How do post-colonial ties and migration regimes shape travel visa requirements? The case of Caribbean nationals

Travel visa requirements are generally recognised as the result of a trade-off between preventing irregular migration, ensuring security and allowing potential economic benefits to countries. The role of history has been overlooked. This article focuses on the Caribbean, a region heavily influenced by colonialism, which experienced important changes in political status and migration policies over the twentieth century. Using bilateral travel visa requirement data, we examine the importance of two travel visa determinants: post-colonial ties and the migration regimes established by the former colonial state after independence. We show that post-colonial ties explain patterns of travel visa requirements for France, the Netherlands and the US, but less for Britain and British-sphere Caribbean countries, revealing the less uniform and changing role of post-colonial ties. Travel visa requirements largely reinforce migration regimes types, so that Caribbean citizens from countries with a closed migration regime also experienced reduced travel opportunities. This reveals a perception that when the former colonial state limits migration opportunities, it might lead to travel, and potential overstaying, in other destinations. These findings provide new evidence of the relevance of colonial history and migration policies with the former colonial state in shaping travel opportunities of citizens of former colonies.     

The State as a Norm‐Builder? The Take‐up of Parental Leave in Norway and Sweden

This study shows that although Norway and Sweden have rather similar family policies, the seemingly small differences that exist reflect different national ideals of care, and these differences encourage parents to employ different gendered moral rationalities. However, Sweden's ideal of ‘equal‐sharing/professional care’, encourages fathers to take longer leaves than the Norwegian ideal of ‘partial sharing plus choosing between professional or parental care’. Given their different national ideals of caring, different gendered moral rationalities emerge. While in Norway the dominant gendered moral rationality among our interviewees is ‘man‐doing‐his‐duty’, in Sweden two different rationalities arise: the ‘breastfeeding‐plus‐sharing’ rationality and the ‘male‐opt‐out’. This conclusion is based on 60 interviews with mothers and fathers in Oslo and Stockholm.     

Childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover: Beyond a feminist critique

This article reviews the development of childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover, gauging it with two standards: promoting the equal development of children and gender equality in our society. Statistics derived from data taken from multiple sources show that the government has been sticking to a “positive non‐intervention approach” to welfare development and that the male breadwinner/female carer model prevalent in this region was shaped and strengthened by current childcare policies and services. The current provision of childcare services is insufficient to guarantee the equal use of childcare among children of different socioeconomic backgrounds, or to ease the tension between the needs of childcare and job requirements in a family, or to emancipate married women from the domestic sphere. A “generative welfare approach” that collects fiscal resources and redistributes them strategically with a systemic mind‐set has been suggested for social policy and service planning, including spending the money in the right place, launching smart and practical policies that can achieve both pragmatic effects and ideological improvement in the area of gender equality, providing financial support or subsidies to a company for the provision of parental leave, and increasing the provision of quality childcare services.     

The quest for sustainable employment: Challenges faced by young people during the job‐search process

Young people who are unable to find and sustain employment are at risk for long‐term social and economic exclusion. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) addressing the problem of youth unemployment have focused on building the employability skills of young job seekers to expand their employment opportunities. Yet research exploring how young people navigate the job‐search process is limited. Drawing on interviews with young Australian job seekers and their employment consultants, this article addresses the questions of how young people navigate entry into employment through the job‐search process and what challenges they face. The study revealed three common frustrations experienced by the young people during their job‐search: employers' expectations of relevant work experience in the young person's preferred occupation, being required to apply for jobs not aligned with their career aspirations, and the impact of personal factors on their ability to confidently present themselves to prospective employers. The findings highlight the need for ALMPs and employers to facilitate positive employability support mechanisms that will build a stable platform from which young people can build a trajectory towards sustainable employment to reduce long‐term youth unemployment.     

Modeling agricultural risk management policies – The implementation of the Income Stabilization Tool in Italy

This paper investigates the potential impact of the income stabilisation tool (IST), currently introduced in the European Common Agricultural Policy to reduce farmers’ income risks using Italian agriculture as case study. The paper extends the existing literature by investigating the effects of two implementation issues: level of aggregation of mutual funds (MF); definition of farmers’ contribution (i.e. premium) to MF. We use a simulation approach based on a FADN panel data set of 3421 farms over a period of 7 years to investigate effects on (i) farm-level income variability, (ii) the expected level and variability of indemnifications at the level of mutual funds and (iii) the distribution of net benefits from this policy instrument across the farm population. We find that the introduction of the IST would lead to a significant reduction of income variability in Italian agriculture. Our results support the establishment of a national mutual fund due to the high volatility of indemnification levels at more disaggregated (e.g. regional or sectoral) levels. In addition, our results propose that farmers’ contribution to mutual funds, i.e. premiums paid, should be modulated according to farm size as this reduces the inequality of the distribution of benefits of such tool within the farm population.     

"营改增"后福建省促进现代服务业发展的财税政策优化建议

“营改增”有助于现代服务业降低税负,扩大投资和做大做强。福建省应发挥财税政策的杠杆效用,利用“营改增”契机以推动通信、科技、旅游、数字化等现代服务业发展;通过制定企业所得税、个人所得税地方优惠措施进一步降低福建现代服务业企业税负;通过灵活运用财政资金以加强现代服务业基础设施建设、引进高层次现代服务业人才、对消费型现代服务业补贴;通过成立市场化运作的现代服务业投资基金,以促进产融结合和优化升级。     

两汉罪己诏：基于“深察名号”的伦理治理

两汉罪己诏是皇帝自省的特殊文本,也是两汉时期的一种特殊政治现象,发挥着服务封建专制统治的社会治理作用。两汉罪己诏的罪己看似是对社会现实问题的归咎自责,但文本的展开却是从名实关系角度进行的不同“深察”;人们通过“观天意”而“循天意”,形成了“名生于真”的规定性,为两汉罪己诏提供了“名顺于天”的逻辑前提,使得罪己形式的治理实践始终以“名号”的真意为准则,通过析名见义、循名求实、揽名责实等方式展开具体的“深察”,进而按照“名伦等物”的价值准则形成治理举措、礼治秩序。其在一定程度上促进了良好社会风尚的形成,对后来整个封建社会的治理模式产生了深远影响。虽然两汉罪己诏存在一定的虚伪性,但仍然为中国式现代化建设等提供了丰富的文化资源。     

美国对伊朗摩萨台政府政策的演变

在伊朗民族主义支持下,摩萨台政府对英伊石油公司实行国有化,由是导致了英伊的石油之争,为美国势力渗透到伊朗及中东提供了机会。为了遏制苏联和共产主义扩张,美国政府试图通过各种手段解决英伊石油争端,杜鲁门政府对摩萨台政府采取有限或中立政策,而艾森豪威尔政府则推翻了摩萨台政府。尽管两届美国政府对摩萨台政府的政策有着显著不同,但事实上存在着很大的连续性。     

再论科举考试衰亡原因

在中国封建社会中,科举考试是一项集多种功能于一身的重要制度,它考选的是儒家绅士和官员人才,维系着中国传统社会的运转.19世纪中叶以后,由于执政者的因循守旧,科举考试的重道轻技、重文轻武逐渐暴露出其选拔和培养人才的单一性和滞后性,不能适应社会日益多样化的人才需求,最终被当作阻碍教育和社会发展的障碍而废除.当代考试与科举考试有着渊源继承关系,扬考试之长避考试之短应以科举考试为鉴.     

中国利用外资的负面效应及战略调整思路

改革开放以来,外资在推动中国经济发展方面虽发挥了重要作用,但也带来诸多负面效应。在分析外资大量流入对民间投资、国际收支平衡、行业垄断与民族产业发展、资源环境等多方面不利影响的基础上,提出利用外资战略的重新定位问题,即降低外资的资金补充功能,通过设立技术标准、产业标准以及资源消耗和环境标准,全面提高利用外资的质量,并通过实行差别化的引资政策,充分发挥外资在促进产业升级和区域协调发展中的重要作用。