Volume 28, Number 1, January  2002

Articles
Review article
Reviews

Articles

Jørgen Carling
Migration in the age of involuntary immobility: theoretical reflections and Cape Verdean experiences [Abstract]

Ayhan Kaya
Aesthetics of diaspora: contemporary minstrels in Turkish Berlin [Abstract]

Ulrike H. Meinhof and Dariusz Galasiński
Reconfiguring East–West identities: cross-generational discourses in German and Polish border communities [Abstract]

Peter Vermeersch
Ethnic mobilisation and the political conditionality of European Union accession: the case of the Roma in Slovakia [Abstract]

Pirkko Pitkänen and Satu Kouki
Meeting foreign cultures: a survey of the attitudes of Finnish authorities towards immigrants and immigration [Abstract]

Pnina Werbner
The place which is diaspora: citizenship, religion and gender in the making of chaordic transnationalism [Abstract]

Anthony M. Warnes
The challenge of intra-Union and in-migration to ‘social Europe’  [Abstract]

Charles Watters
Migration and mental health care in Europe: report of a preliminary mapping exercise  [Abstract]

Review article

Russell King
Tracking immigration into Italy: ten years of the Immigrazione Dossier Statistico

Reviews

Jørgen Carling
Migration in the age of involuntary immobility: theoretical reflections and Cape Verdean experiences
Abstract  Our times are characterised by involuntary immobility as much as by large migration flows. The sheer number of people wishing to migrate but not being able to do so indicates that migration must be analysed in the light of restrictive immigration policies. This article suggests that insights can be gained by addressing the aspiration and ability to migrate separately. On the basis of a case study of emigration from Cape Verde, the article first examines how aspirations are formed in the interplay between people’s individual characteristics and their common emigration environment. It then proceeds to investigate how potential migrants’ ability to migrate is determined in their encounter with the immigration interface. This involves a series of barriers and constraints which each potential migrant is differently equipped to overcome. The aspiration/ability model is proposed as a framework for analyses of migration and non-migration at a time when mobility itself has become an important stratifying factor.
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 5-42, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)
Keywords: Migration theory; Emigration; Migration pressure; Immigration policy; Transnationalism; Cape Verdean migration

Ayhan Kaya
Aesthetics of diaspora: contemporary minstrels in Turkish Berlin
Abstract  The process of identity formation of the Turkish hip-hop youth in Berlin is a constant negotiation between past and future, ‘roots’ and ‘routes’, local and global, home and diaspora. German-Turkish youth in general are socially conscious and critical of the increasing discrimination, segregation, exclusion and racism in society. These new syncretic forms of expressive minority youth cultures expose a social movement of urban youth that already has a distinct political ideology. Some of the Turkish rappers in Berlin take a significant position within these new social movements as the spokespeople (contemporary minstrels and/or storytellers) of their communities. These rap groups have eventually played a vital role in developing an anti-racist struggle by communicating information, organising the collective consciousness and testing out, deploying, or amplifying the forms of subjectivity within the Turkish diaspora. Accordingly, this article attempts to explore the forms of expressive culture which the Berlin-Turkish hip-hop youths have constructed as a reaction to the structural outsiderism and exclusion, and demonstrates their construction of a double diasporic cultural identity.
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 43-62, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)
Keywords: Diaspora; Identity; Turkish migrants; Berlin; Hip-hop culture; Rhizomatic space

Ulrike H. Meinhof and Dariusz Galasiński
Reconfiguring East–West identities: cross-generational discourses in German and Polish border communities
Abstract This article takes its data from one of two sets of communities studied as part of a British ESRC project into discursive constructions of identity. In this paper we argue three interrelated points. Firstly, we show the ways in which different elicitation formats of interviewee responses foreground variable aspects in people’s identification. Secondly, we show how similar elicitation methods produced different criss-crossings of identification which render summary generalisations about identities in these communities problematic. Thirdly, we highlight the fluid and often paradoxical nature of multiple identifications across the different layers which people choose to engage with.
Keywords: Identity; Discourse; Narrative; Context; Polish–German border
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 63-82, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Peter Vermeersch
Ethnic mobilisation and the political conditionality of European Union accession: the case of the Roma in Slovakia
Abstract  In recent years the European Union (EU) has applied its ‘political’ criteria for accession as an instrument to positively influence policies on minority issues in the candidate member states of central Europe. This essay explores the impact of the EU enlargement process on the political experiences of the Roma communities in Slovakia. Based on fieldwork observations, it is argued that although the EU’s minority protection criterion has stimulated certain domestic legal and institutional changes in Slovakia, this external pressure has not been perceived by Roma activists as a clear point of support for their political mobilisation. This may relate to a number of circumstances. First, the EU minority criterion is perceived as limited because the EU has imposed requirements on candidate states which it does not demand from its current member states. Second, Roma activists suspect that Slovakia’s concern for developing minority policies is related more to enhancing the country’s standing in the international community than with remedying domestic social marginalisation. Third, the absence of elite allies in power and the lack of resources within Roma communities have hindered Roma citizens in their political mobilisation. And fourth, Roma activists are confronted with widespread negative stereotypes in which they are held responsible for harming Slovakia’s relationship with the EU.
Keywords: European Union; Ethnic minorities; Slovakia, Roma, Political mobilisation
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 83-101, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Pirkko Pitkänen and Satu Kouki
Meeting foreign cultures: a survey of the attitudes of Finnish authorities towards immigrants and immigration
Abstract  This article is based on a nation-wide postal questionnaire survey of the experiences and views of Finnish police officers, border‑guards, social workers, employment agency personnel and teachers in their work with people of foreign background, and their attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in general. The data were analysed by factor and variance analysis. The results show that the attitudes of the authorities were, above all, related to their specific type of work and to the experiences they had had of immigrants as clients, which varied according to the occupation of these authorities. The experiences of teachers, social workers and employment agency personnel were mainly positive, whereas the majority of the police officers and border-guards estimated their experiences to be negative (or neutral).The most negative views were expressed by police officers and border-guards and the most positive by social workers and Swedish-speaking teachers.
Keywords: Attitude; Immigrant; Authority; Finland
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 103-118, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Pnina Werbner
The place which is diaspora: citizenship, religion and gender in the making of chaordic transnationalism
Abstract The paper argues for a need to analyse the organisational and moral, as well as the aesthetic dimensions of diasporas in order to understand their political and mobilising power. Organisationally, diasporas are characterised by a chaordic structure and by a shared sense of moral co-responsibility, embodied in material gestures and extended through and across space. Ultimately, there is no guiding hand, no command structure, organising the politics, the protests, the philanthropic drives, the commemoration ceremonies or the aesthetics of diasporas. Indeed, the locations of diaspora are relatively autonomous of any centre, while paradoxically, new diaspora communities reproduce themselves predictably, and in tandem. The internal complexity of diasporas is shown here through the example of the expansion and spread of international Sufi cults and women's activism. Yet despite the fact that contemporary diasporas are marked by their heterogeneity, diasporic communities located in democratic nation-states do share a commitment to struggle for enhanced citizenship rights for themselves, and for co-diasporics elsewhere, often lobbying Western governments to defend the their human rights. This may well be a defining feature of postcolonial diasporas in the West.
Keywords: Diaspora; Transnationalism; Citizenship; Gender; Sufi cults; Pakistani immigrants; Manchester
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 119-133, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Anthony M. Warnes
The challenge of intra-Union and in-migration to ‘social Europe’
Abstract This paper examines with particular reference to international migrants the contradictions between rhetoric and reality in eligibility to and the availability of health and welfare entitlements across the European Union. On the one hand, the Brussels Commissions laud the existence of a ‘social Europe’, which should exist as a logical extension of the promotion of the free movement of labour – a policy goal that is agreed by all member states. ‘European citizenship’ is a small step towards the derivative social policy goal. On the other hand, the member states will not cede control of social spending and specifically social security administration. Since the Maastricht summit, where the contradictions were made manifest, proposals to develop the social dimensions of European harmonisation have fissioned, with ever clearer divergence of the ‘civic rights’ and ‘social rights’ agenda, and the Commissions exploring new ways of promoting multilateral collaboration. Meanwhile, migrants within and into the EU continue to face ‘structured disadvantage’ in income protection and accessibility to health and social care, especially when retired or if sick, frail or disabled. The paper concludes with recommendations for the advocacy organisations that seek to end this structured disadvantage about the most likely ways in which policies can be changed.
Keywords: Older people; Older migrants; European Union; Citizenship; Social policy; Social security
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 135-152, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Charles Watters
Migration and mental health care in Europe: report of a preliminary mapping exercise
Abstract This paper offers an examination of mental health services for migrant groups in a number of European countries. It draws on a range of recent studies to highlight some of the key and emerging issues in relation to the provision of mental health services within an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural Europe. The results of a preliminary mapping exercise of mental health services for migrant groups are presented and their broader implications are considered. The aim of the mapping exercise was to collect and examine information on mental health services for migrant groups against a backdrop of broad policy developments in the mental health field and the emergence of multicultural approaches in public policy. The results of a questionnaire survey of service providers in 16 European countries are summarised and three of the participating countries, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. The information from it is placed in a context of current research in the field of race, culture and mental health. In examining the results of the preliminary mapping exercise key areas for policy development and service provision are identified and an agenda for future research in this area is suggested.
Keywords: Migration; Mental health; Refugees; Racism
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 28 No. 1: 153-172, © 2002 Taylor and Francis Ltd)