Thailand's responses to transnational migration during economic growth and economic downturn

This paper gives an historical overview of immigration to Thailand since the 1970s and emigration since the 1960s. It describes migration policies since the 1930s. Final discussion focuses on the impact of economic contraction on migration. Immigration to Thailand dates back to the 1760s when a huge wave of Chinese emigrated to Thailand. The flow continued until about 1850 and resumed during 1905-17. The next big waves of immigrants were after 1975, when refugees fled Indochina, and in the 1990s, when migrants flocked from neighboring countries drawn to the booming economy. Thai professionals left in the 1960s for the USA. During the 1980s, many left for work in the Middle East. During the 1990s, Thai migrants moved within the East and Southeastern Asian countries and the USA or Europe, and they included many women and illegal migrants. Emigrants leave as arranged by the government, by employers, by recruitment agencies, and as trainees. The first official act was in 1950 and revised in 1979. Many work permits were approved in the 1990s, especially for unskilled labor. There are supports for Thai migrants abroad, but little is offered to foreigners at home. By 1997, the country's recession led to nonrenewal of many work permits. The 1998 economic crisis led to a new labor policy that deported illegal and unskilled migrant workers in order to create jobs for Thais. Policy encouraged Thais to seek work overseas.     

Disaster mental health services: a personal perspective

1. Services that may be provided by psychiatric-mental health nurses following a disaster include education, intervention, problem solving, advocacy, and referral. 2. Nurses providing disaster mental health services must be flexible and creative. Strong observational skills and teamwork are also essential characteristics in disaster settings. 3. Psychiatric-mental health nurses who wish to receive training for disaster mental health volunteer opportunities should contact their local chapter of the American Red Cross.     

Testing an explanatory model of the development of depressive symptoms in young women during a life transition

Factors to explain the rising incidence of depressive symptoms among young women making the transition from home to university life were investigated. A path analysis of data from 213 18- and 19-year-old women entering a large university indicated that negative life events, interpersonally derived social support, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were significantly related. Negative life events that affected the women's self-esteem (drawn from the women's performance in interpersonal relationships) were most strongly associated with depressive symptoms, and self-esteem derived through efficacy (i.e., taking control and acting assertively) was not associated with negative events. The women in the sample appeared to derive efficacy self-esteem from relationships. An analysis of the data supported developing interventions to improve interpersonal relationships rather than focusing on competence in gaining access to resources.     

Well siblings living with schizophrenia. Impact of associated behaviors.

As a result of the ongoing hallucinations and delusions, life at home became "anxious and chaotic" with "lots of stress." Because there was no on-site crisis intervention by professionals, well siblings were sometimes called upon to control the violent behavior and were vigilant and fearful regarding the potential for abuse. Negative symptoms were the most disturbing to well siblings. Siblings need help to understand that social isolation and lack of motivation are symptoms of the illness--not due to "laziness."     

Accelerating acceptance

Innovations are either accepted or rejected in large part because of their implementation--sometimes without regard to improvements over existing techniques. By understanding the dynamics of how innovations are adopted and by whom, physician executives will have insight into influencing others. All adopters are not created equal. They fall into five categories, beginning with those who embrace innovation, even seek it out. In any given organization, or the population in general, there are: (1) innovators (2.5 percent); (2) early adopters (13.5 percent); (3) early majority (34 percent); (4) late majority (34 percent); and (5) laggards (16 percent). As these categories imply, each group has specific personalities related to adopting innovations that can be identified and used to implement new policies and procedures. By identifying and encouraging innovators and early adopters to think outside the box and then gaining critical mass through the early majority, who also act as opinion leaders, organizations can accelerate the pace of adopting innovations. New processes are adopted when opinion leaders initiate new practices, whose results can be tangibly discerned by the majority of adopters.     

Gender and physician-assisted suicide: an analysis of the Kevorkian cases, 1990-1997

This study examines the seventy-five suicide cases Dr. Jack Kevorkian acknowledged assisting during the period between 1990-1997. Although these cases represent a range of regional and occupational backgrounds, a significant majority are women. Most of these individuals had a disabling, chronic, nonterminal-stage illness. In five female cases, the medical examiner found no evidence of disease whatsoever. About half of the women were between the ages of forty-one and sixty, and another third were older adults. Men's conditions were somewhat less likely than women's to be chronic and nonterminal-stage. The main reasons for the hastened death mentioned by both the person and their significant others were having disabilities, being in pain, and fear of being a burden. The predominance of women among Kevorkian's assisted suicides contrasts with national trends in suicide mortality, where men are a clear majority. It is possible that individuals whose death was hastened by Kevorkian are not representative of physician-assisted suicide cases around the country, because of Kevorkian's unique approach. Alternatively, the preponderance of women among Kevorkian's assisted suicides may represent a real phenomenon. One possibility is that, in the United States, assisted suicide is particularly acceptable for women. Individual, interpersonal, social, economic, and cultural factors encouraging assisted suicide in women are examined.     

Residential Building Codes,Affordability, and Health Protection: A Risk-Tradeoff Approach

Residential building codes intended to promote health and safety may produce unintended countervailing risks by adding to the cost of construction. Higher construction costs increase the price of new homes and may increase health and safety risks through income and stock effects. The income effect arises because households that purchase a new home have less income remaining for spending on other goods that contribute to health and safety. The stock effect arises because suppression of new-home construction leads to slower replacement of less safe housing units. These countervailing risks are not presently considered in code debates. We demonstrate the feasibility of estimating the approximate magnitude of countervailing risks by combining the income effect with three relatively well understood and significant home-health risks. We estimate that a code change that increases the nationwide cost of constructing and maintaining homes by $150 (0.1% of the average cost to build a single-family home) would induce offsetting risks yielding between 2 and 60 premature fatalities or, including morbidity effects, between 20 and 800 lost quality-adjusted life years (both discounted at 3%) each year the code provision remains in effect. To provide a net health benefit, the code change would need to reduce risk by at least this amount. Future research should refine these estimates, incorporate quantitative uncertainty analysis, and apply a full risk-tradeoff approach to real-world case studies of proposed code changes.     

International migration and the global agenda: reflections on the 1998 UN Technical Symposium

This article reviews the nature of discussions at the 1998 UN Technical Symposium on International Migration and Development. The Symposium reviewed the literature linking migration and development and successful policy approaches. Several themes emerged. A research framework is needed for accounting for all types of population mobility at all stages of the migratory process. Research should integrate contributions from a range of disciplines. The influence of social networks and cultural capital has grown in importance. Strategies need to account for women's experiences, which involve both empowerment and exploitation. Strategies need to consider return migration and better public information on migration and settlement. It was agreed that there is a need for a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches and multidimensional analysis. The links between migration and development are complex, but sufficient information is available to greatly improve policy formation and international cooperation. National level responses have occasionally eroded the rights and protection of migrants. Few countries have adopted the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families and ILO Conventions 97 and 143. A prominent realization was that international cooperation did matter. International migration should be viewed as an opportunity for cooperation and development.     

Marriages and fertility among Turkish and Moroccan women in Belgium: results from census data

The patterns of family formation and fertility behavior of Turkish and Moroccan women in Belgium are changing rapidly. The census data (1991) indicate a fertility decline. The reasons are changes in the nuptiality patterns, contraceptive behavior, and migratory flows. The changes are not identical in both communities. Young cohorts postpone their marriage, but this is most prominent among Moroccan women. On the other hand, young Turkish women have a clear preference for smaller families. The changes also differentiate according to migrant "generation" and level of education. The changes are not restricted to Belgium but are also observed in the countries of origin.