Infectious diseases and securitization: WHO's dilemma

The threat posed by infectious diseases has been increasingly framed as a security issue. The UN Security Council's Resolution 1308, which designated HIV/AIDS as a threat to international security, evidenced the securitization process. Using securitization theory as a theoretical tool, this article explores the securitization of infectious diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO). While WHO has tended to securitize infectious diseases since 2000, it has encountered a dilemma in the process because of the inherent asymmetry of interest between developed and developing countries. The act of securitization in WHO currently remains mostly a rhetorical device, since WHO's norms emblematic of securitization have not been backed by operational measures for verification or enforcement due to these asymmetric interests.     

Access denied: the anatomy of silence,immobilization and the gendered migrant

Abstract

This article argues that the status of migrant subjects is characterized by a loss of communication rights and locates the instances where this loss is most visible. It investigates the process of silencing and immobilization of migrants and the particular forms it takes for female migrants through the disenablement of communicative acts. In this process the detained migrant loses her status as an interlocutor, irrespectively of the instances and processes that allow her–or demand of her–to speak. The state of exceptionality assigned to detained migrants is supported in the criminalization of migration laws and securitization, which together with widespread policies of incarceration in the West have become the antipode of the fundamental principles of free movement and expression. Silence and immobilization constitute the ‘standard’ rather than exceptional conditions of people on the move that shadow them across every step of their way, geographically, politically, culturally, legislatively, socially.     

Immigrants,ethnicized minorities and the arts: a relatively neglected research area

The aim of this article is to show the necessity to better understand the relevance of the arts in the theoretical and policy debates about immigrant incorporation and diversity in migration and post-migration cities, and also in the present phase of ethnicized and racialized social and economic relations. To do so, five domains can be considered that, taken together, constitute a general framework in which more theoretically grounded empirical research should develop: local culture, social relations and interactions, local cultural and incorporation policies, local politics and local economics.     

Leaving on migration: estimating departure dates of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica from summer roosts using a capture–mark–recapture approach

Capsule Capture–mark–recapture data can be used to predict departure dates of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica from summer roosts.

Aims To investigate how long Barn Swallows remain at their breeding grounds before migration by estimating departure dates.

Methods A capture–mark–recapture approach was applied to an extensive data set (65?303 ringed and 710 recaptured birds) from two summer roosts. Multiple-day constancy models were used to estimate apparent survival, which was subsequently translated to residence time.

Results The longest intervals between ringing and recapturing were between 66 and 67 days; estimated mean minimum durations were between 16.3 and 18.5 days. Apparent survival was high over most of the summer, indicating that there is little emigration during this period and was followed by a sharp departure-related decline in late August and September. Expected residence time, derived from apparent survival estimates, declined linearly from about 80 days in early July to less than 10 days in September. Estimated departure dates were highly consistent between years and occurred in late September.

Conclusions Barn Swallows stay much longer at post-breeding roost sites than is necessary to build up their fat reserves for migration. We suggest that the birds are likely to derive a number of benefits from such a prolonged stay that are not directly related to preparation for migration; for example, minimizing predation risk by foraging in familiar areas, and gathering information on the quality of future breeding sites.     

More or Less Integrated Ocean Management: Multiple Integrated Approaches and Two Norms

Abstract

Through a normative lens, this article investigates integrated ocean management and the multiple concepts that it involves. Although international law provides legal authority to coastal states to manage their ocean area entitlements, no single legally binding norm specific to integrated ocean management exists. Nevertheless, by combining different internationally recognized sources, this article identifies and discusses two normative concepts applicable in coastal state integrated ocean management. These are (1) the framing of integrated ocean management as a management process and (2) the incorporation of environmental, economic, and social concerns into an ocean management policy.     

Towards a new politics of migration?

This paper reconsiders Stephen Castle’s classic paper Why Migration Policies Fail. Beginning with the so-called migration crisis of 2015 it considers the role of numbers is assessing success or failure. It argues that in the UK public debates about immigration changed with European Union (EU) Enlargement in 2004, when the emphasis shifted from concerns about asylum to concerns about EU mobility. Concerns were exacerbated by the government’s failure to meet its promise to reduce net migration. This policy is hampered by the general problem of definition of “migrant” and the gap between statistical measures and popular usage in which “migration” signifies problematic mobility. In fact, concern about migration has become a placeholder for concerns about globalization and democratic accountability. A new politics of migration must make connections between migrants and citizens, but also between migration and other global processes, particularly outsourcing and the exploitation of labour and resources in the global south.     

Accepting immigrants as fellow citizens: citizenship representations in relation to migration policy preferences

Citizenship representations within national populations have mainly been deduced from state policies on migration. Yet, at the individual level, no studies have investigated whether citizenship representations are reliably associated with preferences for specific migration policies (i.e. the underlying assumption for deducing citizenship representations from state policies). Because several studies have shown that state policies may not reflect understandings of citizenship within national populations, it may be more relevant to study citizenship representations at the individual level, in relation to personal preferences regarding migration policies. This study examined how ethnic, cultural and civic citizenship representations relate to migration policy preferences at the individual level among majority group high-school students (N = 1,734) in seven EU countries. Findings add to the understanding of citizenship representations and may have implications for the implementation of migration policies.     

Facing an unfortunate trade-off: policy responses,lessons and spill-overs during the COVID-19 pandemic

Although COVID-19 emerged as a global shock, governments adopted non-pharmaceutical policy responses that were rather heterogeneous, depending on cultural and institutional characteristics. At the country level, the stringency of ‘lockdown’-type policies should be set to achieve the best possible trade-off between economic and fatality dynamics, obviously accounting for possible cross-border influences. To allow for policy learning, I assume that the first country implementing a policy initiative that is worth emulating must either get the best possible health or the best possible economic outcome. I propose a combination of sign and magnitude restrictions, embedded in a global VAR model, to identify idiosyncratic policy shocks that spill over and influence policy responses abroad. Once policy shocks are identified, I run a comparison exercise between two model specifications, i.e. with and without policy emulation. Within a given a sample, this methodology can be used to find when and where policy lessons can be identified. I find that, among 17 developed and developing countries, few can offer lessons based on their policy initiatives, but several others might get better trade-offs through policy emulation, although in reality this outcome is not guaranteed to have occurred.     

Exclusion through acculturation? Comparing first- and second-generation European Muslims’ perceptions of discrimination across four national contexts

ABSTRACT

Negative attitudes towards Muslims have increased substantially in Europe, but European Muslims’ perceptions of discrimination vary across national contexts. Three separate approaches explain perceptions of discrimination: social psychological theories at the micro-level, migration theories at the social structural level, and citizenship theories at the macro-level. We know less about how these approaches fit together to explain variation in perceptions of discrimination across national contexts. To evaluate this question, this article combines survey data of European Muslims (n?=?1,618) with indices of policy commitments to immigrant integration in four countries. Contrary to hypothesized findings, this article identifies a striking puzzle: (1) Muslims report more experiences of discrimination in more inclusive contexts and (2) native-born Muslims are more likely to perceive societal hostility than Muslim immigrants in more inclusive contexts. To make sense of this puzzle, I offer an integrated approach that explains how macro-level contexts condition individual-level perceptions of exclusion through cultural knowledge.     

How to ‘catch’ floating populations? Research and the fixing of migration in space and time

Abstract

The recent ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences suggests that research always fixes mobility somehow in time and space, in order to understand it. Migration, being a form of mobility, has to be fixed on certain times and spaces in order to make it possible to define and research it. Being a geographer, I build on this insight in the first part of the article to re-read the critiques on post-war methodological nationalism. Reflecting on my own past research practice, I argue in the second part that leaving behind the methodological nationalism paradigm does not mean leaving behind the necessity to fix migration in time and space, on either the ontological or the practical methodological level. New ways of fixing are chosen and, out of recurring ontological and methodological choices, new migration stereotypes are developing such as what might be called ‘methodological ruralism’ in the case of Romanian migration.     

‘Structure liberates?’: mixing for mobility and the cultural transformation of ‘urban children’ in a London academy

Abstract

This paper explores how the creation of a socially and ethnically mixed student body relates to mobility within the context of Beaumont Academy. This authoritarian school opened in 2004 under the ethos ‘structure liberates’. Based in a predominantly deprived, ethnic minority area of London, Beaumont seeks to culturally transform its students. With its outstanding GCSE results, the school has been championed as a blueprint for reform, yet the cultural implications underlying this approach remain unexamined. The ethos pathologizes the surrounding area while essentializing itself as an ‘oasis in the desert’ liberating students through discipline. The paper explores how mobility is embodied by students and the alterations or eliminations necessary to achieve it. These alterations produce raced and classed positions and bring them into focus, highlighting who needs to ‘adjust’ themselves to accrue value. Uncritical celebrations of mixed-ness conceal structural inequalities lingering beneath the rhetoric of happy multiculturalism and aspirational citizenship. These inequalities are exacerbated by a marketized education system.     

For Love,Labour, and Lifestyle: European Men Moving to Northeast Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article debates the specific case of the migration of European men to Northeast Brazil and its relation to the creation of intimacy bonds with local women that have been made possible by previous tourist visits. The analysis has the principal objective of understanding the dense framework of social conditions and circumstances that cause the transatlantic mobility of men, and gives particular emphasis to the emotional and marital factors that fuel this type of movement, trying to show that they also migrate for intimacy reasons, and not only for economic reasons as studies based on a neoclassical approach have often seemed to indicate. While central, in these examples of international mobility, the intention to marry is not as determining a factor as the concept of ‘marriage migrations’ would suggest. Poetic motivations related to passion coexist dynamically with a much wider set of (micro)political economy and existential drives, related not only to employment and investment but also to recreation and the minutiae of everyday life. For this reason, it is important to avoid any unicausal schema based on exclusive or dichotomous conceptual frameworks that foreground migration for marital, lifestyle and/or employment motives. The migrations in question tend to be motivated, simultaneously, by the desire for matrimony and to secure assets, and even by what we might call ‘civilisational’ issues. The material that sustains both this and other perspectives presented in the article is the result of a multisited ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in various spaces within Euro-Brazilian configurations of intimacy.     

Norway's law of the sea policy in the 1970s

Abstract

The Norwegian government has stated that creating a new international law of the sea is a foreign policy matter of the highest political priority in the period 1978–1981. A reasonable explanation might be the close correlation that normally exists between the political significance and the economic importance of issues and the area on which they impinge. As to Norway, it should suffice to point to the fact that the country ranks fifth among the merchant marine nations of the world, takes the fifth largest fish catch, and has sovereignty over the biggest continental shelf in Europe. Against this background, the author discusses the hypothesis that economic factors are the guiding hand in Norwegian ocean policy. However, the conclusion reached is that economic factors play a rather modest role in explaining this policy and that the reasons behind it are to be found at the intersection between economic interests, security policies, jurisdiction, the protection of resources and the environment as they are reflected in the rather peculiar situation of the North.     

社会资本进入公立医院政策演进分析

目的 对我国公立医院利用社会资本的有关政策进行阐述和分析。方法 基于国内公立医院发展现况,通过个案调查、访谈、文献查阅等形式,对公立医院的融资过程进行政策分析。结果 公立医院对社会资本引入的尝试,已形成了一些具有若干特点的融资模式,如银行贷款、融资租赁、慈善捐赠等。结论 我国公立医院为实现可持续发展,多渠道引入社会资本已经成为必然的发展趋势。但从整体上讲,还未形成满足各种社会资本状况的政策体系。     

Lack of Correlation Between Antiobesity Policy and Obesity Growth Rates: Review and Analysis

ObjectiveTo review federal, state, and local antiobesity policies and to assess their relationships with obesity growth rates.MethodsWe performed a literature review, acquired data from governmental Internet sources, and assessed the statistical correlation between state antiobesity policies and the concavity in obesity growth rates.ResultsState-by-state antiobesity policies in 3 categories—taxation of sugared beverages and snacks, physical education and physical activity in schools, and funding for bicycle trails—were found to have no significant immediate correlation with the change in obesity growth rates.ConclusionsIneffective antiobesity legislation may be attributable to shortcomings in policy implementation. Behavioral economics and addressing large-scale cultural issues may have critical roles in promoting more healthful lifestyles. We propose that a systems-based paradigm evaluating complex interactions among pathophysiological, cultural, political, economic, and behavioral components can improve antiobesity policy implementation and should therefore be a research focus. (Endocr Pract. 2012;18:737-744)     

De-naturalizing the national in research methodologies: key concepts of transnational studies in migration

Abstract

Building on the transnational approach to migration, this introduction outlines some elements of the programme of an emergent methodological transnationalism. This effort aims to de-naturalize the concept of the national within migration studies. First, the analysis identifies methodological challenges of migration studies, such as contextualization, the ethnic lens and the essentializing view on ethnicity. Second, it indicates the relevant conceptual elements which deal with these methodological challenges, such as the critique of methodological nationalism, cosmopolitanism and the relational concept of space. Third, it addresses the relevant methods, such as multi-sited ethnography, the mobile methods approach, as well as researchers' positionality and strategies of de-ethnicization, all of which correspond to the new epistemology of migration studies. Finally, it highlights the common characteristics of the contributions to this special issue, which go beyond the normative view of cross-border migration.     

取消药品加成对县级公立医院经济运营的影响分析

目的 探讨取消药品加成政策的实施对县级公立医院经济运营所产生的影响。方法 运用对比研究的方法对四川省6家试点县级公立医院的经济运行状况进行分析。结果 取消药品加成政策实施后县级公立医院收支结余下降，补偿渠道发生变化。结论 加强政府财政投入和相关政策的落实力度，警惕医院将取消药品加成损失向其他收费项目转移。     

Mooring “super-diversity” to a brutal migration milieu

The migration milieu in which “super-diversity” locates is not a crisis of human mobility, but a crisis of political imagination to engage with mobility as integral to twenty-first-century citizenship. Western capitalism requires and refutes the migrant, making a volatile life-world of migration in public discourse, policy and everyday life and I engage with whether super-diversity has explanatory cogency for this brutal migration milieu. Vertovec's original outline of super-diversity points to accelerated migrations in which the elaboration of borders have become more multiple and stratified. While migration processes have discernible scale, breadth and pace, I focus on the formative conditions of history, atmosphere and ideology. My aim is to relate processes of diversity-making to the punitive effects of the European border complex. I expand on the politics of contradiction and the fear generated by the migration “crisis”, connected to the discriminatory sorting of migrants sustained by an historic ethos of subordination.