Social and economic context and attitudes toward immigrants in Canadian cities

This article presents a study of the effects of a number of socioeconomic features of Canadian cities, particularly their unemployment rates, on the attitudes toward immigrants of their native-born residents. Using data from a national study of ethnicity and multiculturalism, the authors estimate several regression models predicting 3 separate dimensions of attitude toward immigrants and including as independent variables both individual characteristics and structural characteristics of city of residence. They found no evidence of a sizeable effect of local unemployment rate on attitude toward immigrants. Of the other contextual variables included in the models, the only 2 consistently influencing these attitudes included in the models, educational attainment and income, along with mother tongue, exhibit the strongest and most consistent effects on the attitude dimensions.     

Attitude-action relationships*

La présente étude a pour objet la relation qui existe entre une attitude verbale à l'égard de la légalisation de la marijuana et la façon de se comporter manifestement opposée à cette attitude. Le sujet principal de l'étude avait donc pour but de déterminer si oui ou non le comportement d'une personne reste le même lorsque, dans la cas d'une situation d'intérraction, on ajoute des données variées de participation sociale et certaines attitudes dictées par les convenances. Est abordée aussi la question de savoir si oui ou non le besoin d'une personne de se sentir approuvée a quelque effet sur la constance des résultats. En conclusion, on s'aperçoit que la participation sociale, les attitudes de convenance et le besoin d'aquiescement, influent fortement sur les relations: ‘attitude —comportement.’ The present study is concerned with the relationship between verbal attitudes toward the legalization of marijuana and the overt behaviour expressed toward this attitude object. The main concern is to determine whether or not an individual's behaviour will remain consistent when variations of ‘social participation’ and ‘attitudinal congruence’ are injected into an interactional situation. Also investigated is the question of whether or not the personality variable of ‘need for approval’ has any effect on the consistency issue. The findings suggest that social participation, attitudinal congruence and the individual's need for approval are powerful influences in attitude-behaviour relationships.     

Situational and Personality Variables as Influencing the Relationship between Attitudes and Overt Behaviour*

Cette etude s'interesse particulierement a la relation qui existe entre les attitudes verbales vis-a-vis la legislation de la marijuana et un aspect de la conduite explicite exprimee par rapport a l'objet de cette attitude. Plus precise-ment, nous voulons determiner dans quelle mesure la conduite se dissocie des attitudes lorsqu'on demande aux sujets observes de poser un geste concret en presence de deux temoins. II s'agit de savoir si la conduite individuelle se situe dans le prolongement de l'attitude lorsque cette contrainte sociale est operante dans la situation en tant que variable nouvelle. Cette recherche tente egalement d'apprecier les effets de deux autres facteurs: le besoin d'etre approuve (une variable psychologique) et la congruence (une variable liee a la situation). The reported study concerns the relationship between verbal attitudes toward the legalization of marijuana and one form of overt behaviour expressed toward this attitude object. More specifically, interest lay in determining how behaviour deviated from consistency with attitudes when subjects were asked to perform an overt act in the immediate presence of two other individuals. The main concern was to determine whether or not an individual's behaviour would remain consistent when this “social constraint” was injected into a situation as an intervening variable. The research also attempted to ascertain the effects of two additional factors; need for approval (a personality variable) and con-gruency (a situational variable).     

Basic Minimum Needs,Quality of Life and Selected Correlates: Explorations in Villages in Northern India

For those involved in international development, one of the major goals is an improvement in the quality of life of the poor. Bhargava and Chakrabati (1992: 133) see the “primary objective of development at any given time is to improve the quality of life”. Indeed, the mission statement for an international development organization explicitly commits itself to the improvement of the quality of life for the “poorest of the poor” (DID, 1994). Social indicators, as “transeconomic” measures of quality of life, have “become an integral part of 'development indicators”' (Kao and Liu, 1984: 400; see, also Kahn, 1991). The connection between quality of life and development extends beyond the Third World. For example, in the U.S. Myers (1987) found quality of life influenced inmigration to Austin, Texas, thus affecting its economic development. Undoubtedly the majority of the connections between social indicators and development has been examined at the macro, or national levels using economic, health, education and other objective, comparative indices. Recognizing that such measures as GNP are oftentimes inadequate, assorted indices have been derived to gauge the changes in social development over time, e.g., the well-known Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) constructed by the Overseas Development Council (Morris, 1976). Many of these tend to focus on objective, material indicators (commodity possessions) as opposed to the more subjective ones (Anand and Ravallion, 1993). It is not the purpose of this paper to examine the various critics' arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of extant macro versus micro indices, but rather to lend support for the general need to assess development and social change through social indicators, whether macro or micro, objective or subjective. Ultimately, the purpose of the assessment should guide which social indicators are selected. The purpose of this paper is to examine several issues arising from the linkages between development efforts and quality of life (QOL). Using empirical data which were gathered to evaluate a community development project in the Garhwal region of Northern India, several issues, germane to both social indicators and development, will be investigated. These include: (1) the relationship between “Basic Minimum Needs” (BMNs) and QOL, (2) some methodological innovations for measuring both BMNs and QOL, and (3) selected correlates of BMNs and social indicators of QOL for Garhwali villagers. Before describing the project and its findings, we will first place it in the overall development context.     

Research Note/Note de recherche The ability to implement human rights legislation in Canada

Une analyse récente de dossiers de la Commission canadienne des droits de la personne indique que l'application des dispositions législatives contre la discrimination semble plus facile pour certains types de discrimination que pour d'autres. L'analyse d'un échantillon de dossiers de 1982–1983 montre que les plaintes relatives au sexe ou a une invalidité ont de meilleures chances d'être confirmées que les plaintes impliquant la race, la couleur, l'ethnicité ou l'origine nationale. Nous utilisons des techniques qualitatives et quantitatives, et montrons que, dans les cas impliquant sexe ou invalidité, le bien-fondé de la plainte a étéétabli au moyen une procédure investigative comparative, alors que dans les autres cas une procédure séquentielle a été utilisée.
A recent analysis of Canadian Human Rights Commission files suggests that the enforcement of legislated prohibitions on discrimination may be more easily implemented for some grounds of discrimination than for other grounds of discrimination. An analysis of a sample of 1982-83 case files, shows that complaints involving sex or disability are much more likely to be substantiated than cases based on race, colour, ethnicity or national origin. Using both qualitative and quantitative analytical procedures, the results show that for sex and disability cases, a comparative investigative procedure was employed to assess the validity of the complaint while a sequential style of investigation was used in race, colour, ethnic or national origin cases.