Suchergebnisse

International audience ; Given recent demographic shifts and changes in the racial landscape of many urban areas, what kind of inter-group relations have emerged and what are the prospects for cross-racial coalitions to contest racial hierarchies and structures of racial inequality in the USA? Drawing on qualitative data, I examine the efforts of an environmental justice organization, defined as a `border space', to build solidarity and forge alliances between second-generation Laotians and other communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area. I argue that the possibilities and limits to engendering cross-racial solidarity are also shaped by Laotians' status as new immigrants and as Asian Pacific Americans, as well as by everyday encounters and interactions between racial groups. Racializing processes in the US engender complex inter-minority relations that are marked by cooperation or conflict. In such a context, cross-racial alliances are based on political commitments and shared interests that are contingent and situationally specific.

At various times and in a range of contexts, second-generation Laotian women in the United States are portrayed as a model minority, as refugees and perpetual foreigners, as "problems," and at-risk of becoming single mothers. In this article, I demonstrate the ways in which teenage second-generation Laotian girls challenge these discursive delineations through their participation in a leadership development and community-organizing program established by the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) in Contra Costa County, Northern California. I draw on qualitative data from my doctoral research to provide a detailed discussion of the young women's involvement in a campaign to improve academic counseling services in their high school. I also analyze the strategies and practices that arise from such struggles for social justice, and document the generation of new social capital, networks, trust, information channels, and norms that encourage and facilitate greater community involvement in collectively solving the social problems young Laotians face. In so doing, I make visible the community activism of young Asian Pacific American women, but also argue that through their participation in an environmental justice organization, which links grass-roots activism concerning environmental protection to issues of economic development, racial and social equality, and community empowerment, they demonstrate a struggle to "win' a sense of citizenship from below" (Mac an Ghaill, 1999: 98) rather than that which is conferred by the state. Adapted from the source document.

Given recent demographic shifts and changes in the racial landscape of many urban areas, what kind of inter-group relations have emerged and what are the prospects for cross-racial coalitions to contest racial hierarchies and structures of racial inequality in the USA? Drawing on qualitative data, I examine the efforts of an environmental justice organization, defined as a `border space', to build solidarity and forge alliances between second-generation Laotians and other communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area. I argue that the possibilities and limits to engendering cross-racial solidarity are also shaped by Laotians' status as new immigrants and as Asian Pacific Americans, as well as by everyday encounters and interactions between racial groups. Racializing processes in the US engender complex inter-minority relations that are marked by cooperation or conflict. In such a context, cross-racial alliances are based on political commitments and shared interests that are contingent and situationally specific.

From Agent Orange to super fund sites to anti-immigrant sentiments : multiple voyages, on-going challenges -- New immigration and the American nation : a framework for citizenship and belonging in contemporary United States -- The politics of race : political identity and the struggle for social rights -- The politics of race : critical incorporation and inter-minority relations -- Family, culture, gender : narratives of ethnic reconstruction and meaning among second-generation Laotian women -- Building community, crafting belonging -- Conclusion : second-generation Laotians becoming "American

Review of: Here, There and Elsewhere: The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World, Tahseen Shams (2020)
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 264 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-50361-069-9, h/bk, $90;
ISBN 978-1-50361-283-9, p/bk, $28

While the growth of spiritualties is associated with post-traditional societies and the ability of individuals to engage in reflexive construction of religious biographies in late modernity, these arguments ignore various dimensions of reflexivity and processes of re-traditionalization. In this article I explore linkages and affinity between social discourses in late modernity and a religion, with a distinctive ontology, originating in South Asia. Drawing on qualitative data, I examine processes involved in the construction of a religious self among second-generation Jains in Britain and the USA. Living in late modern societies, young Jains have established a reflexive habitus. Such reflexivity has affinity with a neo-orthodox tendency in Jainism that rejects the authority of ascetics and rituals while elevating one's own knowledge, discipline and insights in the construction of a Jain biography. I find that neo-orthodox Jainism provides resources for young Jains to constantly reflect on and actively choose how to be a Jain; to enact cataphatic reflexivity in the construction of a Jain self. For some second-generation Jains, the Jain tradition also provides resources to enact a non-instrumental, apophatic reflexivity; a calm equanimous state that enables them to create ontological security in the face of risks and uncertainty in late modernity.

At a time of rising right-wing populism, the heightened political salience of immigration as an issue is linked to conceptions of 'the national'. In this article, we analyse tweets from non-elites, defined as isolated users with low network influence, engaged in a 'conversation' about migration on Twitter. We investigate the values embedded in these attitudes, and what these tell us about constructions and contestations of the symbolic boundaries of the nation amongst ordinary people. Our corpus includes tweets posted in temporal proximity to the lifting of transitional controls on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants in the UK (1 October 2013 to 1 March 2014). Thematic analysis reveals a cohesive set of anti-immigrant/immigration sentiments linked to UKIP and that express an exclusionary nationalism based on assumptions about race, 'whiteness' and entitlement. Also evident is a counter-narrative of pro-immigration sentiments that draw on multiple and sometimes contradictory values. Some of these values contest racialized understandings of the nation but do not coalesce in ways to disrupt the dominance of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments on Twitter. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating values embedded in both anti and pro-immigration attitudes amongst non-elites and what these values indicate about the possibilities of re-framing migration debates amongst non-elites in ways that construct more inclusive symbolic national boundaries. Additionally, in using the networked properties of Twitter engagement to identify non-elite users, we make a methodological contribution to scholarship on immigration attitudes.

In an increasingly hostile environment for refugees in the UK and the "everyday bordering" that creates exclusionary effects for refugees and migrants, this article examines how refugee women of diverse backgrounds enact resistance practices through volunteering to challenge everyday microaggressions and social exclusion. We draw on in‐depth qualitative research with members of a support group for refugee women established by a local charity in England. We find that the support group not only allows the refugee women to foster a strong sense of solidarity in the face of everyday microaggressions; it also facilitates the women's volunteering activities in the local community. Applying the concept of "differentiated embedding," we argue that such activities enable these women to build wider social connections and skills for future employment and, crucially, develop emotional and linguistic resources to critique dominant exclusionary discourses and policies towards refugees through the idea of "contribution" and "giving back." In so doing, we contribute to renewed interest in the concept of integration to highlight the agency of refugee women in creating differentiated embedding in a hostile environment.

At a time of rising right-wing populism, the heightened political salience of immigration as an issue is linked to conceptions of 'the national'. In this article, we analyse tweets from non-elites, defined as isolated users with low network influence, engaged in a 'conversation' about migration on Twitter. We investigate the values embedded in these attitudes, and what these tell us about constructions and contestations of the symbolic boundaries of the nation among ordinary people. Our corpus includes tweets posted in temporal proximity to the lifting of transitional controls on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants in the UK (1 October 2013 to 1 March 2014). Thematic analysis reveals a cohesive set of anti-immigrant or anti-immigration sentiments linked to UKIP and that express an exclusionary nationalism based on assumptions about race, 'whiteness' and entitlement. Also evident is a counter-narrative of pro-immigration sentiments that draw on multiple and sometimes contradictory values. Some of these values contest racialised understandings of the nation but do not coalesce in ways to disrupt the dominance of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments on Twitter. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating values embedded in both anti and pro-immigration attitudes among non-elites and what these values indicate about the possibilities of re-framing migration debates among non-elites in ways that construct more inclusive symbolic national boundaries. In addition, in using the networked properties of Twitter engagement to identify non-elite users, we make a methodological contribution to scholarship on immigration attitudes.

This article offers an explanation for recent trends that indicate higher numbers of young British Pakistani men and women pursue higher education compared to their white peers. Our qualitative research provides evidence for shared norms and values amongst British Pakistani families, what we term 'ethnic capital'. However, our findings also highlight differences between families. The Bourdieuian notion of 'cultural capital' explains educational success among middle-class British Pakistani families. We argue, however, that insufficient attention has been given to the relation between education and ethnicity, and particularly the role of 'ethnic capital' in ameliorating social class disadvantage. Our research also recognizes the limitations of 'ethnic capital' and traces the interplay of ethnicity with gender and religion that produces differences between, and within, working-class British Pakistani families. We also emphasize how structural constraints, selective school systems and racialized labour markets, influence the effectiveness of 'ethnic capital' in promoting educational achievement and social mobility.