Research on acculturation has been evolving over the past few decades; however, with very limited research focusing on the acculturation experiences of South Asians in the Hong Kong context, this study helps to fill the research gap by examining the acculturation experiences and adaptation of Pakistani and Nepalese adults in Hong Kong. The dearth of information on the acculturation process of South Asians prevents us from fully comprehending the factors that facilitate or impede their adaptation. By incorporating Berry’s acculturation research and Ward and colleagues’ work on adaptation as the theoretical framework, this study investigated important psychosocial constructs such as the impact of acculturation orientation, perceived discrimination, acculturation stress and social support on psychological and sociocultural adaptation. This study adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Using a cross-sectional research design in the first part of the study, data was collected by means of convenience sampling from a total of 402 Pakistani and Nepalese first-generation adults. Two focus groups were then established after preliminary analyses of the quantitative results, providing more in-depth understanding and context-specific explanation in interpreting relationships among variables. Moreover, the focus groups also provided the opportunity for study participants to augment and supplement the quantitative data. Quantitative data were analyzed with a series of analysis of variance and hierarchical regression analysis. The results of this study highlighted the levels of complexity apparent in the dynamic process of acculturation among Pakistani and Nepalese immigrants in Hong Kong. For the Nepalese, factors such as integration strategy, higher level of orientation towards the host and heritage culture, as well as perceived social support, were significant predictors for life satisfaction. Acculturation orientation to the heritage culture, the separation strategy, and acculturative stress were significantly associated with psychological distress. On the other hand, sociocultural adaptation was more predicted by the acculturation orientation to the host culture and the heritage culture, the integration strategy, acculturative stress and perceived discrimination. Marginalization strategy was associated with lower life satisfaction, higher psychological distress and more difficulties in sociocultural adaptation. For Pakistanis, gender and perceived social support were indicative of life satisfaction, whereas perceived discrimination and acculturative stress emerged as significant predictors of psychological distress. Sociocultural adaptation was more strongly predicted by education level, proficiency of the host language, the integration strategy, perceived discrimination and acculturative stress. The marginalization strategy showed significant negative effects on sociocultural adaptation. Acculturative stress and perceived discrimination both had direct and indirect effect on adaptation outcomes that were partially mediated by perceived social support. This observation highlights the important role that social support plays in both acculturation and adaptation processes. Additionally, the focus group data analyses revealed that education for their children is an important area of concerns among the study participants. With the findings of this study, implications for practice and policy for South Asians are also presented. The methodological and research limitations and the directions for future research are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In tracing the experience of Chinese Canadians in the 20th Century, we need to look further back into its history. Most people believe that the increasing number of immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China in the 1980s and 1990s played the most important roles in the social and economic changes during the latest decades of the 20th Century. The contribution of the Chinese Canadians settlement throughout the 20th Century should also be considered as it marks the beginning of the rise of their social status and identity in Canada. Although the Chinese Canadians earned their fame and status since the 1980s, they had been racially discriminated for more than a century. To probe into the situation, the social and political situations in the Chinese Canadian community will be meticulously analyzed and their contribution in difference aspects examined. In addition, other minority ethnic groups, such as the Japanese, Jewish and Indian, will be used as a comparison to demonstrate the change of policies towards the Chinese in Canada. In doing so, both English and Canadian Chinese newspapers will be used to illustrate the cultural difference between the “whites” and “non-whites”. To illustrate the changes, the 20th Century will be break into three parts. In most of the pre-Second World War period, the Chinese community was isolated from the mainstream community with their activities largely confined to Chinatowns in cities, such as Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and so on. For the Chinese living in small townships, such as Prince Rupert, Richmond and so on, their daily life will also be examined. When Canada declared war on Japan on 7th December 1941, Canada became an ally of China during the war. A sentiment of acceptance of the Chinese in the mainstream society began to take shape. Some of the Chinese chose to contribute their efforts to Canada by joining the Canadian Armed Forces and went into battle alongside the White Canadians. After the Second World War, Canada adopted a new policy towards the minority ethnic groups and Chinese Canadians started to enjoy political equality. In May 1947, the Canadian Government repealed the Chinese Immigration Act. In 1967, after the liberalization of the Canadian immigration policy, the Chinese, once again, were allowed to immigrate freely to Canada as an individual. With granted full citizenship, the Chinese social and political status began to change. In 1957, Douglas Jung, a Canadian born Chinese, was elected a Member of the Parliament, which can be seen as the beginning of the Chinese involvement in the political arena of the Canadian community. Since then, Chinese Canadians were able to achieve equality in the society. Based on documentary accounts and oral history research, this thesis re-constructed the history of Canadian Chinese involvement in the 20th Century and the change of their identity and social status thereafter. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Note: / Images of Indian women shared by explorers and traders of the Northwest significantly infl uenced early Canadian government Indian policy. Under the policy of wardship, these images developed into stereotypical views. The government's goals of protection, civilization and assimilation, pertaining to Indian women residing on prairie reserves from 1880 to 1930, were to be accomplished by restructuring the domestic economy on reserve. Government and churches attempted to c hange this economy through formal instruction of Indian women in the domestic skills. Later, attempts were made to teach them to be better mothers. The state's view of Indians as inadequate housekeepers and inattentive mothers reinforced efforts to alter the way of life on reserves. Moreover, the stereotype of domestic slovenliness served to mask causes of endemic tuberculosis on the reserves . By 1930, the Canadian state had intervened in most areas of Indian womens' lives. This occurred well before unive rsal social programs were established. / L'image de la femme Amerindienne qu'ont rapportee les explorateurs et les trappeurs du Nord-ouest a influence de facon significative les premieres politiques du gouvernemnt canadien a l'egard de mis en tutelle du gouvernement federeal transformera ensuite progressivement cette perception en stereotypes. Les objectifs du gouvernement ayant trait a la protection, a l'avancement et a l'assimilation des amerindiennes vivant sur les reserves des Prairies entre 1880 et 1930 devaient etre atteints par un restructuration de l'economie interieure des reserves. Le gouvernement et les pouvoirs religieux ont tente d'y parvenir en enseignant les arts menagers aux amerindiennes. Plus tard on tentera de leur ernsigner comment etre de meilleures meres.[...]

As we mature, we always change what we think about life, and as we absorb change and evolve within our particular experience, we undergo a personal process of receiving and creating values. Hermans (2001) argues that values define a person and that an analysis of these values is the best way to understand someone and the society of which that person is a part. This thesis is a narrative inquiry into the evolution of values experienced by a laid-off worker in the changing social context of contemporary China. The main body of the thesis consists of three parts: (1) my brother Quan's childhood, (2) my brother's youth in Mao's time, and (3) my brother's experience of becoming a laid-off worker in Deng's time when my brother was in his middle age. I use the life history of my brother to exemplify the lives of those in China who are caught between opposing political directions to provide some insight into China's evolution in the late 20th and early 21st century.

This thesis endeavours, first of all, to examine the attitude of English and Scottish Protestant reformers towards the problem of poverty as it existed in the sixteenth century, and more particularly between the years 1528 and 1563. This period represents a logical phase in English social history marking at one end the start of the Reformation and at the other what might be referred to as the Elizabethan settlement of 'commonwealth' matters. In Scotland the same period witnessed the beginnings of a national awareness of social problems, together with the steady growth of the reform movement culminating in the Reformation of 1560 and the compilation of the first Book of Discipline. [...]

George River, Quebec, is a small Eskimo community of 151 people located on the southeast side of Ungava Bay 16 miles up the George River from the coast itself. This population includes one qadloona (white) transient family which represents the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources (DNANR) of the Government of Canada, which is responsible for the administration of Eskimo affairs in Northern Quebec. Beginning in 1959, the people of George River went through an intensive period of social change, the results of which the present author studied in the summer of 1946, which will be taken as the ethnographic present. The impetus for change came from the Government of Canada's program of social and economic development and had two main objectives; first, to gather the scattered Eskimo people together in settlements for administrative efficiency and to implement social services already existing in the rest of Canada, and second, to improve and organize the economy based upon the formation of Eskimo cooperatives. [...]

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This research project is primarily a theoretical work which critiques androcentric knowledge in general and androcentricism in South African human geography in particular . It therefore has relevance both for local geographers and local feminists . The project as a whole has been informed by feminist politics at a theoretical , practical and personal level . The lack of gender-consciousness in the local radical geography tradition is challenged and local geographers are provided with specific pointers for moving beyond a gender-blind impasse . Furthermore , it is argued that the majority of the local gender-conscious literature has inadequately theorised patriarchal gender relations and that such a theorisation would have crucial bearing on developing strategies for social change . It is suggested that a materialist feminist theoretical framework offers the most sophisticated tool yet developed for understanding the oppression of women . Hence , a variety of contemporary materialist feminist work is reviewed, and a realist perspective is offered as a way of theorising the complex interconnections between the social relations of race, class and gender . This materialist approach has thus far had the greatest impact on feminist geographers. A selection of the latter 's work is therefore presented in order to illustrate how they have expanded our understanding of urban processes . Finally, empirical data pertaining to Durban is used to illustrate a) how gender is socially constructed: b) how gender meanings change over time and c) the way in which patriarchal gender relations have been expressed in the local context. It is ultimately asserted that geographers must take it as implicit that the categories and forces of the processes of urbanisation are dependent upon a specific construction of gender . The study of this, must in consequence become an integral part of human geographical analysis . / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1987.

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