“The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love, and death.” – Forster, E.M., 1927, Aspects of the Novel.We might all have something to say about love, but we are certain about food.The thesis aims to develop a perspective on food, its role, and traditions as possible a tool of identification among first and second generation East-African migrants in Sweden, in the area of Falun. Particularly, I focused on the concept of gastronomic identity and the relation between food and nostalgia. The intention is to explore whether a gastronomic identity can be identified, and the importance of nostalgia by answering the following questions:1. How do the people interviewed refer to their gastronomic identity? How is it related to their country of origin, to Sweden, or a hybridization of the two?2. How do first and second generation of immigrants adapt their food traditions in the local context?3. What is the role of food, its tradition, and how is it related to the feeling of nostalgia for these people?In order to answer to these questions, I made use of an extensive academic literature research on food and gastronomic identity on both the historical and anthropological perspective and variety of multimedia materials (such as blogs, YouTube videos). I have also conducted semi-structured interviews with East African immigrants in Falun. Through the use of both literature and, above all, the interviews, I concluded that gastronomic identity takes on a much more personal and individual meaning than nationalistic or ethnic identity, and almost always emerges as a transculturalization of the two countries: Sweden and the country of origin. In the responses of the interviewed migrants from East Africa, it also emerges that food is an element to define our identity as individuals and it is linked to memory and influenced by the nostalgia of home. Therefore, according to the respondents, anywhere one may be, when feeling nostalgia, one will be looking for a taste of home, whatever and wherever it is.

The purpose of this study is to examine the innovative financial inclusion for the under-served urban migrant and refugee population in Thailand, respectively. The increasing number of urban migrants and refugees in Thailand requires innovative financial inclusion and livelihood interventions. Many migrants and refugees do not have access to formal financial services due to their legal documentation, although their demands for financial services still exist and remain unsatisfied. The evidence from Kenya in Africa could provide implications and viable options for Thailand in implementing financial inclusion and livelihood programmes in different ways. Using data from the migrants and refugees residing in Bangkok, Thailand through individual interviews, the discourse and narrative qualitative analytical methods were employed to analyse data. The key findings from this study include financial needs, financial inclusion options, livelihood assets and strategies, financial literacy, as well as the livelihood approaches that can support the wellbeing of urban migrants and refugees in the host countries. The findings also revealed the difference in financial needs between urban migrants and refugees in Thailand due to their unique needs and livelihood goals. The data analysis suggested that the financial inclusion and livelihood interventions in Kenya could be applicable for refugees and migrants in Thailand. The roles of financial technology and innovation also have a positive impact in accelerating the financial inclusion of refugees and migrants. The recommendations from this study can help to create the enabling environments for financial inclusion of migrants and refugees in the urban context of Thailand. A comprehensive needs assessment on livelihoods and financial inclusion could explore the actual needs of the migrant and refugee population in in Thailand. The coaching sessions for new arrival groups of migrants and refugees can help them to adjust their livelihood strategies while residing in the host country. The innovation and technology will promote the cost-effective informal banking and open up employment and economic opportunities. The advocacy for the rights of migrants and refugees should be strengthened, including the legislations regarding basic healthcare and education. With a dramatic increase in migration, a better understanding of urban contexts will help develop workable interventions for financial inclusion of urban displaced persons, eventually building resilience and reducing poverty among migrants and refugees.

More than two decades of internal fighting and political unrest have seen millions of Congolese people leave their home country in search of a better future for themselves and their families in other parts of the world. This migratory movement exposed most of them to the significance of remittances as a means to support the loved ones left behind. Remittances from abroad play a key role in enhancing the standard of living of households in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The study therefore analyzed remitting behaviours of migrants based in the Western Cape province of South Africa and the impact of their remittances on recipients’ livelihood in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This study made use of primary and secondary data collected from various sources, then applied qualitative methods for analyzing both the remittance senders’ behaviour and the impact on recipient households. After a critical analysis, the study found that remittances increase the income of recipients, help alleviate poverty, improve recipients’ ability to access basic services such as health and education, and contribute to employment creation by providing capital for microenterprises and community based projects. The study also found that migrants based in the Western Cape would rather use informal channels instead of formal channels due to high costs and compliance requirements. One contribution of this study is the finding that current policies in relation with the remittance industry in South Africa and in Congo can definitely be improved in order to increase remittances inflows both ways, and thus meaningfully impact both countries’ economies.

Migrants are people who leave their countries for different reasons. These reasons can be political, economic, social and environmental. Those who migrate seek protection and better opportunities in the destination countries with stable political environments and strong economies. Migrants are also willing to work to sustain their livelihoods and their families. However, they find themselves in an extremely vulnerable position and encounter many challenges which prevent the enjoyment of the right to work. The right to work is a fundamental human right which is protected and recognised in many human rights standards. The right to work is necessary for the realisation and the enjoyment of other human rights. It constitutes an integral part of human dignity and enables people to gain a living through the work they choose or accept. This mini-dissertation examines how the right to work is guaranteed to migrants in South Africa. The focus on South Africa is due to the fact that South Africa is one of the main destination countries in Africa. Since the post-apartheid period, the majority of migrants target or prefer to come to South Africa because of its political and economic stability. If the right to work is an integral part of basic rights, human dignity and human survival, it must also be guaranteed to migrants because being a migrant does not exclude the exercise and the enjoyment of the right to work. However, the majority of migrants are discriminated against in so far as accessing the job market in South Africa due to many barriers. This mini-dissertation analyses different challenges migrants are facing in looking for employment and how difficult their integration is in the South African labour market. It examines South African legislation in relation to the right of migrants to work, with a brief emphasis on refugees and asylum seekers. It considers international instruments that recognise migrants’ right to work and other labour rights. This mini-dissertation concludes by giving some recommendations that will help the South African government to review its laws, as well as to prevent challenges that impede migrants getting jobs and accessing the labour market. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

Magister Artium - MA / Death is an everyday occurrence for many urban Africans living in South Africa, and it is expressed through the everyday management of financial and social networks. The purpose of this study is to investigate what happens to African migrants, particularly the Ngemba people of Cameroon living in Cape Town when they die “away from home”. In this study, I will be exploring the steps followed, the rites that are performed, perceptions regarding death and funerals, as well as the social implications that death has for the group members concerned, and the various challenges faced when someone dies ‘away from home’. In other to achieve all this, I used a qualitative research design in which in-depth interviews and participant observation were administered to sixteen (16) participants.

The key question that this paper seeks to answer is (1) To what extent are Zimbabweans living in London, in the United Kingdom involved in transnational activities to their country of origin? To try to answer this question I have carried out quantitative analysis of primary data gathered in London and the results show that the Zimbabwean migrants are actively involved in transnational activities to their country of origin. Contact with family and sending money home seem to be the most carried out transnational activities than others. In the context of this research project, transnational activities will encompass those falling under the socio-cultural domain such as maintaining family ties with relatives in origin country, the economic domain such as sending money to family in origin country and the political domain such as voting back in origin country.

According to the World Bank’s (2019) latest Migration and Development Brief, remittances to low and middle-income countries reached a record high in 2018. This study examines Swedish migrants’ motives behind remittances and their experience with the social and economic impact of sending remittances. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a research-based study on Swedish-migrants’ remittances practice since Sweden lacks research about remittances. We have conducted eight semi-structured interviews with Somali and Iraqi migrants to understand their motives and experience with remittances. The results are analyzed with theories such as Lucas and Stark’s altruism, self-interest, and tempered altruism, or enlightened self-interest, as well as transnationalism. We have also analyzed the results with the social exclusion concept to understand the migrants' experience in the host country in relation to remittances. In our study, we found that the respondents’ social and cultural resources were limited. Our interviewees were socially and economically impacted by sending remittances. They are in a state where their economy is limited because of sending remittances, which makes it hard for them to maintain a certain social presence in the host country, due to their lack of free time. They do not have the same opportunities as non-migrants in Swedish society, because they prioritize work and providing for their families in Sweden and the homeland. The respondents are living in two worlds where they are keeping their transnational ties with the origin country and therefore, they are comparing their living standards with families and relatives in the home country. This prevents them from seeing or identifying themselves as socially excluded individuals of the host country. They perceive themselves as socially excluded when it comes to their economic situation, however, in general, they see themselves as socially included as they learned the language, got an education, work, provide for their families, etc.

Thesis advisor: Marilynn S. Johnson / This dissertation explores the labor and collective organization of domestic workers in metropolitan Boston to uncover the new labor activism of the last half century. In 2014, Massachusetts became the fourth state in the U.S. to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. The law, the nation’s most comprehensive at the time, signaled a remarkable triumph for household employees whose collective activism anchored in Boston over four years achieved basic labor protections for tens of thousands. While the tale of this recent success has been captured by journalists and a handful of scholars, my study uncovers a multi-generational history of domestic workers’ fight for dignity and economic justice. I locate the origins of the 2014 victory in the grassroots organizing of pioneering Black, Caribbean, and Latinx women decades earlier. Local domestic workers and their allies sustained three separate waves of collective action during a half century marked by growing economic inequality, a decline in trade unionism, and mounting xenophobia. As I demonstrate, they developed a savvy repertoire of strategies that transformed household employment from a seemingly private, hidden affair into a societal concern requiring government intervention. Ultimately, my dissertation explains the emergence of a powerful and unexpected form of labor organizing--the new labor activism--that is community-based, multi-issue oriented, and propelled by working-class women of color. In directing critical attention to the relatively obscure history of domestic worker organizing, my study joins scholarship that expands analysis beyond the realm of the white male industrial worker to reconsider what constituted work, who comprised organized labor, and how we characterize recent labor history. By examining this particular workers’ movement, I present new insights into the groundswell of labor mobilization that erupted in American cities during the later twentieth century. Historians have accurately cast the period as one of organized labor’s weakness, dormancy, and decline. Even so, by prioritizing community-based campaigns anchored by immigrant and non-white women employed as domestic workers, I demonstrate that they also made it a time of hope and agitation, of rebirth and revival rather than repose. With appreciation for complexity, I gauge their activism not merely in terms of wins and losses, but also in regard to workers’ evolving sense of empowerment alongside their ability to spark larger public policy conversations concerning labor standards, the care economy, and the role of government. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

It is clear that at this stage fear has affected the crisis of the citizens of the European Union, with the result that the Schengen Agreement is not characterized as positively as it used to be, citizens feel threatened at all levels, whether it is work or economic and especially in terms of security. In particular, the recent terrorist acts have an even greater impact on the opinion of European citizens as to whether or not the Treaty should be continued. In particular, while the inhabitants of the countries of the E.U. accept the dynamics of the Schengen agreement in terms of economy, on the contrary they express their phobias about immigration and terrorism, considering the treaty as the basis for the development of the two phenomena. What is certain is that in the future, if the phenomenon of migration is not addressed through measures to welcome migrants, which will help them to acclimatize to the new environment, in such a way that the citizens of the countries of entry are not afraid of their future, the reactions will intensify. Security measures also need to be stepped up to reduce fears of terrorism, and at this time in the big capitals, people are fearful, believing that the treaty has opened the borders, allowing fanatics from mainly the Middle East and Africa. enter the Member States to take actions that endanger European citizens. Management is the basis for the successful, established, economic and geographic expansion of each business. Entrepreneurial competition is growing, and the development of the scientific management sector as far as principles, ideas, models and theoretical analysis are concerned. The ultimate aim of this study is, therefore, to study, on a theoretical level, the issue of human resource management and its contribution to improving the quality of services.

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