The large rise in the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain in the 1990s and since then has made asylum policy and associated matters an increasingly important issue for the government. On the one hand, the government has wished to deter asylum seekers but on the other, it recognises the importance of integrating those who are given permission to settle. Issues surrounding asylum seekers have become highly political as the media, local authorities and local people have all become involved in trying to influence the content and delivery of asylum policy. This thesis focuses on the effect of the current dispersal policy on asylum seeker and refugee integration. In this piece of research, an asylum seeker is an individual who reaches the UK through his/her own means and submits a request for asylum to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) at the Home Office. Asylum seekers who are granted permission to reside in the UK are defined as refugees in this thesis, whether they be Convention refugees or individuals possessing Humanitarian Protection (HP) or Discretionary Leave (DL). This study uses the approach to integration developed by Ager and Strang (2004a) and in particular their four main components of asylum seeker and refugee integration. My major hypothesis is that dispersal exercises a negative impact on the four dimensions of integration studied because this policy sends asylum seekers to localities where there are no settled co-ethnics, hostile host-community members, limited employment opportunities and inadequate dwellings. In order to test this hypothesis, I compare the significantly different integration opportunities encountered by asylum seekers and refugees in two contrasting dispersal cities, Newcastle and Birmingham. Given the national, ethnic and socio-economic heterogeneity of the group under study, I also adopt a case study approach and focus on the experiences of Kurds from Iraq. Significantly, asylum seekers and refugees possess different rights and for this reason, their experiences of dispersal and integration are analyzed separately. I chose semi-structured interviewing with asylum seekers and refugees because this method reflects my structured research strategy as well as my commitment to remain alert to unexpected findings. Furthermore, this technique helps the researcher appreciate the standpoint of the group studied, an important objective in my study. The in-depth nature of the qualitative data produced also assists with the understanding of the complex processes tied to the effect of the dispersal policy on integration. A non-probability sampling technique, snowball sampling, customarily used when a population is elusive, was employed to select the sample of asylum seekers and refugees. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with national policy-makers and local service providers as well as Kurdish community workers and businessmen. These interviews helped the researcher understand the standpoints of central and local government, the voluntary and private sector as well as the perspective of influential Iraqi Kurds. The findings suggest that asylum seekers and refugees' experiences of dispersal and their process of integrating into UK society are not necessarily contradictory phenomena. In fact, in some instances, the dispersal policy has introduced members of this group to better integration opportunities than they would otherwise have encountered in their voluntarily chosen, traditional areas of concentration, in London and the South East of England. The conclusions also highlight several gaps in Ager and Strang's (2004a) integration framework, namely the absence of an intra-national spatial dimension, the failure to incorporate the ambivalent, non-linear effect of the passage of time and finally, the lack of reference to the idea that success in one sub-area of integration can reduce progress in another.

This thesis examines migration as a contemporary social phenomenon. Adopting Marxian dialectics, migration is defined as a form and as a process of social relations. Thus, migration exists as a differentiated but also as an internal part of social totality. This social totality, as a historical result, constitutes the general social framework within which migration is examined. This study of migration starts from the examination of this particular social organisation of social relations. Migration as an international phenomenon is explored through migration policies and flows, alongside with the relationship between national and international contexts. Moreover, the analysis focuses on a new territorial political organisation, the EU, and its interaction with migration. Furthermore, this study explores the ways that migration is constructed in a specific national context, that of the Greek state. Particularly, the interest in on the ways that migration is included in the social and political process in Greek society. Finally, the analysis focuses on people's experience as migrants in Greece, which is examined through structural social characteristics and attitudes, in order to illustrate that migration means a process of being constructed as a 'migrant' depending on both general and specific social contexts.

The transnational activities of migrant groups have become a major issue in recent decades. This study offers an analysis of overseas Sikhs' involvement in Punjab issues; especially concentrating on post-1984 period, when a vigorous support and mobilisation by overseas Sikhs for a 'homeland' has led to diplomatic strains between the Government of India and some of the states with large Sikh migrant population. This study concentrates upon the mobilisation among Sikh migrant groups in Canada, the United States and Great Britain -three countries which account for over three quarter of overseas Sikh population. The issue of 'homeland' among displaced minorities and migrant groups has usually been studied as a diasporic phenomenon. In a theoretical formulation preceding this study, the term diaspora and recent contributions to extend its scope to all such migrant groups who were neither forced out of their homelands nor had continuous historic connections is critically examined. Rejecting the wider definition advocated by more recent contributors to extend this term to any migrant group which maintains some connections with their land of origins, a case is made for only those migrant groups which are essentially involved in a demand for a secure and independent 'homeland' to be part of 'diaspora studies' Proceeding with migration history and experiences of Sikhs in Britain, Canada and the United States, the study explores the persistence and continuation of cultural and religious practices derived from their land of origins. Noting that neither the homeland for Sikhs was an unambiguous term till recently nor were they forced out from their homes, Sikh migrant groups provide an interesting but problematic example of transnational ethnic linkages. The next two chapters analyze the social, cultural and political links with the Punjab. The study then provides a description and analysis of Sikh mobilisation as a reaction to dramatic events in the Punjab in June 1984. The last chapter situates overseas Sikh mobilisation as a reaction to a crisis which has fermented some new elements of ethnic consciousness with consequent bearing upon the group identity and political mobilisation within overseas Sikh migrant groups. It also notes the impact of overseas Sikh mobilisation on the transnational relationship of concerned states and their respective policies towards Sikh migrant groups. This study of overseas Sikhs provides an interesting case of transnational politics where a crucial event in a migrant groups' home country could perceptibly shift their political loyalty towards an imaginary homeland, and how in the process, their land of origin becomes a 'threatened homeland' . The study thus illustrates the limitation of the existing analytical concepts dealing with the behaviour of migrant groups whose attachments to their roots are principally triggered into a virulent form of mobilisation due to a traumatic event in their religious centre. The study draws upon a wide range of sources including interviews with leading participants, and a thorough examination of ethnic Purijabi media of the United States, Canada and Great Britain. In addition it takes account of the growing body of secondary materials associated with the study of Sikhs in the Punjab.

This study argues for the necessity of a psychoanalytic perspective in the study of colonization, while recognizing the complicity of psychoanalysis in the colonial project. My first chapter situates the Oedipal subject as a historic effect and attempts to trace some of the conditions of its emergence. In this way, I seek to call into question the universal status that Freud attributed to the Oedipal subject. From this historicized perspective, I then read Freud's Totem and Taboo, and its construction of the 'savage', as an effect of displacement, and in so doing, suggest a relation between the Oedipalized subject and the colonizing subject. The following three chapters are comprised of detailed readings of specific events and texts in Australian cultural history. All of these chapters focus on Aboriginal writers, and argue that the texts they have produced can be read as challenging, in a variety of ways, the naturalized construction of the patriarchal nuclear family in the colonial context, and the Oedipalized subject that supports it. The first of these contextualizes the life and work of David Ilnaipon, and argues for a more positive reassessmenot f his work that takes into consideration modes of Oedipalized subjectification operative in the colonial domain. The following chapter focuses on Sally Morgan's My Place, Australia's best-selling, Aboriginal autobiography, and suggests that its overwhelming popularity masks profound anxieties about the intimate and sexualized nature of colonial exploitation as manifest in the settler family home. The final chapter considers recent allegations that Mudrooroo, Australia's most wellknown and prolific Aboriginal writer, is actually an African American. This chapter suggests that a re-reading of his novels, Master of the Ghost Dreaming and Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World, provide possible ways of rethinking simplistic notions of identity and theirgrounding in Oedipalized identifications. All three textual events act as imperatives to remember the legacy of colonialism that continues to pervade contemporary Australian culture.

Meiofauna are an abundant, diverse and important component of the marine biota, however, much of their ecology has been neglected. Despite their high densities, meiofaunal abundance is often patchy. Meiofauna present in high numbers at one site will often be less abundant in seemingly similar adjacent sites. What factors govern this variability? How readily do these animals colonize new patches? How do various biological and environmental factors affect meiofaunal colonization rate and resulting assemblage structure? The response of meiofauna to changes in abiotic factors, including sediment grain size, depth, exposure and distance from the ocean floor, was quite variable. Often one factor would affect certain taxa and not others. Even slight increases in depth resulted in drastic declines of harpacticoid copepods while nematodes were unaffected. Meiofauna were also fewer in sediments with large interstitial spaces. Some meiofauna were most abundant in sediments placed closer to the ocean floor. Other taxa colonized distant substrata as rapidly as they did substrate located closer to the ocean floor. This suggested differences between taxa in their rates of active dispersal. The effects of macrofauna on meiofauna have been debated. In particular, how do clams affect the colonization and assemblage structure of meiofauna? Certain characteristics of clams were isolated and evaluated: feeding behaviour, bioturbation rate/depth and metabolic byproducts. Clams that caused the greatest meiofauna declines were shallow burrowing deposit-feeders. Constant disturbance to the upper sediment by these clams was likely responsible for meiofaunal impact. Conversely, suspensionfeeding clams that passed quickly to deeper sediment and remained stationary had little impact on meiofauna. Finally, a survey of local marine nematodes added nine genera new to Canada and 24 genera new to British Columbia. A review was also compiled that shows nematodes and other meiofauna have been neglected for much of Canada. Although these small and abundant animals are quick to colonize even distant habitats they are quite sensitive to cues from the surrounding biotic and abiotic environment. This sensitivity combined with their ease of collection make meiofauna a valuable asset to any number of ecological investigations. / Ecology

Understandings of the Marshall Islands require attention to the interplay of multiple discourses of tradition, modernity, chiefs, development, and democracy from multiple sources that critically interact and mutually construct the Marshall Islands. This multi-sited, multi-vocal ethnography explores the reproduction and transformation of historic power relationships between Marshallese chiefs and commoners who incorporate and "indigenize" foreign discourses and resources into culturally informed models and practices of authority. In relationships of unequal power, such as that defined by the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, dominant global discourses about culture and progress enable both local and transnational hegemonies. These discourses are contextually analyzed as they are invoked and challenged in Nitijela [parliament] debates, in evaluations of the Compact of Free Association, in elites' autobiographical reflections on Marshallese-American relationships, and in foreign media representations. Historical shifts in the political and economic powers of Marshallese chiefs through three colonial administrations, and the growth of a commoner elite class since World War II further highlight the ways foreign resources are appropriated for specific local purposes that transform understandings of power and authority. With discourse as both object and method of analysis, the agency of local actors is both foregrounded and contextualized. Simplistic characterizations of chiefs, elites, commoners, and foreigners' are complicated through close attention to the ways local loyalties, colonial histories, political rivalries, and global discourses inform and frame expressions of Marshallese identities.

No description available.

No description available.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century a wide cross-section of British society had strongly correlated the notions of ‘civilization’ and ‘true religion’ with the accurate measurement and profitable use of time. Their specific experience of time, however, was not a human universal but a cultural construct, deeply embedded within the clock-governed milieu of industrial-capitalist and Christian society. Consequently, in the British colonies, the portrayal of indigenous societies as being ‘time-less’ (i.e.: culturally lacking regularity, order and uniformity) came to operate as a means of constructing an inferior, ‘irregular other’. By way of two case-studies – located in the 19th-century British settler-colonies of Victoria (Australia) and the Cape Colony (South Africa) – this thesis documents the manner in which nineteenth-century British missionary and settler-colonial discourse constructed the notion of ‘time-less’ indigenous cultures. Such apparent inferiority, this thesis argues, bolstered the depiction of indigenous societies as culturally inadequate – a representation that helped to rationalize and justify settler-colonialism’s claims upon indigenous land. / The negative portrayals of ‘Aboriginal time’ and ‘African time’ also helped to cast these societies as particularly in need of temporal reform. Indeed the latter were considered to be not only out of place but also ‘out of time’ within the timescape of Christian/capitalist rituals and routines. This study highlights some of the everyday means by which British settler-colonists and Protestant missionaries sought to reform the time-orientation and rhythms of indigenous societies. The evidence provided suggests that cultural colonization in the British settler-colonies was configured – to a greater extent than previous understandings allow – by an attack on non-capitalist and non-Christian attitudes to time. Christianizing and ‘civilizing’ meant imposing – coercively and ideologically – the temporal rituals and routines of British middle-class society. / Although the universalizing will of nineteenth-century European cultural expansion was reflected in its attempt to impose a specifically western view of time upon the world, the process of temporal colonization was neither homogeneous throughout the colonies, nor uncontested by indigenous societies. On the one hand, settler-colonialism’s diverging economic objectives in the Cape and Victoria – shaped as they were by economic land/labour requirements, demographics, and localized visions of race – defined the various manners in which Europeans viewed, and sought to colonize ‘indigenous time’. On the other hand, indigenous people in both settings often successfully managed either to defy the imposition of clock-governed culture, to establish compromises between the new and old rhythms, or to exploit the temporal discourses of their self-styled reformers. This suggests that time in the colonial context may be seen as a two-edged sword: not only as an instrument of colonial power, but also as a medium for anti-colonial resistance. / By analysing the discursive constructions of a temporal other, and by documenting the everyday struggles over the dominant tempo of society, this thesis highlights time’s central role in the colonial encounter and seeks to further our understandings of the process and implications of settler-colonization and Christianization.

Thesis (Junior)--Middlebury College, 2005. / Bibliography: p. 35-41.