The intolerance of a tolerant people: Ethnic relations in Denmark

The Danes have traditionally seen themselves as an enlightened and tolerant people, regarding with contempt those who, like many white Americans or South Africans, hold negative attitudes towards ethnic or racial minorities. This positive self‐image was confirmed during World War II when in an impressive rescue operation almost all Danish Jews (the only sizeable minority group in Denmark at the time) were helped to safety in neutral Sweden. During the 1960s and 1970s Danish society ‐ until then one of the most homogeneous societies in Europe ‐ became increasingly more heterogeneous through the influx of economic migrants ‐ ‘foreign workers’ ‐ mainly from Turkey, Pakistan and Yugoslavia. For the first time the Danes have had to deal with ethnic minorities whose culture, language, religion and physical appearance differ significantly from the majority's. On the basis of a comprehensive attitude survey, it appears that the Danes today are less tolerant towards ‘foreign workers’ than might have been expected on the basis of their past record. This article considers whether this intolerance can be explained in terms of (1) the structure of present‐day Danish society; (2) the general characteristics of the respondents (age, gender, etc.), or (3) the social and cultural characteristics of the new minorities. It is suggested that ethnic prejudice exists latently even in apparently tolerant societies and tends to surface when a ‘suitable’ target group becomes available.     

“Grateful” subjects: class and capital at the border in Philippine–Canada migration

This paper considers how Philippine migrants prepare themselves and are prepared by others for emigration to Canada. In particular, it emphasizes how class-differentiated migrants are rendered socially homogenous as they are encouraged to be “grateful” transnational citizen subjects throughout their migration trajectories, commencing with initial decisions to migrate. Preparations for migration include individual decisions to increase marketability by acquiring particular kinds of skill sets matched to one of a variety of immigration streams. Despite such individual projects, the inequalities associated with gendered and racialized characteristics of Philippine migration trajectories and class dynamics are enduring for many migrants, though not all. Historical structural processes shaping the contours of global migration in the example of Philippine–Canada migration are compounded by the contradictory practices and outcomes associated with various preparations for migration. Current reforms to Canada’s immigration system to a “just-in-time” model promise to cause major disruptions to long-held migrant plans. Meanwhile, migrants are preconditioned to accept uncritically the multiple forms of subordination encouraged through the policies of multiple states and to accommodate themselves to new immigrant/citizen social identities which are devalued in a multiplicity of ways. This paper shows how, through the collusion of agents that migrants encounter in multiple sites, the disciplining of mobile citizens becomes more formalized and the contradictions between migrant ambition and neoliberal imperatives more visible.     

Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a ‘Tamil diaspora’, they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as ‘aesthetic’ and ‘moral’ communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, ‘membership’ of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly – based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil ‘victimhood’ that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences.     

Policy actors' narrative constructions of migrants' integration in Malmö and Bologna

Governments have policies explicitly directed at the integration of migrants. This article addresses how policymakers and politicians privilege certain constructions of the social relationship between migrants and the majority society (expressed through narratives of ‘integration’), while making it seem as if they were presenting facts in their policies. These constructions provide the justifications for adopting a direction in policy-making over other alternatives. This article sets to analyse comparatively how policy actors in two urban contexts construct migrants' integration through policy narratives and how, within this, they evaluate migrants as ‘integrated’ and ‘non-integrated’. Through narrative analysis, the article sheds light on how migrants are positioned by political institutions within the normative order of the society in which they live. Furthermore, it shows that local policy-making is shaped by national citizenship regimes, models of steering, welfare regimes and stories about the nation and its people.     

Precarious legality: regularizing Central American migrants in Mexico

Regularization programmes for undocumented migrants are generally viewed as a form of transition from “illegality” to a secure legal status. Yet, as we argue in this article, in many countries, such as Mexico, this transition is often incomplete and reversible. This article discusses regularization programmes for undocumented migrants in Mexico before and after the introduction of the 2011 Migration Law and illustrates that the status migrants obtain is precarious, that is insecure and conditional upon their ability to meet requirements for status renewal. Focusing on Central Americans in Mexico, we suggest that many migrants have been unable to obtain or renew their status after new procedures were put in place in 2011. Coining the legality granted through Mexico’s regularization process “precarious legality”, we attribute it to the contradiction between Mexico’s stated respect for migrants’ human rights and the de facto commitment to immigration control.     

‘Have you got the Britísh?’: narratives of migration and settlement among Albanian-origin immigrants in London

Studies on migration and integration in Britain have noted the paucity of research on ‘new’ migrants, especially ‘illegal’ migrants and asylum seekers. This paper focuses on one understudied group – Albanian immigrants and their children – and looks at their migration and settlement, based on sixty interviews conducted in two phases either side of a 2003 mini-amnesty that gave many indefinite leave to remain. This regularization is the fulcrum around which our analytical narrative is built. Focusing on the interaction of migrants' agency with host-country structure, the paper shows that an unsettled asylum policy and delays in implementation have had deleterious effects on migrants' integration and sense of belonging, even after citizenship acquisition. As they search for a social and ethnic positioning within a multi-ethnic host society, the eventual realization of Albanians' migration project is accompanied by culture shock, intergenerational difference and ambivalence towards integration.     

Debt revolts: Ecuadorian foreclosed families at the PAH in Barcelona

Can present day grassroots direct actions be considered revolutionary? In this paper, I argue that seemingly “reformist” demands can be considered revolutionary in today’s neoliberal capitalism. At the turn of the twenty-first century, working class Ecuadorian migrants in Barcelona were trying to join the global middle classes via subprime mortgage loans and despite their precarious jobs. Following the collapse of Spain’s housing bubble, unemployed, defaulting on their mortgages, and risking home eviction, they turned to housing activism. They joined the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and became daily protestors for the right to housing and against indebtedness. Looking at PAH approaches that encouraged debt default among low-income families, strategies to reconvert repossessed homes by rescued banks into social housing units, or the effective occupation of buildings that belonged to these banks by the PAH to house evicted families, I claim that these moments represent revolutionary instances of a broader fight against indebtedness taking place globally which can be considered—as many did at the PAH—a fight against capitalism at large. In this paper I illustrate how people who had seldom participated in social mobilization became part of a small Barcelonan movement for the right to housing that grew exponentially throughout Spain succeeding in canceling thousands of mortgage debts and stopping equally as many evictions. PAH’s spaces of encounter and action made possible a cross-class alliance upheld by weekly assemblies and near daily direct actions against financial institutions and a pro-austerity central government. These moments demonstrate the ability of everyday people to reclaim housing, redefine the narrative of indebtedness, and—in the case of Barcelona—it even made possible taking control of City Hall.     

Does education ‘trump’ nationality? Boundary-drawing practices among highly educated migrants from Turkey

Inspired by a super-diversity approach, this paper seeks to explore the influence of the ‘ethnic hierarchy’ of ‘old’ minority groups over the way ‘new’ migrants from Turkey negotiate their interaction in the daily life in three settings: Amsterdam, London and Barcelona. By focusing on highly educated migrants from Turkey who by virtue of their country of origin or religion are positioned at the bottom of ‘ethnic hierarchies’, it strives to understand the significance of these different sources of diversity in daily interaction. Applying boundary-drawing strategies developed for ethnic boundaries, this paper argues that education does not necessarily ‘trump’ nationality, but allows for substantial claims of difference. New migrants from Turkey carve out a space for themselves by on the one hand homogenizing Turkish or other Muslim communities through attributing ‘unwanted’ behaviours and on the other re-defining the boundaries of their individual identity with emphasis on different sources of diversity.     

‘Wasting mbeng’: Adventure and Trust Amongst sub-Saharan Migrants in Morocco

This article examines how irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa stranded in Morocco forged tenuous but essential relationships in the face of hostile and violent border politics constraining their mobility and resulting in systematic infringement of their rights. I examine the basis of trust amongst migrants in Morocco, who called themselves ‘adventurers’ on a quest for the ‘objective’ (e.g. ‘finding their lives’, usually through getting into Europe). Although most of them had embarked on individual journeys, they regularly needed to cooperate in order to face arduous living conditions and attempt crossing the border into Spain. The article demonstrates how trust was entangled not only with hostile migration politics but with regular moral conundrums as migrants needed to manage a balance between collaborating with other migrants and reaching their own ‘objective’.     

Racism,disadvantage and multiculturalism: towards effective anti-racist praxis

Measuring ethnicity in any society is a challenge. Given world immigration patterns, many countries face a growing dilemma in determining the cultural antecedents of their populations. A further complication is the reality that such determination occurs within the political and nationalistic settings where ethnic‐cultural groups may be potent forces in their own right. As societies mature and evolve, there is an increasing tendency for populations, especially those with many generations of residence in the country, to see themselves as ‘indigenous’ to the society in which they live. Canada is not alone in having to deal with the fluidity of the concept, ‘Canadian’, ‘American’, ‘Australian’, ‘Yugoslav’, and ‘Soviet’ are parallel concepts in other countries of multiple ethnic composition. Using 1991 National Census Test results, the article explores some of the parameters of the indigenous category ‘Canadian’. In particular, the location in Canada and mother tongue of respondents reporting ‘Canadian’ as the ethnic origin of their parents and grandparents or as their own ethnic identity are important indicators for this emerging ethnic category.     

Becoming cosmopolitan? Hybridity and intercultural encounters amongst 1.5 generation Chinese migrants in New Zealand

The 1.5 generation migrants are often presented by scholars as the vanguard of new cosmopolitan possibilities. Their hybrid identities and intercultural competencies are viewed as evidence for new ways of approaching difference in diverse societies. This paper examines these claims in relation to Chinese 1.5 generation migrants in New Zealand, focusing on their experiences of negotiating the family and early life, and possibilities for becoming cosmopolitan. By drawing insights from ‘everyday cosmopolitanism’, we examine how hybrid identities both facilitate and undermine capacities to overcome difference and alter the power dynamics within social worlds. This demonstrates that everyday cosmopolitanism is not easily achieved but rather oscillates around strategies for fitting in that sometimes reinforce uneven social positions. We argue for caution in accounts of the 1.5 generation and recognition of the ways that cosmopolitanism is socially situated, subject to the multiple pressures, and enacted within the uneven power relations of society.     

‘We all eat the same bread’: the roots and limits of cosmopolitan bridging ties developed by Romanians in London

This paper investigates the social ties forged by Romanians in London with migrants of different origins in work and non-work contexts to offer a more nuanced view of ‘bridging’ social ties and related discussions of ‘everyday’ cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the overemphasis on ethnic ties seen as a form of bonding in migration research, the paper shows how Romanians bridge informally with many other migrants based on shared ‘non-native’ status. Alongside non-ethnically marked commonalities, ethnicity emerges as an important ingredient of cosmopolitan socialization, yet without necessarily signalling coexisting ethnic identities, as commonly assumed. Romanians' experiences further show that despite providing significant social and cultural capital, bridging ties with migrants, rather than natives, rarely accrue effective resources for social mobility. The findings suggest the need to disaggregate and qualify current understandings of ‘bridging’ social ties usually depicted in positive terms and uniformly as cross-ethnic relationships, or only linked with the ‘mainstream’ population.     

The emergence of an ‘ethnic economy’? The spatial relationships of migrant workers in London's health and hospitality sectors

This paper examines how the globalized nature of London's service sector redefines spatial relationships for recent migrants working in the health and hospitality industries. Findings from the qualitative data demonstrate that recent temporary migrants to the UK employ broader strategies to secure employment than accounted for by current theories. The migrants in our case studies overwhelmingly utilized global and local recruitment and employment agencies, as well as sought employment in industries already established as ‘ethnic economies’. We suggest that this might be attributed to a lack of interaction with established co-ethnic immigrant communities; temporary migration trajectories; and living arrangements with co-migrants. We conclude by emphasizing the need to broaden our understanding of ethnic economies and social networks in light of these changing spatial relationships that have emerged through the globalization of the service sector in the UK.     

Travelling on a budget: predictions and ecological evidence for bottlenecks in the annual cycle of long-distance migrants

Long-distance migration, and the study of the migrants who undertake these journeys, has fascinated generations of biologists. However, many aspects of the annual cycles of these migrants remain a mystery as do many of the driving forces behind the evolution and maintenance of the migrations themselves. In this article we discuss nutritional, energetic, temporal and disease-risk bottlenecks in the annual cycle of long-distance migrants, taking a sandpiper, the red knot Calidris canutus, as a focal species. Red knots have six recognized subspecies each with different migratory routes, well-known patterns of connectivity and contrasting annual cycles. The diversity of red knot annual cycles allows us to discuss the existence and the effects of bottlenecks in a comparative framework. We examine the evidence for bottlenecks focusing on the quality of breeding plumage and the timing of moult as indicators in the six subspecies. In terms of breeding plumage coloration, quality and timing of prealternate body moult (from non-breeding into breeding plumage), the longest migrating knot subspecies, Calidris canutus rogersi and Calidris canutus rufa, show the greatest impact of bottlenecking. The same is true in terms of prebasic body moult (from breeding into non-breeding plumage) which in case of both C. c. rogersi and C. c. rufa overlaps with southward migration and may even commence in the breeding grounds. To close our discussion of bottlenecks in long-distance migrants, we make predictions about how migrants might be impacted via physiological 'trade-offs' throughout the annual cycle, using investment in immune function as an example. We also predict how bottlenecks may affect the distribution of mortality throughout the annual cycle. We hope that this framework will be applicable to other species and types of migrants, thus expanding the comparative database for the future evaluation of seasonal selection pressures and the evolution of annual cycles in long-distance migrants. Furthermore, we hope that this synthesis of recent advancements in the knowledge of red knot annual cycles will prove useful in the ongoing attempts to model annual cycles in migratory birds.     

Family metaphor in political and public debates in the Netherlands on migrants from the (former) Dutch East Indies 1949–66

Abstract

In 1949, the Dutch East Indies became independent Indonesia. In the aftermath of decolonization more than 300,000 people migrated from this former colony to the Netherlands. This article focuses on political and public debates in the Netherlands in which the boundaries between former colonizer and colonized were redrawn as a consequence of decolonization and migration. Migrants from former colonies claimed and were attributed a different position in the societies of their former colonizer than other migrants, based on their juridical citizenship, perceived shared history, Dutchness, loyalty and debt. Not all migrants for the former Dutch East Indies could be recipients of the same label. Dutchness could be stretched, but at one point the rhetoric changed from ‘family’ to ‘guests’.     

Violence against migrants in Greece: beyond the Golden Dawn

Violence perpetrated against migrants by Golden Dawn was rarely investigated or prosecuted by Greek authorities and was discursively constructed as exceptional, contrary to the norms of Greek democracy and committed by marginalized individuals and groups. The article argues that state responses have been shaped by racialized discourses and policies on migration and racism. Anti-migrant violence has been legitimated through three interlinked discursive strategies: a narrative of ‘isolated events’; the denial of its racialized nature; and the rationalization of both state and non-state anti-migrant violence as a regrettable yet understandable defensive reaction to the threats posed by migration.     

Living on the Edge: A Photographic Essay on Urban Aymara Migrants in El Alto,Bolivia

Like many other cities in Latin America, La Paz, Bolivia, has experienced rapid urbanizationthroughout the past two decades. Aymara-speaking migrants from theLake Titicaca region and across the Altiplano head for this capital in search of economic prosperity, and end up living in the bedroom city of El Alto, perched on the valley rim above La Paz. Once in the city, some migrants maintain strong ties with their rural origins while others disassociate themselves completely from their Aymara heritage. This photo essay explores the process of urbanization and migration among Aymara migrants in El Alto, illustrating how they maintain their rural skills in the urban context in order to survive and adapt to a new life. These photographs address issues such as transportation, employment, family, and ritual, depicting urban life on the edge of the city. Each image illustrates a facet of how Aymara migrants adapt to the urban environment by implementing known practices that they brought with them, or replacing them with newer, urban ones. The accompanying text explains each scene as well as the relationship to the subjects and the anthropological interest inherent in the images.     

Belonging to the nation: generational change,identity and the Chinese diaspora

This study reviews developments in the ethnic and national identity of the descendants of migrants, taking ethnic Chinese as a case study. Our core question is why, in spite of debates worldwide about identity, exclusion and rights, do minority communities continue to suffer discrimination and attacks? This question is asked in view of the growing incidence in recent years of ‘racial’ conflicts between majority and minority communities and among minorities, in both developed and developing countries. The study examines national identity from the perspective of migrants' descendants, whose national identity may be more rooted than is often thought. Concepts such as ‘new ethnicities’, ‘cultural fluidity’, and ‘new’ and ‘multiple’ identities feature in this examination. These concepts highlight identity changes across generations and the need to challenge and reinterpret the meaning of ‘nation’ and to review problems with policy initiatives designed to promote nation-building in multi-ethnic societies.