International Migration Review

Ethnic conflict has become a major challenge facing unified Germany. While anti-immigrant violence has been virulent across the country, it has been especially conspicuous and upsetting in former East Germany, where foreigners had barely exceeded one percent of the total population before unification. Arguments emphasizing economic, socioeconomic and group-identity factors have appeared to explain the rise in intolerance. Here, however, I argue for consideration of the largely ignored effects of public policies. Examining how policy choices and implementation in eastern Germany before, during, and since unification have affected ethnic relations provides lessons about the origins of racism and ways to combat it.

This article analyzes the international legal framework that surrounds the issue of safe third country (STC) in the European Union and in Canada. The argument put forward is that Canada is not immune to the developments in the European Union and that Canada's immigration policies towards refugees have changed accordingly. My position is that the Canadian model respects the legal constraints which govern the acceptability of mechanisms to apportion responsibility to examine a claim to refugee status, in particular the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By testing the international legal viability of both the European and the Canadian system of safe third country against Articles 31 and 33 of the Geneva Convention and Executive Committee Conclusion No. 58 and Conclusion No. 15, and by addressing the draft Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and the United States and comparing it with some of the readmission agreements between the European Union and some third states, the article concludes that the Canadian STC model is preferable to that in Europe from both a legal and a humane point of view.

This paper examines the traditional distinction between the migration of refugees and labor migrants in the context of Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands. The empirical strategy adopted is to apply a framework designed specifically to explain labor migration to the case of asylum migration, and the social networks approach is identified as the most appropriate. This paper examines the role of social networks through the asylum cycle, focusing on the decision to migrate, the choice of destination, and adaptation in the host society. The key conclusion is that the validity of the distinction between refugee and labor migration varies through the asylum cycle even for the same individual.

Based on survey research and in-depth interviews, this article concerns first generation Iranian immigrants in Iowa and focuses on the extent of their integration into the host society's culture. The findings indicate that while the majority of respondents are fully bilingual and receptive of the host society's culture, they are confident enough to bring up their children based on Iranian cultural values. Yet the longer they stay in the United States, the more isolated they become and the lonelier they feel. There are two plausible explanations: first, their middle-class to upper-class status and above-average educational level is a determining factor in reinforcing Iranian ethnic pride; second, despite their educational and professional successes, Iranian immigrants’ failure to blend into the society at large signals a more serious problem of prejudice and subtle discrimination against them.

This article is about the process of socioeconomic transformation in rural Malawi. It examines the survival strategies and enterprising spirit of Malawian migrant workers and their households. It argues that the strategies of these people often went beyond survival in the provision of basic necessities. Those who had the economic drive and entrepreneurial skills were able to use the proceeds of labor migration to improve their own and their households’ socioeconomic life. In March 1988, the South African Chamber of Mines stopped a century-old tradition of recruiting migrant workers from Malawi. This has arrested and put to a halt a process of accumulation taking place in the households of the returned migrant workers in the rural economy. Thus, the effects of the retrenchment of the workers will spread from the migrant and his family through the economic and social wellspring of all sectors of rural communities and their commercial lives.

Australia's immigration policies have had a dramatic effect on school populations, especially in the state of New South Wales which receives about 40 percent of the intake. This article is based on a study that was carried out for the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research and the NSW Ministry of Education. The study revealed that many non-English-speaking background pupils miss out on English as a second language instruction, community languages are allowed to lapse, and aspects of the school environment, such as relations between different groups, are not given the attention that they deserve.