Acceptance of International Students: Host and Sojourner Characteristics

This study was designed to investigate how both characteristics of the sojourner and of the host affect how American students regard and treat international students in the United States. Undergraduates (N=198) evaluated college admission applications. All applicant information was held constant except for gender, race, and nationality. After they completed a questionnaire evaluating the foreign applicant, they volunteered to offer various levels of hospitality to foreign students. In terms of host characteristics, the results indicate that women were more favorable than men in their ratings of foreign students, and Minorities (48% of the sample) were more favorable than Whites in their volunteerism. Regarding characteristics of the foreigner, American students responded equally to male and female foreigners; equally to White and Black foreigners; but they evaluated Canadian foreigners more favorably than Algerian ones. There was an interaction between gender of the host and foreigner in a few instances, and several instances of an interaction between race of the host and race of the foreigner. These results partially support the hypotheses and suggest that what makes a difference in how Americans respond to foreigners is cultural similarity and shared ethnic minority status.     

Organization and delivery of long-term care in Singapore: present issues and future challenges

This paper focuses on the Singaporean model of long-term care for older people. With only about 2% of the older population living in institutions, the mainstay of long-term care is community care. The reader is provided an overview of the Singaporean services, including case management, followed by a discussion of the current issues and future challenges. In keeping with the prospect of a rapidly aging population profile, the Singapore government plays a leading role in framing policy and planning for future needs of this sector of the population.     

Population education: a new strategy for India

Hamstrung by excessive population growth which has absorbed economic gains and faced with the prospect of even greater population gains due to the fact that 45% of her people are under 15 years of age, India must take bold steps to change fertility patterns. The best way of achieving this is to adopt a strong program of population education to convince young people to have small families out of a concern for the threat to the quality of life posed by excessive population. The objectives of population education, as defined by the National Seminar of Population Education in 1969, "should be to enable the students to understand that family size is controllable, that population limitation can facilitate the development of a higher quality of life in the nation and that a small family size can contribute materially to the quality of living for the individual family." The improvement in the health and welfare of individual family members was also emphasized. 3 major elements of population education are 1) determinants of population growth; 2) demography; and 3) consequences of population growth. 2 other aspects, generally called "sex education," can be added: human reproduction and family planning policies and programs. Inclusion of the latter items is highly controversial. Some maintain that the passions aroused by sex education can destroy the entire education program before it has a chance. Before launching an extensive program, the author recommends studying the social norms and constraints of the community, ensuring that the program is in competent hands, and instituting and evaluating pilot programs.