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The aim of this thesis was to examine the extent to which the European Union can be considered a normative power in relation to the Russian Federation. The European Union has evolved into one of the most important global actors in the international arena and this development has, consequently, sparked series of debates trying to define the role of its actorness in relation to third parties. On one hand, scholars have emphasized the normative and value-driven features of the European Union as a whole, especially in the area of foreign policy cooperation where there exists enhanced emphasis on the importance of values and norms in comparison to other traditional actors in international relations. On the other hand, structural realists provided alternative interest-driven vision under which the member states are expected to follow common approach of the European Union only in cases that do not conflict with their national interests that are claimed to always prevail. These two alternative perspectives to the research have provided thesis with criteria of expected behaviour that the thesis examined on the specific case of the visa policy of the European Union towards Russia. The accuracy of the two theoretical frameworks was analysed by following three criteria - development of the policy over time,...

This thesis based on an archive research as well as interviews with eleven interviewees describes aspects of every day routine in the lives of western foreigners in Czechoslovakia during the nineteen-seventies and eighties. Testimonies of the interviewees are set in context where a special emphasis is placed on legislation and internal regulations mostly of bodies of the Ministry of Interior concerning Czechoslovak visa policy, the status of foreigner in relation to Czechoslovakian citizens (marriages) and the police apparatus (observing, tailing and monitoring). Based on the testimonies and the archive material it can be concluded that the Czechoslovakian regime did not see the western foreigners as a priori ideological enemies and tolerated their presence in Czechoslovakia. Bureaucratic procedures, however, were set in such a fashion that the foreigners could be closely observed. A fear of not having their stay extended, resp. being expelled, often led those interviewees who wanted to live in Czechoslovakia permanently to subconsciously avoid conflicts with the regime. All interviewees are critical of the former regime and are able to accurately characterize its nature and its main negative aspects, but at the same time they perceived positively certain aspects of life in the brought-into-line...

This exploratory study examines the impact of intercultural training as part of an international corporate internship program in the United States for college graduates from Rwanda. This is a mixed-method study using quantitative and qualitative data collected before, at completion, and one year after the 3-month internship program. The report explores the design, methods, content, tools, assessments and experiential activities used during the intercultural training, which focused on educating both the Rwandan interns and their U.S. managers on some of the differences in culture and communication styles that impact effectiveness in the workplace. The purpose of this research is to discern which aspects of the intercultural training intervention the participants perceived as the most beneficial. In addition to providing a better understanding of challenges for African interns adapting to the U.S. corporate environment, this study hopes to provide insights and contribute to a framework of best practices for intercultural training for U.S. international corporate internships, which as part of the J-1 visa program created by the U.S. State Department to build international understanding and cultural exchange, as well as work opportunities.

This study aims to examine how employees from protected shelters perceive that abused women on partner visas have experienced the leaving process and thereafter understand the possible impacts a person’s migration background can have. The study is based on five qualitative interviews with six employees from different protective shelters in Sweden, where results were analyzed through thematic analysis and based on intersectional theory. Results in this study show that oppressive norms and cultural traditions forces the women to remain in the relationship, and that being new in Sweden makes it more difficult for them to leave their spouses. The immigration legislation disadvantages these women, as the fear of deportation increases the risk of these women staying longer in abusive relationships with the protection rule being applied very restrictively setting requirements for evidence that are difficult to achieve. The decision to leave is often based on the women having been exposed to severe physical abuse that has required the authorities to intervene, the fear of harm to or losing children, and/or that the women have been supported and given information by outside sources.

Forskningen om digitala nomader i turismsammanhang har främst fokuserat på att förstå och definiera fenomenet. Dock finns det begränsad forskning gällande digitala nomader på destinationsnivå. Denna studie belyser digitala nomader och hur de resonerar kring val av destination. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats där åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts samt en netnografisk studie på det sociala forumet Reddit. Därefter har en tematisk analys applicerats på den insamlade empirin. Som resultat har nio teman identifierats. Ur dessa teman har, bland annat, krav och preferenser på en destination, sociala aspekter och ekonomiska anpassningar visat sig relevanta i val av destination hos digitala nomader. En viktig aspekt som framkommit genom samtliga delar i studien är det karaktärsdrag hos digitala nomader som kombinerar jobb och fritid under resan. Som resultat till detta kan det konstateras att detta segment har mer specifika krav på destinationer. Destinationer ska därför fungera både i en social aspekt, som arbetsplats och som en fritidsarena. Avslutningsvis föreslås vidare forskning för att skapa en större förståelse för detta segments resmönster och tillfälliga hemmiljöer. / Digital nomadism in tourism research has focused on understanding and defining this phenomenon. However, little research has been conducted on the connection between digital nomads and their destination choices. Based on a qualitative approach with combined interview and netnographic methods, this paper aims to illustrate digital nomads and the factors influencing e their choice of destination. A thematic analysis was applied to the collected data, resulting in the identification of nine themes. Preferences and demands in a destination, personal finances, and social aspects, amongst others, are some of the factors that have an impact on destination choice for digital nomads. A key characteristic found throughout the study is the leisure and business combination that digital nomads have in their way of traveling. As a result, it can be ascertained that this market segment has precise demands on destinations. Destinations must therefore serve as an arena for remote work, networking, and leisure. Lastly, suggestions for further research are presented in two areas: to create a better understating of this segment’s travel patterns and their use of temporary bases as home environments.

A challenge when reforming public management is the potential risk of side effects as policy intentions often come with unintended consequences in practice. For the field of International Relations (IR), management reforms affecting the foreign service are particularly relevant as they go beyond the domestic context with potential implications also for state relations with foreign publics. However, little academic attention has been directed towards visa management, which serves not only as a consular function of the diplomatic missions but also plays a key role in facilitating their diplomatic functions as stated in the Vienna Convention. Employing the theoretical perspectives of New Public Management (NPM) and The Visa Dimension of Public Diplomacy, this thesis investigates the intentions and outcomes of Sweden's decision to regionalise its Schengen visa management in Sub-Saharan Africa. The inquiry is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with public officials currently or formerly working at the Swedish Migration Agency, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish embassies in Abuja, Addis Abeba, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka, Nairobi and Pretoria. The thesis finds the regionalisation of Sweden's Schengen visa management to be an NPM-inspired reform intended to establish economies of scale in visa management. While the reform was motivated to improve cost efficiency and quality in terms of increased uniformity and legal certainty in visa processing, it was meantime anticipated to come with challenges related to resource allocation, transfer of local competence and service delivery to applicants. In practice, the reform has led to permanent side effects on applicants by making the visa process more time-consuming and expensive from a user perspective. Thus, the thesis concludes the regionalisation of the Schengen visa management to be an NPM-inspired reform that focused too narrowly on internal efficiency gains that it overlooked the negative effects on applicants to the detriment of Swedish diplomatic functions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Los Ashaninka han desarrollado una propia narrativa sobre los eventos que los han afectado y sus personajes. Estos discursos cruzados hablan sobre el poder. Sobre la legitimidad del poder. Sobre la forma de ejercerlo y por ende de la organización de la sociedad y sus instituciones políticas, y fundamentalmente de una narrativa, una ideología sobre el poder que regulará la relaciones en todos los niveles. Estas nuevas ideas fueron creando el sustento para intentos de cambios en su propuesta de sociedad, como ya sabemos marcadamente igualitaria y no jerarquizada. Y que en determinados momentos históricos, a partir de la incorporación de nuevos aspectos a su narrativa sobre el poder, intentaron modificar su organización al aglutinarse y formar unidades políticas más grandes y estructuradas, que fueron útiles en esos momentos pero que todas se diluyeron y los Ashaninka regresaron a sus formas heterárquicas de organización, volviendo a los sistemas de poder fragmentado que observamos hoy, y en los que han desarrollado una compleja vida social y política que deliberadamente se esfuerza para que ninguno de ellos concentre el poder y menos que ejercite el poder sobre otros. La sociedad Ashaninka es una sociedad que se define contra el exceso y el defecto, contra toda conducta social que implique el no compartir o el concentrar y apropiarse de bienes materiales o también abusar del poder tomando decisiones sobre otros Ashaninka. El modelo de organización de los Ashaninka se puede definir como un sistema de organización en la que los elementos de la organización no están ordenados por rango. La heterarquía se opone al concepto de jerarquía. No hay poder centralizado, no hay funciones de ordenar, mandar, si el de influir. Es un sistema en el cual nadie decide sobre el otro. El modelo heterárquico funciona como redes interconectadas y sobrepuestas, contiene componentes individuales que simultáneamente pertenecen y actúan en múltiples redes. Una heteraquía es una estructura flexible que posibilita la emergencia de nuevos “órdenes creativos” o “caos ordenados”.

The constitution of the European visa regime has deservingly received much scholarly attention. It has been analyzed as part of the policy toolkit that displaces migration control away from the edges of the territory of Europe. Nevertheless, the street-level implementation of this European policy in national consulates remains understudied. This dissertation sheds ethnographic light on Schengen visa policy implementation that is conceptualized as bordering policy. By delivering Schengen visas, state and nonstate organizations achieve the filtering work of borders; this dissertation therefore investigates the day-to-day bordering of Europe abroad and using a comparative approach and focusing on from the theoretical perspective of street-level policy implementation. The analysis builds on a comparative case study: it focuses on the visa sections of the consulates of two old immigration countries, Belgium and France, and one new immigration country, Italy, which implement visa policy in a same third country, i.e. Morocco. This study highlights cross-national differences of visa policy day-to-day implementation that are due to shifting historical backgrounds, national sense-making of visa policy, and distinct organizational conditions. However, the comparative research design and the inductive epistemological approach deployed have revealed processes of transfer at the implementation level, which result in transnational policy-making from below. Informal interactions between actors constitute a ‘community of practice’ based on the desire to share local and practical knowledge rather than expert knowledge in order to address problems linked to day-to-day implementation.<p><p><p>La construction d’un régime européen de visas représente un domaine de recherche important. Ceci a été analysé comme un des instruments politiques qui déplacent le contrôle migratoire au delà des limites du territoire européen. Cependant, la mise en œuvre dans les consulats nationaux reste très peu étudiée. Cette thèse analyse la mise en œuvre de la politique du visa Schengen conceptualisée comme politique des frontières. Par la délivrance du visa Schengen, organisations étatiques et non-étatiques réalisent le travail de filtrage des frontières. Cette thèse investigue la construction quotidienne de la frontière européenne à l’étranger en privilégiant la perspective théorique de la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques. L’analyse s’appuie sur un cas d’étude comparé. Elle se concentre sur les services visas des consulats de deux anciens pays d’immigration, la France et la Belgique, et un nouveau pays d’immigration, l’Italie, qui mettent en œuvre la politique du visa dans un même État tiers :le Maroc. Cette étude met en évidence des différences nationales importantes qui sont dues aux différents passés historiques, à l’attribution d’un sens national à la politique du visa, aux conditions organisationnelles distinctes. Toutefois, la méthodologie comparative et l’approche épistémologique inductive choisis ont permis de mettre en exergue des processus de transferts au niveau de la mise en œuvre qui constituent l’action publique transnationale par le bas. Les interactions informelles entre les acteurs constituent une ‘communauté de pratiques’ basé sur le désir de partager un savoir pratique et local qui sert à adresser des problèmes liés à la mise en œuvre au quotidien. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

服務貿易總協定(General Agreement on Trade in Services，GATS)將服務依其提供之方式區分為四類。其中之一，乃藉由自然人跨越國境之方式進行，因此，是類服務供給方式，除模式四、自然人呈現外，一般常以自然人移動名之。 對於資金與技術相對匱乏的開發中會員而言，自然人移動毋寧為具有比較利益的服務提供模式之一。藉由短期勞力移動至海外，不但可解決國內勞力過剩之問題，更能帶來可觀的外匯收入，改善本國經濟狀況；他方面，短期移出之勞力於海外工作時所習得之新穎技術與知識，亦將有助於國內生產及服務水準之提升。而就已開發會員來說，在出生率低、人口結構呈現高齡化等因素影響下，許多產業所面臨的工資高漲及人才難覓之窘境，使先進國家不得不正視勞動力需求之議題。 儘管不少會員國對於勞動力的引進有所需求，但由於人員移動所牽涉的層面太廣，移民政策、社會安全乃至文化認同等因素盤根錯節，使得各國在模式四的開放上相當保守，不但承諾項目僅集中於專業人士(specialist)與企業內部人員調動(intra-corporate transferee)等白領階級，更有著林林總總的管制態樣。在不願意受到GATS承諾拘束，卻又有實際需求的情況下，許多會員轉而以本國立法或雙邊、複邊的合作方式，引進外國服務提供者。 此一保守之承諾現狀令人力資源豐沛的開發中會員極為不滿，因此，於2000年WTO新回合談判時，以印度為首之開發中會員即紛紛提出具體之建言，試圖打開目前在GATS架構下人員移動之僵局。另一方面，學者間亦陸續表達其對於模式四自由化之看法，並分別從闡釋開放市場所帶來經濟誘因、區隔自然人移動與移民、長期勞動力移動間之不同等角度切入，藉此釐清各國之疑慮，以期模式四在新回合談判下能有所突破。 面對模式四自由化聲浪高漲之勢，人員移動進一步開放的問題，於新回合中已難以迴避，由於人員移動所牽涉層面甚廣，對我國而言，倘稍有不慎，不但將造成我國就業市場門戶洞開的嚴重後果，其後續效應，如本地勞工失業率上升、及對治安、文化語言等衝擊，將為我國帶來不可預測的影響。舉例而言，我國模式四承諾中之第三類自然人移動，其內涵為何？如依國貿局之中譯文—「受中華台北企業僱用之自然人」(a natural person employed by business entities in Chinese Taipei)，則對我國就業市場產生如何影響，我國又應如何因應，值得深思。 職是之故，自然人移動之基本概念、內涵上之爭議，乃至於會員各陣營間意見落差等議題之釐清，對於我國新回合談判而言，實屬刻不容緩之事。本文之研究動機，即針對模式四規範上的重要問題、我國模式四承諾中之「第三類自然人移動」及相關談判策略進行分析，希冀對我國談判當局能有所助益。 關鍵字：服務貿易總協定、自然人移動、模式四、商業據點呈現、模式三、商業訪客、跨國企業內部調動人員、獨立服務提供者、第三類自然人移動、GATS簽證、經濟需求測試、工作證。 / The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is undoubtedly a milestone of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, as it has successfully brought services into the multilateral framework of trades. Under the GATS regime, services are trade via four modes of supply, namely, cross-border supply (mode1); consumption abroad (mode 2); commercial presence (mode 3); movement of natural persons (mode 4). Notwithstanding the GATS has taken the important step towards bringing services into the multilateral framework of trade, the liberalization commitments that have reaped during first round negotiations are so limited. They are highly asymmetric across different sectors and modes of supply, in particular, the movement of natural persons. Developing countries were disappointed by the dearth of the commitments in the aspect of their comparative advantage, and now seek to great openness. Meanwhile, lots of multinational corporations attempt to enlarge the scope of movement of personnel as well. Due to the aging populations, developed countries today are facing an increasing severe shortage of workers, including skilled and less skilled. These shared interested seem to create an optimistic negotiating environment for the current negotiations. The problem is, however, whether and how the coincidence of interests could be taken used of to further liberalizations. Besides the introduction - Chapter 1, the study could be divided into five parts. First, the study endeavors to clarify the meaning and scope of mode 4, inter alia, the most debated issue – if “natural persons employed by host-country companies “falls within the GATS. It has been argued that since the Annex of Movement of Natural Persons covers ”employed by a service supplier of a Member”, this could include foreigners employed by host-country companies. Owing to the fact that Art.1: 2(d) of the GATS defines mode 4 as “ the supply of service …by a service supplier of one Member, through the presence of natural persons of a Member in the territory of any other Member”, this argument is not accepted by the majority opinions. Chapter 2 attempts to analyze how the opaqueness result from and sketches out the sensitivities involved the issue. Apart from the economic impacts of mode 4, some observers argue that the real grounds behind the reluctance of Members to expand mode 4 commitments are uncertain social and political impacts. Therefore, economic impacts, as well as social influences and debates will also be discussed in this Chapter. In accordance with the data of WTO Secretariat and International Mutual Fund (IMF), it’s apparent that mode 4 is by far the smallest mode of service delivery in terms of both flows and volumes of schedules. Moreover, the limited commitments that have been made under the mode 4 almost exclusively refer to so-called “white-collar” personnel, especially to the intra-corporate transferees (ICT), which are linked to commercial presence. In addition, a variety of obstacles, such as burdensome visa/work permit procedures, economic needs tests (ENTs), licensing requirement, pre-employment, wage parity, and social security taxes, etc., have made the scheduled concessions more limited. All the patterns of mode 4 commitments and barriers are presented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 first outlines the brief history of post-Uruguay Round negotiations from 1994 to 1995 that is helpful to perceive the interests of conflicts of interests between the capital-surplus and labour-surplus countries. In addition, all the proposals pertaining to liberalizing mode 4 commitments for the new round negotiations are detailed listed in this Chapter. Mode 4 commitments of Taiwan are evaluated in Chapter, in particular, the potential impacts of the 3rd category personnel. The study seeks to submit several strategies for the purposes of tackling the envisaged menaces. The last Chapter is the conclusions and recommendations. All the crucial issues are collected as a whole, meanwhile, negotiating strategies and proposals with respect to GATS visa, ENTs, categories of personnel, uniformity of the terms of the specific commitments, transparency, domestic regulations, the use of ISCO-88 for the scheduling etc. for the new round negotiations are submitted to the authorities concerned as well. Key words: GATS, commercial presence, mode 3,movement of natural persons, mode 4, 3rd category personnel, business visitor, intra-corporate transferees (ICT), independent service contractor, GATS visa, ENTs, work permit, W/120, ISCO-88.