论台湾的地缘战略价值

台湾是中国固有领土,台湾问题是中国的生存空间问题,它不但是中国东南沿海最重要的天然屏障和中国海防最关键之所在,而且也是新世纪中国经济发展的海上生命线和兴衰晴雨表,其地缘战略价值十分重要。不论从哪个角度来讲,与大陆近在咫尺的中国领土台湾,无论如何也不能被分离出去,台湾问题也不能无限期地拖延下去,实现祖国最终统一,再铸民族强盛辉煌是新世纪中华民族的共同愿望。     

Family Unity Meetings: Decision Making and Placement Outcomes

ABSTRACT

The sample consisted of all families (747) who were invited to receive a Family Unity Meeting from a Public Child Welfare Agency in a large urban county. Data was derived from the review of agency case files. The design was a retrospective case review with an embedded prospective study. This study describes factors that distinguish between CPS clients who accept an invitation to participate in a Family Unity Meeting (FUM) and those clients who decline to participate. The meeting process is described, and logistic regression is used to identify variables that predicted successful outcomes FUM meetings.

Families with reunification as a goal were the most likely cases to agree to participate followed by Voluntary and Permanency Planning cases. Cases with severe neglect were the least likely group to participate in a meeting process. Approximately nine people attended an average meeting. Maternal relatives were more likely to attend than paternal relatives.

Empirical evidence was found to support the notion that FUM expands the notion of family. Only 38% of children were placed with a parent after a meeting, but 82% of children were placed with a family member. Children were not placed with either the parent or family if the social worker had placement as a goal before the meeting. Cases with permanency plans were also less likely to be placed with the family. Social workers were more likely to agree with a placement with relatives if they had a concern about parental drug abuse. Having a maternal aunt in attendance at the meeting was predictive of having a child placed with the family.

Social workers and families stated concerns prior to the meeting diverged. Families were more concerned with economic and financial issues than were the social workers. Social workers were more concerned with child protective service issues (type of abuse, placement issues, etc.) and the behavior of the parent (substance abuse, mental health, etc.) than was the family. Paying attention to family issues such as finances may be a necessary precursor to families focusing on more complex matters like substance abuse or parenting practices.

Placement outcomes were consistent with worker's goals stated before the meeting. If a social worker said they wanted to place a child with the family before the meeting, that placement was most likely the outcome of the meeting. Social workers may be guiding the decisions of the family. If this interpretation is correct then it raises questions about who makes decisions at the meeting. An alternative conclusion is that the social workers are good diagnosticians who know prior to the meeting if placement is necessary, and know what decisions the family will make.     

Moral boundaries and national borders: Cuban marriage migration to Denmark

The discussion of marriage migration in Denmark primarily has focused on citizens of immigrant descent (‘New Danes’) who marry partners from their ancestral homeland (often Turkey or Pakistan). This type of marriage migration was the target of the strict Danish family reunification policy instituted in 2002. This article examines the genealogy of the morality underpinning the family reunification policies and asks whether the rules actually promote this moral agenda or have unintended consequences. Empirically, I shift the focus from immigrant Danes to native Danes who marry Cubans. Finally, while little attention is paid to the non-western country involved, transnational marriages always involve two nations. This article investigates how state policies on both ends of this migration trajectory shape moral-territorial borders that transnational couples navigate.     

Cost analysis of the strengthening families program in reducing time to family reunification among substance-affected families

Decision makers typically face uncertainty in determining whether the outcomes of promising child welfare interventions justify the investment. Despite repeated calls for cost analysis in child welfare, original studies that evaluate the costs and effects of child welfare programs have been limited. Moreover, no cost analyses have focused on family reunification programs that address the needs of substance-affected families. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the costs and effects of a federally funded implementation of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a 14-week family training curriculum, on time to reunification with a substance-involved child welfare population. Based on event history analysis, we find the typical child participating in SFP spends 190 fewer days in out of home care when compared to a propensity score matched comparison group of children in out-of home care receiving treatment as usual. Re-entry rates between the two groups were not significantly different at follow-up. At an average out-of-home care rate of $86 per child per day in this state, SFP saves approximately $16,340 per participating child in out-of-home care costs. From a cost–benefit perspective, every $1 invested in SFP yields an average savings of $9.83 in this Midwestern demonstration.     

Factors associated with family reunification for children in foster care

In this paper, we analyse reunification processes from family foster care, both kinship and non‐kinship, and the variables associated with them in a Spanish sample. Data collection was carried out after a review of child protection and foster care files, and those responsible for the cases were also consulted. The cases studied were closed, which made it possible to assess the final outcome of the fostering. We found that only one‐fifth of the children return to their birth family after the fostering, and that those in non‐kinship are less likely to do so. Seven factors were associated with family reunification processes: age of the child, kinship care with family co‐operation, drug dependence in parents, neglect due to alcoholism, foster care under voluntary arrangement with visits, short‐term fostering with family co‐operation and parental impossibility due to imprisonment. The contribution of these data takes on particular importance given that the Spanish child protection system keeps no official statistics on the development or outcome of its interventions and records even less information on the factors associated with such outcomes.     

‘Implicit’ remittances in family relationships: The case of Bangladeshis in Italy and beyond

In this article – based on 100 in-depth interviews with divided and reunited Bangladeshi families in Italy, Bangladesh, and London – we discuss how remittances are influenced by gender relations within the family, what social meanings they assume, what family memberships they reinforce, how the intertwining between migration and family cycle affects them. By adopting an intersectional approach, we show how economic transfers are normally sent to the family of the first-migrant man, although they may assist the emigration of the wife's male relatives: a phenomenon that we call ‘implicit remittances’. A second set of results concerns changes over time in remittances and two events of the family cycle are decisive: the family reunification in Italy and the demise of parents in the country of origin. In both cases, remittances are reduced, cease, or are limited to gifts in particular circumstances.     

“I did not know there was another life”: Meanings of life in the out‐of‐home Mothers Unit reunification programme

The Mothers Unit is a reunification and treatment programme in a welfare emergency centre in Israel. The unit is the only one in Israel offering joint residence for mothers at risk of abusing or neglecting their children. The unit provides an alternative to out‐of‐home care for young children suffering from maltreatment in order to enable them and their mothers to return to the community together at the end of the treatment. The current qualitative study examines the lived experiences of the women and their children from the subjective perspective of the women currently or previously involved in the programme and of the professionals working with them. Thematic analysis of 36 in‐person semi‐structured interviews reveals the multiple meanings they attribute to life in the Mothers Unit and its perceived effects on their children and themselves.     

两德统一与“社会伙伴关系”的东扩：1990-1992

＂社会伙伴关系＂是具有德国特色的劳资关系,包含了两种制度,即企业代表会制和集体合同制。两德统一后,联邦德国的＂社会伙伴关系＂迅速扩展到东部地区。这一进程一方面反映了东部地区社会转型的历史,另一方面也显示出这种劳资关系的吸引力和生命力。     

‘I am the face of success’: peer mentors in child welfare

Child welfare systems have struggled to create innovative, culturally sensitive programmes to address the multiple and pervasive barriers that exist in engaging child welfare parent clients in their service plans. Peer mentor programmes—those in which parents who have successfully navigated the child welfare system and reunified with their children, mentor parents newly entering the system—are designed to address some of these barriers, to improve reunification outcomes. Focus groups with parent clients (n = 25) and interviews with peer mentors (n = 6) were conducted to identify the characteristics of peer mentoring programmes that are critically helpful to parent clients, as well as the mechanisms that allow peer mentors to be effective in their work. The qualitative analysis uncovered three general themes to which both parents and peer mentors frequently referred in interviews—the value of shared experiences, communication and support. Additionally, the study found that peer mentorship has positive effects not only on parent clients but also on the mentors themselves. The inclusion of peer mentors in child welfare practice suggests an important paradigm shift within child welfare that could lead to culture change for the field.