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- Convenors:
-
Jijiao Zhang
(Insititute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Ellen Judd (University of Manitoba)
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- Discussants:
-
Yvonne Hébert
(University of Calgary)
Lori Wilkinson (University of Manitoba)
- Track:
- Movement, Mobility, and Migration
- Location:
- Roscoe Theatre B
- Sessions:
- Friday 9 August, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Human resource is one of the most important factors for social and economic development. Unfortunately, anthropologists pay less attention to human resource and its mobility.
Long Abstract:
Human resource is one of the most important factors for social and economic development, not only in developed countries, but also in developing or underdeveloped countries. Unfortunately, anthropologists pay less attention to human resource and its mobility.
On the one hand, for a person, how to move and find a job from rural area to urban area, or from one city to another city, what would be his/her qualification or capital for his/her survival and development? education, skill, work experience, age, gender and social network?
On the other hand, during his/her mobility, how about his/her housing, health care, professional training, employment, child's education, and who take care of his/her working and living condition?
This panel will be a multi-discipline communication among anthropologists, sociologist, population and migration researchers, and other field scholars and students.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 9 August, 2013, -Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary)
Paper short abstract:
In Calgary, a major city in Western Canada, the settlement of migrants from French Africa led the development of a new governance model of the Francophone community: a Circle of Collaboration, which is described then analysed in terms of Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and the conduct of conduct, as well as implications for other host communities.
Paper long abstract:
In Calgary, a major city in Western Canada, major community pressures emerged with the arrival of considerable numbers of French-speaking migrants mostly from African countries. This mobility led to the provision of settlement and integration services in French, an official language in Canada, as well as a new model of community governance, the Circle of Collaboration, which is subjected to descriptive, ideological and comparative analysis. The first analysis presents a portrait of the nature of this French-language community that constitutes nearly 10% of city population. The second level analysis portrays the new model of governance, that is, the structure and functioning of the Circle of Collaboration: its networks, its issues, its mechanics, its localization, its organisations as well as the emergence of the formal creation of the Circle and the transmission of ideas into action. The basic principles of the Circle of collaboration, such as inclusivity, good will, recognition of efforts and their provenances, the sharing of responsibilities and degrees of engagement, are subjected to an ideological analysis in terms of Foucault's key concepts of 'governmentality' and the 'conduct of conduct'. Finally, a fourth analysis compares this model of community governance with those in other national minority communities within French Canada, notably in Ontario and in the Maritimes. In conclusion are identified the advantages and disadvantages, its strong features and possible further development of this collaborative model of community governance, as well as implications of these experiences for other host communities within urban contexts.
David Haines (George Mason University)
Paper short abstract:
Assessment of differences and convergences in East Asian versus North American migration policy. Emphasis on implications of the debate about migrants as workers versus migrants as full social participants.
Paper long abstract:
Perhaps the greatest dilemma in contemporary migration policy involves how states articulate the need for migrants as workers versus the need to incorporate those workers as full social participants. Do migrants merely address current economic needs or are they to be part of the building of societal futures? Over the last few decades, this dilemma has played out in different ways in North America and East Asia. North America, long accustomed to including foreigners as permanent settlers, has seemed to shift toward a greater interest in foreign temporary workers, sometimes legal but often undocumented. East Asia, by contrast, has tended to meet its labor needs with massive internal migration from rural areas, but is now experiencing increasing foreign labor as well. Governments in East Asia have thus begun to consider ways in which foreigners might, like traditional North American immigrants, become more fully participating members of their societies. This paper considers the traditional differences and recent convergences in migration policy between the two regions and suggest ways in which a more integrated delineation of migrants as workers and migrants as people might be constructed, thus bringing the world of migration policy more in alignment with the anthropological understanding of the holistic nature of human migration and mobility.
Lori Wilkinson (University of Manitoba)
Paper short abstract:
Using a series of narrative analysis conducted with 35 former immigrants, mostly from East Asia, along with quantitative data from the IMDB data set (one that follows the employment histories of immigrants to Canada since 1980), this presentation seeks to examine the labour market histories of immigrants who arrived to Canada during their teens. and follows them throughout their adulthood. Popular belief among government officials is that migrants arriving to Canada during these formative years experience nearly flawless integration into the Canadian labour market. This success hypothesis has not been questioned by the extensive literature on economic integration among immigrants in Canada. The qualitative and quantitative historical data collected reveals a less successful labour market trajectory, particularly among the migrants from Eastern Asian countries.
Paper long abstract:
Migrants from East Asia have made up the largest number of arrivals to Canada during the past 20 years; in 2010, 48% of all new arrivals originated from this area of the world. Most immigrants are not naïve to the difficulties they will endure on their entry to Canada. We wonder why, given the well-documented difficulties migrants face, do young people continue to migrate to Canada in search of professional and managerial employment? Why risk years of discrimination in the labour market for poor income returns? Despite the difficulties they face as they try to locate employment commensurate with their experience and qualifications, migrants continue to relocate to Canada. Using a series of narrative analysis conducted with 35 former immigrants, mostly from East Asia, along with quantitative data from the IMDB data set (one that follows the employment histories of immigrants to Canada since 1980), this presentation seeks to examine the labour market histories of immigrants who arrived to Canada during their teens and follows them throughout their adulthood. Popular belief is that migrants arriving to Canada during these formative years experience nearly flawless integration into the Canadian labour market. This success hypothesis has not been questioned by the extensive literature on economic integration among immigrants in Canada. Using Structuration theory and a political economy perspective, my analysis reveals that the assumption that young migrants are more successful in the labour market is not true. The qualitative and quantitative historical data collected reveals a less successful labour market trajectory, particularly among the migrants from Eastern Asian countries.
Edward Sankowski (University of Oklahoma)
Paper short abstract:
University exchanges are a significant part of human resource issues relevant to the relationship between the PRC and Taiwan, and the relationship of both with the US.
Paper long abstract:
In Taiwan today many citizens think about what might be Taiwan's future in relation to the People's Republic of China. University exchanges are a significant part of human resource issues relevant to the relationship between the PRC and Taiwan, and the relationship of both with the US. The PRC officially considers Taiwan a province. One interesting development in "cross-straits relations" is an increase, still somewhat controversial in Taiwan, in higher education exchanges involving the mainland and Taiwan. This paper considers this development, and more generally triangular relationships in higher education exchanges among the PRC, Taiwan as a political entity, and the US (including many state governments within the US), and the effects of the triangle on Taiwan, the PRC, and US university cultures, as well as the broader human resources implications. The Taiwan Ministry of Education appears to anticipate continuing and increasing economic and cultural relations, including university exchanges, with Beijing and other parts of China. Those Taiwanese involved in higher education, like many other components of the Taiwanese political economy, appear to be increasingly accepting the idea that closer ties with the PRC are overwhelmingly likely. Such Taiwanese are sometimes resigned to what they consider neglect by US policy-makers and to the dominance of higher-education alliances between governments and individuals identified with the PRC and US, with Taiwan probably playing a lesser but still meaningful role in university exchanges when the PRC and US negotiate. What does all this mean for globalized universities and human resources issues?
Masako Kudo (Kyoto Women's University)
Paper short abstract:
By examining variations of the transnational family formed by Japanese-Pakistani couples, this paper sheds light on the complexities involved in social reproduction through cross-border marriages which resulted from the flow of international labor migration to Japan from the 1980s.
Paper long abstract:
Human resources are flowing across national boundaries at an increasing pace. International migrants provide not only "cheap and flexible" labor for the industries, but also various kind of care essential for raising the next generation of the labor force within the developed nations. However, the issues of social reproduction for labor migrants are largely ignored, except for growing attention paid to transnational motherhood observed among "foreign domestic workers" and the global care chain. How then is the next generation reproduced when men migrate to work? It has been generally presumed that care for the next generation is left to the wives who either remain in the sending countries or join their husbands abroad. However, a different pattern has emerged in Japan due to the increasing number since the late 1980s of "foreign workers" who married local women. This paper discusses the particular case of Pakistani migrants in Japan who married Japanese women. The focus will be on the emergence of transnational families whereby the Pakistani migrant husbands remain in Japan and their Japanese wives move abroad for the education of their children. What are the motivations involved in this type of transnational families, and what kind of socio-cultural resources are mobilized to enable such relocation? By asking these questions, this paper sheds light on the complexities involved in social reproduction through cross-border marriages which resulted from the flow of international labor migration.