Supporting Asian Deaf Young People and their Families: the role of professionals and services

This paper discusses how Asian deaf young people and their families engage with welfare provision. Our findings, based on group and individual interviews with young deaf people and individual interviews with their parents, explore the assumptions underlying current provision and how they influence the options available to young people and their families. The paper suggests that the welfare state exerts a form of social control where professional help, although well intended, may disempowers Asian deaf people by privileging 'oralism' over sign language, and western norms over other cultural values. On the other hand, positive constructions of deafness privilege Deaf identity while failing to accommodate ethnic or religious diversity, resulting in Asian deaf young people and their families having an ambivalent relationship with the Deaf community. We argue that services need to recognise and address the reasons for this ambivalence if they are to adequately engage Asian deaf people and their families.     

An empirical analysis of monetary and multidimensional poverty: evidence from a household survey in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The present study computes multidimensional poverty and compares it with unidimensional estimates of poverty for the district of Mandi Bahuddin in the Punjab province of Pakistan for the years 2010 and 2014. By employing the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) and Alkire-Foster Methods, the incidence, severity and depth of unidimensional and multidimensionality poverty was estimated. We found an increase in absolute and relative poverty levels in 2014 as compared to 2010. The multidimensional poverty in terms of household assets has also increased over time. However, the relative proportion of educational and health poverty towards MPI remains higher, thereby calling for a holistic approach to identify multidimensional poverty in the social sector. A comprehensive policy dossier needs to be framed for designing effective poverty alleviation and social welfare programmes in the Punjab, Pakistan.     

Impacts of institutional pressures and the strength of market supporting institutions in the host country on the ownership strategy of multinational enterprises: theoretical discussion and propositions

The ownership strategy of multinational enterprises (MNEs) i.e. the choice between wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) or international joint venture (IJV) is an extensively studied topic in international business studies. Many past studies concentrated on transactional, economic, location attraction, resource seeking and learning rationales for the ownership strategy of MNEs. However, it is important to note that MNEs enter a new institutional environment also when they enter new international markets. Therefore, the ownership strategy of MNEs is also influenced by the external as well as internal institutions. This paper attempts to address the impacts of different institutional pressures on ownership strategy of MNEs using the arguments from institutional theory. The paper also includes discussion about the strength of market supporting institutions in the host country and its impacts on the ownership strategy of MNEs. On the basis of the theoretical discussion, several propositions are developed in this paper. These propositions relate the ownership strategy of MNEs with the impacts of internal and external institutional pressures on it. It is also proposed to consider the impact of strength of market supporting institutions in the host country on the ownership strategy specifically. When the host country has well developed institutions supporting market conforming values, they can moderate the impacts of coercive and normative pressures from external institutions on the MNEs.     

When the Name Matters: An Experimental Investigation of Ethnic Discrimination in the Finnish Labor Market

This article considers the possibilities and limits of human-capital credentials in entering the labor market for immigrants in Finland. It reports findings of a correspondence study on how employers respond to job applicants of five different backgrounds who were otherwise equivalently matched on various demographic and human-capital characteristics. The findings strongly indicate the continuing salience of ethnicity in securing employment opportunities in the Finnish labor market. Employers significantly prefer Finnish applicants over ethnic candidates, and within ethnic applicants, they prefer candidates with a European name over a non-European name. They further show that locally acquired human capital provides a better payoff only when the job candidate belongs to a group that is placed higher on the ethnic preference ladder. Drawing on the empirical observations, the article thus suggests that a recruitment process driven by abstract or impersonal criteria and governed by mere considerations of human capital in real-life situations is much less prevalent than often claimed.