Official-language minorities in Canada may face specific issues in accessing health care services that can lead to negative consequences on their health, utilization of health care services and satisfaction with the health care system. A secondary data analysis of the 2006 Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities revealed significant differences between the Anglophone minority (n=5,161) and the Francophone minority (n=12,029) with regards to general health, and access to and use of health care services. Important predictors of these outcomes included age, education level, household income, marital status and place of residence (urban/rural). Access to health care services in the minority language was associated with self-perceived health in the Anglophone minority only. Health policy recommendations elaborated in light of the findings include working on both the supply and the demand of health care services offered in the two official languages, while taking into consideration important contextual differences between regions.

Although evidence of health inequities abound, why people in lower socio-economic classes have poorer health has not been sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study is to examine day labourers’ pathways to health inequities in a segregated, urban district in Japan. Critical ethnography was employed to investigate day labourers’ social environments and cultural behaviours in order to reveal the ways that social inequalities embedded in mainstream society and the day labourers’ sub-culture produce and sustain day labourers’ disadvantages, leading them into poorer health than the average population. Data were collected through observations of day labourer’s daily activities, events within the district and their interactions with social workers at a hospital. In addition, interviews were conducted with 16 day labourers and 11 professionals and advocates. The study found several components in the pathways to health inequities of day labourers. First, certain people in Japan are ostracized from the social, economic and political mainstream due to an inability to enact traditional Japanese labour practices. Commonly such exclusions make men become day labourers to survive. In a day labourer district, they are exposed to further social inequalities embedded in the work system and their living circumstance. Living and working as a member of the day labour community, they develop collective strategies in order to survive and preserve their social identities as day labourers. However, such strategies do not provide people with opportunities to lead healthy lives. The study also identified several social determinants of health for day labourers, including: 1) employment, 2) working conditions, 3) temporary living, 4) housing quality, 5) social networks and support, 6) marginalized neighbourhood, 7) access to health care, and 8) gender. The findings contribute to a better understanding of social construction of health inequities, which provides insight on the impact of precarious work in the Japanese society at large. Implications of these findings for public health policy and practice are also discussed.

The impact of global economic policies on health equity and social development has been well-documented and, in the current phase of economic globalization, profound health inequities have been attributed to these policies. In response to these inequitable trade conditions, which are especially pronounced in the trade of boom-and-bust commodities like coffee, alternative trade models such as Fair Trade have proliferated. Although there is great potential for these alternative economic policies to achieve health and gender equity, these considerations have largely been left out of existing analyses, which focus on gender-blind economic, organizational, and environmental indicators. <p>To address these omissions, this study explores the experiences, perceptions, and aspirations of an organized group of coffee-producing women with regards to Fair Trade. The study was conducted in Northern Nicaragua in 2009 and focuses on the experiences of women supported by a local feminist organization, la Fundación Entre Mujeres, in an embedded, single case study design. It is informed by participant-observation, interviews, and dialogic focus groups. The study situates participants perceptions and aspirations in a globalization and health framework as well as an empowerment framework. Considered in this light, womens experiences provide valuable insights about the perceived and potential health and gender impacts of alternative models of trade and provide a vision for the future directions of these models. <p>The womens experiences reveal that although valuable benefits are being experienced as a result of participation in Fair Trade especially in terms of a higher income and a commitment to organic agriculture there are lingering doubts as to whether Fair Trade is actually "fair" or simply "better". The women supported by la Fundación Entre Mujeres aspire to more equitable trade characterized by solidarity, justice, a focus on womens rights, and a fairer valuation and recognition of womens efforts inside and outside of coffee. In order to move towards this "fair" system of trade, the current Fair Trade model must become more oriented towards equitable control for all of its stakeholders and must broaden its definition of empowerment so as to more actively and vocally participate in the broader contexts of international trade that are influencing health and gender equity for women around the world.

Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) Initiative in Ontario provides an early childhood development program specifically for urban Aboriginal children between 3 and 5 years old. Twenty-nine families from Waabinong Head Start in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, completed two questionnaires given four months apart covering a range of health and education topics. The completed surveys supported a trend toward healthier lifestyle choices, improved education of the children, upward mobility in employment, increases in self-perceived general and mental health of primary and second caregivers, and decreases in smoking, illegal drug use, and alcohol use. Families reported an increased sense of pride in being Aboriginal shown by their children, plus learning of culture and Ojibwe language, which has lead to improvement in all of the child’s skills and abilities.

Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) Initiative in Ontario provides an early childhood development program specifically for urban Aboriginal children between 3 and 5 years old. Twenty-nine families from Waabinong Head Start in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, completed two questionnaires given four months apart covering a range of health and education topics. The completed surveys supported a trend toward healthier lifestyle choices, improved education of the children, upward mobility in employment, increases in self-perceived general and mental health of primary and second caregivers, and decreases in smoking, illegal drug use, and alcohol use. Families reported an increased sense of pride in being Aboriginal shown by their children, plus learning of culture and Ojibwe language, which has lead to improvement in all of the child’s skills and abilities.

Although evidence of health inequities abound, why people in lower socio-economic classes have poorer health has not been sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study is to examine day labourers’ pathways to health inequities in a segregated, urban district in Japan. Critical ethnography was employed to investigate day labourers’ social environments and cultural behaviours in order to reveal the ways that social inequalities embedded in mainstream society and the day labourers’ sub-culture produce and sustain day labourers’ disadvantages, leading them into poorer health than the average population. Data were collected through observations of day labourer’s daily activities, events within the district and their interactions with social workers at a hospital. In addition, interviews were conducted with 16 day labourers and 11 professionals and advocates. The study found several components in the pathways to health inequities of day labourers. First, certain people in Japan are ostracized from the social, economic and political mainstream due to an inability to enact traditional Japanese labour practices. Commonly such exclusions make men become day labourers to survive. In a day labourer district, they are exposed to further social inequalities embedded in the work system and their living circumstance. Living and working as a member of the day labour community, they develop collective strategies in order to survive and preserve their social identities as day labourers. However, such strategies do not provide people with opportunities to lead healthy lives. The study also identified several social determinants of health for day labourers, including: 1) employment, 2) working conditions, 3) temporary living, 4) housing quality, 5) social networks and support, 6) marginalized neighbourhood, 7) access to health care, and 8) gender. The findings contribute to a better understanding of social construction of health inequities, which provides insight on the impact of precarious work in the Japanese society at large. Implications of these findings for public health policy and practice are also discussed.

Official-language minorities in Canada may face specific issues in accessing health care services that can lead to negative consequences on their health, utilization of health care services and satisfaction with the health care system. A secondary data analysis of the 2006 Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities revealed significant differences between the Anglophone minority (n=5,161) and the Francophone minority (n=12,029) with regards to general health, and access to and use of health care services. Important predictors of these outcomes included age, education level, household income, marital status and place of residence (urban/rural). Access to health care services in the minority language was associated with self-perceived health in the Anglophone minority only. Health policy recommendations elaborated in light of the findings include working on both the supply and the demand of health care services offered in the two official languages, while taking into consideration important contextual differences between regions.

Sjukfrånvaron i Sverige ökade kraftigt i slutet av 1990-talet och drabbade även högre utbildade personer som tidigare inte varit sjukskrivna. Många människor tillbringar större delen av livet på att arbeta och arbetsmiljön påverkar medarbetarna på olika sätt, där ledarskapet är en faktor som påverkar hälsan. Arbetsplatsen anses därför vara en av de hälsofrämjande arenor där insatser för att förbättra hälsan kan genomföras. Att ledarskapet påverkar medarbetarnas hälsa anses vara en självklarhet, men det finns inte så mycket forskning inom området. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur medarbetare på en arbetsplats med låg sjukfrånvaro upplever att ledarskap bidrar till hälsa på arbetsplatsen. Studien är av kvalitativ ansats där data samlades in genom telefonintervjuer med fem personer. Arbetsplatsen som studeras har en låg sjukfrånvaro och har sin verksamhet inom ett landsting i Sverige. Resultatet visar bland annat att en bra ledare ska finnas tillgänglig, vara stöttande och tydlig. En ledare som bidrar till hälsa litar på sin personal, hjälper till att prioritera arbetsuppgifter, är lyhörd och omtänksam. En av de slutsatser som kunde fattas utifrån resultatet är att det som kännetecknar ett bra ledarskap även är det som bidrar till medarbetarnas hälsa. / Sickness absence in Sweden increased sharply in the late 20th century and hit the higher educated persons who have not previously been on sick leave. Many people spend most of their lives at work and the work environment affects employees in different ways, where the leadership is a factor affecting the health of the individual. The workplace is therefore considered to be one venue where health promotion interventions to improve health can be implemented. That leadership affects employee health is considered given, but there is not much research in this area. The aim of the study was to examine how employees in a workplace with low levels of sickness absence feel that leadership contributes to health in the workplace. The study was based on a qualitative approach where data was collected through telephone interviews with five persons. The workplace that is being studied has a low absenteeism and is based out of a county council in Sweden. The results show that a good leader should be available, be supportive and clear. A leader who contributes to the health trust their staff, helping to prioritize, is sensitive and caring. A conclusion that can be drawn about the results is that contributing to employee health is the same as good leadership.

My contribution is focused to a modest framework creation for asylum-immigration theory. By means of arms-export data from 17 Western European countries, tested against inflow of asylum seekers to these countries, covering the past 26 years, it is clear that arms-export from these countries do not contribute to their own asylum-inflow. The main theoretical contribution to existing literature on arms export and migration is therefore that I separate plausible causes of outgoing migration (arms export to countries from where asylum flows are generated) from determinants of asylum immigration. Empirically, I disprove such hypothetical indirect connections put forward both within academic literature and by NGOs like Amnesty International. Instead, I find the counter-intuitive, namely that increased arms export leads to less asylum immigration. Also, in contrast to previous literature on asylum immigration, I build on Granovetter (1973) and propose that diffusion of information through asylum networks depend on weak social connections as opposed to close relationships like ethnic bonds, family ties and friendships. In addition, I problematize the tendency of existing literature to treat asylum seekers as labor migrants and argue for a framework founded on principles which account for the unique circumstances and life situations faced by asylum seekers. In doing so I also extend on previous quantitative works and find that crucial determinants for inflow are signified by the generosity of the welfare state, absence of far right sentiments, and religious diversity. The wealth of a country, its general quality of life, its linguistic and ethnic fractionalization, do not appear to matter.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between political risk as an international environmental determinant of capital structure as well as other factors that contribute to capital structure including leverage, foreign exchange risk, agency costs of debt, and collateral value of assets. We conducted this research on a sample of 200 Singaporean, non-financial, listed domiciled multinational firms over the period of 2005 to 2009. The results suggest that political risk is irrelevant to the multinational capital structure, foreign exchange risk, agency costs of debt, and (netted) collateral value of assets. We find that the results remain unchanged after controlling for size and industry. The findings produce evidence that foreign exchange risk, as another international factor is also irrelevant to the Singaporean multinational capital structure choice. Additionally, agency costs of debt and (netted) fixed assets have a negative association with leverage for Singaporean multinational corporations.