Estimation of mean and variance of stigmatized quantitative variable using distinct units in randomized response sampling

Received: April 6, 1998; revised version: July 12, 1999     

’Til Divorce Do Us Part: Marriage Dissolution in Later Life

Late-life divorce—commonly referred to as gray divorce—is a rising trend that parallels the growth of the older adult population. We sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of marriage dissolution, the divorce process, and life following divorce in a sample of older adults who divorced after more than 20 years of marriage. Qualitative data were collected from 10 divorcees (7 women and 3 men; M age = 63.5) and analyzed to understand the gray divorce experience; that is, factors that determined or delayed the decision to divorce and divorcees’ coping during and after divorce. Participants’ stories demonstrate that marriages endure despite problems because relationships are complex, and good experiences mix with bad ones. Outcomes of late-life divorce have significant health and financial implications for both individuals and society.     

Imperfect competition,border protection and consumer boycott: The future of the dairy industry in Israel

Recent increases in prices of dairy products in Israel led to consumer unrest and boycotts against dairy producers during the summer of 2011. The Israeli dairy industry is highly distorted with production quotas and administered prices for raw milk, tariff rate quotas and an oligopoly in dairy processing. Since the issue of self-sufficiency and food security is at the top of Israel's national priorities, the future of the dairy industry is generating heated debate. Thus, we use a general equilibrium model to estimate the effects associated with particular alternative policies actually discussed to liberalize the Israeli dairy industry.     

Adaptation to a new world: experience of Bangladeshis in Japan

The author explores aspects of Bangladeshi migration to Japan. "The information base for the study is two major sources: sections on the level and trend of migration, socio-economic characteristics of migrants and their job experiences in Japan are based on a survey of Bangladeshi returned migrants from Japan. Information on their socio-economic adjustment was obtained from personal interviews with migrants who had lived and worked in Japan." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

How portable is social security for migrant workers? A review of the literature

This article reviews the recent literature on existing mechanisms that allow for the portability of social security entitlements for migrant workers and finds that North–North migrants have the best access to portability. There is limited coordination between origin and destination countries regarding the portability of social entitlements of South–North migrants. These migrants are dealing with discourses and policies that treat them as second class citizens, even as they are providing much‐needed labour to their host countries. South–South migrants are seeing new regional mechanisms addressing portability. However, many of the impacts of these mechanisms are not yet known. Other knowledge gaps on portability relate to internal and South–South migration, the role of gender and other social identities, migrants’ occupations as well as their legal immigration status.     

Limits to Harmonization: The "Temporary Protection" of Refugees in the European Union

This article examines the limits to harmonization at the level of the European Union through a case study of policy towards people who fled the war inBosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s.
Specific attention is paid to the development of the policy of granting"temporary protection" instead of full refugee status to Bosnian asylum-seekers, which stretched across all fifteen member states.
It is argued that "temporary protection" emerged as a set of specific responses to the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia, involvingcompromises between states' desires to restrict asylum on the one hand, but meet demand from public opinion and international organizations to offerprotection to refugees on the other.
Subsequent analyses have suggested that these compromises might providean effective way forward for harmonization of policy at a European level,and even a reformulated international system of refugee protection.
However, the authors question this view: they analyse the extent to which"temporary protection" for Bosnians was coordinated, and whether it actually provided the states and individuals with the benefits that have been suggested.     

Asylum Policies, Trafficking and Vulnerability

This article is located at the intersection of three recent debates on asylum in Europe: the efficacy of asylum policies; the trafficking of asylum seekers, and their growing vulnerability. Most commentators agree that there are relationships between these three debates, but the nature of those relationships remain unclear. Yet the need properly to understand the nature of these links has become especially pressing in the context of a raft of new policy initiatives on both asylum and trafficking, and concerns for their consequences for asylum seekers. At least part of the reason for this lack of clear understanding is significant gaps in empirical research. This article begins to fill some of these gaps, and in so doing to unpick some of the relationships between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability. It focuses on the experiences of asylum seekers in Europe, thus presenting a "bottom up" perspective on trafficking and asylum policies. The findings are derived from research among Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands, conducted between 1994 and 1996. The article discusses some of the reservations that surround this approach, including methodological issues such as trust, and the difficulties of applying more widely a narrow case study. Within the context of these reservations, it draws three main conclusions. First, empirical evidence to support the view that increasing proportions of asylum seekers are being forced to turn to traffickers in order to negotiate restrictive asylum policies. Second, the ways in which trafficking is exposing asylum seekers – including at least some "genuine" refugees – to new forms of vulnerability. Third, that direct links exist between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability, and that the blame for growing vulnerability lies more with asylum policies than with traffickers or with asylum seekers themselves. Finally, these empirical conclusions are targeted on a series of policy implications.     

Do the Poor Really Feel Poor? Comparing Objective Poverty with Subjective Poverty in Pakistan

Social Indicators Research - The current literature on poverty focuses intensively on objective poverty, which is based on household income, household consumption, basic needs, calorie...