Migration and Citizenship Law in Spain: Path‐dependency and Policy Change in a Recent Country of Immigration

This article analyzes the links between migratory processes and the evolution of nationality legislation in Spain. We argue that this case challenges the theoretical models that link immigration to liberalizing reforms in citizenship law. Despite large‐scale immigration experienced over the last two decades, Spanish nationality law has remained strongly focused on keeping ties with Spanish communities abroad. To account for the high degree of stability of Spanish citizenship law we structure our analysis along three basic lines: the historical conceptions derived from Spain's past as a colonial power, as well as its tradition as a country of emigration; the lack of incentives for political actors to introduce the reform of citizenship law in the political agenda; and the strategies adopted by those political actors in relation to the politicization of immigration.     

A review of the CTP distribution: a comparison with other over- and underdispersed count data models

The complex triparametric Pearson (CTP) distribution is a flexible model belonging to the Gaussian hypergeometric family that can account for over- and underdispersion. However, despite its good properties, not much attention has been paid to it. So, we revive the CTP comparing it with some well-known distributions that cope with overdispersion (negative binomial, generalized Poisson and univariate generalized Waring) as well as underdispersion (Conway–Maxwell–Poisson (CMP) and hyper-Poisson (HP)). We make a simulation study that reveals the performance of the CTP and shows that it has its own space among count data models. In this sense, we also explore some overdispersed datasets which seem to be more appropriately modelled by the CTP than by other usual models. Moreover, we include two underdispersed examples to illustrate that the CTP can provide similar fits to the CMP or HP (sometimes even more accurate) without the computational problems of these models.     

The work–family challenge and mental health

The work–family literature is dominated by studies of white middle-class workers. In this study, we sought to expand this focus by examining work–family issues from the perspective of Mexicans who have immigrated to the USA within the past five years. Using data from qualitative in-depth interviews (N?=?22) and quantitative structured interviews (N?=?150), we documented the work–family experiences associated with immigration, and we examined the extent to which these experiences differed by gender as well as their mental health effects. The in-depth interviews clearly indicated that separation from family and community was a common and poignant strain experienced by Mexican immigrants who came to the USA to find work, and that these experiences did not differ between women and men. Quantitative analyses corroborated the qualitative findings by indicating women and men had similar levels of work–family strain. Analyses also indicated that higher levels of work–family strain were associated with more perceived stress, anxiety and depression, and that these associations did not differ between women and men. Finally, modest evidence suggested that the effects of work–family strain on mental health may be lower when the realities experienced by immigrants in finding employment and sending money home matched their expectations. This study adds a new voice to the work–family literature and the context and results make clear the tension between work and family: families frequently benefit from adults’ paid work, but this paid work is not without costs.     

Decision-making on social assistance in major cities in Sweden

It is desirable to strive for uniformity in decisions on social assistance. By presenting hypothetical new clients to social workers and asking for decisions, we investigated the occurrence of lack of agreement in decision-making. Surveys were made in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. The results demonstrated variation in the assessment of applications for social assistance between the cities as well as within parts of the same city and between individual social workers in the same office. The reasons for these variations are discussed.     

Distance sampling as an effective method for monitoring feral pigeon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis> f. <Emphasis Type="Italic">domestica</Emphasis>) urban populations

Current methods for estimating feral pigeon (Columba livia f. domestica) population size and for monitoring population trends are mainly based on indices, which according to the current literature on wildlife census methods often produce biased results. Distance Sampling techniques have never been used in this context, even though they could theoretically produce absolute abundance estimates at relatively low costs. The aim of this paper was to investigate the performance of Distance Sampling to census feral pigeons, and to compare these results with those obtained by using Quadrate Counts, a widespread method for monitoring these birds. Surveys were performed in Pisa (Italy) in two different periods of the year 2004 (end of January–beginning of February, and November), which correspond to minimum (January–February) and maximum (November) numbers for pigeon populations. We considered 40 line transects each about 250 m long for Distance Sampling, and 40 250 × 250 m cells for Quadrate Counts. In both cases, sampling units were randomized in a stratified design. In contrast to Quadrate Counts, Distance Sampling detected the predicted increase of abundance from January–February to November with an acceptable precision and no increase of costs per survey. Even though the possible biases (due to the not rigorously random distribution of transects and to the spiked nature of collected distance data) should be further investigated, results suggest that Distance Sampling is a viable and efficient alternative to the traditional methods used to estimate feral pigeons population size and to monitor trends.