Fortress Holland? Support for ethnocentric policies among the 1994‐electorate of The Netherlands

Abstract

The Dutch have a long tradition of hospitality towards ethnic immigrants. In the nineties, however, quite dramatic changes have taken place among the Dutch. The central question addressed in this contribution is: to what extent do specific categories within the electorate favour ethnocentric policies? This question is answered by deducing hypotheses that are tested using recent data polled within the framework of the Dutch National Election Studies. Our crucial conclusion is that a rather widespread support for ethnocentric policies is present in contemporary Dutch society, especially among manual labourers, self‐employed and lowly educated people, but also among young cohorts and among modal income categories.     

Breaking barriers? Ethnicity and socioeconomic background impact on early career progression in the fields of ecology and evolution

The academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have long suffered from a lack of diversity. While in recent years there has been some progress in addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less attention. In this study, we surveyed 188 early career scientists (ECRs), defined as within 10 years of completing their PhD, in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and related disciplines. We examined associations between ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex, socioeconomic background, and disability, with measures of career progression, namely publication record, number of applications made before obtaining a postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications made. We also queried respondents on perceived barriers to progression and potential ways of overcoming them. Our key finding was that socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with measures of career progression. While there was no difference in the number of reported first‐authored papers on PhD completion, ethnic minority respondents reported fewer other‐authored papers. In addition, ECRs from a lower socioeconomic background were more likely to report being in teaching and research positions, rather than research‐only positions, the latter being perceived as more prestigious by some institutions. We discuss our findings in the context of possible inequality of opportunity. We hope that this study will stimulate wider discussion and help to inform strategies to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in the fields of ecology and evolution, and STEM subjects more widely.     

Affirmative reaction: new formations of white masculinity

Within the politics of nationalism and nation-building, the emigration of ethnic and religious minorities, whether voluntary or involuntary, appears to be a commonly occurring practice. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century, modern Turkey still carried the legacy of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious diversity in which its Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities had official minority status based upon the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. However, throughout the twentieth century, Turkey's non-Muslim minority populations have undergone a mass emigration experience in which thousands of their numbers have migrated to various countries around the globe. While in the 1920s the population of non-Muslims in the country was close to 3 per cent of the total, today it has dropped to less than two per thousand. This article analyses the emigration of non-Muslim people from Turkey and relates this movement to the wider context of nation-building in the country.     

Norms in the politics of housing for minorities: Evidence from a French,a German and a US metropolitan area

Throughout Western societies, policy‐makers who address the problems of disadvantaged ethnic and immigrant minorities confront norms that prescribe equal or preferential treatment for these groups. Variations in these norms make significant differences in policy‐making. Based on evidence from housing and planning policies and a standardized survey of local élites in comparable German, French and US metropolitan areas, this article analyses how these norms altered logics of policy‐making. Normative differences help to explain why policies to house minorities proved more successful in the German setting than in the French. Contrasts in central‐local relations, in local government, in political parties and in the social and economic background of policy‐making fail to account for the difference that these norms make. In the American setting normative ambiguities combined with institutional, social and spatial differences to render parallel norms comparatively ineffective.     

Book reviews

Stephen Cornell, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE: AMERICAN INDIAN POLITICAL RESURGENCE, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 278 pp., $29.95.

Jack D. Forbes, BLACK AFRICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS: COLOR, RACE AND CASTE IN THE EVOLUTION OF RED‐BLACK PEOPLES, Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988, 334 pp., £35.00.

Maryon McDonald, ’WE ARE NOT FRENCH!’: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN BRITTANY, London: Routledge, 1989, 384 pp., £40.00.

Ronald Grigor Suny, THE MAKING OF THE GEORGIAN NATION, London: I. B. Taurus and Co. Ltd., 1989, ix‐395 pp., £29.50.

Shlomo Deshen, THE MELLAH SOCIETY: JEWISH COMMUNITY LIFE IN SHERIFIAN MOROCCO, translated and revised from the Hebrew by the author. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989, xii + 152 pp., £23.95 and £9.50 (paper).

Roger Waldinger, Howard Aldrich, Robin Ward and Associates, ETHNIC ENTREPRENEURS: IMMIGRANT BUSINESS IN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES, Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations, vol. 1., Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990, 226 pp., £29.25 and £13.95 (paper).

Saul Dubow, RACIAL SEGREGATION AND THE ORIGINS OF APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1919–36, St Antony's and Macmillan, London, 1989, xi and 250 pp., £35.00.

Mark Duffield, BLACK RADICALISM AND THE POLITICS OF DE‐INDUSTRIALISATION: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF INDIAN FOUNDRY WORKERS, Avebury, 1988, 226 pp., £24.50.

John Eade, THE POLITICS OF COMMUNITY: THE BANGLADESHI COMMUNITY IN EAST LONDON, Avebury, 1989, 213 pp., £24.00.

Nicole Hahn Rafter (ed.), WHITE TRASH: THE EUGENICS FAMILY STUDIES 1877–1919, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988, 382 pp., £36.00.

Neil R. McMillen, DARK JOURNEY ‐ BLACK MISSISSIPPIANS IN THE AGE OF JIM CROW, Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, 1989, N.P.L.     

State mutability and ethnic civil society: the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel

This article identifies the phenomenon of ethnic civil society activism as mobilization that seeks to empower an ethnic community and challenges the institutional order. The case of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel is discussed and is used to reveal the conditions under which disaffected minorities pursue the path of ethnic civil society. The study finds that an analytical framework that stresses the mutability of state structures and changes in broader state-society relations provides a better explanation than existing theories of ethnic conflict. State-society characteristics conducive to this type of mobilization are a well-institutionalized state that can prevent deviation from the state's foundational rules and a counterbalanced dispersion of authority that limits regime capacity to control society.     

Transnational family ties of immigrants in the Netherlands

Inspired by recent efforts in the United States to quantify the degree of transnational ties that immigrants possess, this article explores and analyses the prevalence and determinants of transnational family ties of immigrants in the Netherlands. Using data from a representative survey of four immigrant groups in the Netherlands, this paper also aims to fill the gap in knowledge regarding the effects of incorporation into an immigrant's host society on transnational family ties. Findings show that, while the vast majority of immigrants with relatives in the country of origin have frequent contact with these relatives, only a third of respondents contribute to the livelihood of family members in the homeland. Incorporation characteristics show distinct patterns over different types of involvement. While incorporation variables have a negative effect on the frequency of contact, they show little effect on remittances.     

The minority culture of mobility of France's upwardly mobile descendants of North African immigrants

This article examines the challenges associated with the experience of upward educational mobility among descendants of North African immigrants in France. Drawing on in-depth, open-ended interviews with students and graduates of the prestigious grandes écoles, it sheds light on three specific ways in which class-based and ethno-racial inequalities intersect to shape the mobility costs that our respondents outline: (1) feelings of isolation resulting from being one of the only bursar recipients and ethno-racial minorities of their schools; (2) perceived conflation of their minority background with counter-elite dispositions; and (3) difficulties of adjusting to a student life reflecting the cultural styles of the predominantly white, upper-middle-class group. The article suggests that our respondents deploy a minority culture of mobility rooted in class and ethno-racial processes to overcome these challenges. It finally discusses implications for future research, stressing the need to examine the intersecting effect of multiple social categories in informing complex mobility experiences.     

Latino/a professionals as entrepreneurs: how race,class, and gender shape entrepreneurial incorporation

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how race, class, and gender intersect to shape professional Latinos’ entrepreneurial incorporation, as observed by the conditions that prompt professional Latinos to start a business, including access to capital and experiences with discrimination. In-depth interviews with professional Latino business owners in Los Angeles reveal that individual human capital – via resources and wealth accrued through corporate careers – facilitates entrepreneurial activity. Race, ethnicity, and gender, as intersectional social group identities, combine with class to shape variegated impacts on access to capital and business experiences by gender and target market. Ethnicity is a resource for those serving the coethnic community and is more significant in shaping business ownership experiences for men who target a racially/ethnically diverse clientele, whereas gender and race are more salient for women outside the coethnic community. This study contributes to the ethnic enterprise literature by going beyond ethnicity to demonstrate that multiple dimensions of identity shape professional Latino/as’ entrepreneurial incorporation.     

我国少数民族孕产妇孕期保健及其健康现状综述

孕产妇孕期保健及孕产妇健康对促进安全分娩和优生优育起着十分重要的作用,随着我国孕产妇保健工作的进一步完善及国家二胎政策的实施,现代临床医学所倡导的优生优育的观念已逐渐被社会广泛认可。然而,我国少数民族地区多有经济落后、地理位置偏僻、思想观念陈旧等问题,导致我国少数民族孕产妇孕期保健水平还比较低下,孕产妇健康状况有待改善。为预防少数民族地区出生缺陷,降低出生缺陷率,提高优生率,提高少数民族地区出生人口素质,通过完善医疗制度,改善医疗环境,合理营养干预及加强家庭访视等相关健康教育促进孕期保健,提高孕前检查的依从性,实现优生,孕产期健康教育可以降低整个孕期出现的危险因素,本文对我国少数民族的孕产妇孕期保健及健康做一综述。