Coping with everyday bordering: Roma migrants and gatekeepers in Helsinki

ABSTRACT

The article analyses intra-European bordering on the local level through the case of Eastern European Roma in Helsinki. Precarious EU migrants outside the Nordic labour markets have formed a group neither “in” nor completely “out” of national welfare structures. We argue that various level authorities have responded to the loss of direct control over legitimate yet unwanted migrants by mobilizing municipal workers and local police as everyday gatekeepers. Policy towards the Roma migrants in Helsinki is ethnicized (conceptualizing them as a special category requiring targeted measures) and “NGOized” (relegating elementary social provision to the third sector). Their presence of is not formally challenged, yet they are effectively without access to social rights and pathways to permanent residence. Meanwhile, the migrants strive to improve their disadvantaged position through transnational, family-based livelihood strategies, which are actively adapted to the shifting European and Finnish borderscapes.     

Press discourses on Roma in the UK,Finland and Hungary

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the political and media discourses on Roma in Hungary, Finland and the UK, in relation to the local Roma in these countries as well as those who migrated from Central and Eastern Europe countries following the fall of communism. The authors have analysed left of centre and right of centre major newspapers in these three countries, focusing on specific case studies which were the foci of public debates during the last two decades. We also examined a common case study in 2013 (“blond Maria”) that was discussed throughout Europe. In each news paper, the constructions of Roma, local and migrant, and the changes to related discourses over the period were studied. In conclusion, we examine the multi-layered processes of social and political borderings in Europe which dominate discourses on Roma, “indigenous” and migrant, and the extent to which they constitute a coherent “European” construction of “the Roma”.     

Follow the money: international donors,external homelands and their effect on Romani media and advocacy

ABSTRACT

While Roma are both Europe’s largest minority, there is no “homeland” state that claims to guard their interest. The lack of “an external national homeland” [Brubaker, R. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to watchdog and safeguard their rights has a particular effect on how Roma engage as political actors and subjects. International donors/foundations have assumed the role of “external homeland”. This article explores the effect that donors’ funding priorities have on Romani advocacy – specifically Romani journalism. Drawing upon multi-sited fieldwork in five countries, extensive document analysis, and interviews, Idemonstrate that the change in Romani media content over the past two decades reflects the shift in funders’ priorities, particularly in relation to the European project. “The Roma” become a tool for donors and European institutions to build a “European” identity while Romani-led advocacy becomes increasingly marganilized.     

The intelligentsia informed habitus in social distance strategies of Polish migrants in the UK

Antagonism and conflict within newly resident UK Polish migrants has been typically related to labour market competition. Without denying the relevance of this argument, we argue that explanations of antagonism within the Polish community should also take into account the role of a Polish intelligentsia habitus. This habitus provides a repertoire of available discursive strategies used for interpreting antagonistic and “risk” situations both in Poland and among Poles abroad. It is argued that not only can this intelligentsia habitus critically legitimize intergroup inequalities in status and symbolic power but also may impact on the patterns of a migrant’s integration, linkage to social networks, access to different capital resources, and interactions with the indigenous population.     

Media mirrors? Framing Hungarian Romani migration to Canada in Hungarian and Canadian press

ABSTRACT

The most recent migration of Roma from Central-Eastern Europe to Canada started in the 1990s. Several thousand people from former socialist countries, including Hungarian Roma, moved overseas. There were many reasons but for Roma, the motivations not only included a drastic loss of employment, but re-emerging systemic and increasingly violent racism. This article focuses on the discursive framing of these motivations and the reaction within both Hungarian and Canadian newspapers from 1999 to 2013. In the article we show how the press engaged in framing and counter-framing the policies and politics of the host country through their coverage of “the Hungarian Roma” issue. Specifically, we focus on the differing and shifting spheres of consensus and the changing political/policy contexts by conducting an in-depth comparison of the changing media frames in Hungarian and Canadian newspaper coverage. We show how the “Hungarian Roma issue” becomes an example and reflection of the changing political culture.     

湖北梁子湖流域社会生态系统可持续发展的“安全公正空间”

近年来日益增强的人类活动正逐步威胁着地球生态系统的健康发展,给区域可持续发展及环境保护带来了巨大的挑战。如何在社会经济发展的同时维持安全的生态环境？这是可持续发展研究的一个重要问题。本研究借鉴“安全公正空间”理论框架,以长江中下游地区梁子湖流域为例,综合湖泊沉积记录、环境监测数据和社会经济数据,分析该区域内关键生态-环境过程的现状及居民社会福祉指标达成度(达成度指社会基础指标当前值相对于目标值的完成情况),构建了梁子湖流域社会生态系统可持续发展的“安全公正空间”。结果表明: 梁子湖流域内淡水利用、耕地资源、空气质量、水土保持和化学污染等指标超越了环境上限,处于“危险”状态,未来的环境管理中需重点调控;在社会福祉方面,清洁用水与卫生设施、产业创新维度的达成度相对较低;人均GDP与水土保持和空气质量呈显著负相关,体现了社会经济发展对水、土、气的负面效应。本研究借助多源环境数据,特别是湖泊沉积的长序列数据,有效再现了历史环境变化过程,揭示了流域社会生态系统管理中面临的环境及居民福祉短板,为区域可持续发展提供了重要的参考信息。     

Identity,Subjectivity, and Disorders of Self in Psychosis

Alterations in self-experience are increasingly attended to as relevant and important aspects of schizophrenia, and psychosis more broadly, through a burgeoning self-disorders (SD) literature. At the same time, issues of self, subject, and subjectivity within schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses have also gained attention from researchers across the social sciences and humanities, and from ethnographic research especially. This paper examines the subjective experience of disruptions in self-identity within a cohort of first episode psychosis (FEP) service users, critically engaging with the SD literature and bringing it into conversation with social sciences and humanities scholarship on self and schizophrenia. Drawing findings from an ongoing ethnographic study of young peoples’ experiences with psychosis, we explore meanings of mental distress relating to psychotic episodes and attend to issues of self, identity, and subjectivity. We critique the division between “normal” and “pathological” self-experience that is endorsed within the SD literature, arguing against the notion that fragmentation of self-experience in schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses is indicative of psychopathology. We highlight how experiences categorized as psychosis are also important and complete aspects of one’s social world and inner life and explore the ways in which at least some aspects of disruptions of self-identity stem from clinical situations themselves—in particular, from asymmetries of power within the mental health system. Relating our findings to feminist, postcolonial, and disability studies’ approaches to the “self,” we emphasize the complex interplay between interpersonal, cultural, and structural aspects of self-experience within FEP.

     

In search of natural resource-based economies: the case of the Seine estuary (France)

Industry represents about 31% of the upper Normandy region total value-added against 19.5% at national level. The same holds for the employment, since industry accounts for 21% of total local jobs, against 18% at national level. This article attempts to answer the following question: can we explain this specific concentration of economic activity by the natural advantages (water availability, easy access by water) provided by the Seine Estuary? We first characterize “strongly Seine Estuary-dependent” industrial sectors, using simple indicators such as water withdrawals and pollution emissions. Then, we evaluate the influence of these sectors on the forces (labor market pooling, input sharing and knowledge spillovers) that lead to concentration of the economic activity in the Seine estuary. We find strong evidence that this economic activity is still natural resource based.     

Strain and vegetation effects on local limiting resources explain the outcomes of biotic interactions

Positive interactions are hypothesized to increase with stress (stress-gradient hypothesis, “SGH”), which is defined in terms of standing biomass at the community level. However, recent evidence suggests that facilitation may decrease or remain constant as stress increases. Several reasons for this discrepancy are possible: (i) the outcomes of biotic interactions depend on the component of the fitness considered; (ii) they are influenced by how vegetation affects local limiting resources; (iii) within a particular community, only species that are deviated from their physiological optima are likely to be facilitated. In a removal experiment, we quantified the deviations of species in subalpine grassland from their physiological optima, defined here as species-level “strain”, and examined whether strain and vegetation effects on local resources can explain the outcome of biotic interactions. The experiment was performed along a gradient of standing biomass driven by contrasting land use and resource availability, and used five grass species with contrasting traits and ecological optima. Strain for each species was estimated by comparing growth without vegetation (target species only submitted to local abiotic factors) to growth in optimal conditions (under controlled conditions in an experimental garden). The outcomes of biotic interactions, recorded in terms of survival and growth, could be predicted from the data about strain and vegetation effects on local limiting resources (light and water). Only highly strained species were affected by facilitation, which occurred when the surrounding vegetation alleviated the constraining factors. On the other hand, standing biomass was poorly related with the outcomes of biotic interactions. The “SGH” was only partially validated with growth data when strain and vegetation effects co-varied with standing biomass. As a consequence, strain (at species level) represents a mechanistic basis which could improve the prediction of the outcomes of biotic interactions along ecological gradients.     

Water flowing north of the border: export agriculture and water politics in a rural community in Baja California

Favored by neoliberal agrarian policies, the production of fresh crops for international markets has become a common strategy for economic development in Mexico and other Latin American countries. But as some scholars have argued, the global fresh produce industry in developing countries in which fresh crops are produced for consumer markets in affluent nations implies “virtual water flows,” the transfer of high volumes of water embedded in these crops across international borders. This article examines the local effects of the production of fresh produce in the San Quintín Valley in northwestern Mexico for markets in the United States. Although export agriculture has fostered economic growth and employment opportunities for indigenous farm laborers, it has also led to the overexploitation of underground finite water resources, and an alarming decline of the quantity and quality of water available for residents’ domestic use. I discuss how neoliberal water policies have further contributed to water inequalities along class and ethnic lines, the hardships settlers endure to secure access to water for their basic needs, and the political protests and social tensions water scarcity has triggered in the region. Although the production of fresh crops for international markets is promoted by organizations such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank as a model for economic development, I argue that it often produces water insecurity for the poorest, threatening the UN goal of ensuring access to clean water as a universal human right.     

Restoring Ecosystems Around the Mediterranean Basin: Beyond the Frontiers of Ecological Science

Based on concrete examples gathered from the Mediterranean region, this article shows why restoration ecology around the Mediterranean Basin must go beyond ecological science to embrace a contrasting local vision which integrates social and political realities. By taking into account the growing gap between the northern and southern/eastern shores of the Mediterranean, we propose the adoption of a double agenda for restoration around the Mediterranean to overcome the fact that restoration objectives are often jeopardized by political decisions initially aimed to promote conservation and lack of available technical means (even when appropriate scientific and political means are secured), and to enhance local actions with lasting impacts on the ecosystems. Our discussion illustrates how current ecological problems have become extremely complex and how the success of restoration projects depends on effective social interactions. Here, the simple juxtaposition of disciplines is no longer sufficient. We suggest going beyond existing ecological and socioeconomic frontiers to fill three main gaps. To fill the “design gap” it is important from the outset to promote a full debate for correct definition of the project's objectives and success indicators. Second, to fill the “implementation gap” ecological restoration science should be linked to information technology and cognition science to develop tools adapted for ecological debate. Third, to fill the “evaluation gap” aesthetic, social, cultural, and economic indicators should be defined during the debate process.     

Adaptive production of fighter males: queens of the ant Cardiocondyla adjust the sex ratio under local mate competition

Hamilton's concept of local mate competition (LMC) is the standard model to explain female-biased sex ratios in solitary Hymenoptera. In social Hymenoptera, however, LMC has remained controversial, mainly because manipulation of sex allocation by workers in response to relatedness asymmetries is an additional powerful mechanism of female bias. Furthermore, the predominant mating systems in the social insects are thought to make LMC unlikely. Nevertheless, several species exist in which dispersal of males is limited and mating occurs in the nest. Some of these species, such as the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior, have evolved dimorphic males, with one morph being specialized for dispersal and the other for fighting with nest-mate males over access to females. Such life history, combining sociality and alternative reproductive tactics in males, provides a unique opportunity to test the power of LMC as a selective force leading to female-biased sex ratios in social Hymenoptera. We show that, in concordance with LMC predictions, an experimental increase in queen number leads to a shift in sex allocation in favour of non-dispersing males, but does not influence the proportion of disperser males. Furthermore, we can assign this change in sex allocation at the colony level to the queens and rule out worker manipulation.     

Vertebrate left and right: Finally a cascade,but first a flow?

Vertebrate development gives rise to systematic, normally reliably coordinated left-right asymmetries of body structure. This “handed asymmetry” of anatomy must take its ultimate origin from some chiral molecular assembly (one exhibiting no planes of symmetry and thus, having an intrinsic “handedness”) within the early embryo's cells. But which molecules are involved, how is their chiral property coordinately aligned among many cells, and how does it “seed” the differential cascades of gene expression that characterise right and left halves of the embryo? Recent molecular characterisations of mouse mutations that randomise or reverse body asymmetries have offered tantalising clues to the chiral initiator molecules, but the findings in a subsequent Cell paper (Nonaka S, Yosuke T, Okada Y, Takeda S, Harada K, Kanai Y, Kido M, Hirokawa N. Randomisation of left-right asymmetry due to loss of nodal cilia generating a leftward flow of extraembryonic fluid in mice lacking KIF3B motor protein. Cell 1998;95:829–837. [Reference 1]) may help us understand how the first gene expression asymmetries occur. BioEssays 21:537–541, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Roma communities,urban development and social bordering in the inner city of Budapest

ABSTRACT

The paper relates intersectionality to the construction of urban borders based on a case study of Roma neighbourhoods in Budapest. In doing this the authors focus on rationales behind appropriating and demarcating urban spaces according to political, ethno-territorial and economic agendas. We are concerned with bordering as reflected in representations of neighbourhood in Budapest’s VIII District and socio-ethnic issues that have been framed in conjunction with urban development. This includes the selective ways Roma-specific issues are made visible, or in fact masked, through ostensibly “colour-blind” policies. Furthermore, we relate these representations to concrete impacts of urban renewal with regard to challenges of multi-ethnicity but also to often exclusionary practices of border-making. Indeed, while not an officially proclaimed policy, social segregation is eagerly pursued in practice. However, this is only part of the story as we can clearly identify attempts to create a sense of Roma belonging and pride.     

Seeking Social Inventions to Improve the Transition to Adulthood

Social inventions are new ways of solving human problems. This article reports on an action research project designed to find social inventions to reduce structural lag in four programs that support the transition to adulthood of marginalized youth in Latin America. The investigators engaged youth and staff members in identifying important questions, collecting and interpreting data, and using findings to improve their practices. Their issues aligned with social setting features: activities, resources, roles, and norms. Among their social inventions were “the life project,” the role of mentor, youth responsibility, and new norms of reflection introduced by action research, which not only revealed social inventions but generated them as well. Interaction with external parties contributed to this process: the investigators, “local researchers” engaged as part of the project, participants in conferences convened for participants. Rather than recommending social inventions for adoption in other locations, we recommend using action research to generate local social inventions.     

Roma migrant children in Catalonia: between the politics of benevolence and the normalization of violence

In this article, I engage with the current debate on Roma migrant children. Taking Catalonia as a case study, I tackle the separation of Romani children from their parents and the completion of pay-to-go schemes for marginalized Romanian Roma families. The focus lies within the allegedly humane logic of state institutions and civil-society organizations that reflect structural oppression and unveil everyday racism against Roma as a group. Specifically, I seek to explain the relation between the “voluntary return” practices and programs for child protection. The benevolent practices towards the migrant Roma families are considered to be grounded on child well-being. At the same time, the common and widespread practice of pay-to-go for poor Romani migrants push the families into a vicious circle of forced mobility. Therefore, I employ the theories of humanitarianism, and the critiques on the politics of benevolence, to reveal the institutional racism against the Romani migrants.     

Roma political agency and spaces of social inclusion and exclusion: the contradictions of Roma self-governance amidst the rise of Hungary’s radical right

This paper examines the perspectives of local Roma leaders regarding the ongoing impacts, contradictions and civic outcomes of Hungary’s 1993 Act 77 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, legislation that created the framework for minority self-governance among Hungary’s thirteen recognized minority groups. We use interview data with Roma self-government leaders to examine the perceptions and experiences of Roma leaders regarding nationality self-governance as, alternately, a mechanism for enhancing social inclusion and political agency and/or, an institution that only exacerbates the exact exclusions it purports to address. We find that while some Roma nationality self-government leaders have been able to assert political agency and use local nationality self-governments for local initiatives, they report marked limitations in the scope of what they are able to do. This is accentuated in places marked by ethnic conflict where leaders struggle with balancing political agency against political cooptation.     

Guidelines for Teaching Cross-Cultural Clinical Ethics: Critiquing Ideology and Confronting Power in the Service of a Principles-Based Pedagogy

This paper presents a pedagogical framework for teaching cross-cultural clinical ethics. The approach, offered at the intersection of anthropology and bioethics, is innovative in that it takes on the “social sciences versus bioethics” debate that has been ongoing in North America for three decades. The argument is made that this debate is flawed on both sides and, moreover, that the application of cross-cultural thinking to clinical ethics requires using the tools of the social sciences (such as the critique of the universality of the Euro-American construct of “autonomy”) within (rather than in opposition to) a principles-based framework for clinical ethics. This paper introduces the curriculum and provides guidelines for how to teach cross-cultural clinical ethics. The learning points that are introduced emphasize culture in its relation to power and underscore the importance of viewing both biomedicine and bioethics as culturally constructed.     

Social ties at work: Roma migrants and the community dynamics

This research examines how the internal social dynamics of Roma communities at home shape their propensity to migrate. It is theoretically grounded in the literature on social capital and focuses on two core concepts: ‘migration-rich’ and ‘migration-poor’ communities. The research is based on in-depth interviews and informal discussions with Roma from six (mainly rural) communities of Transylvania (Romania) and includes qualitative data gathered from migrants as well as from people who did not migrate. The findings challenge existing conceptualizations of Roma migration as either explained by poverty alone or by cultural arguments (such as nomadism). This paper indicates that even in the context of severe poverty, social networks are actually decisive for migration. It demonstrates that the patterns of migration tend to be community-specific and shaped by a locally shared culture (ethos) on migration. The research suggests policy choices according to the community profile and its internal dynamics.     

Social dimensions of preimplantation genetic diagnosis: a literature review

The study provides a systematic overview of research on the social implications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The analysis focuses on empirical studies that provide insights into its heterogeneous fields of application and the concrete experiences of its users. The literature review shows that three areas of concern and controversial topics are particularly relevant for a social-scientific evaluation of PGD. Firstly, we present attitudes towards and assessments of PGD based on an ongoing expansion and transformation of its fields of application. This process includes not only more and more disorders and disease risks but also applications that are not disease-related. Secondly, there is evidence of significant gender asymmetries and financial concerns regarding the use of and access to PGD. Thirdly, the empirical studies point to a shift in normative expectations towards the idea of “genetic reproductive responsibility” and possible discriminatory consequences for individuals and families with diseases and disabilities.