Contemporary scholars of imperialism and colonialism studies have revealed how different imperial spaces were malleable, and they constantly shift through negotiations between diverse agencies. Whereas most existing studies investigate change of imperial space from the view of ‘metropolitan centre’, this thesis attempts to decentralise the dominant view of existing Japanese imperialism studies, and explores the Japanese imperial expansion with a particular focus on people’s subjectivities and agencies on the national border zone. The thesis particularly focuses on the border/boundary between the Yaeyama Archipelago of the Ryukyu Islands and colonial Taiwan. The first chapter explores the boundary between Yaeyama and Taiwan in representation and discourse after Yaeyama was annexed to Japan. I discuss how ‘Yaeyama’ came to appear as a historical subject in the Japanese colonial discourse, by distinguishing itself from the colonised subject as well as criticising the dominance of the main island of Okinawa. In critically examining the previous Yaeyama Studies, I suggest reconstructing Yaeyama’s history in the East Asian regional framework. The second chapter explores how civilians actively committed themselves to defining the national territory during the late nineteenth century. The chapter also aims to reconsider the dominant discourse of Okinawa’s modern history, which tends to focus on conflicts between the Japanese government and the former samurai class of Okinawa prefecture. Chapters 3 further discusses how people on the border zone constructed the boundary between Japan and Taiwan, but I argue that the border between Yaeyama and Taiwan did not only demarcate the ‘metropolitan nation’ and the ‘colony’, but also demarcated the ‘rural’ and the ‘urban’ areas. In other words, the third chapter considers how the national border had different implications to people on the border zone. I explore how new settlers dominated the newly emerging economy of Yaeyama and developed trade links with colonial Taiwan. Furthermore, I discuss how while Yaeyama native farmers were marginalised from the local economy and industry, they also crossed the border in a form of rural-urban migration. Chapters 5 and 6 examine Yaeyama migrants’ experiences in Taiwan. Firstly, I explore in what social and cultural conditions Yaeyama migrants lived and worked during the 1920s to the 1940s. I argue that the distinction between ‘Japanese’ and ‘Taiwanese’ was not instantly determined by the colonial authority, but continuously constructed and negotiated by social agents. In Chapter 6, I examine how Yaeyama migrants shaped their Japanese identity by distinguishing themselves from the colonised subjects. The southern border between the Inner Territory and the Outer Territories were constituted through the interaction between ensembles of practices in the local ‘place’ and the wider imperial networks and ‘space’. Yaeyama people’s experiences of constructing and crossing the boundary effectively demonstrates how the determination of the Japanese national border was incorporated into colonialism, and how Japanese colonialism was associated with the emergence of modernity in East Asia. With a particular focus on the border islands of Yaeyama, this thesis presents an alternative view to Japanese colonial history, East Asian social history as well as Okinawa’s modern history.

Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

The study explores the motivations and experiences of young single women migrating to work in the garment and footwear industries in Vietnam and the impact of migration on their lives and future prospects. The key issues investigated were the impact on the young women's working lives, their material and emotional well-being, agency and empowerment and personal life trajectories. Based on a questionnaire survey and interviews with young women factory workers in Hanoi, the research found that young women are motivated by the desire for a stable income and the lack of alternative employment options in rural areas, which are constrained by gendered patterns of vocational training and labour market opportunities. Migration into factory work brings young women increased incomes and opportunities for empowerment through a broadening of their horizons. As a result of migration young women gain confidence and increased capacity to achieve their personal life goals, and as such, are empowered by the experience. Their marriage opportunities, however, are limited by factory employment and this places young women at odds with the expectations of their families and rural tradition. How women negotiate this divergence from traditional work and marriage expectations in Vietnam has mixed implications for young women's well-being and empowerment, and calls for a reconsideration of the nature of women's empowerment as represented in gender and development discourse.

Stomach contents of 19 mature sperm whales, 18 males and one female, that stranded on New Zealand beaches between the mid 1990s and 2004 were examined, identified and measured. Three of the stomachs were empty. All other samples consisted almost entirely of cephalopod beaks. A total of 23,223 cephalopod beaks (10,647 upper and 12,576 lower), representing at least 36 species in 17 families were found in the remaining 16 stomachs. Non-cephalopod remains in the stomachs of sperm whales stranded in New Zealand included limited quantities of fish, salps, crustacean exoskeletons, a copepod, some wood and sand.The present investigation represents the most comprehensive study of the diet of sperm whales in New Zealand since the early 1960s. The results show that oceanic squid of the families Histioteuthidae, Cranchiidae, Onychoteuthidae and Octopoteuthidae are the most common remains found in the stomachs of sperm whales stranded on New Zealand beaches, with the families Onychoteuthidae, Histioteuthidae, Octopoteuthidae and Architeuthidae being the most important by estimated weight in whale diet, and the families Cranchiidae, Pholidoteuthidae and Ancistrocheiridae secondarily so.The beaks of three cephalopod species thought to be restricted to Antarctic waters (Kondakovia longimana, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni and Psychroteuthis glacialis) were found in 12 of the stomachs, suggesting these whales had recently migrated into New Zealand from more southern feeding grounds. The amount of local cephalopod beaks in the stomachs suggests some of the stranded sperm whales did not feed much within New Zealand waters in the days prior to stranding.The beaks of Taningia danae, Octopoteuthis megaptera, Octopoteuthis sp. 'Giant' and Lepidoteuthis grimaldii are illustrated and described. Oblique and lateral illustrations of the lower beaks are given, as well as sections of the rostrum, jaw angle, shoulder and lateral wall, to show the major identifying features for each of the species.Squid are an important component of food chains in the Southern Ocean and they act as both high-level predators and prey for apex predators. Therefore, seasonal fluctuations in their abundance must have cascading effects on the diets of apex predators. With increasing global fishing effort, and with cephalopods representing over 4% of the global annual catch, there are competing interests between the ocean's top teuthophagous predators and the fishing industry.Uncertainty of the effects fisheries have on the marine ecosystem has stimulated numerous research studies in recent years. However, despite the economic and ecological importance of cephalopods, there are few ecological studies on them or their significance in the trophic systems of the deep-sea and their life cycles and distribution patterns are only now beginning to be understood. Additional dietary studies that investigate the cephalopod composition and size-class structure in the diet of predators are needed to assess their importance in deepsea food webs, and the potential impact that deep-sea fisheries might have on associated and dependant species, namely apex oceanic predators.The results of this study provide the first significant insight into the diet of the sperm whale, one of the most important apex predators in New Zealand waters.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Geography, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Bochum, Univ., Diss., 2005 u.d.T.: Gulyanska, Maya: Ost-West-Unterschiede in wirtschaftsrelevanten Teilgebieten der Persönlichkeit

<p>Syftet med studien är att öka kunskapen om inomeuropeisk migration till den svenska landsbygden. Fokus ligger på nederländare som under 2000-talet flyttat till Klarälvdalen i Värmland och där driver turistföretag. Mot bakgrund av tidigare huvudsakligen kvantitativa studier är syftet att fördjupa kunskapen om inflyttarnas bakgrund och motiv till migrationen och om hur de använder sig av transnationella nätverk i sitt nuvarande liv. Kvalitativ metod används i form av intervjuer med familjer/turistföretagare. Vidare har webbsidor för sjutton turistföretag som drivs av nederländare i området studerats, kompletterat med några webbsidor och en intervju med turistföretagare från ett annat nordeuropeiskt land. Resultatet visar att familjerna flyttat för att få en bättre livskvalité. De har upplevt stress och trängsel i en urbaniserad miljö och sökt sig till glesare bebyggelse med närhet till natur och en lugnare livsstil. Det har de funnit i Värmland och också att området ligger väl till kommunikationsmässigt från Nederländerna. Genom sina natur- och riluftslivsintressen och egna erfarenheter av turistande har de hittat en företagsnisch som de utvecklar och marknadsför mot sina landsmän och andra nordeuropéer. Att kunna erbjuda aktiviteter och information på nederländska är en fördel i deras verksamhet. Deras företagande är transnationellt och en del av transnationella sociala rum.</p>

<p>This thesis investigates the preconditions for a new type of migration among the highly skilled between Senegal and the EU, namely <em>circular migration</em>. The three most prominent actors in the shaping of the future migration pattern –the EU (administration), the Senegalese government and the future highly skilled migrants i.e. Senegalese university students –are studied by a combination of <em>social constructivism</em> and <em>critical discourse analysis</em>. The discourses are derived from official EU and Senegalese documents and from a survey as well as from semi-structured interviews with students at the two largest universities in Senegal. The analysis of the discourses shows three factors that point towards a change of the migration practice in favour of circular migration: first, an <em>interdiscursivity</em> between the migration, development and economic growth discourses; second, a <em>resemblance</em> between the three actors discourses on migration; and third, a <em>willingness</em> among all three actors to act for a mobility of knowledge and experience. Consequently, there are preconditions for circular migration between Senegal and the EU.</p>

<p>Mellan år 1845-1930 utvandrade ca 1,3 miljoner svenskar. Hallands län tillhörde de län som förlorade flest invånare till följd av emigrationen. Halmstad var länets enda industrialiserade ort, tillika länets residensstad.</p><p>Den svenska massemigrationen förknippas i hög grad med Nordamerika, men emigrationen från Halmstad gick även i stor omfattning till vårt grannland Danmark och, i någon mån till Tyskland.</p><p>Syftet med denna studie är att studera kvinnornas utrikes migration, med utgångspunkt i Halmstad, för att se vilka kvinnor som migrerade, vart de migrerade, i vilket sällskap de migrerade, och i vilken utsträckning de migrerade. Resultaten kompareras även med manlig utrikes migration. Materialet som används är till största del primärmaterial från Halmstads församlings in och utflyttningslängder.</p><p>Studier av Halmstads kyrkoböckers in- och utflyttningslängder har bland annat visat, att man i hög grad emigrerade till Danmark och Amerika, men inte till Tyskland, och att det främst var ensamstående unga kvinnor ur det sociala lägre skikten som migrerade. Komparationen med männens migration visade, att fler män än kvinnor remigrerade, medan de kvinnliga emigranterna var i majoritet. Skillnader mellan männens och kvinnornas destinationer och destinationsändringar över tid förekom, liksom deras delvis olika pull och push-faktorer.</p>

<p>Uppsatsen behandlar folkgruppen assyrier/syrianers upplevelser och erfarenheter av livet i diaspora i allmänhet och förhållande till hemlandet Turabdin i synnerhet. Fenomenet hemlandet utgör uppsatsens centrala tema. Vad betyder hemlandet och vad ges det för innebörd? Svaren på dessa frågor har jag funnit i de artiklar, insändare, reportage och dikter som jag studerat i tidskrifterna Hujådå och Bahro Suryoyo. Uppsatsens syfte är att belysa livet i diaspora och dess komplexitet utifrån assyriers/syrianers egna beskrivningar av sina upplevelser och erfarenheter av livet i Sverige. Upprätthållandet av hemlandet visar sig fylla både en politisk och en existentiell funktion. Hemlandet är diasporans fundament och sammanhållande länk. I min studie framgår det att man inte kan tala om en enda enad assyrisk/syriansk diaspora där samtliga medlemmar av folkgruppen upplever sin livssituation på ett likartat sätt, utan att det snarare handlar om flera olika diasporor.</p>