of which turned out to be illusory.     

The household structure of second-generation children: an exploratory study of extended family arrangements

"Using data from the Children of Immigrants Survey, the antecedents of extended family arrangements among [U.S.] immigrant households with children are examined. The incidence and form of such arrangements, especially the presence of grandparents, are analyzed in relation to single parenthood, national origin, cultural assimilation, and socioeconomic variables. The findings serve to underscore the complexity of the correlates of extended family arrangements. While there is a relationship with single parenthood, more research is needed on the economic basis for the presence of relatives in the household. The analysis uncovered the need to also treat presence of grandparents as an independent variable, especially in the cultural assimilation of children of immigrants."     

Today's second generation: evidence from the 1990 U.S. census

"The prospects for today's second generation will be considerably shaped by their current social, economic and demographic status. This article provides a statistical portrait of children of immigrants by analyzing data from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing. With the second generation defined as children under age 18 with at least one foreign-born parent, the study describes place of residence; household demographic, social and economic circumstances; household head's socioeconomic status; and characteristics of children themselves. Data on second-generation children are broken down by year of immigration of parents and child's nativity. Data for children with native-born parents are provided for comparison."     

The model of place utility revisited

"The purpose of this paper...is twofold: first, to specify a way of calculating place utility so that potential migrants could move to the place where overall place utility is maximized; and second, which is more important, to reveal how decision-makers in the real world, who are acting within 'bounded rationalities'...,make their decisions on where to migrate. This study is supported by an empirical survey of recent Chinese immigrants to Edmonton [Canada].... The findings reveal that when people evaluate different places, they do not necessarily look for the one that generates the highest overall value or utility across all properties.... The study further indicates that the assumption underlying most microeconomic models (that maximizing utility or benefit is the ultimate rule for choosing one location out of several) has not been verified." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Women's legal knowledge: a case study of Mexican urban dwellers

In Mexico, the nongovernmental organization Sevisio, Desarrollo y Paz, A.C. (SEDEPAC) is helping poor women acquire legal knowledge in an economic climate characterized by the increased feminization of poverty brought about by the Structural Adjustment Program. The Mexican legal system is grounded in a patriarchal tradition, and the codified laws continue to favor men. Women were not granted full citizenship until 1953, and discrimination against women was not addressed in Mexican law until 1974 as the country prepared to host the First UN International Women's Conference. However, legal advances are not being applied in the family or in larger society where men remain in power. Mexico also distinguishes between private law and public law. Because domestic violence falls in the realm of private law, authorities are loathe to follow-up on women's complaints in this area. Since its founding in 1983, SEDEPAC has applied a gender perspective to its activities and programs. SEDEPAC held its first women's legal workshop in 1987 and realized that most poor women have no knowledge of existing laws or their rights, that alternative legal services for women are scarce, that existing laws must be changed, and that the authoritarian and conservative legal system helps maintain cultural stereotypes. Since then, SEDEPAC has held annual workshops, follow-up meetings, and training sessions and has provided counseling. The main topics addressed are women's social conditions; violence and the penal code; civil rights, power, and dependency; women's bodies and reproductive rights; and women's organization and leadership. The workshops use techniques of popular education such as group participation and use of gossip as a communication tool. The workshops have changed participants' lives and led to the formation of an independent Popular Defenders' Coordination.     

A cultural economy perspective on service sector migration in the global city: the case of Hong Kong

This article argues that in order to fully understand the geography of labour migration to global cities, it is necessary to consider economic forces in conjunction with mediating socio-cultural influences. Support for this argument is based on an examination of the pattern of migration to Hong Kong, a city which plays a significant role in the world economy.
Reported here are the results of an analysis of recently released 1996 by-census data, and the authors' interviews with foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. These findings have shown that highly skilled immigrant workers were drawn largely from developed countries, the main sources of inward investment in this city, while less skilled immigrants were drawn from less developed neighbouring labour markets.
While the geographical pattern of immigration followed broadly that predicted from Hong Kong's position in the world economy, the results have revealed that cultural influences such as language and social networks are also important in shaping the economic roles of migrant workers.     

Home,work and community: skilled international migration and expatriate women in Singapore

While skilled labour migration across international borders is a phenomenon of increasing significance in the age of globalization and an important component in the production of global cities, it has not been given sufficient attention in traditional migration analyses.
Recent research has focused on institutional mechanisms regulating the patterns of skill transfer rather than the individual experience of being part of the international labour circuit. Women, in particular, have usually been relegated to the role of "trailing spouses" and are generally invisible in the migration process.
Using a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, this article attempts to reinstate the importance of women's roles by portraying them as active agents who adopt a range of strategies in negotiating the move and coming to terms with the transformations wrought by the move in the domains of home, work and community. It argues that skilled labour migration is a strongly gendered process, producing different sets of experiences for the men and women involved in it.
While international circulation often represents "career moves" for expatriate men, their spouses often experience a devalorization of their productive functions and a relegation to the domestic sphere. As an adaptive strategy, expatriate women often turn to the social and community sphere to reach for grounding in their lives.
The article also points to the diversity of "expatriate experiences": while "western" expatriates tend to recreate a more exclusive world by drawing on strong institutional support, "Asian" expatriates find that they have to navigate much finer social and cultural divides between themselves and the host society.     

Community,Family, and Race/Ethnic Differences in Health Status in Rural Areas1

Abstract Many race-specific differences in health outcomes that have been observed in previous research have been attributed to class and racebased group differences which either facilitate or constrain health opportunities and behaviors. These include such variables as different rates of poverty, health insurance coverage, and access to medical care. However, these relationships have been inadequately examined in rural communities where minority status may be even more detrimental to health than in urban areas, due to various constraints on access to health care. We present an analysis that assesses the effects of community, family structure, sociodemographic, and medical care variables on self-reported health status among Hispanics, Mrican Americans, and non-Hispanic whites in six rural communities in Florida. Community structural characteristics had a significant effect on self-reported health, as did some of the measures of how respondents “experience” community. These relationships held even when other sets of variables were added to the models. Family/household characteristics and sociodemographic and medical care variables were less important in explaining self-reported health status. These findings suggest that community continues to be important in explaining differences in health status in rural areas.