Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism'

This thesis examines a variety of theoretical issues relating to ethnicity, multiculturalism and racism in New Zealand. It is argued that whilst the country’s history has been replete with anti-Asiatic racisms, it is necessary to transcend the timeless notion of racism as colour discrimination and to instead, situate past and present anti-Asiatic racisms within the nation’s temporally specific positions in modernity. Through an orientation to time and diachrony, the research considers if a liberal policy of multiculturalism is conducive for contemporary New Zealand society. In view of academic debates suggesting that a ‘practical’ version of multiculturalism exists alongside the country’s constitutional biculturalism, it is argued that the de facto version of multiculturalism exhibits the characteristics of commercial and conservative multiculturalisms which fail to address the problem of racism. A liberal form of multiculturalism, it is maintained, will not produce the best outcome for New Zealand because it is insensitive to indigenous rights and will remain mutually exclusive from biculturalism. This research then concludes with a discussion on the likely future of cosmopolitanism in New Zealand, both as a theory and how it might possibly work in practice without immolating the hegemony of biculturalism.

In late 20th century America, multiculturalism emerged as a doctrine of equal respect and a popular ideological framework for resolving intergroup relations. Despite its dramatic presence, many sociologists conclude that the rather vigorous and often contentious academic inquiries into multiculturalism left us without a solid understanding of its significance. In this dissertation I examine survey and personal interview data to more clearly identify patterns of ideological support for multiculturalism or assimilation in the U.S. public and to isolate the motivations for their preferences. Findings based on the survey data indicate that, despite multiculturalism's symbol appeal, it does not seem to guide preferences in favor of or opposition to assimilation/multiculturalism among members of most groups. According to the quantitative data, support for intermarriage is one of the few variables that positively correlates with preferences for assimilation. The interview data indicate a strong tendency among many participants to conflate the meaning of multiculturalism and assimilation. Despite their stated aspirations, many self-identified multiculturalists do not favor cultural pluralism. Apparently a significant number of the interview participants use a synthesis of multiculturalism and assimilation to frame their preferences for social convergence within an assimilationist paradigm - a perspective that only marginally resembles multiculturalism's doctrine of equal respect. Contrary to the extant literature, patterns of support for multiculturalism among the interview participants indicate racial and ethnic cleavages and these patterns correspond to the U.S. social hierarchy. Because racial and ethnic meanings infused the multiculturalism debate with its energy, it is plausible that the subtleties of racial discourse mask common aspirations among racial and ethnic group members. In the last chapter, I employ Alba and Nee's recent theoretical reformulation of the concept of assimilation to explicate the findings of this dissertation.

The purposes of this study are to examine migration disparities in primary, onward, and return migration by Hispanics, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white and to inspect the differences among the various types of migration. In addition, this study explores explanations of the migration disparities. These have been rarely studied because of a lack of proper migration data. This research employs the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79) for a logistic regression of primary migration and for a hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) of the two types of repeat migration, namely onward and return. The results demonstrate that whites are more likely to make primary and onward migrations compared to blacks and Hispanics. But, with return migration, significant differences between whites and other minorities are not found. With respect to the contributors or explanations, this study indicates that the racial/ethnic migration disparities are not explained by socioeconomic status as opposed to explanations by human capital perspectives. The racial/ethnic disparities in migrations seem to be produced by discrimination and an unequal distribution of opportunities. Return migration presents several interesting different patterns compared with the other type migrations, including the effects of age and educational attainment. For return migration, old and less educated individuals have higher odds, showing reversed pattern of total, primary, and onward migration. The findings seem to indicate that different characteristics are involved in different types of migration.

Diese von der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam angenommene Dissertation thematisiert die Selbstorganisation von Migranten in eigenen Sportvereinen und auf anderen Ebenen des Vereinssports. Sie beruht auf den Ergebnissen eines vom Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft geförderten Forschungsprojekts der Universität Potsdam. Mit mehreren hundert Migrantensportvereinen in ganz Deutschland stellt der Sport einen der wichtigsten Gesellschaftsbereiche für die Selbstorganisation von Zuwanderern dar. Doch obwohl sich Migranten in der Bundesrepublik schon seit den 1960er Jahren in eigenen Sportvereinen zusammenschließen, ist das Thema zuvor noch nicht umfassend untersucht worden. Um diese Forschungslücke zu schließen, stellt die Arbeit Basisinformationen über verschiedene Organisationsformen, typische Entstehungszusammenhänge, spezifische Problemfelder sowie wiederkehrende Konfliktmuster bereit und präsentiert darauf aufbauende Annahmen über die Wirkungen der sportbezogenen Selbstorganisation auf das Verhältnis von Einheimischen und Zuwanderern im Sport, auf die allgemeinen interethnischen Beziehungen und auf den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Integrationsprozess. Daran anknüpfend werden mögliche Konsequenzen aufgezeigt, die die verschiedenen Akteure des Sportsystems aus den dargestellten Forschungsbefunden ziehen können. Die Arbeit basiert auf den Befunden einer in den Jahren 2006 bis 2009 durchgeführten empirischen Untersuchung, in der verschiedene qualitative Methoden eingesetzt wurden, um das Forschungsfeld explorativ, ergebnisoffen und in einer möglichst weiten Perspektive zu beleuchten. In erster Linie bestand diese Feldstudie in einer Interviewreihe, für die 25 Vertreter von Migrantensportvereinen sowie 15 Feldexperten aus verschiedenen Berufsgruppen und Organisationen in Leitfaden-Interviews befragt wurden. Ergänzt wurde die Interviewstudie durch eine Zeitungsanalyse, für die sieben Tages- und Wochenzeitungen nach Artikeln zum Thema durchsucht wurden, sowie gezielte Feldbeobachtungen, etwa beim Besuch von Fußballspielen, bei Versammlungen und Festen sowie in Vereinsheimen. Darüber hinaus wurde eine umfangreiche Internetrecherche durchgeführt, bei der vor allem die Webseiten von über 65 Migrantensportvereinen in Augenschein genommen wurden. In allen Untersuchungsteilen war das Vorgehen des Verfassers stark an der Grounded-Theory-Methode orientiert. Die so gewonnenen Forschungsergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass eigenständige Migrantensportvereine, die als vorherrschende Form der sportbezogenen Selbstorganisation von Zuwanderern im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit stehen, aus komplexen gesellschaftlichen Inklusions-, Schließungs- sowie Segmentationsprozessen resultieren und interindividuell unterschiedliche Beteiligungsmotive ihrer Mitglieder aufnehmen. Sie stellen typischerweise multifunktionale Hybridorganisationen dar und erbringen für die beteiligten Migranten und deren lokale Gemeinschaften spezifische Integrations-, Repräsentations- und Solidarleistungen, durch die sie sich signifikant von deutschen Sportvereinen und Migrantenorganisationen in anderen Sektoren abheben. Zugleich unterscheiden sich die Migrantensportvereine untereinander hinsichtlich Vereinstätigkeit, Selbstverständnis und Konfliktbeteiligung sehr stark. Ihre Rückwirkung auf den Vereinssport als organisationales Feld, auf die interethnischen Beziehungen in anderen Gesellschaftsbereichen und auf den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Integrationsprozess ist den präsentierten Forschungsergebnissen zufolge gleichfalls sehr ambivalent. Einerseits erbringen Migrantenvereine nicht nur die gleichen gemeinnützigen Leistungen im Bereich der sozialen Integration wie andere Sportvereine auch, sondern entfalten darüber hinaus, indem sie die Integrationsfähigkeit ihrer Mitglieder erhöhen und Personen in den organisierten Sport einbeziehen, die sonst gar keinem Sportverein beitreten würden, spezifische Integrationswirkungen, die andere Sportvereine nicht aufweisen. Andererseits erhöht die Selbstorganisation von Migranten in eigenen Sportvereinen soziale Distanzen und Spannungen zwischen Einheimischen und Zuwanderern, zumal Migrantensportvereine vor allem an den manchmal gewaltvollen Konflikten im Amateurfußball überproportional häufig beteiligt sind. Darüber hinaus stellt ein relativ kleiner Teil der Migrantensportvereine wegen Organisationsdefiziten eine ernste Belastung für die Tätigkeit der Sportverbände dar. Pauschalisierende Negativbewertungen der Vereine werden vom Verfasser jedoch als ungerechtfertigt und nicht sachangemessen zurückgewiesen.
This Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the Universität Potsdam focuses on the self-organization of migrants in sport clubs and on other various levels of the club sport system. It is based on the findings of a research project by the Universität Potsdam, which was funded by the German Federal Institute for Sport Science (Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft). Sport represents a major societal area for the self-organization of migrants, with several hundred migrant sport clubs established throughout Germany. However, the topic has not yet been scientifically investigated, although migrants in the Federal Republic have been members of autonomous sport clubs since the 1960s. In order to fill this research gap, this dissertation provides basic information about different forms of organization, typical founding circumstances, specific problems and frequent conflict patterns, and presents assumptions on the effects sport related self-organization has on interethnic relations in sport and society and the general integration process. An outline of the potential consequences which different actors within the sport system could draw from these findings then follows. The text is based on the results of an empirical study conducted from 2006 to 2009, in which a variety of qualitative methods has been employed in order to explore the field of investigation as openly and widely as possible. This field study consisted primarily of a set of interviews, in which 25 executives of migrant sport clubs and 15 experts from different professions and organizations were surveyed in questionnaire guided interviews. In addition, a newspaper analysis was implemented; seven daily and weekly papers were searched for articles pertaining to the topic, and systematic field observations were conducted at soccer matches, meetings and parties, as well as in club houses. In addition, extensive internet research was undertaken by examining the home pages of more than 65 migrant sport clubs. The investigation was strongly oriented on the grounded theory method. The findings of these investigations indicate that autonomous migrant sport clubs, which are the main focus of the book as the dominant form of sport related migrant self-organization, result from complex social processes of inclusion, exclusion and segmentation and take on diverse individual motives for participation. They typically serve as multifunctional hybrid organizations, which fulfill different functions of integration, representation and solidarity for the migrants involved and their local communities, thereby significantly differing from German sport clubs and other migrant organizations respectively. At the same time, migrant sport clubs vary strongly in terms of club activity, self-concept and conflict involvement. Their influence on the club sport system as their organizational field, on interethnic relations in other sectors of society, and on the general integration process is also very ambivalent according to the presented findings. Migrant sport clubs not only accomplish the same merits of social integration as other sport clubs but also promote integration in specific ways by improving their members’ ability for integration and involving persons in organized sport that otherwise would not join a sport club. However, the self-organization of migrants in sport clubs also increases social distances and tensions between migrants and natives, especially since migrant sports clubs are often involved in the sometimes violent conflicts of amateur soccer. In addition, a relatively small number of migrant sport clubs severely affects the activities of sport associations because of deficits in organization. Generalized criticism towards these clubs is nevertheless rejected by the author as unjust and inadequate.

The Social Geography of Britain's 19th century towns and cities has tended to find its focus, with a few notable exceptions, in the larger English industrial towns. Residential differentiation and population mobility have been favourite them In contrast, this study is a broad based one highlighting smaller Scottish settlements over the 1861 to 1891 period. Residential differentiation and population mobility, at the mezo - rather than the micro-scale, are considered but so are the Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven were chosen as subjects, being spatially close and yet historically and industrially very different. Dumbarton, a Royal Burgh since 1222, industrialized very rapidly in the period considered here, in the second an The main primary source for this study has been the census enumerators books for the years 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891. The total sample consisting of 3,800 census families (400 from Dumbarton, 400 from the Vale of Leven for 1861; 500 from either After a consideration of previous work on 19th century towns, particularly that on residential differentiation and on migration (Chapters 2 and 3) local context is provided through use of the printed census reports for Dumbarton and the Vale of L Industrial and occupational structures are the subjects of Chapters 8, 9 and 10. A major contrast being the differing role of the sexes in the employed sector of each community. The changing social structure, through time and at either locationn In the industrializing West of Scotland population was very mobile. Migration was vital to the growth of industrial towns and it is a major theme here. Net inflows and outflows of `local' and `non-local' born adults are discussed in paral The Irish were the most distinct ethnic group from outwith the study area and its regional setting. Their reception, assimilation, migrational trends and their occupational and social structures are contrasted with those of the `nearby Scot Finally Chapters 16 and 17 examine residential differentiation by occupation, social status and ethnic group. Both within these chapters and in the concluding chapter (Chapter 18) attempts are made to separate the particular from the general

The aim of this study is to find some indications about social exclusion in some neighbourhoods in Ankara. Social exclusion has increasingly gained importance as a concept in contemporary social sciences. To attain this aim, firstly, a theoretical framework, through which theories of the concept of social exclusion, main dynamics and differences of this concept from the concept of poverty were discussed. Secondly, a field work was carried out in some squatter settlements in Ankara known as &ldquo
poor&rdquo
, to see whether there is social exclusion perceived and lived, by analysing recent immigrants&rsquo
daily life experiences of urban poverty and social exclusion. In this study, a qualitative approach formed the basis and in-depth interview were collected. The in-depth interviews were realized with 8 men, as heads of households, and 7 women, as spouses of heads of households, living in squatter settlements in Ankara in February and March 2007. All interviews were recorded and transcribed for the analysis Since De Haan&rsquo
s (1998) theory of social exclusion shaped the theoretical fame, his methodology and operationalization of social exclusion&rsquo
s multi-dimensionality were adapted in an attempt to identify experiences and &ldquo
examples&rdquo
of excluded and processes forming their exclusions. In conclusion, two main indicators&rsquo
, gender and ethnicity, impacts on the respondents&rsquo
experiences and perceptions of social exclusion appeared as follows: Gender has not appeared as a striking indicator that makes women perceive themselves as excluded. The reason for this has to be seen in the fact that do not have had any serious experiences of social exclusion. They did not mention any conditions of exclusion in terms of economic, social, cultural and political participation in the society that would lead to the experience of exclusion or to a perception of themselves as excluded. The recent women migrants interviewed have a very limited social interaction and direct participation in the social and local life. A reason might be seen in the existing patriarchal system still controlling gender roles in general and a lack of trust of the interviewed women migrants towards their social environment. Ethnicity, however, as an indicator has more determining effects on the respondents&rsquo
experiences of exclusion and on their perception of being excluded. Forcibly migrated Kurdish respondents&rsquo
experiences after migration to Ankara indicate that, their ethnic identity is a dynamic factor since: first, it results in exclusion from economic and social domains of life, though it does not make them be the &ldquo
poorest&rdquo
second, it makes them perceive themselves as excluded from these domains. Thus, at the last stage, it leads them into a kind of &ldquo
isolation&rdquo
from society, as response to exclusive attitudes of the society. In reaction they form ethnic based &ldquo
semi-isolated communities&rdquo
which can be described as: strong ethnic and familial/kinship-ties determining their social, cultural, economic life and also their geographical living spaces.

Expatriation from Japanese companies has been considered mainly for men. This research focuses on gradually increasing Japanese expatriate women’s experiences in the United States. Using structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) and doing gender (West & Zimmerman, 1987), gender practices and (re)production of gendered structure at Japanese organizations in the United States are illustrated. It is exploratory research without prior research focusing on the subjects. Literature review, therefore, covers three relevant areas: women in workplace in Japan, Japanese expatriates in the United States, and women in international assignments from western countries. This research employs qualitative research method to understand the social world of Japanese expatriate women in the United States. Twenty participants are gathered through convenience and snowballing sample techniques. Findings are in two areas: private and organizational spheres. Gender plays a significant role in both areas. Organizations are officially gender free, but it is time to face that women are disadvantaged because of their gender. Particularly, most of participants reproduce gendered practice that expatriation is for men or women who can work like men. Therefore, an expatriate woman with a child and another with trailing husband in the United States face challenges. Japanese companies should acknowledge that organizational system do not reflect women’s perspectives at expatriatism. Japanese expatriate women should also take an active role in networking and mentoring for greater participation of women in international assignments in the future.

This thesis looks at the role of discrimination and ethnic group identity as explanations of political behaviour of ethnic minorities in Britain. Chapter 2 examines vote choice and partisanship, arguing that a group utility heuristic explains the high level of support for the Labour party among ethnic minorities. I provide individual-level evidence of this heuristic by showing that ethnic minority voters support the Labour party to the extent that they are (i) conscious of the experiences of their ethnic group members with regards to discrimination, and (ii) believe that the Labour party is the best political party to represent their interests. These two attitudes mediate the effects of group-level inequalities. Chapter 3 asks whether Muslims are alienated from mainstream politics by Islamophobia and British military intervention in Muslim countries. I find that perceptions of Islamophobia are linked with greater political alienation, to a greater likelihood of non-electoral participation, but also to a lesser likelihood of voting. Likewise, disapproval of the war in Afghanistan is associated with greater political alienation and a greater likelihood of some types of non-electoral participation. I also provide strong evidence that Muslims in Britain experience more religious discrimination than adherents of other minority religions. Chapter 4 considers the interaction between the extreme right and ethnic minority political attitudes and behaviour. I find evidence that the extreme right British National Party (BNP) increases voting for the Labour party, at the expense of minor parties and abstention. Surprisingly, the BNP effect also benefits the other main parties. Although they do not benefit in increased vote share, Liberal Democrat and Conservative party and leader evaluations are more positive where the BNP stood and performed better in 2010, which I suggest is due to the electoral contrast provided by the BNP. Chapter 5 looks at the mobilisation effect of ethnic minority candidates on ethnic minority voters. I find a positive mobilisation effect of Pakistani and Muslim Labour candidates on Pakistani and Muslim voters, conditional on someone trying to convince the respondent how to vote. I also find a demobilisation effect of Labour Muslim candidates on Sikh voters.

This thesis examines the role of internet use in migrants’ participation in, and articulation of, rising Chinese modernity. It explores the ways in which transnational subjectivity is produced through this process. It investigates how migrants’ various uses of the internet construct and make sense of their connections with China. It demonstrates a new generation of subjectivity among Chinese transnationals that is tech-savvy, modern and triumphal – a subjectivity embedded in the exchange between the (macro) political economy of China’s rise and the (micro) everyday practices surrounding the internet. This is an ethnographic study focusing on an emerging population within the broader Chinese diaspora; that is, mainland Chinese professionals who migrated for higher education and professional training in recent years as a result of China’s reform and economic power. This study locates its enquiries in three offline-grounded institutions – ethnic organisations, states and families. These institutions pre-date the internet but increasingly turn to the technology for transnational and local connections. Regarding Chinese organisations, utilising the internet to build co-ethnic sociality is read as a symbolic practice that signals the users’ belonging to a technologically-advanced, mobile and wealthy sector within the broader idea of the Chinese community. On the role of the state, internet use provides new modes of migrants’ access to China’s state-led development projects, thus opening up new spaces for the state’s disciplinary power to be exercised. This digital governance is enabled by a discourse of Chinese triumphalism constructed by both the state and the migrants. Regarding families, the digitalisation of the gendered division of labour in transnational families provides evidence of the segmented nature of China’s digital modernity and disrupts the triumphal portrait of transnational modernity constructed among the elite-stratum migrants. Overall, this study develops a dialogue between two literatures. On the one hand, it adds to diasporic internet studies by introducing an offline-grounded, geographically-informed approach and by bringing transnational modernity into its research agenda. On the other hand, it draws on Nonini and Ong’s (1997) theorisation of Chinese transnationalism as alternative modernity and further adds to this theorisation with a focus on internet technology and a discussion of the impacts of China’s rise. It contributes to human geography by revisiting a key concept in this discipline – transnationalism – with a discussion of the interweaving impacts of information technology and the geopolitical shift of China’s rising modernity.

In the 2006 census, Statistics Canada recorded that 23% of immigrant women aged 15 and over had a university degree at the bachelor's level or above. These women could help sustain an organization's competitive advantage and respond to labor shortages posed by an aging population. This phenomenological study highlighted self-initiated migration journey and career advancement experiences of migrant women. Through LinkedIn and referrals from non-profit organizations, a sample of 20 women was recruited. All women had migrated to Canada between the ages 32 to 50, all had 5 to 10 years of residence in Canada and all had college degrees from their home countries. Data were collected through in-depth qualitative interviews and analyzed utilizing Moustakas's framework. The themes were driven predominantly by the data from the study. In order to manage structural barriers to their career development, the participants highlighted the importance of career preparation such as postgraduate education, qualification accreditations and international experience to advancing their careers in Canada. The findings of this study showed that, the principles of meritocracy was influenced by ethic discrimination and educational barriers experienced by participants. The participants challenged inequalities by navigating within organizational structures using these modes of engagement; maintenance, transformation, and entrepreneurship as they developed their careers. The results provide a framework to the Canadian government, businesses, and settlement agencies to understand the implications of ethnicity and international experience to the current debate and proposition for reforms to immigration and hiring policies.

This thesis is concerned with a group of Chinese skilled migrant mothers’ experiences in relation to their children’s early childhood care and education in New Zealand. Utilising Bourdieu’s concept of capital, habitus and field, the current research addresses the complexity and ambiguity of the Chinese migrant mothers' lives whose social position transcends multiple fields. Because their children attend mainstream education, and the local educational system is different from those where the migrant mothers were brought up, the migrant mothers had to transcend different cultural fields. Chinese skilled migrants, who were middle class professionals in their native country, usually experienced social and financial downturns in New Zealand. Although skilled, the migrant mothers encountered difficulties in finding paid employment that matched their pre-migration job status. These mothers were more likely to give up paid work or reduce paid working hours on the birth of their children than were their male partners. The current study focuses on these transcendent experiences, encompassing both embeddedness and ambiguity across different fields by examining the interplay of class, gender, and ethnicity in the daily lives of these mothers. Traditional interpretations of cultural capital usually refer only to dominant social and cultural capital, whereas the current thesis expands the concept to include both dominant and non-dominant forms of social and cultural capital. The findings showed that the migrant mothers redefined and reconstructed the concept of capital. The migrant mothers’ attitude towards mainstream education was ambiguous and complex: covering the full spectrum from willing embracing, reluctantly following, selectively utilising to firmly rejecting. Simultaneously, the mothers promoted, criticised, and rejected various traditional Chinese practices and beliefs in order to maximise benefits for their children.

The conclusions extracted from this research project show that little research has been done on social issues presented by the African immigrant to America. Those charged with public welfare research and intervention must develop tools and strategies necessary to assess the needs of African immigrants, to facilitate their improved adjustment to their environment. African immigrants in the United States can benefit from similar research designs and resources accorded to the Latino and Asian populations.

Cette thèse examine, au niveau lycée, la contribution de l’origine ethnique aux expériences scolaires d’élèves désavantagés (N=927). Elle a pour objectif d’étudier les rapports entre inégalité sociale, expérience scolaire, et structure institutionnelle. Afin d’enquêter sur le rôle de l’identification ethnique et sa relation aux facteurs institutionnels, une analyse comparative a été menée dans deux pays. L’étude du cas des élèves d’origine turque en France et en Australie indique que les influences de l’ethnicité sont transformées d’un contexte à l’autre par des structures pédagogiques distinctives. En France, les filières et les jugements académiques sévères en réduisent l’estime de soi, en créant de l’aliénation et de la distance sociale entre élève et professeur. En Australie, au contraire, le différemment de la sélection et du jugement permet, de façon temporaire, une atmosphère plus conviviale en cours, mais ne réussit pas à assurer le succès académique des élèves. Les efforts des deux systèmes dans les sites périphériques constituent des logiques d’intégration marginales qui permettent l’exclusion de l’intérieure. Les efforts des élèves pour donner un sens à la vie scolaire à travers des cultures de pairs qui se ressemblent dans les deux contextes font partie des stratégies d’intégration marginale. Les élèves d’origine immigrée semblent particulièrement concernés par ces logiques et stratégies, qui renforcent leur position subordonnée dans le système. L’étude identifie alors les difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les deux systèmes comme résultant de caractéristiques structurelles
This thesis examines the contribution of ‘ethnic’ background to the school experiences of educationally and socially disadvantaged students in the senior years of high school (n=927). To investigate the role both of ethnic identification and its interplay with institutional factors, a comparative analysis of secondary student experiences in two national settings was undertaken. The case of Turkish-background students in Australia and France suggests that the influences of ethnic identity are thoroughly transformed from one setting to the other by distinctive pedagogical structures. Streaming and severe academic judgement in France lower academic self-esteem, while creating resentment and social distance between students and teachers. By contrast, the deferral of selection and judgement in Australia allows, temporarily, for a more convivial classroom atmosphere, but fails just as surely to successfully navigate students through the curriculum and achieve academic success. The accommodations of both systems to students in ‘peripheral’ locations constitute logics of marginal integration which enable and legitimise ‘exclusion from within’. Student efforts to make meaning of school life through peer cultures which share many similarities across institutional and national boundaries emerge as what I have called strategies of marginal integration. Ethnic-minority students appear to be particularly susceptible to those logics and strategies, which reinforce their position within the system as marginal. This study therefore identifies the difficulties facing both systems as emerging from common overarching structural qualities

This thesis is centred on exploring the identity options and orientations of young British Indians, from Sikh and Hindu backgrounds, who are British born and living in the London area. Recent socio-political debates have assumed a lack of Britishness amongst these young people, an assumption that is rooted in the belief that high bonding capital within ethnic minorities has led to a lack of bridging capital. This thesis argues that such statements are an essentialisation of the reality of these young people. In fact, their sources of belonging are far more complex, and far less threatening than we may be led to believe. Through the utilisation of eighty in-depth interviews, this thesis presents the intricate social worlds of these young people and the range of orientations (positive and negative) they feel towards component parts of their social worlds, as well as examining the strength and permeability of boundaries that demarcate these social worlds. The final substantive chapter deals with Britishness, and uncovers and presents the different perceptions and understandings that these young people have about British national identity and the ways in which it is accommodated (or not) alongside other important sources of belonging. It is found that a multi-dimensional approach to identity and belonging is best suited to understand the diverse and highly individualistic trajectories of these young people and that 'diverse-dual identities' are the most common pattern of belonging in this particular empirical case. This thesis make a significant contribution to the existing theoretical frameworks on identity and assimilation as well as the current socio-political debates on Britishness and the cultural integration of ethnic minorities in Britain, by presenting data on an under-researched group, British Indians, and highlighting the range of experiences within this group and the sources of this diversity.

This thesis is about the lives and civic engagements of Afghans in Germany and the UK. It shows how Afghans living in these two countries relate to Afghanistan, and to what extent they engage in transnational action aimed at promoting change there. In particular, it explores the emergence of diasporic communities and how members exercise agency as development actors in Afghanistan. The research rests on a qualitative case study conducted among Afghan populations in Germany and the UK. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation were primary methods of data collection. Relational sociology is used to capture emerging social identities, patterns of social organisation and forms of social engagement. A first notable finding is that Afghan populations abroad are fractured and cannot be seen as a united diaspora. People tend to coalesce in narrowly defined subgroups rather than under a shared national identity. Second, Afghanistan remains a crucial reference point, notwithstanding fragmented social organisation. Home country attachments tend to be tied to a desire for change and development in the country. Third, despite these shared concerns, transnational engagements are typically carried out by small groups and directed towards confined social spheres. Although people may take action in the name of an imagined Afghan community or an imaginary Afghanistan, this imagined community does not provide a basis for social mobilisation. Thus Afghans do not act as a cohesive diaspora. Fourth, transnational engagements are often a response to the specificities of the social environments in which people are embedded, notably their host countries. The findings show that a relational approach can specify how different dimensions of people’s social identities drive social action and are shaped in interaction with various elements of their social context. Such an actor-centred perspective helps to improve our understanding of how members of diasporas come to engage with their countries of origin.

Cette thèse analyse le surgissement des Tacana, un groupe indien qui s’est formé il y a quelque vingt ans dans le nord de l’Amazonie bolivienne, au moment même où se mettaient en place un ensemble de réformes étatiques visant à construire un modèle de citoyenneté dans le respect de la diversité ethnique. L’apparition des Tacana est un évènement moderne et contemporain ; ses acteurs sont des descendants des gens qui arrivèrent dans cette région à la fin du XIXème siècle, venant de différents départements du pays, et qui fournirent la main-d’œuvre d’un système d’extraction forestière qui exploita d’abord le caoutchouc, et ensuite d’autres ressources de la forêt amazonienne. L’étude a ainsi pour toile de fond les interactions entre les travailleurs forestiers et les industriels qui contrôlent l’économie régionale. Ce phénomène de conversion ethnique est vu sous trois angles. On analyse la façon ! dont les travailleurs se sont approprié l’ethnonyme « Tacana » et l’ont utilisé pour se faire entendre et pouvoir profiter des réformes étatiques. On montre comment ils ont cherché à affirmer et à justifier leur existence en tant groupe spécifique au travers des recensements organisés par les organismes de l’État et par les instances internationales qui travaillent à la défense des droits indigènes. Enfin, la particularité de ce phénomène apparaît dans les actions collectives qu’ils ont entreprises dans le but de devenir propriétaires d’une aire territoriale indigène collective, ce qui était la raison fondamentale de leur choix de « devenir Indiens ». Par-delà le cas des Tacana, il est démontré que les politiques étatiques qui cherchent à gérer les différences ethniques ne sont pas le résultat de demandes sociales mais que, tout au contraire, ces demandes sont la conséquence de l’application de ce type de politiques
This thesis studies the rise of the Tacana, an indigenous group formed in Bolivian Amazonia two decades ago, when different State reforms aimed at constructing a citizenship model based on respect for ethnic diversity. The emergence of the Tacana is a contemporary phenomenon involving part of the descendants of those groups who arrived in the region during the late 19th Century coming from different parts of the country. These people formed the labor force for a forest extraction system which initially exploited rubber but later extended its activities to other forest resources. Against this background, the situation has been analyzed in this study interms of the interactions between the forest laborers and the business management that controls the local economy. The thesis explores how, in this ethnic conversion process, forest laborers have used the “Tacana” identity to achieve visibility as well as benefit from the ethnic State reforms. The study shows how these laborers sought to justify their differential existence formally through census registrations made by State institutions which were backed up by international institutions involved in the defense of Indigenous Rights. The particularity of this process is also examined from the point of view of collective action undertaken by the new ethnic group to become the legal owners of a collective indigenous land –the primary factor that explains why they chose to become ethnic subjects. Our investigation shows that State policies that seek to manage ethnic differences are not triggered by social demands; rather, this sort of demand is a direct consequence of policy application

This thesis presents an ethnographic account of the everyday meanings and processes associated with the idea of ‘community’ within the London neighbourhood of Kilburn. In policy and popular discourse, community is cast both as somehow able to unite people across difference, and as under threat from the proliferation of difference, which is seen as impeding mutual understanding, cooperation and belonging. Within scholarly writing, ‘community’ is often challenged as too archaic, too rigid or too ambiguous a concept to provide sufficient analytical leverage or to work as a normative ideal. Against this background, my PhD takes a look the neighbourhood of Kilburn, where amidst significant diversity, tropes of community are still widely used. I investigate how residents imagine various forms of community in relation to diversity, as well as the connections and discontinuities between these various imaginings. I draw on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, following over a dozen community projects and groups, tracing informal local networks and getting to know residents individually. My ethnography ranges from community cafes, to religious youth groups, to urban ‘gangs’, to government-led urban regeneration projects. Despite the variation in how different individuals imagined ‘community’, there was a shared view of community as a space which facilitated the bridging of difference and the construction of shared moral projects. These spaces did not exist sui generis. Rather they were opened up through the balancing of two traits: fixity and fluidity. Fixity involved defining community in terms of a clearly identifiable and familiar set of boundary markers, which serve to give it an ‘objective’ existence. Fluidity involved suspending this attempt to define community in terms of the familiar, once people were involved, in order to allow for new, shared understandings and values to emerge. The first two chapters unpack this balancing of fixity and fluidity. Chapter 1, traces inclusion and exclusion in a range of community projects, and Chapter 2 looks at tropes of race and ethnicity, examining how such ideas might be treated as simultaneously fixed and fluid. . The two chapters unpack the transformational power of community. Chapter 3 looks at a community centre for young Muslims, as well as at a local community radio station, and argues that community spaces have the potential to foster an ethic of continual openness to difference. Chapter 4 looks at a group of ‘street youth’ and their diverse views of success, and argues that community can act as a collective repository of future potential, allowing community members to transform their ethical trajectory within their own lives. The final two chapters look at contestations over community. Chapter 5 looks at clashing uses of public spaces and argues that such spaces are often read in highly fixed ways, and as lacking the potential for community-like negotiations. Chapter 6 looks at local regeneration projects and contrasts the ways in which community is valued locally, to the ways in which it is valued by state and market actors. The thesis concludes by emphasizing the necessarily plural, dynamic, contested and grounded nature of the idea of community described here.

This thesis examines the treatment and experiences of foreign national prisoners in England and Wales. It contains two main arguments. First, I contend that dominant prison theories rely on an outmoded understanding of the nation-state, and as a result, tend to ignore the effects of globalisation. Second, I argue that current prison practices reaffirm the boundaries of the British nation-state and promote an exclusionary notion of British citizenship. I conclude that research attuned to the affective, embodied dimensions of incarceration can help criminologists to develop a more ‘global’ perspective on state power. This argument begins and builds from ethnographic research. As a whole, the thesis is based on more than 200 interviews conducted over the course of a year in and around five men’s prisons in the north, southwest, and center of England. Structurally, it proceeds from a theoretical critique of prison studies, to an ethnographic account of prison life, to a conclusion about the purpose of prison scholarship. Thematically, it focuses on the relationship between identity and imprisonment, and in particular, on the ways in which normative beliefs about race, gender, sexuality, and class get infused in incarceration practices.

The research problem of this thesis is to explore the effects of top-down, bureaucratic definitions of belonging and social identity on urban social relations. More specifically, the thesis analyses the ways in which the nativist categorisations of indigeneity in Kano and autochtonie in Amsterdam can help to understand the tensions between ethnic groups in these two cities. Methodologically, the study is designed as a least-similar, comparative exploration and uses mixed qualitative and quantitative methods in its case studies of Kano and Amsterdam. Theoretically, this study uses identity cleavages and identification as the mediators between policy categories and social relations. It combines social-psychological, historical, and institutional theories to link bureaucratic nativism to ethnic identities and, finally, to conflictual (or ‘destructive’) interethnic relations. The resulting theoretical argument of the thesis is that nativist policy categorisations are likely conducive to antagonism, avoidance, and conflict between groups defined as ‘natives’ and ‘settlers’. The central finding of the thesis is that both in Kano and in Amsterdam, indigeneity and autochtonie have entrenched a primordial and competitive (or ‘exclusionary’) notion of ethnic identities and have thus been conducive to interethnic antagonism, avoidance, and conflict. Introduced at a time of rapid immigration, social change, and persistent horizontal inequalities, the two top-down policy categories came to redefine urban belonging in Kano and Amsterdam. As a result, previously apolitical ethnic boundaries between ‘natives’ and ‘settlers’ became politicised, connected to exclusionary definitions of religion and class, and ranked on the basis of their claim to a primordial ‘native’ status - that is, their status as historical ‘first-comers’ in their place of residence. The categorisation and group positioning effects of nativism have, therefore, intensified the urban struggle to belong in Kano and Amsterdam. At the same time, however, the thesis underlines that ethnic conflict in Kano and Amsterdam is limited, partly because nativist forms of belonging are continuously challenged by, for example, inclusive multiculturalism in Kano and urban citizenship in Amsterdam.

This thesis is on the Turkish-speaking community, comprising Turkish-Cypriots, Turks from Turkey, and Kurds from Turkey, and ethnic community football in London, which has been conceptualised as a transnational social field. It is intended as a contribution in the debates on the growing importance of issues of diasporic communities, their identity politics, and cultural integration in a context of ‘super-diversity’. There are three major analytical themes. The first is transnational diaspora politics, which is redefined to comprise any relationship of power or interest by mobilising diasporic connections. I argue that the Turkish-speaking community uses ethnic football as a means for communal mobilisation around and representation of their ethnic identity in the public space of London, a city of unique political-economic and symbolic significance for the Cyprus Conflict which helped create the Turkish and Greek Cypriot football leagues in London. I show that the Turkish-speaking community has ever since used football to create and maintain a bridge between London and all the different locations of the community including Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, and beyond. The second major theme is collective identities and how they are (re)produced, represented, and manifested in the diaspora. I argue that the nature of the field of ethnic football as a familiar, open, and welcoming space conveniently positioned between the Turkish-speaking private sphere and the British/Londoner public space has been a major factor accounting for the effectiveness of various identity projects to be pursued within this field. Lastly, after presenting the historical link between modern competitive sports and masculinity, I claim that the one defining aspect of all the ethnic identities reproduced within the field is their masculine character. The last analytical theme is the cultural integration of immigrant communities. Without adopting a normative definition of cultural integration, I have considered the implications of involvement in ethnic community football in terms of belonging, social inclusion, marginalisation, and the psychological development and well-being of the individuals involved. The presented and analysed discussion rejects any automatic causal link between involvement in sports and integration or that involvement in mono-ethnic sporting organisations and segregation. Having reviewed a few exemplary organisations, which used football for integration purposes, and the nature of the ethnic community leagues, I have also argued in this thesis that the field of ethnic community football, again due to its specific nature, structure, and position between the private and public spaces, offers a great potential to be engaged by local and national governments in the service of integration policies.

ldentity research in relation to ethnicity and migration has tended to focus an younger people whilst identity research in relation to ageing and old(er) age has not focused an migrants. This inadvertent mutual neglect has led to a lack of identity research that examines the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy together, a lacuna that this dissertation aims to redress. This dissertation departs from a social constructionist understanding of identity as situationally accomplished in the interplay between how one defines oneself (internally) and how others define one (externally). The questions raised by this perspective and addressed in this dissertation are: When (in what situations) and in relation to whom do old(er) age and migrancy (respectively) seem to become meaningful for identification? How do the identity categories of old(er) age and migrancy seem to be negotiated? The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 24 older migrants (13 men, 11 women) aged between 55 and 79 who have been living in Sweden for 18 to 61 years. Interviewees come from 12 different countries that vary in perceived cultural distance from Sweden. The findings suggest that identifications with old(er) age and migrancy seem to be dynamic and flexible rather than necessarily permanently meaningful, thus gaining meaning in specific situations and in relation to particular Others. External definitions furthermore do not always seem to match with internal ones. Regardless of how old(er) age and migrancy are constructed, they seem to be negotiable. This dissertation thus contributes to identity research by studying old(er) age and migrancy together and furthermore sheds light onto how the social constructionist lens allows us to see variability where stability otherwise would be presumed.
ldentitetsforskning rörande etnicitet och migration har huvudsakligen fokuserat på yngre medan identitetsforskning kring äldre och åldrande inte har fokuserat på utrikesfödda. Som en konsekvens därav har identitetsforskningen inte studerat hög(re) ålder och invandrarskap tillsammans, en lucka som denna avhandling avser att fylla. Avhandlingen utgår ifrån en socialkonstruktionistisk förståelse av identitet som situationsbunden och formad genom samspelet mellan hur man definierar sig själv (internt) och hur andra definierar en (externt). Frågorna som väcks genom detta perspektiv och som avhandlingen fokuserar på är: När (i vilka situationer) och i förhållande till vem verkar hög(re) ålder respektive invandrarskap bli betydelsefulla för identifikationer? Hur verkar identitetskategorierna hög(re) ålder och invandrarskap förhandlas? Det empiriska materialet består av djupintervjuer med 24 utrikesfödda äldre (13 män, 11 kvinnor) i åldrarna mellan 55 och 79 som har bott i Sverige mellan 18 och 61 år. lntervjupersonerna kommer från 12 olika länder med olika upplevt kulturellt avstånd från Sverige. Resultaten tyder på att identifikationer med hög(re) ålder och invandrarskap är dynamiska och flexibla snarare än nödvändigtvis permanent meningsfulla, och får därmed betydelse i vissa situationer och i förhållande till särskilda andra. Externa definitioner verkar inte alltid stämma överens med interna definitioner. Oavsett hur hög(re) ålder och invandrarskap är konstruerade så framstår de som förhandlingsbara. Avhandlingen bidrar därmed till identitetsforskningen genom att studera hög(re) ålder och invandrarskap tillsammans och belyser dessutom hur det socialkonstruktionistiska perspektivet tillåter oss att se variation och föränderlighet där stabilitet annars förutsätts.

The aim of this thesis is to achieve a better understanding of Indigenous adolescent offending in Queensland. Although much has been written on this topic, there has been no research into patterns of Indigenous adolescent offending across urban, rural and remote areas in Queensland, or anywhere else in Australia. Similarly, no studies have compared a wide range of demographic, social, economic and cultural factors with rates of Indigenous adolescent offences. This study shows that there are discernible differences in rates and patterns of Indigenous adolescent offences across different geographical areas of Queensland. The similarities and differences are explained using a sociological perspective, with particular emphasis on the work of Jock Young. The study is based on offence data supplied by the Queensland Police Service for 110 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Queensland for the period from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2007. The LGAs were further categorised according to geographical and social characteristics, resulting in 27 ‘urban’, 49 ‘rural’, 19 ‘Aboriginal’, and 15 ‘Island’ councils or LGAs. After an initial comparison of Indigenous and non-Indigenous adolescent offending to put the study in context, Indigenous adolescent offending in the four categories of LGA was analysed according to the sex of the offender, the age of the offender, the type of offence committed, and the type of police action taken against the offender. Following on from this examination of rates and patterns of offending, correlation and regression analyses were used to elucidate relationships between Indigenous adolescent offending and various social, economic and cultural variables. The study found that rates and patterns of Indigenous adolescent offences varied greatly among the four categories of LGA, with offending being most pronounced in Aboriginal councils and least in Island councils. This pattern persisted when offending was analysed according to age, sex, type of offence, and type of police action. Nevertheless, a sociological interpretation of the results suggests that particular forms of structural exclusion and relative deprivation associated with Indigeneity underlie the high rates of Indigenous adolescent offences in Queensland, although they manifest in different ways depending on the type of Indigenous community. Following on from this, it is argued that socioeconomic status alone cannot account for the high overrepresentation of Indigenous adolescents in the Queensland criminal justice system. Despite the importance of the underlying factors mentioned above, the differences between Indigenous communities and the variations in rates and patterns of offending mean that the approaches taken to address this problem must be tailored to suit each community.

This dissertation offers an alternative lens to understand Canada’s gradual embrace of multiculturalism. Scholars have typically “worked back” from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s famous 1971 declaration to unearth the origins of multicultural legislation, focusing on departmental policies, intense lobbying by ethnic organizations, and changing attitudes during the sixties’ container of “third force” (of neither English nor French origin) activism. This story of Canadian multiculturalism is told from the grassroots level of immigrant leisure, where a pluralistic envisioning of English Canada was foreshadowed, renegotiated, and acted out “from below.” It argues that the thousands of European immigrant men who played and watched sports on Toronto’s sport periphery were agents of change. They created a competitive model of popular multiculturalism that emphasized cultural distinctiveness during a period of rapid social and political transformation and national self-reflection. By the 1980s, the first-generation immigrants and community leaders moved this model of competitive pluralism into transnational spheres and interacted with other diasporic projects when they sent their Canadian-born children on “homeland trips” to Europe to discover their roots in the context of sport tournaments. At the same time, popular multiculturalism moved into the mainstream when the City of Toronto appropriated soccer fandom as the example for its own rebranding as a metropolis of urban harmony and conviviality. This dissertation also studies how and why one immigrant community played an outsized role in the grassroots organization of diversity. Italians were the first to establish a profitable model out of ethnic sport, and the estimated 250,000 people who celebrated unscripted on the streets of Toronto after Italy’s 1982 World Cup victory, it is argued, produced a watershed moment in the history of Canadian multiculturalism. The World Cup party inaugurated new modes of citizen participation in the public sphere, produced the narrative with which Italians formed a collective memory of their post-migration experience, and prompted mainstream political and commercial interests to represent themselves to the public in the symbols and language of multiculturalism as sport. This dissertation also shows how the movement of a male-driven, competitive pluralism to the centre, sometimes accompanied by outbursts of rough masculinities, revealed the paradoxical problem that in the new vision of inclusivity, cultural distinctiveness had to be identified, maintained, and sometimes defended to survive.
Graduate
2019-02-05

Przedmiotem pracy jest opis oraz analiza stosunków i rodzajów więzi społecznych w zróżnicowanych etnicznie społecznościach lokalnych oraz wpływu zagranicznych migracji zarobkowych na kształtowanie się i formy lokalnego kapitału społecznego na pograniczach kulturowych. Główny cel pracy stanowi wskazanie wzajemnych oddziaływań między mobilnością przestrzenną ludności a kapitałem społecznym. Fakt, iż analizy prowadzone były na przykładzie społeczności zróżnicowanych kulturowo pozwolił na wskazanie różnych typów badanego zasobu oraz jego imponderabiliów i zweryfikowanie hipotezy centralnej, w której założono, że zagraniczne migracje zarobkowe wpływają na jakość i rodzaj kapitału społecznego występującego w zróżnicowanych etnicznie społecznościach lokalnych na pograniczach kulturowych. Rozprawa składa się z pięciu rozdziałów. Trzy pierwsze stanowią przegląd literatury przedmiotu dotyczącej najważniejszych zagadnień poruszanych w pracy, tj. kapitału społecznego, zagranicznych migracji zarobkowych oraz relacji między mniejszością a większościowymi grupami etniczno-kulturowymi. Celem podjętych badań jest nie tylko omówienie wymienionych wyżej zagadnień i zaprezentowanie wielości spojrzeń na nie, ale także wskazanie powiązań i oddziaływań między nimi. W pierwszym rozdziale skupiono się przede wszystkim na przedstawieniu kapitału społecznego jako istotnej kategorii teoretycznej. W tym celu dokonano w ujęciu historycznym analizy stosowania pojęcia, przedstawiono jego wybrane definicje oraz klasyfikacje, a także omówiono najważniejsze składniki. Celem ukazania wieloaspektowości zagadnienia, przedstawiono również zjawisko „negatywnego kapitału społecznego”. Osią łączącą rozdział pierwszy z dwoma kolejnymi jest wskazanie oddziaływań między lokalnym kapitałem społecznym a zagranicznymi migracjami zarobkowymi oraz szeroko rozumianą etnicznością. W kolejnym rozdziale omówione zostały wybrane pojęcia i koncepcje teoretyczne dotyczące zagranicznych migracji zarobkowych. Aby zaprezentować złożoność i niedookreśloność zjawiska, przedstawiono jego wybrane definicje i konceptualizacje. W sposób szczególny skupino się mobilności zarobkowej o charakterze nietrwałym. W tej części pracy przedstawiono także wybrane teorie wyjaśniające fenomen migracji zarobkowych. W sposób szczególny skupiono się na dwóch zjawiskach silnie łączących się z kategorią kapitału społecznego, tj. na migracjach łańcuchowych oraz sieciach migracyjnych. W trzecim rozdziale scharakteryzowano relacje między większością a mniejszością etniczną w świetle wybranych teorii. W tej części pracy omówiono m.in. zagadnienia wielokulturowości, pogranicza kulturowego, etniczności, mniejszości narodowej i etnicznej oraz wskazano na wielowymiarowość tożsamości ludności pogranicza kulturowego. Istotnym celem tej części pracy było również wskazanie na niejednoznaczny status teoretyczny oraz powiązania między takimi pojęciami jak sytuacja mniejszościowa, współżycie międzyetniczne i stosunki etniczne. Cel rozdziału czwartego stanowiło naszkicowanie społecznego portretu województw podlaskiego i opolskiego w aspektach zachodzących w nich procesów migracyjnych oraz zróżnicowania etniczno-kulturowego obu regionów. Dokonano w nim także próby oceny jakości lokalnego kapitału społecznego. Ostatnią część rozprawy stanowi omówienie wyników autorskich badań empirycznych. Na podstawie przeprowadzonych obserwacji oraz wywiadów pogłębionych z migrantami oraz ekspertami zanalizowano znaczenie i poziom zaufania, zarówno w wymiarze generalnym jak i zindywidualizowanym, zbadano stopień integracji społeczności lokalnej oraz budowane przez mieszkańców sieci społeczne, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem sieci migracyjnych. Celem prowadzonych analiz było również ustalenie skali współdziałania miedzy mieszkańcami oraz ich poczucia wpływu na podejmowane w badanych miejscowościach decyzje i działania. Ważny element tej części pracy stanowi również omówienie aktywności obywatelskiej, zarówno spontanicznej jak i zorganizowanej.
The subject of the work is description and analysis of relationships and the types of social relations in ethnically diverse communities and the impact of international migration on the development and forms of local social capital on the borders of culture. The main objective of the work is an indication of the interaction between spatial mobility of the population and social capital. The fact that the analysis was carried out on the example of culturally diverse communities helps to identify different types of test resource and its imponderables and to examines hypothesis, which assumes that labor mobility across borders affects the quality and type of social capital present in ethnically diverse communities on the borders of cultural. The dissertation consists of five chapters. The first three provides an overview of the literature on the most important issues discussed at work: social capital, international migration and the relationship between minority and majority ethnic-cultural groups. The aim of this study is not only to discusses the above issues and presents the multiplicity of looks at them, but also to identifies linkages and interactions between them. The first chapter focuses primarily on the social capital as an important theoretical category. For this purpose makes a historical analysis of the concept, the selected definitions and classifications, and discusses the most important components. In order to show various aspects of issues also presents the phenomenon of "negative social capital". The axis linking the first part with two consecutive is the interaction between local social capital and international migrations and the wider ethnicity. The next chapter discusses the selected definitions and theoretical concepts of international migration. To demonstrate the complexity of the phenomenon presents its selection of definitions and conceptualizations. In particular focusses on the labor mobility of a fugitive. This section presents a selection of theories explaining the phenomenon of migration. In particular, the focus is on two phenomena strongly connecting to the category of social capital, chain migration and migration networks. Third chapter characterizes the relationship between the majority and the ethnic minority in the light of some theory. This part of the study focuses on the issues of multiculturalism, cultural borderland, ethnicity, national and ethnic minorities pointed out the multi-dimensional cultural identity of the population of the border. An important objective of this part of the study is also an indication of the ambiguous status of the theory and the relationship between such concepts as that of the minority, co-existence and inter-ethnic relations. Purpose of chapter four is a sketch of social portrait of Opolszczyzna and Podlasie in the aspects of these processes occurring in the migration and ethno-cultural diversity of the two regions. Also makes an attempt to assess the quality of local social capital. The last part of the thesis is to discuss the results of own empirical research. On the basis of observation and in-depth interviews with migrants and experts analyses the importance and the level of trust, both in general and individualized. It also examines the degree of integration of the local community and social networks built by the inhabitants, with particular emphasis on migration networks. The aim of this analysis is to determine the scale of cooperation between the local people and their sense of the impact of the taken decisions and actions in surveyed towns. An important element of this part of the work is also discussion of civic activity, both spontaneous and organized.

This portfolio of research aimed to investigate the learning and teaching of Greek in Adelaide secondary schools, from the perspective of the students studying the language and to a lesser extent their parents and teachers. It sought to follow up the previous studies of Smolicz, Tamis and Papademetre, by studying the latest generation of young people of Greek background in relation to maintaining Greek language and culture. A longitudinal mixed research approach (qualitative and quantitative), influenced by humanistic sociological principles, was adopted. Data were collected through questionnaires, using both fixed and open-ended questions, as well as follow –up interviews and research observations over a ten year period. Respondents were drawn from St George College, established by the Greek Orthodox Community and Parish of St George, as the only independent school in Adelaide committed to maintaining Greek language and culture at high school level, and from three state high schools which are considered specialised in languages and offered Greek in their curriculum. The description of the data collected and the analysis of the findings are presented in three projects within this portfolio of research. Project 1 was based on data collected from ten parents whose children attended St George College and five teachers, on the one hand, and from 23 parents and six teachers associated with the three state high schools on the other. Most spoke in Greek ethnolect to their immigrant parents, but mainly English to their spouses and children. Although many had achieved upward mobility into professional careers, most felt both Greek and Australian. St George parents were more oriented towards the Greek community and valued the college’s Greek ethos, while state school parents associated more with mainstream Australian society and gave highest priority to their children’s academic success. Teachers were concerned at the decline in students’ competence and interest in Greek. Those in state schools were also fearful for the future of their subject. Project 2 studied the learning experiences, attitudes and language activation of 82 students from St George College. Many spoke a little Greek with grandparents, if they were still alive. Although most were positive to learning Greek and responded enthusiastically to the Greek ethos of the school, a small proportion were opposed to learning the language or regarded it as irrelevant. All but a few considered they were Greek, which they linked particularly with family, religion, historicity as well as music and character. Project 3 was a parallel study of 214 students studying Greek in state school contexts which were multicultural in orientation, not Greek. The students’ activation of Greek within the family was rather less than for the St George respondents. Far more of the students were indifferent (rather than opposed) to Greek, with some senior students being more positive. Their friendships and career aspirations oriented them toward mainstream Australian society. In identity, they felt Australian, but almost always with some sense of Greekness as well. In conclusion, the new knowledge this dissertation offers to the Greek language and culture research was mapped out and the participants were taxonomised into participant’s types attracted to one or other or both cultural groups. Only a few were monadic, attracted to either the Australian or the Greek group. Even fewer were dyadic, balanced in their activation of both Australian and Greek language and culture. The great majority were pseudo-dyadic, where the language and culture of one group predominated, but there was some evidence of the activation of the other. Finally, the implications of these findings for the teaching of Greek at secondary level, and the possible effects of a potential new wave of immigrants from Greece are discussed.
Thesis (D.Ed.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 2014

This thesis interrogates the dynamics of urbanisation, gender and migration in contemporary Johannesburg through the voices and images of migrant women from the rest of the African continent, now living in Johannesburg. By revealing the lives of a population group that is often hidden from view, it provides details of women’s migration to Johannesburg, and their everyday encounters in the host city. Using these experiences, it sheds light on contemporary migration and urbanisation processes on the continent, expanding our knowledge of the contours of power that shape urban life in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Using the metaphor of the “border” or “borderlands” this thesis explores how women negotiate, cross and remain “in between” the multiple physical, social and imagined borders they encounter in the city. It finds that analyses that read the city through class relationships and capital accumulation do not give adequate weight to the multiple identities and forms of solidarity that exist in cities. Women’s narratives reveal that while their class is an important identity, other identities such as ethnicity, nationality and gender also powerfully shape solidarity and modes of belonging in the city. Moreover, state-centric governance frameworks that have dominated urban policy and scholarly work on the continent are often blinded to the ways in which urban dweller’s actions shift our understanding of the nature and character of state power. Women’s encounters with the state reveal the multiple regimes of power that constitute the city, and the ways in which these subvert, fragment, and yet at times reinforce state power in unpredictable ways. The epistemological approach and findings of this research bring to the fore broader questions around the paradigmatic lenses used to read, interpret and understand African cities. Dominant paradigms tend to draw on western models of cities in ways that undermine African cities’ empirical realities and theoretical potential. For as long as scholars and policy makers fail to see African urbanity in its own terms rather than in relation to how cities elsewhere have evolved, we will continue to miss critical socio-political and economic dynamics that are shaping urbanisation in the twenty first century.
Sociology
D. Phil. (Sociology))

The monograph Ripped from the land, shipped away, and reborn introduces the concept Destierro-which translates as uprooting, deracination, exile, exodus, and banishment- to unthink the intellectual, political, and legal categories used by prevailing intellectual models to narrate/explain the 2002 massacre, occurred at the community of Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó-Colombia. This thesis offers a critical prospect of the event. It highlights ethno-historical analytics to deconstruct the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration. I study the racial, class, gender, generational, and regional dimensions undergirding this phenomenon to propose an Afrodiasporic Decolonial Critique of the field of Forced Migration. Single-axis explanations of this event and phenomenon have failed to move forward a complex analytical framework to fully explain the joint effect of multiple systems of oppression at play in events of land dispossession. Variables such as race, place, gender, and class; historical processes such as colonialism, the development of capitalism, contemporary place-based ethno-territorial social mobilization, and neoliberal multiculturalism intersect in this massacre. Accordingly, it is an imperative for critical historical sociological research to craft theories, and concepts to understand these crossroads. The basic argument I develop is that the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration are formulas for historical erasure, and therefore limited to contribute to the demands for reparation of the affected populations. Territories are socio-geo-historical formations that can only be understood within the context in which they are conceived, produced, re-produced, and unproduced. Likewise, the categories used to name and study land dispossession need to be contextually and historically grounded to capture both complex local specificities, and global linkages. I advocate for concepts that can be used as categories of analysis, social mobilization, and reparation; to unveil the historical roots of the current constellation of processes, which are generating a new cycle of Diaspora of the Afrocolombian population, and similar contexts in the world-system in which this phenomenon is observable. In this vein, unthinking/deconstructing the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration, as well as the massacre of Bellavista as an event of forced displacement, is an attempt to write stories that can repair the broken dignity of those that have been, and still are continually exploited.