In Canada, the growth and intensity of neo-liberal governance and philosophy, which includes idealizing a self-sufficient and independent citizenry continues to inform public policies at the federal and provincial levels. These policies, in turn, have implications for individuals’ health and well-being. Health implications are further visible and intensified along gender, class and ethnic lines. In this study, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with eight low income single mothers who had been affected by employment and assistance policies and regulations in British Columbia. The findings revealed the ways in which these women were affected by neo-liberal policy initiatives that held them individually accountable and responsible for managing their life circumstances in order to achieve the expectations bestowed upon them as citizens. It also revealed the inequalities that existed at the intersection of gender, class and ethnicity. The findings point to the need to address the policy barriers that confront lone mothers. / Graduate / 0630 / 0628 / amyh@uvic.ca

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) prevalence is increasing globally with roughly 2.4 million people currently living with this condition in Canada. T2DM occurs more commonly in non-European ethnoracial groups, however the distribution of risk by age, sex, ethnicity and immigration status in Canada are not completely understood. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the epidemiology of diabetes in an immigrant, multi-ethnic population using linked immigration and health data for the province of Ontario. The ultimate goal of this work is to generate information that can be used to design appropriate and effective targeted programs for diabetes prevention, management and control in order to reduce inequities in health. The principal findings of this work indicate that: 1) South Asians had a three-fold higher risk for developing diabetes as compared with people of European ethnicity and this disparity in risk was evident at a very young age; 2) The young age at diabetes onset experienced by many of our high-risk ethnic groups, including South Asians and people of African and Middle Eastern descent, suggest that in order to capture an equivalent risk of disease, screening may be recommended up to 15 years earlier in these groups – which is not reflected in current screening guidelines; 3) Contrary to patterns seen in Western European populations, women belonging to many high–risk ethnicities had equivalent or, in some cases, higher risk than men; 4) Risk varied substantially across country and region of birth making broad definitions of race or ethnicity (eg. ‘Asian’ or ‘Black’) inappropriate. These findings emphasize the heterogeneity of risk experienced by different ethnoracial populations in Canada and suggest that targeted primary prevention programs aimed at young adults and adolescents belonging to high-risk ethnic groups may be warranted. In addition, screening guidelines may need to be updated to reflect the younger age at onset in these populations. Further research is necessary to identify culturally appropriate and effective programs to reduce diabetes risk and associated health problems in these populations.

This thesis uses focus group interviews and survey questionnaires to examine perceptions of Ghanaian and Somali youth, residing in Toronto, about barriers to their labour market access. The emphasis is on perceptions that deal with labour market discrimination based on race, ethnicity and recency of immigration. The results show that perceptions of discrimination based on these factors are widespread among all of the participants interviewed or surveyed. This suggests a very strong belief that employment discrimination is pervasive and persistent in the Toronto labour market. The findings also show that the perceptions of discrimination are largely driven by ‘lived discriminatory’ experiences faced by the participants as well as revealing their desire for fairness and equality in society. The perceptions of discrimination negatively affected the level of trust the research participants have in people and institutions as well as impacting their sense of belonging to their communities and the wider society. The relationship between perceptions of discrimination and low levels of trust and sense of belonging is established in the findings of the Ethnic Diversity Survey. The consequences of this impact on the research participants and their communities are high levels of unemployment, high poverty rates and participant dissatisfaction with their own communities and society at large. It is my belief that this thesis contributes to the debate about the significance of discrimination due to race, ethnicity and immigrant status in the Canadian labour market.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) prevalence is increasing globally with roughly 2.4 million people currently living with this condition in Canada. T2DM occurs more commonly in non-European ethnoracial groups, however the distribution of risk by age, sex, ethnicity and immigration status in Canada are not completely understood. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the epidemiology of diabetes in an immigrant, multi-ethnic population using linked immigration and health data for the province of Ontario. The ultimate goal of this work is to generate information that can be used to design appropriate and effective targeted programs for diabetes prevention, management and control in order to reduce inequities in health. The principal findings of this work indicate that: 1) South Asians had a three-fold higher risk for developing diabetes as compared with people of European ethnicity and this disparity in risk was evident at a very young age; 2) The young age at diabetes onset experienced by many of our high-risk ethnic groups, including South Asians and people of African and Middle Eastern descent, suggest that in order to capture an equivalent risk of disease, screening may be recommended up to 15 years earlier in these groups – which is not reflected in current screening guidelines; 3) Contrary to patterns seen in Western European populations, women belonging to many high–risk ethnicities had equivalent or, in some cases, higher risk than men; 4) Risk varied substantially across country and region of birth making broad definitions of race or ethnicity (eg. ‘Asian’ or ‘Black’) inappropriate. These findings emphasize the heterogeneity of risk experienced by different ethnoracial populations in Canada and suggest that targeted primary prevention programs aimed at young adults and adolescents belonging to high-risk ethnic groups may be warranted. In addition, screening guidelines may need to be updated to reflect the younger age at onset in these populations. Further research is necessary to identify culturally appropriate and effective programs to reduce diabetes risk and associated health problems in these populations.

This thesis explores how the standardization of language in China has been as a means to unify the empire and restructure relations between citizens and the state through processes of identification. Looking in at the case of China's minzu (ethnic groups), I argue that the current trend instituted through policies at the top-level is to eliminate linguistic and cultural diversities through the promotion of Putonghua as the lingua franca and to eventually amalgamate all minzu of the multi-minzu state into a mono-minzu, Zhonghua Minzu (citizens of the Chinese nation). Beginning with an overview of the historical practices of language standardization, I show how the ideological nature of politically influenced terminologies in the Chinese language has contributed to this restructuring of identity. With identity tied closely to language, recently enacted laws in mainland China have brought the government a step closer to achieving its ultimate goal of creating a mono-minzu state.

The aim of the study is to examine the perceptions of rural people towards the demarcation issue in KwaZulu-Natal. The debate on land and land ownership and control has existed since Africa's invasion by colonists. A rhetorical question posed by Richard A. Lobban, Jr, author of "Africa Divide", "if European colonialism has not altered the African continent, how would modern political geography differ?" Questions of this nature have been through many a geographer's mind. The "Scramble for Africa", resulted in Africa being cut up into portions. Colonial boundaries fissured natural territorial boundaries and split clannish groups of similar languages. The twentieth century was rife with civil wars resulting from clan divisions that arose among African nations. South Africa, especially KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is no exception to conflicts. Tensions between local government and tribal authorities have soared since the question of regionalism in South Africa emerged from the 1994 democratic elections. South Africa was demarcated during apartheid into four provinces and as part of the democratic transformation further divided into nine provinces. With the new re-demarcation national government felt a need to incorporate rural areas into local government structures, for financial support. The study attempts to link demarcation and socio-cultural factors of rural communities towards the concept of demarcation. However, particular attention is given to socio-economic elements of the community under study, what is demarcation, objectives of demarcation, the role of tribal authority and local government and more especially how these issues play a role in the lives of the rural community. Furthermore, in order to ascertain the extent to which the Demarcation Board had addressed the issue of demarcation in rural areas. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of Durban-Westville, 2002

The Roma as a minority in the mainstream schools: from a threat to a hope for the future. The purpose of this study is to investigate, describe and analyse how the relationship between the Romani minority and the Swedish majority has developed from the middle of the 20th century until the present time with regard to the school situation for the Roma. In order to discuss the changes in the relationship between the majority and the Romani minority, it has been important to analyse the concepts of culture and ethnicity, how these concepts have been used to define the Roma, and how, in turn, this definition has influenced how the Roma have been portrayed in the literature. The study is based on three types of data: texts, interviews and observations, that have been organised to cover three different periods. Three autobiographies and two theses cover the first period, from the middle of the 20th century to the 1970s, when the Roma were allowed into schools. The interviews cover the second period, from the 1970s to the year 2000, when the Roma were recognized as a national minority. The participant observations and the interviews cover the third period that deals with the present and the future with regards to education of the Roma. An interpretive hermeneutic approach has been used to analyse the data. The analysis takes the school as one order of discourse in which different discourses attempt to dominate. Both ethnicity and culture are discussed in relation to power relationship between the Roma and majority society. A “chain of consequences” approach has been used to analyse the situation of the Roma in schools, where one event in the chain results in certain consequences, for example the Romani child is present in school but without support from school or home. The consequence is school failure and marginalisation. One of the main themes that emerge from this analysis, is how schools gradually transferred the responsibility for educating the Romani children to the families, thus abdicating their role as providers of academic development. The other theme is how the school took a deficit perspective in relation to the Romani families and, rather than taking responsibility for the education of the Romani children, they blamed the failures on the Romani group and its culture. The study concludes that the institutional discrimination of the Roma and the total exclusion of the Romani culture in school still has far reaching consequences. One of consequences is that, in order to be accepted in school, some of the Romani children begin to undercommunicate their ethnic identity. Since the recognition of the Roma as a national minority, there has been a remobilisation and revitalisation by the group and their demand for more inclusion in education. This thesis suggests an intercultural approach as an alternative i.e., a change of perspective and a revision of the image of Sweden as a monocultural and monolingual nation.

The present thesis intends to determine how the ethno-religious Alevi communities in Turkey survive and what are the main sources and factors helping them to sustain their group borders, especially as from the mid-1980s when these communities had started to reveal their identity clearly. It is important to state that the Kemalist regime was challenged by an obligatory change process on both economic and political grounds after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Because of the rising of political Islam and the Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement, the modernist Kemalist regime and the Jacobin laicism have been subjected to criticism. In this tense period, one of the most important legitimation tools used by the state was the Alevi population, known by its dominant secular, modernist and Kemalist identity. For this reason, it can be proposed that in this era the occurrence of the Alevi identity&amp / #8217 / s revelation might have been supported or guarded by the Kemalist regime or state institutions. But another claim for the Alevi awakening is that the Alevi population had tried to define their identity against and/or parallel to the rising of Kurdish nationalism and the political Islamic movement. In sum, in this thesis I intend to clarify how the Alevi community constructs and/or protects its ethno-religious borders in these circumstances according to ethnicity theories.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-175) / Microfiche. / ix, 175 leaves, bound 29 cm

My dissertation is motivated by two general problems within contemporary North American racial politics. First, the increasing ideological impetus of a “post-racist” society contradicts a spate of events that are symptomatic and constitutive of racial and ethnic essentialisms. Second, the logic of multiculturalism and antiracism has often been expressed in a language of race and identity rooted in a rigid system of immutable differences (Hall, 1997; Ang, 2001). The challenge is to deconstruct race and ethnicity in a language that is critical of new racisms as well as the ways in which racial and ethnic difference is seized and diffused by market multiculturalism. While some theorists have used elements of postmodern theory to develop a “resistance multiculturalism” sensitive to shifting social meanings and floating racial signifiers (see McLaren, 1994), they have rarely explored the political possibilities of “ludic postmodernism” (parody, pastiche, irony) as a critical response to multicultural ideologies. If part of postmodernism as an intellectual movement includes self-reflexivity, self-parody, and the rejection of a foundational “truth,” for example, the various racial and ethnic categories reified under multiculturalism are perhaps open to revision and contestation (Hutcheon, 1989). To develop this particular postmodern critique of multiculturalism, I draw on three case studies concerned with identity and representation in North American popular media. The first case considers vocal impersonation as a disruption to the visual primacy of race by examining the stand-up comedy films of Dave Chappelle, Russell Peters, and Margaret Cho. The second case turns to the postmodern bodies of cyborgs and humanoid robots in the science fiction film I, Robot (2004) as a racial metaphor at the crossroads of whiteness, inhumanity, and redemption. The final case discusses the politics of irony in relation to ethnolinguistic identity and debates surrounding sports mascots. Each case study recycles racial and ethnic stereotypes for a variety of political purposes, drawing out the connections and tensions between postmodernism and multiculturalism. A postmodern critique of multiculturalism may offer antiracist politics an understanding of race and ethnicity rooted in a strategic indeterminacy, which allows for multidimensional political coalitions directed against wider socioeconomic inequalities.