The Relevance of the Structural Approach to Group Work with Immigrant and Refugee Women

ABSTRACT

This article applies a structural approach to social work with immigrants and refugees. Specifically, the use of structural principles and procedures is illustrated in work with an Hispanic Women's Support Group.     

NARRATIVES AND THE CONSTITUTION OF A COMMON IDENTITY: THE KAREN IN BURMA

This research was conducted in an informal school located in Thailand at the border with Myanmar (Burma) and supervised by the Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU has claimed and fought for political autonomy and independence from the Burmese government for more than a half century. The authors examine how, in their narratives about what it means to be Karen, future Karen leaders try to deal with challenges to a sense of Karen unity and “groupness,” and to the legitimacy of the Karen struggle. One important challenge is the substantial cultural, religious, linguistic, and geographical internal diversity. Establishing a coherent Karen identity among the different subgroups is a continuing struggle for Karen leaders. Another is the negative labeling of the KNU as stubborn people and violent terrorists. These labels endanger the political project, the international reputation, and the local attractiveness of the KNU.     

East European Jewish migrants and settlers in Belgium, 1880–1914: a transatlantic perspective

This article analyses whether the Jews leaving Tsarist Russia and the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, part of the transatlantic mass migration of the end of the nineteenth century, became subject to state control. Most emigrants from Eastern Europe in this period passed through the ports of Bremen, Hamburg and Antwerp. In the 1880s only a few emigrants were not welcome in America and sent back to Europe, but economic competition and the supposed health threat immigrants posed meant the US became the trendsetter in implementing protectionist immigration policy in the 1890s. More emigrants were returned to Europe because of the newly erected US federal immigration control stations, but many more were denied the possibility to leave for the United States by the remote control mechanism which the American authorities enforced on the European authorities and the shipping companies. At the Russian–German border and the port of Antwerp, shipping companies stopped transit migrants who were deemed medically unacceptable by American standards. The shipping companies became subcontractors for the American authorities as they risked heavy fines if they transported unwanted emigrants. The Belgian authorities refused to collaborate with the Americans and defended their sovereignty, and made shipping companies in the port of Antwerp solely responsible for the American remote migration control. Due to the private migration control at the port of Antwerp transit migrants became stuck in Belgium. The Belgian authorities wanted these stranded migrants to return “home.” It seems that the number of stranded migrants remained manageable as the Belgian authorities did not make the shipping companies pay the bill. They were able to get away by making some symbolic gestures and these migrants were supported by charitable contributions from the local Jewish community.     

The interrupted chain: traditional receiver countries,migration regimes,and the East European Jewish diaspora, 1918–39

This article focuses primarily on countries that had been, prior to 1914, among the most favored destinations for East European Jewish migrants: chiefly the United States, Canada, Palestine, Brazil and Argentina. In the inter-war years, these ceased to be the only ports of final entry for Jewish migrants. However, despite restrictive migration regimes and unfavorable economic conditions, traditional receiver countries continued to absorb the largest share of such migrants (the U. S. and Palestine, between them, accounting for over 800,000). Jewish migration to countries other than the United States peaked around 1933; was just about equal to the U. S.-bound migrant stream by 1938; and fell off in 1939–1940. The Jewish case raises several theoretical and methodological issues, including the definition of migrant motivation as well as the framing of immigration policy as products of mixed factors – both political and economic.     

‘Black holes in the fabric of the nation’: refugees in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

ABSTRACT

This article explores the representation of refugees in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, a novel which has been widely celebrated for its response to the refugee crisis of its contemporary moment. In a distinct echo of Salman Rushdie’s claim, thirty-five years earlier, that it ‘may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated’, Hamid’s novel similarly claims that ‘we are all migrants through time.’ Moreover, like Rushdie’s fiction, Hamid’s novel incorporates elements of magical realism: its protagonists escape their unnamed war-torn city through a ‘door’ that instantaneously transports them to Mykonos, and they subsequently travel through other such ‘doors’ to London and California. Their story is interspersed with a series of vignettes in which other migrants also find themselves magically transported across national borders. As well as considering the ways in which Hamid’s novel seeks to humanise refugees, this article considers the novel’s evocation of a world in which human beings – like capital, images, and (mis)information – have gained access to largely ungovernable networks of instantaneous travel across vast distances. It argues that Hamid’s novel is not just ‘about’ refugees but also constitutes a reflection on how they and their journeys are represented and mediated by actually-existing technologies.     

灾荒、社会变迁与流民——以19、20世纪之交的直隶为中心

灾荒、社会变迁过程中孕育大量流民 ,为义和团运动的大规模展开提供了主要依靠力量。流民大军是一支盲动的巨大力量 ,在饥饿机制的驱使下 ,他们大量投身义和拳 (团 ) ,也为这场运动增添了许多“盲动”色彩。     

The Politics of Recognition: Jewish Refugees in Relief Policies and Human Rights Debates, 1945-1950

This essay analyses the place of Jewish survivors in the refugee system established by the West in the aftermath of the Second World War. Departing from the literature of trauma and mourning, this article addresses Holocaust survivors as migrant refugees subjected to international categorisations, relief policies and human rights debates. Between 1945 and 1950, Jewish refugees were recognised as an ideal-type community of victims by western humanitarianism. Recognition entailed symbolic and material entitlements, and eventually rewarded Holocaust survivors with historical, political and territorial vindication. As opposed to other refugee groups who entered the market of international compassion in the 1940s, Jewish refugees were granted full status of political victims.     

Family,activity, and stress reactions in exile

The possible protective effect of family and activity (including work and employment training) on posttraumatic reactions in traumatized refugees living in a host society was explored. A total of 966 refugees participated in the study, the majority of whom had been exposed to war and/or torture trauma prior to arrival in Norway. The study sample consisted of two groups: one had been referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic for evaluation or treatment, the other consisted of refugees interviewed in connection with a health examination upon arrival in the municipalities to which they were allocated. The study showed that presence of family and employment/training had positive effects on posttraumatic symptoms regardless of level of traumatic exposure. But the results also showed that the higher the level of exposure to traumatic events, the stronger the effect of family (spouse and/or children) seemed to be. The study illustrates the importance of implementing psychosocial measures with special emphasis on activity and strengthening of family systems, in the integration of traumatized refugees in a host community. El artículo explora los posibles efectos protectivos que tienen las redes de apoyo familiares y el empleo/entrenamiento en las reacciones post-traumáticas de refugiados traumatizados residentes en una sociedad receptora. Participaron en el estudio un total de 966 refugiados de los cuales la mayoria fueron víctimas de varios eventos traumáticos previo a su llegada a Noruega. La muestra consiste en dos grupos: el primer grupo habia sido referido previamente a una clinica psiquiátrica para evaluación y tratamiento; el segundo grupo consiste en refugiados que habian sido sometidos a una examinación clínica llevada a cabo en las municipalidades que les fueron asignadas a su llegada a Noruega. El estudio muestra que la presencia familiar y los actividodos laborales/entrenamiento tiene efectos positivos en síntomas post-traumáticos, sin importar el nivel de exposición traumática. Los resultados también demuestran que los efectos de la presencia familiar en los síntomas son todavía más evidentes en personas que han sufrido experiencias traumáticas más fuertes. El estudio ilustra la importancia de implementar medidas psicosociales con especial énfasis en la actividad y el fortalecimento de los sistemas familiares para la integración de refugiados traumatizados en sociedades receptoras.     

Financial Responsibility for the Family: The Case of Southeast Asian Refugees in Canada

Although respondents (n = 647) came from collectivist societies (Vietnam and Laos) where they were expected to provide for the family, they have been living in a setting (Canada) where individualism is emphasized and public sources of assistance are available. The effect of this transition on their beliefs and behaviors regarding financial responsibility for family was assessed. With the exception of new situations (government assistance for the elderly or poor, and money sent to relatives in the home country), respondents endorsed traditional beliefs. Lower English ability and favorable views toward multiculturalism were associated with traditional views. They relied on non-family as well as family for financial assistance. Ethnic differences, reflective of their resettlement experiences, were evident.     

译者行为批评视域下的《半生缘》熟语英译研究

张爱玲的小说《半生缘》中运用了大量的成语、惯用语和俗语等熟语。通过运用“求真－务实”连续统评价模式,从译者行为批评视域对《半生缘》金凯筠英译本中的熟语翻译进行描述性评价,发现其译文在“求真－务实”连续统一体中偏向务实一端,即坚持“务实为上,务实兼顾求真”的翻译原则,在忠实原文的基础上实现服务读者和社会的目标。这一翻译原则的选定受译者的个人背景、翻译目的及翻译观的综合影响。与此同时,金凯筠的翻译启发我们在翻译熟语时要灵活选择和运用翻译策略,尽可能使译文在“求真”与“务实”之间寻求平衡。