Yes / Restrictions implemented by the UK Government during the COVID-19 pandemic have served to worsen mental health outcomes, particularly amongst younger adults, women, those living with chronic health conditions, and parents of young children. Studies looking at the impact for ethnic minorities have reported inconsistent findings. This paper describes the mental health experiences of mothers from a large and highly ethnically diverse population during the pandemic, using secondary analysis of existing data from three COVID-19 research studies completed in Bradford and London (Tower Hamlets and Newham). A total of 2807 mothers participated in this study with 44% White British, 23% Asian/Asian British Pakistani, 8% Other White and 7% Asian/Asian British Bangladeshi s. We found that 28% of mothers experienced clinically important depressive symptoms and 21% anxiety symptoms during the pandemic. In unadjusted analyses, mothers from White Other, and Asian/Asian British Bangladeshi s had higher odds of experiencing symptoms, whilst mothers from Asian/Asian British Indian s were the least likely to experience symptoms. Once loneliness, social support and financial insecurity were controlled for, there were no statistically significant differences in depression and anxiety by ethnicity. Mental health problems experienced during the pandemic may have longer term consequences for public health. Policy and decision makers must have an understanding of the high risk of financial insecurity, loneliness and a lack of social support on mother’s mental health, and also recognise that some ethnic groups are far more likely to experience these issues and are, therefore, more vulnerable to poor mental health as a consequence. / This study was funded by The Health Foundation COVID-19 Award (2301201), with further contributions from a Wellcome Trust infrastructure grant (WT101597MA); a joint grant from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) (MR/N024391/1); the National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR200166); ActEarly UK Prevention Research Partnership Consortium (MR/S037527/1); Better Start Bradford through The National Lottery Community Fund; and the British Heart Foundation (CS/16/4/32482). The research conducted in London was funded by UKRI-ESRC ES/V004891/1 (Tower Hamlets), and by London Borough of Newham Public Health. Heys was supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre.

This thesis provides an institutional explanation for the peaceful solution of the conflict between the Moldovan state and its small Gagauz minority in the period from 1988 to 1995. The central argument is that different institutional arrangements during this time had a direct effect on the Moldovan state’s capacity to bring about autonomy for the Gagauz. I show how Gagauz leaders, conditioned by the territorial-based structures of the Soviet Union, mobilized a political movement to push for the creation of an autonomous republic, and how this preference for autonomy remained the consistent demand of the Gagauz throughout the early years of post-communist transition. This finding supports the contention that Gagauz preferences cannot be used to explain the rich variation in political outcomes during this period. I assert that the critical changes were essentially institutional: new electoral laws; revised parliamentary rules and procedures; and a complete rewriting of Moldova’s constitution. These innovations were crucial in enabling the inclusive-minded majority in the Moldovan parliament to overcome the power of nationalist veto players by increasing the majority’s control of the legislative agenda. The importance of these institutional factors is examined by careful analysis of the different stages of the Moldovan parliament’s accommodation of the Gagauz: from separatism and stalemate to compromise. Furthermore, I reassert the central role of institutional arrangements by discounting the external influence of Turkey as a patron state on the successful negotiations between Moldova and the Gagauz. Using previously unresearched archival material, unstructured interviews with many of the key actors, and local media reporting, this thesis challenges existing accounts of the Gagauz conflict in Moldova. These accounts assert that either the Gagauz reaction to titular nationalism or the shifting preferences of strategic-thinking elites was the key causal factor of the political outcomes observed during this period. In contrast, this thesis shows that institutional design played a decisive role in the resolution of this conflict. The findings of this research offer useful lessons for other ethnically-divided states with mobilized minorities.

This thesis investigates how variations in individual social contexts account for the existence of ethnic differences in educational outcomes. Four questions are answered. First, how are school ethnic and poverty compositions associated with ethnic differences in educational progress? Second, how are individual and school cohort level religious attitudes and behaviours associated with ethnic differences in the likelihood of aspiring to university? Third, how are parenting behaviours and closed parental networks at the individual and school cohort levels associated with ethnic differences in positive schoolwork attitudes and behaviours? Fourth, how are variations in the duration of residence in England and in additional language use, at the individual and school cohort levels, associated with ethnic differences in English language proficiency? English data from wave 1 of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) and from the National Pupil Database (NPD) matched to the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) are used to answer these questions. Both datasets are used to analyse outcomes for a sample of the school cohort that turned 14 in the academic year 2009/10. The key findings are as follows. First, increases in school ethnic minority density are associated with increased progress; increases in school average poverty are associated with decreased progress. Second, individual level religiosity is positively associated with university aspirations, but cohort level religiosity has no association. Third, positive parenting behaviours are associated with improved schoolwork attitudes, whilst parental closure has positive effects at the individual level but not at the cohort level. Fourth, the duration of residence in England is a positive predictor of English language proficiency, whilst there is no effect of using an additional language. This thesis addresses a highly relevant social issue from a novel perspective, and has important implications for both policy and future research on this topic.

How can one detect and understand change in the face of apparent continuity? This is the question which has been asked by some scholars of institutionalism. One way of answering this is to make analytical room for incremental change as an endogenous source of institutional transformation. Put bluntly, one does not always need spectacular exogenous events, such as wars and revolutions, to explain institutional change. The present thesis is a qualitative case study of Japan’s immigration policy towards economic migrants since the 1980s. Its aim is to uncover a causal mechanism behind the policy development by drawing on a model of institutional change put forward by James Mahoney, Wolfgang Streeck and Kathleen Thelen. At first, the inquiry may seem ill-founded for Japan is neither an immigration country nor an immigrant-receiving country. Indeed, the country still lacks an immigration policy to speak of, and immigrants continue to be called gaikokujin (foreigners) as opposed to imin (immigrants). A closer examination of the recent policy development, however, shows that the content and practice of Japanese immigration policy simply belie its self-description. Since 2012 the Japanese government has admitted highly-skilled migrants as potential permanent residents using a points-based system and has incorporated foreigners into the resident register system for Japanese citizens in order to facilitate their integration into Japanese society. The central claim of the present research is that Japanese immigration policy has become increasingly settlement-oriented as an unexpected consequence of earlier policy decisions and that the change has been endogenously effected without dismantling the pre-existing institution of immigration management. In making this claim, I particularly draw attention to the way in which a cumulative effect of minor changes eventually transformed the basic nature of the policy institution.

This thesis aims to understand the sociocultural aspects of the practice of consanguinity and the implications for healthcare. Consanguinity refers to intra-familial marriage and is commonly used to refer to cousin marriage. While consanguinity remains a global phenomenon, in the recent past, it has mostly been associated with non-Western populations, and has become a taboo in Western culture. Consanguinity is linked with negative health outcomes, mostly due to genetic disorders, although the extent of this link remains debatable. In the UK, consanguinity is linked mostly with the Pakistani community, which also have an overrepresentation of children with genetic disorders. In Luton, local health reports have suggested that consanguinity in the large Pakistani community plays a role in increased infant deaths. This makes Luton and the local Pakistani community, ideally placed for understanding the practice of consanguinity and the implications for healthcare. This thesis is conceptually grounded within a constructionist approach to understanding consanguinity with a critical analysis based on theories of discourse and power and knowledge. A qualitative research design was employed using an instrumental case study approach which focused on understanding consanguinity through Luton’s Pakistani community. Three main sample groups were selected, members of the Pakistani community who are not married to their cousins and are defined as lay members in this research, members of the Pakistani community in consanguineous marriages, and local service providers (primary and secondary care).

This thesis considers the education of children of immigrants in Finland, focusing on attainment and transitions around the age of 16. It is the first detailed representative study on the topic in Finland. Compared to international research it is amongst the ones to most fully explore the different aspects of education around this age. For the most part, it is limited to studying structural explanations for differences between students and ethnic groups. The majority of the analyses in the thesis are done using register data. Statistical modelling of this data is done using multivariate regression analyses. The results are supplemented with evidence from interviews with both majority students and children of immigrants. With regards to school achievement at the end of comprehensive school, many immigrant-origin groups are seen to have lower average grades than the majority. However, this is explained by lower parental resources. After controlling for parental resources, very few disadvantages remain. On the other hand, the gender gap evident amongst the majority is not found amongst many immigrant-origin groups. Looking at continuation to upper secondary education compared to dropping out, most children of immigrants are seen to have a higher probability of dropping out than the majority. This is explained by their lower school achievement and higher parental non-employment. Nevertheless, the difference between children of immigrants and the majority remains evident at the very low end of the achievement scale. Considering the choice of upper secondary school type, children of immigrants can be seen to be more likely than the majority to continue to vocational school. Yet, after controlling for prior school achievement and parental resources, almost all immigrant-origin groups are more likely than the majority to continue to general rather than vocational school. Interviews suggest that when considering their school choices, majority students tend to be driven by their interests and see their decision making as being independent of others. On the other hand, children of immigrants tend to have more specific future plans and to take the wishes of their parents more into consideration.

Evidence has shown that Multisystemic Therapy (MST) an intensive family- and community-based intervention has been particularly effective in the treatment of youth with antisocial behaviour from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Although the process of change within MST has been explored, there is a dearth of research in looking at this for families from ethnic minority backgrounds. The current research aimed to address this gap by exploring the experiences of a sample of London based caregivers who had completed an MST intervention. A qualitative approach was adopted, using grounded theory methodology to explore ethnic minority caregiver experiences of MST and generate a model of the processes of engagement and change based on participants' accounts. Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with caregivers from two London sites. The emergent model consisted of seven interacting theoretical codes. Three of these codes were organised around the process of engagement; deciding to engage with MST, becoming therapeutically aligned and considering cultural difference, and four related to the process of change; working within a safe and trusting relationship, therapist acting as cultural broker, empowering the parent and increased communication within and outside the family. The author makes novel suggestions relating to the specific mechanisms that are thought to underlie the process of engaging with MST, and highlights the importance of considering cultural difference in the initial stages of the MST intervention.

This thesis examines the role of internet use in migrants’ participation in, and articulation of, rising Chinese modernity. It explores the ways in which transnational subjectivity is produced through this process. It investigates how migrants’ various uses of the internet construct and make sense of their connections with China. It demonstrates a new generation of subjectivity among Chinese transnationals that is tech-savvy, modern and triumphal – a subjectivity embedded in the exchange between the (macro) political economy of China’s rise and the (micro) everyday practices surrounding the internet. This is an ethnographic study focusing on an emerging population within the broader Chinese diaspora; that is, mainland Chinese professionals who migrated for higher education and professional training in recent years as a result of China’s reform and economic power. This study locates its enquiries in three offline-grounded institutions – ethnic organisations, states and families. These institutions pre-date the internet but increasingly turn to the technology for transnational and local connections. Regarding Chinese organisations, utilising the internet to build co-ethnic sociality is read as a symbolic practice that signals the users’ belonging to a technologically-advanced, mobile and wealthy sector within the broader idea of the Chinese community. On the role of the state, internet use provides new modes of migrants’ access to China’s state-led development projects, thus opening up new spaces for the state’s disciplinary power to be exercised. This digital governance is enabled by a discourse of Chinese triumphalism constructed by both the state and the migrants. Regarding families, the digitalisation of the gendered division of labour in transnational families provides evidence of the segmented nature of China’s digital modernity and disrupts the triumphal portrait of transnational modernity constructed among the elite-stratum migrants. Overall, this study develops a dialogue between two literatures. On the one hand, it adds to diasporic internet studies by introducing an offline-grounded, geographically-informed approach and by bringing transnational modernity into its research agenda. On the other hand, it draws on Nonini and Ong’s (1997) theorisation of Chinese transnationalism as alternative modernity and further adds to this theorisation with a focus on internet technology and a discussion of the impacts of China’s rise. It contributes to human geography by revisiting a key concept in this discipline – transnationalism – with a discussion of the interweaving impacts of information technology and the geopolitical shift of China’s rising modernity.

Over the past twenty years, parental choice has become the favoured Government policy governing school allocation and the dominant legislative approach for improving educational attainment. The existing sociological research on school choice has primarily focused on the ways in which families of different socioeconomic backgrounds have engaged with the process of listing preferences for secondary schools; while class has been emphasised, the choice processes of ethnic minorities have received little attention. Yet the persistent educational challenges faced by Afro-Caribbean students across class boundaries since the early years of migration to England raise questions about whether choice policies’ promise of improved academic performance extends to all ethnic groups. This study focuses on Afro-Caribbean families and their engagement with the process of selecting secondary schools in Birmingham. Twenty individual families in semi-structured interviews and ten additional mothers in two focus groups shared their experiences of listing school preferences. To develop a fuller understanding of how these Afro-Caribbean families made their school choices, this study draws upon Courtney Bell’s (2005) application of ‘choice sets’ to education. Families’ choice sets – the schools which they perceived to be available options – were shaped by various factors, including past school experiences, the schools available in the local authority, and Birmingham’s school allocation criteria. Additionally, geographic considerations, the ethnic mix of a schools’ student population, and families’ access to social networks also influenced which schools families saw as possibilities. Ultimately, while there was no single ‘Afro-Caribbean’ way of selecting schools, this study highlights the circumstances and structures faced by many Afro-Caribbean families which constrained their choice sets, and consequently, the schools to which their children were allocated. Though this thesis is limited in its generalisability, its conclusions lay the foundations for future research into the ways in which ethnic identity is lived in the educational context.

After the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, large numbers of Central and Eastern Europeans moved to work in Western Europe. The aim of this thesis is to use the case of migration after the enlargement to further our understanding of the relationship between immigrant group size and natives’ attitudes. Recent scholarly debates raise questions about how immigration affects European societies and the political durability of European welfare states. This research puts forward two questions: Does an increase in Eastern European immigration after the enlargement explain differences in civic attitudes in Western Europe? And second, does this relationship (if any) depend on national contextual factors? The relationship between immigration and three categories of public attitudes are examined: attitudes towards immigration, attitudes towards welfare and attitudes of trust. This thesis draws on ethnic competition theory, which postulates that group competition over resources provokes the natives to perceive immigration as a threat to their own or their group’s interests. To test this theory, this study uses data from the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2010 to build multi-level pooled time series models. The results find only partial support for ethnic competition theory. When a greater proportion of E-8 migrants live in the country, individuals tend to have more positive views about immigration. The results also show that this positive relationship is weakened when national economic conditions are more precarious. Additionally, the results do not find that E8 migration is negatively related to Western European attitudes regarding trust or welfare. This implies that as more immigrants arrive, Europeans can potentially acknowledge immigration’s economic and cultural benefits. Moreover, these results challenge pessimistic scholarly predictions that immigration erodes trust and support for welfare in Europe. This thesis offers two academic contributions. First, it considers the case of E8 migration, which has been ignored by existing comparative attitudinal studies about immigration. Second, focusing on post-enlargement migration helps this thesis to overcome common empirical obstacles such as cross-country differences in immigrant composition and admission criteria.