The claim of some policymakers that education is the great equalizer of socioeconomic disparities in health (Low et al. 2005) has come under question in recent years. Higher education is related to better health for both immigrants and the Canadian-born. However, immigrants experience weaker health returns to their education than the native-born (Kennedy et al. 2006). Despite the importance of this issue, the reasons for this gap are not fully understood. This dissertation integrates the immigrant health, social stress, and immigrant integration literatures to better understand this issue, using Cycles 17 and 22 of the Statistics Canada collected General Social Survey (GSS). The analyses reveal that education has a diminished effect on the self-rated health (although not stress) of immigrants, the functional limitations of established immigrants, and the happiness of recent immigrants. The reasons for this gap vary depending on the health measure. The weaker relationship between education and the functional ability of established immigrants and the happiness of recent immigrants is explained by immigrants’ lower work-related returns (employment type, occupational skill, personal income) to education. For self-rated health, the nativity status differential in the effect of education on self-rated health is rooted in immigrants’ lower work-related and psychosocial returns (mastery and trust, although not social support) to education. Since work-related and psychosocial resources are integrally linked to health, immigrants experience lower health returns to their education than the native-born. These findings make three major contributions. First, they extend the traditional understanding of the relationship between education and health (Low et al. 2005), underscoring that immigrants do not experience the same level of health benefits to their education as the native-born. Second, they augment knowledge about why immigrants experience weaker health returns to their education than the native-born: because they receive diminished employment types, occupational levels, income, mastery, and trust relative to their levels of education. Third, the results highlight that foreign education is not linked to as high mastery and trust as that of the native-born – a new finding that underscores that foreign education is not just linked to diminished work-related resources and health, but psychosocial resources as well.

The claim of some policymakers that education is the great equalizer of socioeconomic disparities in health (Low et al. 2005) has come under question in recent years. Higher education is related to better health for both immigrants and the Canadian-born. However, immigrants experience weaker health returns to their education than the native-born (Kennedy et al. 2006). Despite the importance of this issue, the reasons for this gap are not fully understood. This dissertation integrates the immigrant health, social stress, and immigrant integration literatures to better understand this issue, using Cycles 17 and 22 of the Statistics Canada collected General Social Survey (GSS). The analyses reveal that education has a diminished effect on the self-rated health (although not stress) of immigrants, the functional limitations of established immigrants, and the happiness of recent immigrants. The reasons for this gap vary depending on the health measure. The weaker relationship between education and the functional ability of established immigrants and the happiness of recent immigrants is explained by immigrants’ lower work-related returns (employment type, occupational skill, personal income) to education. For self-rated health, the nativity status differential in the effect of education on self-rated health is rooted in immigrants’ lower work-related and psychosocial returns (mastery and trust, although not social support) to education. Since work-related and psychosocial resources are integrally linked to health, immigrants experience lower health returns to their education than the native-born. These findings make three major contributions. First, they extend the traditional understanding of the relationship between education and health (Low et al. 2005), underscoring that immigrants do not experience the same level of health benefits to their education as the native-born. Second, they augment knowledge about why immigrants experience weaker health returns to their education than the native-born: because they receive diminished employment types, occupational levels, income, mastery, and trust relative to their levels of education. Third, the results highlight that foreign education is not linked to as high mastery and trust as that of the native-born – a new finding that underscores that foreign education is not just linked to diminished work-related resources and health, but psychosocial resources as well.

The diploma thesis is named Integration of Ukrainians in České Budějovice. The first chapter explains the basic concepts related to the topic of integration of foreigners, such as migration, immigrant or refugee. The second section refers to the concept of integration, which is defined in detail. The third chapter describes the integration policy in the Czech Republic. The fourth chapter is dedicated to legislation and two basic laws governing this issue. The fifth chapter concerns foreigners in the Czech Republic in terms of numbers and statistics and sixth chapter includes basic characteristic of Ukrainian immigrants in the country. The last chapter is devoted to organizations aimed at helping foreigners in the České Budějovice. The aim is to find out what the positives and negatives are in the integration of Ukrainians in the České Budějovice. They were provided the following two research questions: 1. What are the positives and negatives in the integration of Ukrainians living in the České Budějovice? 2. Do Ukrainians attend some organization focused on helping foreigners in the České Budějovice? Results related to the first research question revealed some positives and negatives that occur in the integration of Ukrainians in the České Budějovice. The main negatives were revealed in language skills - Problems with the pronunciation of certain letters (ř), incomprehensibility of laws and more technical texts, writing diacritics over letters or filling out forms. The interviews revealed some positives. For example, what can helps informants or could help the negatives be reduced or removed. They do not recommend settling down only with Ukrainians, but should find Czech friends and communicate with them and participate in the work process. It also helps to watch Czech TV and listen to radio. In the field of economic and social self-sufficiency, I focused on two areas - Employment and housing. In the field of employment there exist several serious problems. For the vast majority of informants their job does not correspond to the education acquired in the Ukraine. It is connected with young immigrants with university degree, who try to get a job. They met with discrimination at the interview because of their origin. The positive thing is the less-educated immigrants do not find it difficult to get a job and that all the informants are also satisfied with the salary. Several negatives were also shown in the housing sector, but informants were not talking about their own experiences, but the experiences of their friends. These are mainly problems with landlords who refuse to issue a certificate of accommodation for immigrants from the Ukraine. Informants are satisfied with their housing, and they say that is not a problem for them to get adequate housing, which are clear positives. According to informants in the field of society and culture is a major downside of poor orientation of immigrants in the law, in rights and duties and employee access at offices. Culture is, according to them, similar, but they see major differences on important matters such as the family and family life, how they lead children to education and they do not like celebrating festivals at a different time. Another part of research were relations between the majority and the minority. Negatives also occur in the form of shyness in Ukrainians when making conversation with Czechs, they also bothers them little activity from the government to promote good relations between nations and the lack of interest of the Czechs in establishing conversations and friendly relations with Ukrainians. Positives could be a multicultural event that the government could organize to improve relations between Czechs and other cultures and promoting inter-cultural education in elementary schools. The second research question concerns the organizations that are trying to help them. It turned out, immigrants do know about these organizations they do not attend them that much.

Thesis advisor: Gerald M. Easter / This dissertation explores the factors that influence immigrant reception and integration in new immigration spaces like Dublin and Madrid. Through the case studies of Poles and Nigerians in Dublin and Ecuadorians and Bulgarians in Madrid, the thesis provides a response to three research questions: 1) How do Western European receiving societies construct inclusion and exclusion of the immigrant?; 2) Why do immigrants belong or fail to fit in?; 3) How do inclusion-exclusion dynamics and immigrants’ perceptions affect incorporation outcomes? The project contributes to migration scholarship by emphasizing the understudied cultural and local aspects of incorporation and bringing immigrant agency back into the integration equation. The central argument is that culture and identity matter. While acknowledging the significance of material self-interest, social contact, or national policy regimes, the dissertation finds that identity characteristics, both those of the newcomers and their host societies, are primary in determining the welcome or rejection of different ethnic communities in receiving cities. Further, the study shows that migrants are agents who form their own perceptions of belonging or isolation on the basis of cultural identity. These perceptions determine the foreigners’ stake in the host context and what they do with the openings and closures they face. The thesis concludes that political, economic, and social incorporation outcomes are ultimately conditioned on the interplay between the inclusion-exclusion dynamics in the receiving context and the immigrants’ perceptions of welcome or rejection. Analysis of in-depth interviews, survey data, and relevant documents and legislation for all four case studies confirms the main argument. The comparison among European and non-European immigrants in Dublin and Madrid attests to the significance of culture and identity for integration outcomes and contributes to the broader understanding of immigrant incorporation in Europe and beyond. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Cette thèse (Sciences Po Paris & Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) étudie le dilemme généré par l’immigration et la diversité pour les élites politiques dans deux communautés sous-nationales culturellement et linguistiquement distinctes : la Flandre (Belgique) et le Québec (Canada). Pour ces communautés, l’intégration des immigrés représente à la fois des opportunités et des défis. L’immigration peut à la fois augmenter le poids démographique de la communauté sous-nationale mais aussi affaiblir sa cohésion culturelle et linguistique. En étudiant la période de 1999 à 2014 et en utilisant l’institutionnalisme discursif, cette recherche questionne la réponse des élites sous-nationales à ce dilemme : comment les élites politiques flamandes et québécoises envisagent-elles l’intégration des immigrés ? Confrontées au dilemme de l’intégration des immigrés, sur une échelle qui irait de la menace à l’opportunité, comment les élites politiques se positionnent-elles ? Sur base d’une analyse des débats parlementaires, cette thèse identifie le positionnement des élites politiques (élus et ministres) et leur rhétorique sur quatre dimensions de l’intégration des immigrés : institutionnelle, démographique, linguistique et culturelle. Contrairement à d’autres recherches qui se sont uniquement concentrées sur les élites sous-nationalistes et les positions des partis régionalistes, notre focus sur les discours politiques et l’ensemble des élites permet de montrer comment les idées circulent et évoluent à travers les législatures. Cette recherche montre que les arguments-clés sont partagés par les élites politiques quand il s’agit des dimensions linguistique, démographique et culturelle de l’intégration des immigrés. Néanmoins et indépendamment de ces conceptions, des divergences claires existent sur les arrangements institutionnels à privilégier entre l’autorité fédérale et la sous-nation pour l’intégration des immigrés. / My PhD dissertation (Sciences Po Paris & Université Saint-Louis) considers the dilemma generated by immigration and diversity for political elites in two culturally and linguistic distinct sub-national communities: Flanders (Belgium) and Quebec (Canada). For such communities, immigration represents both opportunities and challenges. Immigration might increase the relative demographic strength of the sub-national community yet, it might also weaken its cultural or linguistic cohesion. Focusing on the 1999-2014 timeframe and using discursive institutionalism, I ask how subnational elites respond to this dilemma. Using discourse analysis, I identify the position of members of regional parliaments and their rhetoric on four dimensions of immigrant integration (institutional, demographic, linguistic, and cultural). Contrary to other researches that have focused only on sub-nationalist and regionalist party positions, my focus on political discourse allows me to show how ideas circulate and evolve through legislatures. My results run contrary to some expectations from immigration studies and federalism theory. I show that key arguments are shared between political elites when it comes to the linguistic, demographic and cultural dimensions of immigrant integration. Nevertheless and independently from the conceptions of integration put forward, I show that clear divergences remain when it comes to federal-subnational institutional arrangements for immigrant integration.

How do Toyota and Yokkaichi, two cities in Japan, respond to the difficulties faced by their Nikkeijin foreign residents and why do these cities respond differently despite sharing numerous characteristics? Are there key factors that influence different migrant incorporation strategies? How do these factors influence the ways that Brazilian-Nikkeijin might be viewed in each city? This thesis explores the ways that local organizations in Toyota and Yokkaichi assist their Brazilian Nikkeijin migrant populations and the factors that influence these strategies. I hypothesize that the domination of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Toyota and Yokkaichi's history of citizen mobilization significantly affect the ways in which these two cities approach migrant incorporation. I also hypothesize that trends in the types of consultation sought by Brazilian Nikkeijin in the two cities will share seasonal patterns. I test these hypotheses through interviews conducted in 2015 with representatives from local organizations in Toyota and Yokkaichi and through the information in the websites of these organizations. My findings support the hypotheses that the dominance of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Toyota and the unique characteristics of Yokkaichi's citizens, grounded in citizen mobilization experiences, influences the different approaches each city takes in responding to Brazilian needs. However, they do not indicate visible seasonal patterns on the types of consultation services sought by Nikkeijin. Previous literature frames the challenges Nikkeijin face in Japanese society and how local governments respond to those challenges in the larger picture of ethnicity and ethnically-based state policies. The thesis contributes to discussions of return migration policies aimed at the integration of foreign residents and the patterns of ethnic negotiation and re-negotiation by co-ethnics when faced with problems as a result of unfulfilled cultural expectations. / Master of Arts / Nikkeijin, or members of the Japanese diaspora, make up a sizeable percentage of the unskilled labor force in Japan. However, many encounter difficulties in Japanese society as a result of discrimination due to cultural differences with the Japanese. My thesis explores the ways that local organizations in two Japanese cities, Toyota and Yokkaichi, assist their Brazilian Nikkeijin migrant populations in response to these difficulties and the factors that influence these strategies. I hypothesize that the domination of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Toyota and Yokkaichi’s history of citizen mobilization significantly affect the ways in which these two cities approach migrant incorporation. I also hypothesize that trends in the types of consultation sought by Brazilian Nikkeijin in the two cities will share seasonal patterns. I test these hypotheses through interviews conducted in 2015 with representatives from local organizations in Toyota and Yokkaichi and through the information in the websites of these organizations. My findings support the hypotheses that the dominance of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Toyota and the unique characteristics of Yokkaichi’s citizens, grounded in citizen mobilization experiences, influence the different approaches each city takes in responding to Brazilian needs. However, they do not indicate visible seasonal patterns in the types of consultation services sought by Nikkeijin. My thesis contributes to discussions of return migration policies aimed at incorporating foreign migrants and how members of a diaspora are able to utilize their ethnic identities when faced with problems as a result of cultural differences.

abstract: Nearly 11 million immigrants in the United States, three-quarters of which are Latino, lack legal authorization to live and work in the country; nonetheless, the majority of these individuals have resided in the U.S. for a decade or more and have profound social, emotional, cultural, and economic ties to the country (Passel & Cohn, 2018). Despite being deeply embedded in their communities, the dominant policy response involves increased immigration enforcement and advancing a hostile socio-political context (Gulasekaram & Ramakishnan, 2015). This policy approach comes at a great cost to immigrant and Latino communities throughout the U.S. and is largely ineffective. Accordingly, many advocates and stakeholders, including the National Association of Social Workers (2017), argue for policies that integrate “unauthorized permanent residents” (Martínez, Slack, & Martínez- Schuldt, 2018). The primary purpose of this study was to understand strategies that can be leveraged to build support for integrationist policymaking. Among a sample of U.S.-born white college students (n=708), intensive, community, and college contact with Latino immigrants and people of color were assessed; the relationships between intergroup contact and support for integrationist policymaking were examined. To better understand the contact-policy attitudes relationship, the deprovincialization hypothesis of the intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011) and the Latino threat narrative (Chavez, 2013) were merged and tested as a serial pathway by which contact and policy attitudes may be related. Findings revealed intensive and community contact with Latino immigrants and people of color related to more support for integrationist legislation. In most cases, these effects were direct as well as indirect through the ethnocentrismthreat attitudes pathway. Ethnocentrism fully accounted for the relationships between intensive and community intergroup contact and threat attitudes. These findings have several implications for intervention. First, in the long-term struggle for immigrant integration, intergroup interaction between whites and people of color should be promoted, and the importance of casual intergroup contact should not be dismissed. Interventions that reduce social segregation are needed, as well as efforts to effectively harness the ethnic-racial diversity that presently exists. Cross-group exposure interventions that aim to overcome ethnocentric tendencies should be implemented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Social Work 2019

<p>Issue of immigration was for a long time controversial concern throughout the Europe. Because of its demand for labor, Europe needs certain level of qualified immigration. However, in late decades a big amount of refugee immigration flow created serious challenges as well. Perceived ‘threat’ of immigration resulted in restrictive policies at both national and EU level. EU level policies in this respect are very interesting to research on. Because of great sensitivity of immigration issues to state sovereignty, formulation of EU level policy also faces challenges in terms of balancing intergovernmentalist and supranationalist logic of integration. Therefore, we have studied those policy and decision-making processes in immigration policy focusing on two issues: first, the motives behind the cooperation at EU level and the role of supranational institutions in shaping these EU level policies, second, the scope and capabilities of those policies. </p><p>Immigrant integration policy have been chosen as a case to comprehend issue more closely and detailed. Immigrant integration policy is very important for the social cohesion of European societies and is inseparable part of immigration policies. Immigrant integration debate is very new in EU agenda; it is just getting its way to Brussels. Although EU has no competence on this issue, we found out that there are quite real opportunities for EU to have its own way of helping with member states’ policies. The paper identifies and discusses important aspects of immigration and immigrant integration policies at EU level, the reasons why EU level policies are not pro-active and not suprantionalised yet. It further explores the available EU level instruments and sources for constructing strategy of integrating immigrants. All these study is done in the light of theoretical framework which is the combination of several theories, due to the complexity of the immigration matters. Every theory explains either some stage in the development of EU level policies (liberal intergovernmentalism and new institutionalism) or the possible EU level policy-making framework (intensive transgovernmentalism and policy coordination/benchmarking) for the studied issues.</p>

Issue of immigration was for a long time controversial concern throughout the Europe. Because of its demand for labor, Europe needs certain level of qualified immigration. However, in late decades a big amount of refugee immigration flow created serious challenges as well. Perceived ‘threat’ of immigration resulted in restrictive policies at both national and EU level. EU level policies in this respect are very interesting to research on. Because of great sensitivity of immigration issues to state sovereignty, formulation of EU level policy also faces challenges in terms of balancing intergovernmentalist and supranationalist logic of integration. Therefore, we have studied those policy and decision-making processes in immigration policy focusing on two issues: first, the motives behind the cooperation at EU level and the role of supranational institutions in shaping these EU level policies, second, the scope and capabilities of those policies. Immigrant integration policy have been chosen as a case to comprehend issue more closely and detailed. Immigrant integration policy is very important for the social cohesion of European societies and is inseparable part of immigration policies. Immigrant integration debate is very new in EU agenda; it is just getting its way to Brussels. Although EU has no competence on this issue, we found out that there are quite real opportunities for EU to have its own way of helping with member states’ policies. The paper identifies and discusses important aspects of immigration and immigrant integration policies at EU level, the reasons why EU level policies are not pro-active and not suprantionalised yet. It further explores the available EU level instruments and sources for constructing strategy of integrating immigrants. All these study is done in the light of theoretical framework which is the combination of several theories, due to the complexity of the immigration matters. Every theory explains either some stage in the development of EU level policies (liberal intergovernmentalism and new institutionalism) or the possible EU level policy-making framework (intensive transgovernmentalism and policy coordination/benchmarking) for the studied issues.

The aim of this essay is to examine the ambivalence that I consider work of solidarity carried out from majority position to be associated with, and whether it makes sense to understand the relationship between majorities and minorities involved in this work by using the concepts of race and whiteness. Through Ruth Frankenbergs work on white women and race I consider whiteness to be a racialized position, and through Sara Ahmeds phenomenology of whiteness, which describes racialization as made through the orientation of bodies, I investigate how this racialized position is shaped and maintained by the solidarity work. The study is based on qualitative interviews with four White women engaged in two organizations that works on integration of female immigrants through creating jobs in a cooperative and through educating in national and familial democracy. The work of solidarity told of by the interviewees seems to produce racialized notions about immigrated people of color, which acts as a counterpart to the whiteness that the interviewees themselves possess. At the same time, the work also challenge this binary division, especially by incorporating the non-white women in what in this essay is called "the white world". / Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka de ambivalenser som jag utgår ifrån att det solidariska arbete som bedrivs från en normativ majoritetsposition är präglat av och huruvida det är meningsfullt att förstå relationen mellan majoriteter och minoriteter involverade i detta arbete med hjälp av begreppen ras och vithet. Genom Ruth Frankenbergs studie av vita kvinnor och ras förstår jag vithet som en rasifierad position, och genom Sara Ahmeds "vithetens fenomenologi", som beskriver rasifiering som kroppars orientering mot varandra, undersöker jag hur denna rasifierade position skapas och upprätthålls genom solidaritetsarbete. Studien baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra vita kvinnor engagerade i två olika organisationer som arbetar med integration av den strukturella kategorin "immigranter som är kvinnor", dels genom att driva ett kooperativ där personer ur denna kategori kan söka arbete och dels genom att utbilda samma kategori människor i nationell och famijär demokrati. Det solidariska arbete som intervjupersonerna berättar om tycks skapa rasifierade föreställningar om icke-vita immigranter, vilka fungerar som motbild till den vithet som intervjupersonerna själva besitter. Samtidigt utmanar arbetet också den binära uppdelningen mellan vit och icke-vit, inte minst genom att inkorporera de icke-vita kvinnorna som deltar i organisationerna i vad som i uppsatsen kallas för "den vita världen".