M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / The number of immigrants in South Africa has been increasing in the last decade. This study investigates the effects of immigration on economic growth, unemployment, poverty and crime using secondary data mainly obtained from Statistics South Africa. The period under study is from 1995 to 2012. Only the impact of documented immigrants is investigated because that of illegal immigrants is not known. The theories of immigration and its economic and social effects will be reviewed. Studies done by other researchers in different countries will also be looked at. Xenophobic attacks in South Africa are as a result of the allegations by South Africans that immigrants are taking South Africans' jobs, increase poverty and crime. However, the positive contribution of these immigrants toward the South African economy is not much talked about. The research therefore seeks to identify if immigrants really cause some of the economic and social problems in South Africa. The results obtained show that an increase in immigration increases the number of unemployed people in South Africa, poverty as well as gross domestic product (economic growth). The effect on crime is different with each type of crime. Murder, burglary and common robbery decrease with an increase in immigration while the opposite is true for other crime types. The main cause of an increase in crime, poverty and the number of unemployed people is because immigration increases human population. The study concludes by suggesting policy recommendations.

The Live-in Caregiver Program as part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is a unique immigration stream. Women, particularly from the Philippines, leave their families to care for Canadian families in need of home-based care in any province in Canada. The Live-in Caregiver Program is the only immigration stream where employees live in the homes of their employers. In turn, caregivers are subject to the labour standards of the province of which they reside. This thesis, focusing on Saskatchewan, examines the elements that construct federal live-in caregiver policy, Saskatchewan immigration policies, and Saskatchewan labour legislation in combination. This thesis seeks to determine if live-in caregiver labour rights are sufficiently protected and examines the potential for abuse that caregivers may experience resultant of working and living in the same space.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This dissertation casts a wide net in order to explain the recent emergence and proliferation of the contemporary anti-immigration movement in the United States. Anti-immigration activism is an understudied but not entirely overlooked phenomenon. Yet, we know incredibly little about an important set of macro- and micro- questions related to contemporary anti-immigration activism. This dissertation addresses big-picture mobilization questions, such as: What large-scale, historical preconditions set the stage for the emergence and proliferation of contemporary anti-immigration activism in the United States? And how--and through what general processes--has pro-migrant countermobilization influenced the anti-immigration movement and, perhaps, unintentionally spurred its growth? Finally, I address micro-level questions focused around the mechanics of micromobilization: How and why do individuals support anti-immigration activism? How and why do individuals become motivated to engage in anti-immigration activity? and How and why do individuals ultimately participate in anti-immigration-related activism? In sum, both big-picture and small-scale questions anchor this dissertation. By answering these I not only shed light on this specific case but also make a number of more general contributions to social movement literature.

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This thesis is an exploration of how particular Bolivian men and women who have migrated from Bolivia to Argentina, and have recently 'returned' to Bolivia, define, negotiate, and (re)create their identities in the migration experience. I argue that both the narratives and experiences of transnational migration for these migrants varies according to gender, age, economic possibilities, and legal circumstances. Furthermore, I suggest that this experience varies according to the multiple encounters with 'others' along the transnational circuit. By using a conceptualization of "migration" in transnational terms, my work has centered on how these migrants conceptualize the social conditions in which they live and how they actively search for ways to improve their living conditions in both Bolivia and Argentina. In this sense, the concept of 'home' has been critically explored in order to grasp the complex narratives of belonging and displacement.

This thesis presents a qualitative study of the experiences of a sample of Afghan refugees who have settled in Canada. The concepts of structure and agency, as articulated in Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory have been deployed as the theoretical framework of this study. I focus on the concept of culture, as both an “enabling” and “constraining” structure and the role it plays in the life of the refugees who form the study group for this thesis. The interviews explore how the respondents use culture as a means to express and explore their agency. Several themes emerge from the interviews, which are analyzed in dialogue with the literature on refugee and immigrant settlement. In light of the research findings, the role of the refugees in Canadian immigration policy is discussed, and it is suggested that there is room for a broader and more comprehensive role for refugees within national policy. / The settlement experience of Afghan refugees in Halifax, Nova Scotia

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No description available.

This study examines the experiences of post-1980 Irish immigrants in Australia using Greater Melbourne as a case study. It has three main but interrelated objectives. Firstly, it establishes the origins, characteristics, dynamics and outcomes of contemporary Irish migration to Australia. Secondly, it explores informants??? multiple experiences of Irishness in both Ireland and Australia. Thirdly, it examines how migrancy and identity issues were related to informants??? sense of belonging and home. Identity is approached in this study from a constructivist perspective. Accordingly, identity is conceptualised as dynamic, subject to situational stimuli and existing in juxtaposition to a constructed ???other???. Prior to migration, a North/South, Protestant/Catholic ???other??? provided the bases for identity constructions in Ireland. The experiences of immigrants from both Northern and Southern Ireland are examined so that the multiple pre- and post-migration experiences of Irishness can be captured. Face-to-face interviews with 203 immigrants provide the study???s primary data. Migration motivation was found to be multifactorial and contained a strong element of adventure. Informal chain migration, based on relationship linkages in Australia, was important in directing flows and meeting immigrants??? post-arrival accommodation needs. Only 28 percent of the sample initially saw their move as permanent and onethird were category jumpers. A consolidation of Irish identity occurred post-migration. This was most pronounced among Northern Protestants and was largely predicated on informants??? perceptions of how Britishness and Irishness were constructed in Australia. For Northern respondents, the freedom to express Irishness may have masked an enforced Irishness that evolved in response to perceived negative constructions of Britishness, and their experiences of homogenisation with Southern immigrants. Hierarchies within white privilege in Australia, based on origin and accent, were indicated by the study findings. Movement and identity were related through the transnational practices of informants. Separation from familial and friendship networks prompted high levels of return visitation and telephone contact with their homeland, establishing the group as a highly transnational in relational terms. Examining the experiences of this invisible immigrant group through a constructionist lens contributed to the broader understanding of whiteness, transnationalism and the Irish diaspora generally.