Immigration reform in France and the United States: reflections and documentation

This paper analyzes similarities and dissimilarities in French and American efforts to come to grip with irregular migration. The symbolic importance of immigration reform is argued to be a key political concern in both nations, although the politics of immigration reform has assumed a more partisan flavor in France, particularly since the municipal elections of 1983. In France, the theme of control and security, associated with the notion of preventing "automatic" immigration which would endanger the cohesion of French society, was widely utilized for political ends prior to and after May 10, 1981 (the date of Francois Mitterand's investiture). The American government, on the other hand, is confronted with the unenviable task of obtaining a legislative consensus on legalization and employer sanctions through an approach seeking to harmonize and integrate the demands articulated by various groups: employers, unions, and alien and ethnic interest groups (principally Hispanic groups divided into a hierarchy along a recently arrived/established cleavage). The American situation most sharply differs from the French case in terms of the absence of a right/left political cleavage. The real effects of clandestine immigration are to be found at the local level. In France, as in the US, the ability of local actors to exert pressure raises the fear that legalization and sanctions will change little, except in terms of symbolic legitimacy.     

Illegal immigrants in Canada: recent developments

Immigration policies and their management in a country like Canada have long been an interesting and instructive study for other countries. 1) With borders naturally protected by great distance from almost all migrant routes; 2) with a long, undefended border with the US and a further 3000 kilometers to its border on the south; 3) with a parliamentary system capable of comparatively rapid legislative and administrative responses to problems; and 4) with a relatively small legal, and even smaller illegal, population Canada had historically "experimented" with novel, often quite creative, immigration policies and programs to both encourage and control the increases in its population. This paper summarizes what Canada did and is doing in response to am important item of public policy--the entry and presence of illegal migrants. Canada has experimented with 1) discretionary amnesty for long-term illegals with a capacity to be successfully integrated into Canadian life, 2) tighter border controls with the extended use of the visitor's visa, and 3) employer sanctions. To address the problem more substantively, however, requires detailed study and significant change, including legislative change.     

Blacks, whites, and attitudes towards abortion

This article examines patterns of black and white support forabortion from 1972 to 1980. The findings reveal that black-whitedifferences are present on the abortion issue. Many of the differencesare due to the different demographic characteristics of blacksand whites and the greater degree of religiosity of blacks.     

Psycho-social impacts of terrorism and organized crime: The counterfinality of the practico-inert

The phrase, the counterfinality of the practico-inert is from Sartre with reference to implications of modern technology as a shorthand for that enormous properly human and anti-natural power of dead human labor stored up in our machinery — an alienated power, which turns back on and against us in unrecognizable forms and can symbolize the massive dystopian horizon of organized crime as well as individual terrorist praxis (Jean-Paul Sartre (1948).Situations II. Paris: Gallimard).     

The Canadian temporary visa programme as an alternative to the European guest worker scheme

This article analyzes Canada's employment visa program, through which foreigners enter the Canadian labor market for relatively short time periods. It further demonstrates some major differences between this policy and the European guest worker scheme. Governments in Western Europe viewed guest workers' benefits as preventing wages and inflation from rising, allowing profits and investments to increase, and sustaining economic growth. A question to consider is whether guest workers' demands on social services, in relation to their tax and other contributions, exceed those of the indigenous population and thus reduce their profitability. Canada, in contrast, has avoided the need to provide services for the children of foreign workers or jobs for their spouses by limiting visa length to a maximum of 1 year. The majority of employment visa holders to Canada enter without dependents. Another difference is the far smaller scope of the Canadian program. Canada's employment visa program provides only about 0.5% of total employment, whereas guest workers in European countries may comprise up to 23% (Switzerland). The occupations of service and teaching account for the majority of workers included in the Canadian visa program, while manufacturing subsumes a large share of European guest workers. It is important to stress that, with relatively low levels for permanent immigration to Canada, the employment visa program rivals that flow as a yearly contributor to labor supply, indicating a need for closer attention to the evaluation of this policy.     

Analyses and discussions of data from China's 1982 census--a report on the International Seminar on China's 1982 Census

This is a report from an international seminar held in Beijing, China, devoted to the results of the 1982 census of China. The report includes a synopsis of the discussions on topics such as the sex ratio, age distribution, fertility, mortality, labor force, and household size and family structure.     

The encoding and decoding of liking from behavioral cues in both auditory and visual channels

Fifty high school students met in same-sex dyads for the first time over a cup of coffee in an experimental room designed as a comfortable living room. They then responded to a questionnaire designed to measure liking and perceived similarity. The interactions were video-taped. Two different panels of 6 judges later either viewed (video only) or heard (audio-only) the videotape and raed the subjects behavior on a number of scales. The judges also judged the degree of liking felt by the subjects by estimating subjects responses to the questionnaire. In addition gaze behaviour during the interaction was measured. Factor analysis demonstrated that 60% of the variance in The Liking Scale was attributed to 14 items relating to liking and perceived similarity. A separate factor to assess perceived similarity could not be found. Twenty-nine percent of the variance in the liking reported by subjects was predicted by an interrelated pattern of expressing behaviour including approproate looking, mutual gaze, self-disclosure, synchrony in movement and gesture, expressiveness of the face and liveliness of the voice. Video judges liking correlated 0.33 with subjects liking and 48% of the variance in their judgements was explained by the valid cues of looking and expressiveness of the face. Audio judges liking, although it correlated at 0.34 with video judges liking, did not correlate at all with subjects' liking because of an over-reliance on the important content cues. It is suggested that major problems leading to decoding inaccuracy may be over-reliance on content cues and over-confidence in the possibility of decoding accuracy. The evidence suggests that differences between subjects in encoding may be considerable.     

Treatment of the emotionally disturbed,mildly retarded youngster in the foster care system

This paper demonstrates the need for a broad array of clinical services in treating the emotionally disturbed, mildly retarded youngster in the foster care system. A hypothesis suggests that cognitive deficits and borderline pathology are interrelated, and that treatment involves modifications of traditional therapeutic techniques. The definition of clinical is expanded to include seemingly concrete and environmental services, in addition to the office therapy session. Finally, some systemic impediments to effective treatment of the population are explored.This paper was completed as a requirement of the Post-Master's Program in Advanced Clinical Social Work of Hunter College School of Social Work.