Human trafficking is an international crisis which has emerged as a human rights issue of the highest priority for many nations. This is not a new occurrence, although the onset of globalization has provoked increased intensity in this international crime. Recent studies, including the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report have predicted that the recent global economic crisis will inflate these numbers to an even larger number of victims. This thesis will investigate these phenomena ultimately asking: Do immigration policies and economic conditions contribute to the recent proliferation in cases of human trafficking for labor purposes? Moreover with the recent global economic crisis, has consumer demand affected an increase in cheap migrant labor furthering vulnerabilities that create prime situations for human trafficking and forced labor? This thesis will investigate these questions by focusing on the geographic parameters of the United States and Mexico due to their physical proximity and the history of immigration between these neighboring countries.

No description available.

This study was designed to provide an overall estimate of proprietary schools' contribution to the equality of educational opportunity in the postsecondary educational system. Two compatible databases, the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) and High School and Beyond (HSB), were used to draw two parallel proprietary samples. Each proprietary sample was compared with its counterparts in the community college and the four-year institution sectors. Gender, race, socioeconomic status, aptitude, and Students' and their mothers' educational aspiration were the factors tested in the study to determine the extent to which they contribute to students' choice of proprietary schools and their educational attainment in a given period of time. Discriminant analysis was utilized to differentiate the characteristics of proprietary school enrollees from the characteristics of those who entered community colleges and four-year institutions. Multiple regression was conducted on each group of students to identify the major factors associated with students' educational attainment by the type of institution of first enrollment. The major findings of this study include: (1) Proprietary schools enrolled a considerable number of "disadvantaged" students: women, minorities, people from low socioeconomic background, and those with low aptitude scores. (2) Students’ and their mothers’ educational aspirations were the most influential factors affecting students’ choice among the three types of postsecondary institutions, and proprietary students’ aspirations were lower than that of community college and four-year institution students. (3) Most proprietary Students did not reach the level of a two-year degree or beyond, and those who eventually attained a two-year degree or beyond were very likely to be students with high aptitude. (4) Study of the delayed entrants into proprietary schools confirmed the major findings derived from the initial entrants, except the aspiration variable played a less significant role in determining the educational attainment of delayed entrants than that for the initial entrants. / Ed. D.

This thesis discusses the results of a survey given to college women focusing on the various roles women must play, with a focus on their economic aspects.

This thesis examines the dynamic change the market revolution had on social and cultural institutions in the American West. Specifically, it investigates how market forces influenced rural life patterns for farmers, urban mercantile culture and regional commercial interests. Davenport, Iowa is the focus for the narrative’s hinge, as this midsized western marketplace represented a link between its farmers and the regional markets in Chicago. This project uses wheat and the prairie region in antebellum Iowa and Illinois as a case study and examines the cultural and social development of farmers and merchants in the marketplace. Following wheat from farm to market, both locally and regionally, helps to explain how Americans understood the commodity at each economic level. Time and place were central to the American West's economic, social, and cultural development and this thesis considers just a moment in its history. A intersect of rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental histories are at the project's core, but it also attempts to make sense of frontier capitalism and the ramifications it had on farming and the grain industry. The market revolution gradually influenced and shaped the nation’s agricultural economy and the people that preformed its labor and production. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This dissertation examined the literature of cutback management in the context of the Great Recession. Specifically, it studied the relationship between cutback management policies used by county governments during the recession and revenue changes. The purpose of this dissertation was to test whether or not the percent change in revenue had an impact on the probability that cutback management policies were used in the recession. According to the cutback management literature developed in the 1970s and 1980s, there should be a relationship. The theoretical framework used for this study was the rational-approach framework, which proposes that every expenditure reducing and revenue increasing policy is enacted based on the percent decrease in revenue the government faces. This suggests that the cutback management policies are a proportional response to revenue decline. The framework was operationalized by using a binary logistic regression that used policy en actment as the dependent variable and the percent change in revenue as the independent variable. Eighty-six counties were sampled and 7 years of each county's budget book were examined for policies and financial data. The research found that eleven expenditure policies and three revenue policies had a statistically significant relationship with the percent change in revenues. This resulted in the conclusion that the framework and, therefore, the cutback management literature were useful in explaining primarily expenditure policies. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this study was to provide a space in which white, middle-class men could consider and discuss their identity and its relationship to privilege. Transcripts from focus group number three is included in the thesis' appendix.

The problem addressed in this study can be stated thus: There are extremely limited numbers of students from the lowest economic class graduating from our nation's institutions of higher education. The challenge to institutions of higher education is how to improve access, support, and successful completion of higher education for students experiencing the most extreme poverty barriers. Weber's (1946) social-class theory was selected to determine the meanings and interpretations of students from poverty backgrounds in regard to their success and perceived barriers to success in completing college. This theoretical construct is based on the idea that collectively held meanings arise from three distinct although related dimensions of life including, lifestyles, context, and economic opportunity. Focus group interviews with a representative group of 24 people who grew up in generational poverty were the main source of data (Merton, Fiske, & Kendall, 1990). The focus group interviews were open-ended and designed to reveal the participants' subjective experience of completing a college degree (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973). A demographic questionnaire administered to 56 respondents was used to complement the focus group interviews. The grounded theory approach guided the data collection and analysis process (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). According to its objectives, the study results provided: (a) a description of the poverty-related conditions, (b) an overview of the early educational experiences of the participants, (c) a demographic profile, (d) an overview of perceived challenges and barriers to higher education and (e) a discussion of success factors. The findings from this study would suggest five areas for educational improvement: (a) development of a campus climate sensitive to social class and poverty issues; (b) implementation of faculty, staff, and student social-class sensitivity training programs combined with curricular reform; (c) facilitation of connections to informal mentors; (d) articulation of connections between obtaining a college degree and earning a higher income; and an (e) exploration of expanding college partnerships with social service agencies that are geared to helping people in poverty.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / During the latter half of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century, the Indianapolis Wholesale District (IWD) operated as a local and regional commercial hub. Analysis of the IWD’s relationship with the railroad network in Indiana points to a widening of trade, yet regional focus due to transportation restrictions. The growth and subsequent specialization of wholesale trading in the district catered to primarily local and regional audiences. Examining the physical presence of the IWD in downtown Indianapolis uncovers the built environment of a midwestern business district. This research project argues for the local and regional significance of the Indianapolis Wholesale District. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates the need to pursue the overlap in specialization, the morphology of warehouses, and transportation development to understand a business district as part of a larger process of American economic development.

Yeung, Ion Lam. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.