The employment success of immigrants to Canada has been a primary focus of sociological research on immigrant integration. However, much of this research has examined the concept of “employment success” solely in terms of earnings. Studies that focus on whether immigrants obtain employment matching their desired or pre-migration occupations provide inadequate measures by examining whether or not immigrants obtain employment in their desired occupations at a very broad level. In addition, the majority of quantitative analyses use cross-sectional data to examine the economic integration of immigrants. The following research tests hypotheses which examine the relationships that various ascribed, human capital, and occupational characteristics have with multiple dimensions of employment success for a cohort of recent immigrants to Canada. Longitudinal analyses of several dimensions of the employment success of recent immigrants are conducted with the use of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. These “dimensions” include an examination of the likelihood that an immigrant will obtain employment in his or her intended occupation, or a “job match”, at some point during his or her first two years in Canada, the rate at which he or she obtains a job match during this time, and the change in his or her occupational prestige scores and wages between jobs. A case study of immigrant engineers is also presented, providing some insight into the employment success of immigrants seeking employment in regulated professions. Human capital theory, the theory of discrimination, and Weber’s theory of social closure are employed to examine different predictors of immigrant employment success. A distinctive contribution of this study is the examination of how different characteristics of an immigrant’s intended occupation may influence the likelihood of him or her obtaining a job match and the rate at which he or she does so. By examining several different aspects of employment success and accounting for immigrants’ employment throughout their first two years in Canada a more comprehensive picture of the economic integration of recent immigrants is obtained. However, the results indicate that one over-arching theory is not adequate in explaining the process of the economic integration of recent immigrants to Canada.

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This thesis maintains that the study and practice of European integration is hindered by an unquestioned and all-embracing conceptual foundation, derived from 17th/18th century political thought. By virtue of identity-related assumptions including 'nation-state', 'nationalism', and 'sovereignty', which rest on an exclusive binary distinction between "self" and "other", this foundation is inadequate and anachronistic as a theoretical lens through which to understand the dynamics of contemporary Europe. / Chapter 1 reveals the inadequacy of existing theories of European integration, and Chapter 2 traces this inadequacy to the issue of identity, tying it in with a modern identity crisis. It is argued that the theory and practice of European integration in the 1990's depends on a fundamental reconceptualisation of identity, to eliminate the conceptual rigidity of exclusive self/other binary distinction, and so to provide the basis for a new kind of European identity. In Chapter 3, the framework of a new "non-fixed", "non-essential" and pragmatic identity (and therefore European identity), beyond the self/other boundaries of contemporary thought, is elaborated through the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, and its effect on the study and practice of European integration is assessed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 1997. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (L.L.M) -- University of the Western Cape, 2007. / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 87-95).

The study traces the evolution of West African economic integration efforts, leading up to the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The original Lagos Treaty of 1975 is reviewed against the background of its revised 1993 Abuja version under the framework of the Customs Unions theory. This study is undertaken to ascertain the consistency of regional integration theory with the stated objectives of ECOWAS. It questions, for example, whether the Customs Unions theory and its welfare effects could actually explain the experience of regional integration of West Africa in general, and within ECOWAS in particular. In other words, the critical success factors and/or moderating influences in ECOWAS are examined against the background of the Community's objectives as set out in its two Treaties. The study also benefits from a wide range of discussions on different political and economic bases for regional integration theory: functionalism, neofunctionalism, federalism and intergovernmentalism and their relevance to ECOWAS. Strange enough, while these 'isms' are demonstrated to be inconsistent with ECOWAS objectives having dwelt more on regional integration efforts in Europe, no other study on West African integration has examined ECOWAS along these lines. The experience of ECOWAS is made against the backdrop of Customs Unions within Africa, such as the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADCC); and others outside Africa in regions like the European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the South American Customs Union (MERCOSUR). One emerging pattern of such comparison reveals that ECOWAS has wavered from its stated objectives in favour of the static principles of customs unions theory and consequently been unable to improve its record on the welfare levels of contracting states. The implication of such departures from its original objectives is that market inter-penetration and intra-regional trade within ECOWAS has neither yielded the desired welfare gains nor improved levels of industrialisation, sustained growth and economic development. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that despite considerable efforts at achieving regional economic integration in ECOWAS, the result has been dismal largely as a result of applying unrealistic models of customs unions theory to the West African situation. It is therefore posited that the process of regional economic integration in other parts of the world and particularly in Europe, are not readily applicable in the West African context, where the economic, political and institutional foundations are not only grossly dissimilar but largely at variance.

No description available.

After promoting in the 1970s a more egalitarian international trade system, developing countries abandoned the prospects of finding an alternative route to their development and have massively participated in the Uruguay Round. Results have been disappointing, and developing countries, particularly in the Latin American-Caribbean (LAC) region, are now also pursuing economic integration at the regional level. The 1990s have in fact been characterised by the general revival of regionalism, a trend considered by many legal scholars and economists as dangerous for multilateralism. The debate is ongoing, and the WTO is currently attempting to better monitor the impacts of regionalism. In any case, regional integration agreements (RIAs) are now present in all parts of the world, and developing countries seem to consider that such arrangements offer promising opportunities than lack in multilateral agreements. More particularly, LAC countries are now pursuing economic integration at the bilateral, subregional, regional and even hemispheric level with the current negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). But the creation of a FTAA faces many obstacles, caused by wide disparities in the level of economic development within the region and the incredible variety of existing RIAs throughout the Hemisphere. And it remains to be seen if equity and social concerns will be better reflected in a regional agreement than at the multilateral level.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy