Robin Cohen
Rethinking ‘Babylon’: iconoclastic conceptions of the diasporic experience [Abstract]

Dietrich Thränhardt
Germany: an undeclared immigration country [Abstract]

Claire Dwyer and Astrid Meyer
The institutionalisation of Islam in the Netherlands and in the UK: the case of Islamic schools [Abstract]

Steve Fenton, Anthony O. Hughes and Christine E. Hine
Self-assessed health, economic status and ethnic origin [Abstract]

Catherine Wihtol de Wenden
Generational change and political participation in French suburbs [Abstract]

Geoffrey Alderman
The defence of shechita: Anglo-Jewry and the ‘humane conditions’ regulations of 1990 [Abstract]

Carlota Solé
Racial discrimination against foreigners in Spain
(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 95-101)

Jan Vos
Illegal migrants in the Netherlands
(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 103-113)

Michael Banton
International report
(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 115-120)

Rethinking ‘Babylon’: iconoclastic conceptions of the diasporic experience
Robin Cohen

Abstract The word ‘diaspora’ is closely associated with enslavement, exile and loneliness. A people is seen to be scattered as a result of a traumatic historical event. Contrary to this assumption, a closer examination of the provenance of the classical diasporas, Jewish and Greek, reveal a degree of voluntarism in their patterns of out-migration, or a mix of impelled and colonising migration. Although the idea of a ‘victim diaspora’ can be sustained in the case of the Armenians and Africans, other experiences are more ambiguous or benign. Indeed, diasporas can be seen as galvanising a new creative energy outside the natal homeland. In the modern period the force of excluding nationalisms often generated counter-nationalist or return movements among diasporic groups. However, the current period of globalisation has enhanced the practical, economic and affective role of diasporas, raising the possibility that they may become alternative or parallel foci of loyalty to the nation-state.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 5-18, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Germany: an undeclared immigration country
Dietrich Thränhardt

Abstract Germany has in recent years acquired the status coming second only to the US in terms of how many immigrants she receives. After the fall of the Berlin wall, large numbers of East Germans made their way to West Germany. Increasing numbers of ethnic Germans from the CIS, Poland and Romania and asylum seekers - particularly from South Eastern Europe and the Third World - made their way to Germany. The border is open to EU member nationals and it has been decided to accept Jews from the CIS and new migrant workers from Eastern Europe. A quota of 220,000 ethnic Germans per year was established in 1993. Germany has yet to adjust to this situation. The various terms for immigrants stress their otherness, naturalisation is a very slow process and according to the official policy Germany is ‘not an immigration country’. The majority party in government has used the issue of xenophobia to raise the political stakes, thereby occasioning unrest, political crisis and street violence. After the crisis, there are indications that these contradictions can be solved over the next few years and that German society is more open and tolerant than the current political agenda initially suggests.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 19-36, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

The institutionalisation of Islam in the Netherlands and in the UK: the case of Islamic schools
Claire Dwyer and Astrid Meyer

Abstract This article compares the institutionalisation of Islam in the Netherlands and in the UK by considering the establishment of state-funded Islamic schools. State-funded Islamic schools exist in the Netherlands, while in the UK such schools have so far been opposed. The article focuses on the political decision-making process at both the national and local level in each country. In particular, it examines the ideological construction of ‘Muslims’ embedded in the debates engendered by this decision making process. In our analysis of the debates over the establishment of two particular Islamic schools in Brent and Utrecht we stress the contested nature of the term ‘integration’, the interpretation of which has been central to the debate. We conclude that despite differences in enabling legislation in the two countries there are many similarities in the ways in which Islamic schools are often opposed at the level of local decision making.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 37-54, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Self-assessed health, economic status and ethnic origin
Steve Fenton, Anthony O. Hughes and Christine E. Hine

Abstract In the Bristol Black and Ethnic Minorities Groups Health Survey more than 500 interviews were completed. The study made it possible to measure the health status of a range of groups. The interview schedule was translated into seven languages; the main groups interviewed were ‘Indian’, ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Black Caribbean’. Ethnic groups differ from each other quite markedly in socio-economic profile, and within any given ethnic group there is differentiation. In the present article we suggest that research reports about health and ethnicity may be misleading if they simply present inter-group differences in health status, showing differences within and between groups. Socio-economic variables influence self-assessed health; in particular the unemployed and those with housing difficulties report significantly poorer health. The ‘Pakistani’ group have the poorest self-assessed health and the poorest socio-economic status. However, standardising for gender, age and material factors, differences in self-assessed health between ethnic groups persist.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 55-68, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Generational change and political participation in French suburbs
Catherine Wihtol de Wenden

Abstract This article takes the urban context of French suburbs as the point of departure for a portrayal of the evolution of political participation among immigrants and their descendents. France’s first major influx of foreign workers were men on their own, supplying the labour needed for post-war regeneration. These men were often members of the trade unions but active political involvement did not materialise until major conflicts emerged over housing and employment issues in the 1970s. These disputes came to be seen as the birth of immigrants’ political participation, with the Portuguese initially taking the lead. As this group gradually acquired middle-class status and values, the Mahgrebians came to the fore. Freedom of association was granted to immigrants in 1981 and provided a crucial means of organisation in a decade which saw the issue of immigration acquire and increasingly high profile. These associations often have a local neighbourhood base and frequently serve a dual purpose by acting as stepping-stones to entrepreneurial activity. A generational divide is now becoming apparent, where the older generation is perceived as having taken the lead to the detriment of younger people’s involvement. Simultaneously a rift appeared between the highly localised associative movements and the large national organisations like France Plus and SOS-Racisme.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 69-78, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

The defence of shechita: Anglo-Jewry and the ‘humane conditions’ regulations of 1990
Geoffrey Alderman

Abstract The institutional structure of Anglo-Jewry has frequently been cited as a model which other religious minorities in Great Britain would do well to follow. In particular, the Chief Rabbinate and the Board of Deputies of British Jews have been offered as ideal mechanisms bye which Anglo Jewry has been able to address the British state in the defence of religious freedoms and ethnic interests. An examination of the events surrounding the passage into law, in 1990, of new regulations governing the Jewish religious slaughter of cattle and poultry suggests that these judgements must be thoroughly revised. Where a minority community is monolithic in terms of its beliefs and value systems, a structure resembling that of the Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbinate may work well. But where pluralisation and polarisation have taken root, such a structure will not work and may itself be a cause of further internal dissensions.

(New Community Vol. 21 No. 1: 79-93, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)