Migration in migration-related diversity? The nexus between superdiversity and migration studies

This article argues that the notion of ‘superdiversity’ implies an investigation of diversity that goes well beyond the nature of migration origins and trajectories. To probe the academic value of superdiversity, I situate it within broader academic debates, suggesting that it is necessary to distinguish between superdiversity as a malleable social science concept – a set of variables that researchers conjunctively investigate – and superdiversity as a context in which these variables play out in complex social patterns. I argue that complexity is an integral aspect of superdiversity, before explaining how innovative research methods were used to investigate superdiversity in a dual-site project in London and Toronto in order to explore its relevance for global comparative research.     

Not all the same after all? Superdiversity as a lens for the study of past migrations

Due to its claim of contemporary exceptionalism, the notion of superdiversity raises suspicion among historians. However, historians would do well to not dismiss the entire superdiversity debate as more hype that does not concern them. As a multidimensional perspective on diversity, encouraging researchers to examine the interplay of many different factors that condition people's lives and to move beyond an ethno-focal perspective, superdiversity could be of interest to historians as well. This article shows how the notion can help historians debunk some of the homogenizing categories that tend to characterize the representation of past immigrant populations. The paper uses a superdiversity lens to examine migration to the city of Ghent from 1960 to 1980. It is an open invitation to historians to accept the challenges that superdiversity poses and to provide a proper historicization of the concept, thus furthering its theoretical development.     

Delivering maternity services in an era of superdiversity: the challenges of novelty and newness

The population complexity associated with superdiversity brings a wide range of challenges for social welfare providers. Commentators have outlined concerns about the ability of service providers to meet the welfare needs of ever diversifying populations and point to potential problems in identifying the nature of need in rapidly changing superdiverse neighbourhoods as conventional approaches to consultation based around ethnicity become practically impossible. Using data collected in the West Midlands, which explored maternity service needs from the perspectives of new migrants and maternity professionals, some key barriers to effective welfare delivery in superdiverse areas are explored. The paper outlines the emergence of two challenges important in shaping new migrant access to maternity care in an era of superdiversity – novelty and newness – and proposes further research to examine the extent to which these challenges are faced in other social welfare services.     

Immigration and zooplankton community responses to nutrient enrichment: a mesocosm experiment

Dispersal can be an important determinant of local diversity and species composition, but evidence for effects of the regional species pool on local zooplankton communities has been mixed. Theory and experiments suggest that immigration will be necessary for maintenance of community diversity and functioning during periods of environmental change; conversely, fluctuating resource levels may increase the likelihood of invasion success. We conducted a factorial-design mesocosm experiment to test the effects of a nutrient pulse and weekly immigration from other lakes on the diversity and composition of a pelagic zooplankton community. Contrary to expectations, there were no interactive effects of nutrient enrichment and immigration on any measure of diversity, and the initial shift in community composition in response to the nutrient pulse did not depend on the introduction of new species or genotypes from more productive lakes. Although immigration increased species richness in enclosures, success of most colonising species was poor. However, the dispersal treatment appears to have enabled a stronger predator response to increased herbivore numbers in nutrient-pulsed enclosures, leading to an eventual decline in the abundance of some herbivorous species in response to immigration. We conclude that community invasibility was not influenced by productivity, and that dispersal limitation did not strongly constrain the response of the zooplankton community to our applied disturbance. This indicates an unexpected resistance to change in species composition and diversity in spite of disturbance, and suggests that, in our study system, changes in the abundance of resident species are more important than introductions of new species in the community response to short-term environmental change.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available to authorized users in the online version of this article at .     

Immigrants and the Basque nation: diversity as a new marker of identity

Basque nationalism is singled out in the literature as a case of minority nationalism that faces an ongoing struggle between those in support of a liberal-inclusive definition of the nation and those favouring an exclusive-racialist one. Nevertheless, Basque nationalist parties have been welcoming of immigration and have legislated to create a regional citizenship based on residence rather than ethnicity. This article argues that, at least in part, the ‘positive’ response of Basque nationalists to the immigration wave that began in the early 2000s is an attempt to strengthen national solidarity by contrasting Basque values of openness and tolerance against the restrictive nature of the reforms to the immigration law in Spain that were initiated in 2000. This argument challenges the notion that sub-state nationalists are hostile to immigration because of the threat diversity poses to the nationalist project.     

Obstetric violence as immigration injustice: A view from the United States and Colombia

In September 2020, Project South, along with numerous other organizations, released a report detailing abuses in a Georgia Detention Center – including forced hysterectomies. Whatever other factors are at play, one of them is an intrinsic connection between obstetric violence against pregnant migrants and immigration injustice. It is not incidental that these acts – in US detention centers, along the US-Mexico border, in Colombian hospitals and clinics – are being perpetrated on immigrant bodies. And it is not accidental or random which immigrant bodies are vulnerable to these violations. Understanding and confronting obstetric violence directed at pregnant migrants, though, requires reconceptualizing the nature of obstetric violence itself. In particular, we must recognize that obstetric violence against pregnant Latin American migrants in the United States and Colombia is a type of immigration injustice, a means to perpetrate immigration injustice, and a product of immigration injustice. As such, bioethicists need to collaborate with immigration scholars to resist it. After providing some background on the nature of obstetric violence and some ways it is perpetuated against pregnant migrants in the United States and Colombia, I will give a brief overview of how I conceptualize immigration justice. From there, I explain how this type of obstetric violence constitutes a type of immigration injustice, a means to perpetrate immigration injustice, and a product of immigration injustice. My hope is that this analysis motivates bioethicists throughout the Americas to engage with immigration scholars and activists to confront the issue more forcefully.     

Theorizing citizenship in British settler societies

This article discusses citizenship in states with a history as British 'dominion' settler societies, focusing on questions of ethnicity and national identity. After noting the shortcomings of T. H. Marshall's widely used citizenship model, the key differences between English and British settler society citizenship experience are outlined, drawing on illustrative material from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The main settler/English state differences highlighted, are the presence of aboriginal peoples with distinct juridicial and political statuses; a characteristic set of relationships between successive flows of British migrants and subsequent generations of local-born settlers, and the shift in societies of immigration towards more extensive forms of ethnic and national pluralism within a 'post-settler' conception of multicultural nationhood in a globalized world. Finally, the article suggests settler and post-settler society citizenship is best conceptualized and described by examining the linked processes of what is called the aboriginalization (of aboriginal minorities), the ethnification (of immigrant minorities) and the indigenization (of settler majorities).     

Diversity of Tiphiidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) in the fragmented Brazilian semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most important areas of biodiversity in the world, but it has been largely replaced with agropastoral areas and at the present only 12.5 % of the original cover remains. Despite the ecological importance of insects, few studies have been used in conservation approaches for the Atlantic Forest, mainly due to a great taxonomic impediment. A group quite ecologically important but deeply neglected includes parasitoid wasps that control a great number of invertebrates, like tiphiid wasps that are parasitoids of underground coleopteran larvae. The present study aimed to estimate Tiphiidae species richness and diversity in 15 patches of a highly fragmented Atlantic Forest region, using factors that drive the diversity pool from a metacommunity, such as immigration and speciation probabilities. The parameters were estimated using the Neutral Biodiversity Theory, which is based on the total ecological equivalence of species at the same trophic level. Diversity values were molded to the area size, the immigration probabilities, and/or the speciation probability. Eight genera and 460 individuals of Thynninae, Myzininae and Tiphiinae were collected. Variation in species richness, estimated by both rarefaction and first-order jackknife methods, was explained by patch size and by immigration and speciation probabilities. These variables also explained the variation in Shannon diversity and species evenness. Variations in species richness and diversity of Tiphiidae are strongly associated with neutral processes, but they are also influenced by forest fragmentation and intensive agricultural activities.     

The past of others: Korean memorials in New York’s suburbia

Since the first decade of this century, public monuments to the memory of “comfort women” – women and girls forced into sexual service from the 1930s through 1945, by the Japanese Imperial Army – have been established in the United States by the Korean diaspora. This paper analyses recent memorials in the suburbs of New York that have experienced rapid immigration from Korea since the 1990s. The memorials met local resistance due to perceptions of unrelatedness to the American land. Such immigrant initiatives, however, have been supported by municipal governance. The project of inscribing a passage from East Asian history in the American context may be considered symptomatic of wider cognitive and social shifts in immigrant adaptation. Assimilation through the inclusion of immigrant heritage, along with an increasing sense of entitlement in being both “ethnic” and “American”, have been integral to this contest regarding collective memory.     

Janzen–Connell effects partially supported in reef-building corals: adult presence interacts with settler density to limit establishment

In many plant and sessile marine invertebrate (SMI) taxa, population and community dynamics are heavily influenced by processes occurring during the dispersal and establishment phases. The Janzen–Connell (J–C) hypothesis predicts increased survival of early life stages with decreasing conspecific density and increased distance from conspecific adults. Evidence of J–C effects in maintaining diversity is common in plant communities, but its importance in SMI communities remains unclear. Under controlled aquarium conditions, we examined the effect of density-dependence and adult conspecific water treatments (absent/present) on propagule settlement success and settler post-settlement survival, along with associated spatial patterns, for six broadcast-spawning, reef-building coral species from three families. We also tested if settlement success was linked to increasing propagule species diversity for three coral species from two families. We found that the probability of settlement was density independent and not influenced by adult present water treatments. Yet, adult present water treatments and settler density did have a synergistic negative effect on the probability of short-term settler survival for all species examined. Settlers also showed greater spatial aggregation as their numbers increased, but were less aggregated in adult present water treatments compared to those in adult absent water treatments. We further show evidence of significant species interactions among propagules, as settlement in single-species trials was four-fold higher compared to mixed-species trials. Our findings from controlled experimental arenas indicate that the early establishment of corals was predominantly limited by density-dependent settler–adult interactions among conspecifics and propagule–propagule interactions among heterospecifics. Thus, the proximity to established conspecific adults, settler density and species diversity of propagules are relevant drivers of local coral community diversity and structure. Based on these outcomes, we suggest that the J–C hypothesis, with demonstrated importance for plants, is partially upheld for reef corals.     

Recent advances in New Caledonian biogeography

The biota of New Caledonia is one of the most unusual in the world. It displays high diversity and endemism, many peculiar absences, and far‐flung biogeographic affinities. For example, New Caledonia is the only place on Earth with both main clades of flowering plants – the endemic Amborella and ‘all the rest’, and it also has the highest concentration of diversity in conifers. The discovery of Amborella's phylogenetic position led to a surge of interest in New Caledonian biogeography, and new studies are appearing at a rapid rate. This paper reviews work on the topic (mainly molecular studies) published since 2013. One current debate is focused on whether any biota survived the marine transgressions of the Paleocene and Eocene. Total submersion would imply that the entire fauna was derived by long‐distance dispersal from continental areas since the Eocene, but only if no other islands (now submerged) were emergent. A review of the literature suggests there is little actual evidence in geology for complete submersion. An alternative explanation for New Caledonia's diversity is that the archipelago acted as a refugium, and that the biota avoided the extinctions that occurred in Australia. However, this is contradicted by the many groups that are anomalously absent or depauperate in New Caledonia, although represented there by a sister group. The anomalous absences, together with the unusual levels of endemism, can both be explained by vicariance at breaks in and around New Caledonia. New Caledonia has always been situated at or near a plate boundary, and its complex geological history includes the addition of new terranes (by accretion), orogeny, and rifting. New Caledonia comprises ‘basement’ terranes that were part of Gondwana, as well as island arc and forearc terranes that accreted to the basement after it separated from Gondwana. The regional tectonic history helps explain the regional biogeography, as well as distribution patterns within New Caledonia. These include endemics on the basement terranes (for example, the basal angiosperm, Amborella), disjunctions at the West Caledonian fault zone, and great biotic differences between Grande Terre and the Loyalty Islands.     

Mexico through a superdiversity lens: already-existing diversity meets new immigration

New migration flows to Mexico are challenging long-established sociocultural configurations. So far, most studies on immigrants in Mexico have focused on singular ethno-national groups rather than paying attention to the intermingling of people. This paper presents an examination of diversification processes occurring in Guadalajara, Mexico. We contend that these are particularly strained because of the continuing frictions with which the country has to deal due to its already-existing diversity. The many forms of discrimination and racism that many Mexicans are subjected to by their co-nationals are often extended to new arrivals. The increasing complexity of migrant inflows challenges established forms of prejudice in everyday interactions. We argue in this paper that the use of superdiversity as a lens to study diversification processes allows us to better understand the changing dynamics currently taking place in Mexico.     

Time Making and Place Making: A Journey of Immigration from Ethiopia to Israel

ABSTRACT

Anthropological studies of immigration usually focus on the immigrants’ country of origin or their destination. The present ethnographic study is a claim that the immigration experience must be examined as part of a journey and movement. The study was designed to show how the immigration process of Zera Beita Israel (Feres Mura) from Ethiopia to Israel is constructed on a process of journey and dialogue among the various stations. The two main aspects of the journey are place making – constructing a place in the unique context of immigration, and time making – creating being-time and meta-time, both unique to immigration. Each of the places affects the immigration process and is affected by this dynamic, nonlinear process. The combined concepts of place making and immigration time help explain the complexity of immigration.     

Der Census of Marine Life zieht Bilanz. Globale “Volkszählung” unter Wasser

Global Underwater Census – a large‐scale project is taking stock The Census of Marine Life, an international large‐scale project to assess the diversity of life in the ocean, will end this fall after a decade of discovery with a grand finale in London. Many so‐called field projects were established to study life from tropical beaches, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, to polar seas and abyssal plains in order to get a better estimate of marine species diversity and gain insight into processes that influence the diversity of life in the oceans. Some of the field projects are presented, including the project CeDAMar under the leadership of the Senckenberg Institute. The study area of CeDAMar is abyssal plains, which comprise about half of the Earth's surface yet are very little known. Mankind's growing demand on minerals and other resources has awoken the industry's interest in a part of the ocean that so far has been relatively pristine. CeDAMar scientists have helped with their expertise to establish guidelines for the protection of the seafloor in international waters, thus demonstrating how concrete the influence of deep‐sea exploration on human society can become.     

The dialectic between modernization and orientalization: ethnicity and work relations in the 1950s Lakhish region project

This article focuses on agricultural planning and work relations in the Lakhish regional settlement project in 1950s Israel. During this period, Jewish immigrants from Arab countries – considered the other of allegedly Modern and Western Israeli society – were sent to settle the new frontier, in order to establish Jewish sovereignty over former Palestinian land. I discuss the ways in which agricultural planning and the organization of the work process created a relationship of dependency between the settlers and the settling institutions. I show, that the plans were shaped by Orientalist assumptions concerning the nature of the settlers, their social and family relationships and their cognitive abilities. I argue that it was these plans and the work relations they engendered, that doomed the settlers from the start, undermining their ability to form functioning cooperative communities. The settlers, however, were not passive objects of state policies but rather displayed patterns of resistance to state regulation.     

Inclined sedimentation for selective retention of viable hybridomas in a continuous suspension bioreactor.

The continuous separation of nonviable hybridoma cells from viable hybridoma cells by using a narrow rectangular channel that is inclined from the vertical has been investigated experimentally. The effectiveness of the settler in selectively retaining viable hybridomas in the bioreactor while permitting the removal of nonviable hybridomas has been shown to depend on the flow rate through the settler. Intermediate flow rates through the settler have been found to provide the highest removal of nonviable hybridomas relative to viable hybridoma retention. At high dilution rates through the chemostat, over 95% of the viable cells could be partitioned to the bottom of the settler while over 50% of the nonviable cells are removed through the top of the settler. This successful separation is due to the significantly larger size of the viable hybridomas than the nonviable ones. A continuous perfusion experiment was performed in which an external inclined settler was used to retain virtually all of the viable hybridomas in the culture, while selectively removing from the culture approximately 20% of the nonviable cells that entered the settler. A stable viable cell concentration of 1.0 x 10(7) cells/mL was achieved, as was an antibody productivity of over 50 micrograms/(mL.day). These represent 3- and 6-fold increases, respectively, over the values obtained from a chemostat culture without cell retention.     

Evolutionary dispersal drives the latitudinal diversity gradient of stony corals

The diversity of stony corals displays one of the most exemplary latitudinal gradients on the planet, yet the evolutionary dynamics that produced this pattern remains unclear. Using both paleontological and distributional data, we compare the origination, extinction and immigration levels between low and high latitudes since the earliest proliferation of the group during the mid‐Triassic. Altogether, first and last occurrence localities in the fossil record do not support a positive preference towards either latitudinal bin. Nonetheless, considering past and present scleractinian fauna, the process of extinction has been apparently more pronounced at higher latitudes based on face values and correlation coefficients. Far above these differences, immigration of extant taxa has been substantially higher towards the tropics than to temperate regions. While the net dispersal toward low latitudes persists in all temporal intervals, the gradient of diversity was largely built up during the Cenozoic Era and only becomes significantly steep from the Neogene Period onwards. This dynamic supports the ‘into the tropical museum’ model, which suggests that tropics have historically acted as a center of accumulation for marine biodiversity.     

Non-Native Plants Disrupt Dual Promotion of Native Alpha and Beta Diversity

Non-native species can alter patterns of species diversity at multiple spatial scales, but the processes that underlie multi-scale effects remain unclear. Here we show that non-native species reduce native diversity at multiple scales through simultaneous disruption of two processes of native community assembly: species immigration, which enhances alpha diversity, and community divergence, which enhances beta diversity. Community divergence refers to the process in which local communities diverge over time in species composition because the history of species immigration and, consequently, the way species affect one another within communities are variable among communities. Continuous experimental removal of species over four years of floodplain succession revealed that, when non-native species were excluded, stochastic variation in the timing of a dominant native species’ arrival allowed local communities to diverge, thereby enhancing beta diversity, without compromising promotion of alpha diversity by species immigration. In contrast, when non-native species were allowed to enter experimental plots, they not only reduced native alpha diversity by limiting immigration, but also diminished the dominant native species’ role in enhancing native beta diversity. Our results highlight the importance of community assembly and succession for understanding multi-scale effects of non-native species.     

Spatial heterogeneity in species composition constrains plant community responses to herbivory and fertilisation

Environmental change can result in substantial shifts in community composition. The associated immigration and extinction events are likely constrained by the spatial distribution of species. Still, studies on environmental change typically quantify biotic responses at single spatial (time series within a single plot) or temporal (spatial beta diversity at single time points) scales, ignoring their potential interdependence. Here, we use data from a global network of grassland experiments to determine how turnover responses to two major forms of environmental change – fertilisation and herbivore loss – are affected by species pool size and spatial compositional heterogeneity. Fertilisation led to higher rates of local extinction, whereas turnover in herbivore exclusion plots was driven by species replacement. Overall, sites with more spatially heterogeneous composition showed significantly higher rates of annual turnover, independent of species pool size and treatment. Taking into account spatial biodiversity aspects will therefore improve our understanding of consequences of global and anthropogenic change on community dynamics.