Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article discusses the role of Canada's Designated Country of Origin (DCO) policy in the illegalization of asylum seekers. The policy allows the government to designate countries in which it is presumed that citizens do not face risks of persecution, torture, or similar abuse. Refugee claimants from DCOs are thus subject to accelerated processing timelines with reduced rights. Canada has implemented the policy as a way to deal with a backlog of asylum applications, increase efficiency, and exclude fraudulent refugee claims. Based on a primary field research conducted between October 2015 and May 2017 in three provinces, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, this article argues that the DCO policy is likely to have the unintended effect of shifting asylum seekers into an irregular status.

This article examines the intersections of violence, governance, identity and legitimacy in relation to autodefensas (self-defence groups) in Latin America, focusing on Mexico and Colombia. By shifting focus from the question of where legitimacy lies to how it is produced and contested by a range of groups, we challenge the often presumed link between the state and legitimacy. We develop the idea of a field of negotiation and contestation, firstly, to discuss and critique the concept of state failure as not merely a Western hegemonic claim but also a strategic means of producing legitimacy by autodefensas. Secondly, we employ and enrich the notion of violent pluralism to discuss the pervasiveness of violence and the role of neoliberalism, and to address the question of non-violent practices of governance. We argue that the idea of a field of contestation and negotiation helps to understand the complexity of relationships that encompass the production of legitimacy and identity through (non)violent governance, whereby lines between (non)state, (non)violence and (il)legitimacy blur and transform. Yet, we do not simply dismiss (binary) distinctions as these continue to be employed by groups in their efforts to produce, justify, challenge, contest and negotiate their own and others' legitimacy and identity.

PurposeThe current work aims to introduce the concept of conflict perception and construct a scale that measures individual differences in perceptions about conflicts along religious, national and material dimensions. The concept and the measure are developed in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.Design/methodology/approachThe research design combines three methodological elements: 14 focus groups in Israel and the West Bank, which represent diversity in place of residence, religion, age and political background; an expert panel review; and a survey of 411 student respondents that was conducted between September 29 and October 9, 2013, among university students in Israel and Palestine.FindingsThe findings show that conflict perception is an individual's subjective view regarding the essence of the conflict and its central issues, the identities of the parties involved and their motivations, which may include material, ideological or symbolic motives, or any combination thereof. A novel scale consisting of five statements that can measure conflict perception that was developed, validated and implemented via a survey sample showed that Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel have a religious perception of the conflict, whereas Jews have a national perception of the conflict.Originality/valueFirst, the paper introduces a new concept that sheds additional light on the micro foundations of peoples' attitudes in conflict situations. Second, it develops and validates a measurement tool for conflict perception that may be usable, with necessary adjustments, in other conflicts. Third, it demonstrates that parties to the conflict do not necessarily share similar perceptions about the conflict, a finding with far-reaching consequences for conflict resolution at both the scholarly and policy levels.

PurposeThis study aims to apply two recently discovered relationships that describe fertility recovery in developed countries to East Asia: the U-shaped relationship between fertility and FLP (female labor participation) and the inverse-J-shaped relationship between fertility and income.Design/methodology/approachIt uses a panel data set of 176 countries including 13 East Asian countries from 1990 to 2014. Pooled ordinary least squares, fixed-effects and random-effects models are tested.FindingsThe main findings are the following points concerning East Asia: The U-shape and the inverse-J-shape are confirmed, suggesting that fertility recovery could be realized if both FLP and income are high enough and increasing; in the region, the U-shape is peculiar. Lower-income countries' data move from the upper-right to the bottom, whereas higher-income countries' data move from the upper-left to the bottom; no country in the region has reached the stage where both FLP and income are high enough.Originality/valueThis is the first paper on East Asia to show the U-shape and the inverse-J-shape concerning fertility recovery and the peculiarity of the U-shape in East Asia. It explains the background of low fertility using the relationship between fertility, FLP and income.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent dynamics of the Brazilian labour market, by analysing occupational mobility patterns, specially the transitions between formal and informal labour, and verify the earnings mobility resulting from these transitions, separately by gender.


Design/methodology/approach
The changes in the mobility patterns are analysed by performing an estimation of the transition probabilities between different occupational status between 2002 and 2012, using a multinomial logit model and the microdata from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME). The earnings mobility is analysed by using quantile regressions.


Findings
The results indicate a high degree of mobility from unemployment to formal employment in the period but suggest the persistence of mobility patterns. Women are better off in the period, but only among individuals with better attributes. The earnings mobility results, for women and men, suggest an increase in valuation of the formal labour relatively to informality (informal salaried employment and self-employment), especially at the bottom of the earnings distribution.


Originality/value
The paper contributes to a better understanding of recent changes in occupational mobility patterns between formal and informal labour and the earnings mobility underlying these patterns, accounting for the differences along the earnings distribution and gender issues. That is, it allows identify which groups of workers benefited more from the formalisation process to infer about trends in formal–informal dynamics over the period and discuss the challenges in conducting policies to promote inclusive and quality employment.

Purpose
Many studies on witch killings in Africa suggest that "witchcraft is the dark side of kinship." But in Chinese history, where patriarchal clan system has been emphasized as the foundation of the society, there have been few occurrences of witch-hunting except a large-scale one in the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The purpose of this paper is to explain the above two paradoxes.


Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical analysis based on preference falsification problem with regard to the effect of social structure on witch-hunting is carried out.


Findings
There is a "bright side of kinship" due to two factors: first, it would be more difficult to pick out a person as qualitatively different in Chinese culture; second, the hierarchical trust structure embedded in the Chinese culture can help mitigate the preference falsification problem, which acts as the leverage for witch-hunting. In this sense, an important factor for the Cultural Revolution is the decline of traditional social institutions and social values after 1949.


Originality/value
This paper is the first to advance the two paradoxes and offer an explanation from the perspective of social structure.

Purpose
The purpose of the current study is to investigate the public and private financing obstacles to medium- and small-scale entrepreneurs in rural areas in Iran.


Design/methodology/approach
Descriptive analytic research method is used for collecting field data among 5,770 owners of entrepreneurial businesses located in rural areas of Mashhad in 2015.


Findings
The results showed that there are numerous public and private obstacles in rural entrepreneurship financing in Iran, which are the main factors for short-term loan repayment in public sector, and in the private sector, they result in entrepreneurs' lack of access to the source of financing. Moreover, there are a variety of financing methods for entrepreneurship in rural areas, among which personal resources and borrowings are the most important ones. Thus, lack of serious and persistent governmental support from local entrepreneurs causes many entrepreneurial failures at the early stages of entrepreneurial activity in villages of Iran.


Originality/value
So far, few studies have been conducted on the subject of the study; hence, the results of the current study may be helpful to the developing nations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the causal link between religion and the formation of human capital. It takes into consideration that, though religion may transmit a system of values that positively affect children's education, it can also be characterized by a traditionalist dimension. The latter may hamper children's self-determination and their educational achievements. Nevertheless, religious values may adapt to the cultural changes due to economic development and modernization and become less conservative.Design/methodology/approachThe above aspects are investigated through an overlapping generations model with human capital where parents' human capital and the religion in which individuals have been raised, characterize family background.FindingsThe model's predictions point to the crucial role that development may play in promoting education. For instance, if a moderate responsiveness of religious institutions to economic and cultural changes is associated with low development, conservative attitudes prevail in society. This undermines individual confidence in improving one's socio-economic status through education and negatively affects children's education. Whereas, a development level sufficiently high counterbalances the effects of a low ability of religious institutions to adjust to changes and fosters education.Originality/valueThough the empirical literature widely acknowledges that religion affects economic growth, the hypothesis that the link between religion and economic performance may also pass through education has been overlooked. In this respect, the paper investigates on this relationship by taking religion as a force reactive to economic processes.

Purpose
This study aims to assess the effect of globalisation on governance in 51 African countries for the period 1996-2011.


Design/methodology/approach
Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators and four globalisation variables are used. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments.


Findings
Firstly, on political governance, while only social globalisation improves political stability, only economic globalisation does not increase voice and accountability and political governance. Secondly, with regard to economic governance: only economic globalisation significantly promotes regulation quality; social globalisation and general globalisation significantly advance government effectiveness; and economic globalisation and general globalisation significantly promote economic governance. Thirdly, with respect to institutional governance, while only social globalisation improves corruption-control, the effects of globalisation dynamics on the rule of law and institutional governance are not significant. Fourthly, the impacts of social globalisation and general globalisation are positive on general governance.


Practical implications
It follows that political governance is driven by voice and accountability compared to political stability; economic governance is promoted by both regulation quality and government effectiveness from specific globalisation angles; and globalisation does not improve institutional governance for the most part.


Originality/value
Governance variables are bundled and unbundled to reflect evolving conceptions and definitions of governance. Theoretical contributions and policy implications are discussed.

AbstractMuch scholarship on border enforcement and loss of life asserts the relationship between enforcement and precarity. Little research attempts to correlate the two: enforcement operations and loss of life. In this article, we statistically analyse the relationship between increased border enforcement operations at sea and migrant losses of life around the EU between 2006 and 2015, and find them to be significantly and positively correlated. We also find evidence that increased enforcement leads to rerouting of migrant journeys to 'weak spots' in relation to borders. These findings bring empirical support to the commonly‐asserted claim by social scientists that externalization creates greater loss of life. We argue that, although discourse about interception and externalization has shifted to humanitarian rescue narratives, offshore enforcement by any other name continues to be highly correlated with migrant deaths. We then construct two datasets documenting migrant boats lost at sea and state interdiction operations since 1980. These data serve as the basis of our statistical analysis.