Migration decision-making and migration industry in the Indonesia–Malaysia corridor

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the involvement of migration industry (MI) in the migration system of Indonesia and Malaysia. The two countries share an extensive border and have much in common in culture and history but they are very different in geographical size, population and economic development, the latter being a main cause for labour migration from Indonesia to Malaysia. The changing context of government policies generates new niches for migration services taken up by formal and informal intermediaries, thereby confronting migrants with a varied migration-decision field and thresholds during their migration process. Much of the migration is legal, but a large part of it also takes place outside the control of the national governments. While taking mental processes in migration decision-making as starting point, we analyse how the MI, by way of fostering, facilitating and controlling geographic mobility and localised employment, connects to the production and negotiating of three migration decision thresholds faced by migrants.     

How does Inequality Hamper Subjective Well-being? The Role of Fairness

Social Indicators Research - In this study, we aim at clarifying the role of economic inequality on the subjective well-being of individuals. For this purpose, we use more than 180,000 individuals...     

Bayesian unit-root tests for Stochastic Volatility models

In this article, we consider Bayesian inference procedures to test for a unit root in Stochastic Volatility (SV) models. Unit-root tests for the persistence parameter of the SV models, based on the Bayes Factor (BF), have been recently introduced in the literature. In contrast, we propose a flexible class of priors that is non-informative over the entire support of the persistence parameter (including the non-stationarity region). In addition, we show that our model fitting procedure is computationally efficient (using the software WinBUGS). Finally, we show that our proposed test procedures have good frequentist properties in terms of achieving high statistical power, while maintaining low total error rates. We illustrate the above features of our method by extensive simulation studies, followed by an application to a real data set on exchange rates.     

Exploring Social Class: Voices of Inter‐Class Couples

Social class is not often discussed or examined in‐depth in couple and family therapy research and literature even though social class shapes familial relationships and is considered an important variable in marital satisfaction. In this qualitative study, we explored the perceptions of eight couples who made lasting commitments across class lines by asking them about the impact of their social class backgrounds on their relationships. Three categories of themes emerged including: (a) differences and similarities in values and attitudes toward education, work, money, and class awareness/classism, (b) relationship issues involving families of origin, friends, and class‐based couple conflict, and (c) differences in economic resources, social capital and privileges/opportunities. Implications for assessment and treatment of couples are included.     

Strategic Intersectionality and Political Representation: Female Muslim Councilors in London

This article addresses questions of how race/ethnicity, gender, and religion influence political representation. We use original interview data to test a strategic intersectionality theory developed by Fraga and colleagues (2005) in the case of female Muslim councilors in London, the United Kingdom. The original strategic intersectionality theory proposes that women are more effective advocates for ethnic group interests due to their unique capacity to leverage three primary resources: a substantive policy focus, multiple identity advantage, and gender inclusive advantage. We modify the thesis by analyzing religion as an additional identity marker and further disaggregating the three primary sources of leverage. We use the modified thesis to test whether female Muslim councilors of three London boroughs are more effective advocates for Muslim interests than their non-Muslim colleagues. We find mixed evidence for the presence of the three sources of leverage associated with strategic intersectionality, resulting in a more complex theorizing of this phenomenon than that found in prior research. This study offers a new contribution to the operationalization of intersectionality and the literature on intersectionality and political representation.     

Cultural History Between Structure And Contingency: the Manus example

Carrier, James and Achsah Carrier. Wage, trade, and exchange in Melanesia: a Manus society in the modern state. (Studies in Melanesian Anthropology, vol. 7, edited by G.H. Herdt, FJ. Porter Poole and D. Tuzin.) Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. xvii, 257pp., tables, references, index. ISBN 0 520 06389 9.

Carrier, Achsah and James Carrier. Structure and process in a Melanesian society: Ponam's progress in the twentieth century. (Studies in Anthropology and History, vol. 1, edited by N. Thomas.) Chun Harwood Academic Publishers. 1991. xxii, 261pp., appendices, glossary, references, author and subject index. ISBN 3 7186 5149 1.     

Job creation: New work for women?

The movement of some women into self employment is considered in this paper. It is argued that if this movement is to be successful, and thus have any influence on the equality of employment opportunities, then it is necessary for the business ventures involved to be run strategically rather than operationally. It is also argued that there must be greater scope and encouragement for innovation in this area, otherwise there is a danger of mirroring, in new business formation, the structure of inequality that applies to the formal, and declining, structure of current employment. Finally, the paper examines the need for women's entrepreneurial ventures to be better accepted by and integrated into the wider social fabric. The potential sources of stress and of satisfaction in women's self employment are noted.