Moralizing regulation: the implications of policing “good” versus “bad” immigrants

Recently, the US has dramatically expanded immigration enforcement. At the same time, some advocates have sought to support “good” immigrants. This paper considers how the resulting good/bad binaries affect undocumented immigrants. I examine a case study in Los Angeles, where policing intertwined with protection. Based on participant observation and interviews, I show that respondents believed state agents classified them either as “bad” criminals or “good”, immigrants. To the extent immigrants identified as “good”, they credited the US with offering them “freedom” and hoped for political inclusion. At the same time, in what I call moralizing regulation, they also performed “good” behaviour and distinguished themselves from those seen as “bad”. Some also tied “good” behaviour to femininity and “acting white”. At the extreme, they blamed other migrants for inviting state mistreatment. The effects were ambivalent: while immigrants appreciated US support, they also adopted and adapted to the state’s moral norms.     

Immigrant reproductive dysfunction facilitates ecological speciation

The distributions of species are not only determined by where they can survive – they must also be able to reproduce. Although immigrant inviability is a well‐established concept, the fact that immigrants also need to be able to effectively reproduce in foreign environments has not been fully appreciated in the study of adaptive divergence and speciation. Fertilization and reproduction are sensitive life‐history stages that could be detrimentally affected for immigrants in non‐native habitats. We propose that “immigrant reproductive dysfunction” is a hitherto overlooked aspect of reproductive isolation caused by natural selection on immigrants. This idea is supported by results from experiments on an externally fertilizing fish (sand goby, Pomatoschistus minutus). Growth and condition of adults were not affected by non‐native salinity whereas males spawning as immigrants had lower sperm motility and hatching success than residents. We interpret these results as evidence for local adaptation or acclimation of sperm, and possibly also components of paternal care. The resulting loss in fitness, which we call “immigrant reproductive dysfunction,” has the potential to reduce gene flow between populations with locally adapted reproduction, and it may play a role in species distributions and speciation.     

Not black,but Habasha: Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in American society

In this article, I examine the identity choices of Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants of Amhara, Tigrayan and Tigrinya ethnicity within the context of the larger debate on how non-white immigrants are being incorporated into American society. I argue that these immigrants resist racialization even while their actions and attitudes potentially reinforce America's racial divide. They implicitly challenge American racial categories by thinking of themselves as Habasha, which they view as a separate non-black ethno-racial category that emphasizes their Semitic origins. Meanwhile, they often distance themselves from American blacks through pursuing transnational connections, producing Habasha spaces, displaying the attributes of a ‘model minority’ and preserving Habasha beauty through endogamy. By remaining relatively isolated within their ethnic communities in Washington, DC, which is the focus of this study, they may succeed in differentiating themselves from American blacks, but they are not likely to join the American mainstream on a par with whites.     

Moral Publics: Human Trafficking,Video Films and the Responsibility of the Postcolonial Subject

This article analyzes the ways in which a Nigerian video film about human trafficking is received by Nigerian women who have themselves experienced trafficking in their migration to Italy. This contextualized case study is used as a methodological “lockpick” to open up new lines of enquiry into the relationship that southern Nigerian video films create with their audiences. The essay argues that, by virtue of their specific “addressivity,” the genre of Nigerian video films that focus on female migration and prostitution participates in the creation of moral publics that are concerned with the definition of the postcolonial subject’s responsibility in shaping his/her own destiny.     

Time-Qualified Reference Limits (Chronodesms) for 24-Hour Blood Pressure Values: Classical and Bayesian

Background – This paper is a concrete example of the problems raised by the need of constructing the time-qualified reference limits (chronodesms) for blood pressure (BP), in order to clinically estimate the hemodynamic parameter in its intrinsic nychtohemeral variability. Methods – Assuming that the noninvasive ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) is the eligible technique for this need, it must be realized that the BP chronodems may be of two types, depending on the sample being used for their calculation. The first type may be regarded as “ a priori ” because of the fact that they are derived by a sample of normotensive subjects who are unavoidably recruited via “ causal ” sphygmomanometric measurements and reclassified as normotensive by comparing their ABPM to the fixed reference limits (monodesms) given by WHO (monodiagnosis). Therefore, the “ a priori ” BP chonodesms are by principle derived by subjects who could not be correctly classified as normotensive, their ABPM being not tested versus the time-varying physiological limits. The second type may regarded as “ a posteriori ” in virtue of the fact that they may be constructed on a sample which contemplates the previous subjects who result to be true normotensive via the reassessment of their ABPM versus the “ a priori ” BP chronodesms (chronodiagnosis). The “ a posteriori ” chronodesms may be regarded as biometrically reliable, whether the sample for their construction is additionally constituted by those subjects of the local population who have been erroneously monodiagnosed as hypertensive, while they result to be true normotensive via the chronodiagnostic comparison of their ABPM versus the “ a priori ” BP chronodesms. Results – The biometric reliability of the “ a posteriori ” BP chronodems is demonstrated by the fact that their upper limits are statistically significantly less pronounced due to the fact that they are provided by a sample which has been depured by the falsely monodiagnosed normotensives. Conclusions – The “ a posteriori ” BP upper chronodesms are the time-qualified reference limits which should be used in clinical practice for the chronodiagnosis of hypertension.     

“Whoever decides for you without you,s/he is against you!”: immigrant activism and the role of the Left in political racialization

Much of the migration literature neglects the questions of why and how “native” allies obstruct activism by immigrants and ethnic minorities. Left-wing organizations in particular are often assumed to be supportive of inclusion, and little research exists on the ways they have prevented the migrant population from having a voice in the political arena and from taking part in society as equals. Drawing on the critical theory literature, I introduce the concept of political racialization. This concept refers to mechanisms whereby political actors, in order to legitimize their work on immigration, have partially included immigrants in the political sphere, but in a relationship of “ethnic” or “racial” subordination. Through the analysis of 57 in-depth interviews with immigrant activists, I show how political racialization works within the Italian Left and how it contributes to marginalize the migrant population. I further explain how immigrant activists have challenged political racialization through their activism.     

Eating Disorder or Disordered Eating? Non‐normative Eating Patterns in Obese Individuals

Binge eating disorder (BED) and night eating syndrome (NES) are putative eating disorders frequently seen in obese individuals. Data suggest that BED fulfills criteria for a mental disorder. Criteria for NES are evolving but at present do not require distress or functional impairment. It remains unclear whether BED and NES, as they are currently defined, are optimally useful for characterizing distinct patient subgroups. We propose that a distinction be made between “eating disorders” and “non‐normative” eating patterns without associated distress or impairment. Although non‐normative eating patterns may not be considered mental disorders, they may be very important in terms of their impact on body weight and health. More precise behavioral and metabolic characterization of subgroups with eating disorders and non‐normative eating behaviors has important implications for understanding the etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of obesity. Ultimately, better understanding of the many pathways to increased energy intake may lead to targeted strategies for prevention of overweight and obesity in at‐risk individuals and populations.     

De-extinction and the conception of species

Developments in genetic engineering may soon allow biologists to clone organisms from extinct species. The process, dubbed “de-extinction,” has been publicized as a means to bring extinct species back to life. For theorists and philosophers of biology, the process also suggests a thought experiment for the ongoing “species problem”: given a species concept, would a clone be classified in the extinct species? Previous analyses have answered this question in the context of specific de-extinction technologies or particular species concepts. The thought experiment is given more comprehensive treatment here. Given the products of three de-extinction technologies, twenty-two species concepts are “tested” to see which are consistent with the idea that species may be resurrected. The ensuing discussion considers whether or not de-extinction is a conceptually coherent research program and, if so, whether or not its development may contribute to a resolution of the species problem. Ultimately, theorists must face a choice: they may revise their commitments to species concepts (if those concepts are inconsistent with de-extinction) or they may recognize de-extinction as a means to make progress in the species problem.     

The television and the shrine: Towards a theoretical model for the study of mass communications in Nigeria 1

The context in which the new mass media are produced, distributed, and consumed in Nigeria differs as radically from the everyday world of the “developed” nations as it does from traditional Nigerian societies of a century ago. Many sociologists of mass communication have failed to address the issue of cultural difference in their accounts of media and their role in the third world. It is suggested that Weber's concepts of “enchantment” and “rationalization” should both be re‐examined if one wishes to better understand a world in which television and the ancestral shrine exist in both spatial and ideological proximity to one another.     

Defensive behaviour and its inheritance in the anabantoid fish, Macropodus opercularis and Macropodus opercularis concolor

In this preliminary study defense behaviour patterns (fear responses) are described in two closely related, behaviourally different inbred labyrinth fish subspecies and in their F₁ generation. The subspecies M. opercularis (characterized briefly by “active escape”) and M. opercularis concolor (characterized by “passive escape”) showed specific differences in the manifestation of certain defense behaviour patterns. In the F₁ hybrid generation dominance and overdominance of M. opercularis was found in most defense behaviour patterns. Analysing the frequencies and sequences of movement patterns it could be shown that defensive behaviour is not a random or entirely “plastic” process but that there is sequential linkage between the patterns and they form characteristic clusters. Our results suggest that manifestations of different patterns are under genetic control and presumably, genetic determination of certain patterns is not very complex. Attempts were made to determine whole brain noradrenaline, serotonine and dopamine levels of the two subspecies and a significant difference was found in the noradrenaline content.     

Species and paleoanthropology

The biotic world is self-evidently “packaged” into units, of which the most basic is the species. It is necessary to develop an accurate understanding of what species are and how they are to be identified before we can proceed to more complex analyses of the evolutionary histories and relationships of extinct and extant taxa at all levels of the systematic hierarchy. In this article, we review the major species concepts current today among paleoanthropologists, and examine the limitations of their applicability to practical studies of extant and extinct faunas. The primary such limitation for paleoanthropologists is the fact that all major species definitions stress reproductive continuity (whether by exclusionary or inclusionary mechanisms), a quality that is inferential at best among forms known only as fossils (and, in many cases, in the extant fauna as well). The only reliable signal as to species status in the fossil record is morphology, yet speciation carries with it no specifiable quantity of morphological innovation. Some groups with autapomorphies are not species, and some species do not bear autapomorphies. How, then, are we to recognize species in the hominid and other fossil records? Noting that osteodental differences among congeneric primate species tend to be subtle, and that when consistent identifiable “morphs” can be found at least as many species are present, we recommend equating morphs based on several characters with species—realizing that only one or two distinctive characters may not make a morph. In this way, our views of the phylogenetic histories of higher taxa may be oversimplified, but their essential patterns will not be distorted.     

Phylogenetic evidence from freshwater crayfishes that cave adaptation is not an evolutionary dead‐end

Caves are perceived as isolated, extreme habitats with a uniquely specialized biota, which long ago led to the idea that caves are “evolutionary dead‐ends.” This implies that cave‐adapted taxa may be doomed for extinction before they can diversify or transition to a more stable state. However, this hypothesis has not been explicitly tested in a phylogenetic framework with multiple independently evolved cave‐dwelling groups. Here, we use the freshwater crayfish, a group with dozens of cave‐dwelling species in multiple lineages, as a system to test this hypothesis. We consider historical patterns of lineage diversification and habitat transition as well as current patterns of geographic range size. We find that while cave‐dwelling lineages have small relative range sizes and rarely transition back to the surface, they exhibit remarkably similar diversification patterns to those of other habitat types and appear to be able to maintain a diversity of lineages through time. This suggests that cave adaptation is not a “dead‐end” for freshwater crayfish, which has positive implications for our understanding of biodiversity and conservation in cave habitats.     

“Canadian Experience” discourse and anti-racialism in a “post-racial” society

“Canadian Experience” is a paradox for many immigrants in Canada and contributes to their exclusion from the labour market. Through an analysis of Canadian English print media, from 2006 to 2011, we illustrate how “Canadian Experience” discourse places the responsibility of immigrant labour market integration on immigrants themselves and constructs their experiences of exclusion as non-racial. This is theorized as a “post-racial” strategy that relies on anti-racialism (avoidance of racial references) to deny the existence and effects of racism, thereby allowing the Canadian public to maintain its façade of innocence but perpetuates “racism without racists”. The discourse de-historicizes postcolonial racial hierarchy and promotes a de-racialized neo-liberal model for immigrant inclusion. This has implications for anti-racism and settlement service provision.     

Historical and philosophical perspectives on the study of developmental bias

Throughout the recent history of research at the intersection of evolution and development, notions such as developmental constraint, evolutionary novelty, and evolvability have been prominent, but the term “developmental bias” has scarcely been used. And one may even doubt whether a unique and principled definition of bias is possible. I argue that the concept of developmental bias can still play a vital scientific role by means of setting an explanatory agenda that motivates investigation and guides the formulation of integrative explanatory frameworks. Less crucial is a definition that would classify patterns of phenotypic variation and unify variational patterns involving different traits and taxa as all being “bias.” Instead, what we should want is a concept that generates intellectual identity across various researchers, and that unites the diverse fields and approaches relevant to the study of developmental bias, from paleontology to behavioral biology. I point to some advantages of conducting research specifically under the label of “developmental bias,” compared with employing other, more common terms such as “evolvability.”     

Acetylation of sulfamethazine in a Nigerian population

Sulfamethazine (syn. sulfadimidine) is inactivated by conversion to its N-acetyl derivative. Individuals are phenotyped as either “rapid” or “slow” acetylators. We have tested the validity of this theory in a Nigerian population. The frequency distribution histograms of the percentage acetylsulfamethazine in urine and serum were found to be bimodal, indicating the existence of a genetic polymorphism as observed by earlier workers. A plot of the percentage of the drug acetylated in serum against that in urine of the same individual results in a satisfactory separation of the rapid and slow acetylator phenotypes. An incidence of the slow acetylator phenotype of 41% was observed in the Nigerian population tested. How this observation fits into the hypothesis that the slow frequency of the allele increases from the Arctic Circle toward the Equator is discussed.     

Host-country patriotism among European immigrants: a comparative study of its individual and societal roots

While research has traditionally focused on first- and second-generation immigrants' socio-economic incorporation and to a lesser extent on their cultural and political integration, we analyse their affective attachment to the host country. Specifically, we assess: (1) the extent to which immigrants appear more or less ‘patriotic’ than non-immigrants; (2) what individual-level characteristics lead immigrants to greater (or lesser) attachment and; (3) whether cross-national differences in affective feelings towards the host country can be explained by relevant contextual characteristics. Analysing the 2008 wave of the European Values Study, we arrive at the conclusion that immigrants are not disaffected in terms of national pride, and that their own attachment is largely a function of the community in which they find themselves.     

The cultural construction of gendered bodies: Biology and metaphors of production and destruction*

One way of conceiving of the anthropological task is that of countering the degradations and “dehumanizations” of the “other” to which the species is prone by promoting “transcendent humanization.” However efficiently and professionally anthropologists gather their materials and form them into their ethnographic and ethnologic analyses, may not this “ethical impulse” be postulated as the “final cause” of our efforts? But what could such a sonorous phrase mean ? And what is its relationship to the systematic study of the “differences that make or do not make a difference” in culture to which anthropology has long been devoted? I will argue that it involves a dynamic of categories and that this dynamic is itself an object of systematic study. Recently, for example, some anthropologists have been writing “against culture,” seeing the culture concept and associated theory more as barriers than as benefits to pan‐human understanding. I will argue that this is an instance of “transcendent humanization.” One cannot but be sympathetic to the thrust and merits of this argument. But at the same time one wants to ask what implications it holds for the systematic study and understanding of the other. This article, then, examines some elementary vectors in the “dynamic of the categorical” involved in these and related recent debates which also may be seen in terms of transcendence and humanization: the debate over relativism and the recently emergent debate over “enlightenment mythmaking” in anthropology.     

Neuropharmacological Analysis of Mechanisms Controlling Larval Behaviour in the Sea Urchin; 2. Effects of physostigmine and the role of cholinergic mechanisms

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the systems controlling the contractile activities in the sea urchin pluteus, their pharmacological properties, the regional organization of the structures involved, their interactions, and their physiological roles. Physostigmine may bring about tetanic celomic activity of long duration. In spite of this it is possible to recognize the two activity patterns elicited by carbachol. The effects of the two agents, together with some histochemical data, suggests the occurrence of two control systems. The main muscular control system may be linked to adjoining cholinergic and mono-aminergic structures close to the mouth and is presumably responsible for the “reciprocal antagonism” between swallowing and celomic movements when the larva is stimulated (activity pattern I). It may involve intricate interactions between the cholinergic and monoaminergic components in the generation of muscular impulses. Another control system is presumably linked to neurons extending from the main ciliated band and responsible for the intestinal cycling and the “non-antagonistic” muscular activity (activity pattern II). After strong stimulation both control systems may become “exhausted” in some respects, but may eventually recover. In comparison with the effects of carbachol, the physostigmine effects are not quickly reversible which indicates that, to a great extent, they are due to inhibition of cholinesterase in deeper parts of the two control systems.     

Photographing the “Other”: Immigration and New Images of the Greek Ethnic “Self”

ABSTRACT

Significant transformations in the ways the ethnic “self” and its relationship to the “other” are perceived have led to the transgression of the two traditional poles (East and West) that were prevalent in the definition of Greekness since the creation of the Greek nation-state. By placing the photographs of immigrants published in the most popular local newspaper in Central Greece within their wider social and historical context, we can “see” that immigrants (a group that is perceived to be homogeneous and transcendental) constitute a new axis around which the negotiation of ethnic identity and otherness in Greece is now conducted.     

Immigrants and the paper market: borrowing,renting and buying identities

The focus of this paper is on how the state sets up discriminatory structures, how immigrants work out ways of managing those structures and how in this process they construct flexible and innovative identities. Two main issues are explored. The first is the relationship between state control and exclusion and immigrant resistance. The paper shows how, despite increased surveillance and digital nets mounted by European states to keep immigrants out of their territory, the British state is ambivalent towards irregular immigrants. At the same time, it is in the interstices of ambiguity that immigrants, by buying, renting and borrowing documents, have found ways through their networks and communities to resist or get around exclusionary and contradictory regulations. Second, the paper is concerned with the construction of innovative and flexible identities. The research reveals how immigrants occupy rebellious spaces and construct identities in difficult situations at the intersection of self and structure.