scholarly journals How useful are survey data for analyzing immigration policy?

Data & Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Sumption

Abstract Large-scale population surveys have been an important source of data for the study of migration, and in many countries provide the only widely accessible data on migrants’ characteristics and outcomes after they arrive. For immigration policymakers, however, official survey data have some important limitations. Nonresponse to surveys is particularly likely to affect newly arrived migrants, biasing analysis toward more settled populations who have different characteristics (e.g., different fiscal costs), and hindering analysis of how integration outcomes evolve after arrival. Survey data are not well suited to capturing the dynamics of a mobile population, particularly among groups of migrants who spend substantial periods outside the country. And perhaps most importantly, official survey data usually identify migrants by country of birth and nationality (and sometimes self-reported reason for migration) but rarely include information on a person’s legal status either at arrival or at the time of data collection. This significantly limits the possibilities for evaluating policy and the impacts of policy changes: the characteristics of migrants coming for different reasons can vary enormously, so policymakers should be cautious about assuming that aggregate evidence on migrants or migration will be relevant to the specific routes on which they are taking decisions. This article illustrates some of these problems in practice showing how official survey data in the United Kingdom have been unable to answer one of the key questions facing the government, namely how many and which EU citizens need to apply to secure their residence rights after Brexit.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Hughes ◽  
Caitlin Graham ◽  
Charles July ◽  
Adam Brown ◽  
Thomas Schubert ◽  
...  

In the wake of dramatic policy changes commencing in late 2015, including the Government of Alberta’s announcement of the Climate Leadership Plan, the Renewable Energy Program, and the decision to introduce a parallel capacity market into Alberta’s previous energy-only market, the future of Alberta’s electricity market is uncertain. However, regulatory intervention in an attempt to improve the function of electricity markets and encourage renewable generation is not a new concept.Other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and jurisdictions in the United States, have used regulatory intervention to address issues in energy markets and to drive renewable generation. Regulatory intervention in these jurisdictions has not always achieved the intended consequences. In some cases, regulatory intervention has exacerbated issues it intended to solve, or created new problems. In other cases, regulatory intervention has relatively improved the function of electricity markets and incited renewable generation. This paper considers the evolution of energy policy and competing policy drivers, including system reliability, use of sustainable fuels to generate electricity, and price surges. The paper will discuss the success and failure of regulatory intervention in select jurisdictions, and how these lessons might apply in the new age of Alberta’s electricity market.


2014 ◽  
pp. 11-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Woofield

Private providers are becoming more visible in an increasingly heterogeneous UK higher education landscape. Policy changes in England have stimulated rapid enrolment growth in the private sector, and the government is currently facing the challenge of regulating and ensuring quality in this dynamic and complex part of the HE sector in the absence appropriate primary legislation. Currently very little is known about the UK’s ‘alternative’ HE providers and many myths surround this part of the sector that do not reflect reality.


Author(s):  
Jack Ferguson ◽  
Steven Dunn ◽  
Angus Best ◽  
Jeremy Mirza ◽  
Benita Percival ◽  
...  

AbstractLateral flow devices are quickly being implemented for use in large scale population surveillance programs for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United Kingdom. These programs have been piloted in city wide screening in the city of Liverpool, and are now being rolled out to support care home visits and the return home of University students for the Christmas break. Here we present data on the performance of Lateral Flow devices to test almost 8,000 students at the University of Birmingham between December 2nd and December 9th 2020. The performance is validated against almost 800 samples using PCR performed in the University Pillar 2 testing lab, and theoretically validated on thousands of Pillar 2 PCR testing results performed on low-prevalence care home testing samples. Our data shows that Lateral Flow Devices do not detect infections presenting with PCR Ct values over 29-30, meaning that only 3.2% (95% CI 0.6% to 15.6%) of total cases in the student population were detected, but that as many of 85% of cases tested in the Pillar 2 PCR lab would have been detected theoretically


2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ants Nõmper ◽  
HörÐur Helgi Helgason ◽  
Lotta Wendel ◽  
Jane Kaye ◽  
Susan Gibbons

AbstractThe advent of large-scale, population genetic databases (PGDs) in several countries around the world marks a significant development in human DNA banking and genetic research. The European countries that have led the way in the development of PGDs are Iceland, Sweden, Estonia and the U.K. In legal terms, the emergence of PGDs has been far from straightforward as such projects pose a range of difficult and complex issues for the law to address. This article canvasses the current law in Iceland, Estonia, Sweden and the U.K. on four fundamental issues of principle pertaining to PGDs, in order to illustrate the difficulties that have emerged around PGDs, highlight key areas of legal concern, and shed light on possible ways forward. It compares and contrasts the differing legal positions and lawmakers' responses to date in these four European countries that have established PGDs or are seeking to do so. The four fundamental issues examined are: (1) consent, especially for secondary research purposes; (2) ownership of biological samples, data and databases; (3) the rights of certain third parties to gain access to, and to use, PGD biological samples and data; and (4) benefit sharing, including the provision of feedback and genetic counselling to participants. This analysis may offer some guidance for policymakers in other jurisdictions where PGDs have been proposed or are being established.


PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. e3001216
Author(s):  
Jack Ferguson ◽  
Steven Dunn ◽  
Angus Best ◽  
Jeremy Mirza ◽  
Benita Percival ◽  
...  

Lateral flow devices (LFDs) are quickly being implemented for use in large-scale population surveillance programs for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United Kingdom. These programs have been piloted in city-wide screening in the city of Liverpool and are now being rolled out to support care home visits and the return home of University students for the Christmas break. Here, we present data on the performance of LFDs to test almost 8,000 students at the University of Birmingham between December 2 and December 9, 2020. The performance is validated against almost 800 samples using PCR performed in the University Pillar 2 testing lab and theoretically validated on thousands of Pillar 2 PCR testing results performed on low-prevalence care home testing samples. Our data show that LFDs do not detect infections presenting with PCR Ct values over 29 to 30 as determined using the Thermo Fisher TaqPath asssay. This may be of particular importance in detecting individuals that are either at the early, or late stages of infection, and reinforces the need for frequent, recurrent testing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Cáceres ◽  
Esteban Tapella ◽  
Diego A. Cabrol ◽  
Lucrecia Estigarribia

Argentina is experiencing an expansion of soya and maize cultivation that is pushing the agricultural frontier over areas formerly occupied by native Chaco forest. Subsistance farmers use this dry forest to raise goats and cattle and to obtain a broad range of goods and services. Thus, two very different and non-compatible land uses are in dispute. On the one hand subsistance farmers fostering an extensive and diversified forest use, on the other hand, large-scale producers who need to clear out the forest to sow annual crops in order to appropriate soil fertility. First, the paper looks at how these social actors perceive Chaco forest, what their interests are, and what kind of values they attach to it. Second, we analyze the social-environmental conflicts that arise among actors in order to appropriate forest’s benefits. Special attention is paid to the role played by the government in relation to: (a) how does it respond to the demands of the different sectors; and (b) how it deals with the management recommendations produced by scientists carrying out social and ecological research. To put these ideas at test we focus on a case study located in Western Córdoba (Argentina), where industrial agriculture is expanding at a fast pace, and where social actors’ interests are generating a series of disputes and conflicts. Drawing upon field work, the paper shows how power alliances between economic and political powers, use the institutional framework of the State in their own benefit, disregarding wider environmental and social costs. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. D. Kapranova ◽  
T. V. Pogodina

The subject of the research is the current state of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) that ensures generation of a significant part of the budget and the innovative development of the economy.The purpose of the research was to establish priority directions for the development of the FEC sectors based on a comprehensive analysis of their innovative and investment activities. The dynamics of investment in the fuel and energy sector are considered. It is noted that large-scale modernization of the fuel and energy complex requires substantial investment and support from the government. The results of the government programs of corporate innovative development are analyzed. The results of the research identified innovative development priorities in the power, oil, gas and coal sectors of the fuel and energy complex. The most promising areas of innovative development in the oil and gas sector are the technologies of enhanced oil recovery; the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; the production of liquefied natural gas and its transportation. In the power sector, the prospective areas are activities aimed at improving the performance reliability of the national energy systems and the introduction of digital technologies. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that the innovation activities in the fuel and energy complex primarily include the development of new technologies, modernization of the FEC technical base; adoption of state-of-the-art methods of coal mining and oil recovery; creating favorable economic conditions for industrial extraction of hard-to-recover reserves; transition to carbon-free fuel sources and energy carriers that can reduce energy consumption and cost as well as reducing the negative FEC impact on the environment.


Author(s):  
Angela Dranishnikova

In the article, the author reflects the existing problems of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation. He focuses on the opacity of the work of state bodies, leading to an increase in bribery and corruption. The topic we have chosen is socially exciting in our days, since its significance is growing on a large scale at all levels of the investigated aspect of our modern life. Democratic institutions are being jeopardized, the difference in the position of social strata of society in society’s access to material goods is growing, and the state of society is suffering from the moral point of view, citizens are losing confidence in the government, and in the top officials of the state.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lungwani Muungo

The purpose of this review is to evaluate progress inmolecular epidemiology over the past 24 years in canceretiology and prevention to draw lessons for futureresearch incorporating the new generation of biomarkers.Molecular epidemiology was introduced inthe study of cancer in the early 1980s, with theexpectation that it would help overcome some majorlimitations of epidemiology and facilitate cancerprevention. The expectation was that biomarkerswould improve exposure assessment, document earlychanges preceding disease, and identify subgroupsin the population with greater susceptibility to cancer,thereby increasing the ability of epidemiologic studiesto identify causes and elucidate mechanisms incarcinogenesis. The first generation of biomarkers hasindeed contributed to our understanding of riskandsusceptibility related largely to genotoxic carcinogens.Consequently, interventions and policy changes havebeen mounted to reduce riskfrom several importantenvironmental carcinogens. Several new and promisingbiomarkers are now becoming available for epidemiologicstudies, thanks to the development of highthroughputtechnologies and theoretical advances inbiology. These include toxicogenomics, alterations ingene methylation and gene expression, proteomics, andmetabonomics, which allow large-scale studies, includingdiscovery-oriented as well as hypothesis-testinginvestigations. However, most of these newer biomarkershave not been adequately validated, and theirrole in the causal paradigm is not clear. There is a needfor their systematic validation using principles andcriteria established over the past several decades inmolecular cancer epidemiology.


Author(s):  
Mykola Trofymenko

Public diplomacy of Great Britain is one of the most developed in the EU and in the world. The United Kingdom has developed an extremely efficient public diplomacy mechanism which includes BBC World Service (which due to its popularity boosts the reputation and the image of Great Britain), Chevening Scholarships (provides outstanding foreign students with opportunity to study in Great Britain and thus establishes long-lasting relations with public opinion leaders and foreign countries elite) and the British Council, which deals with international diplomatic ties in the field of culture. The British Council is a unique organization. Being technically independent, it actively and efficiently works on consolidating Great Britain’s interests in the world and contributes to the development of public diplomacy in Great Britain.   The author studies the efforts of the British Council as a unique public diplomacy tool of the United Kingdom. Special attention is paid to the role of British Council, which is independent of the governing board and at the same time finds itself under the influence of the latter due to the peculiarities of the appointment of Board’s officials, financing etc. The author concludes that the British Council is a unique organization established in 1934, which is a non-departmental state body, charitable organization and public corporation, technically independent of the government. The British Council, thanks to its commercial activities covers the lack of public funding caused by the policy of economy conducted by the government. It has good practices in this field worth paying attention by other countries. It is also worth mentioning that the increment in profit was getting higher last year, however the issue of increasing the influence of the government on the activities of British Council is still disputable. Although the Foreign Minister officially reports to the parliament on the activities of the British Council, approves the appointment of the leaders of organizations, the British Council preserves its independence of the government, which makes it more popular abroad, and makes positive influence on the world image of Great Britain. The efficiency of the British Council efforts on fulfillment of targets of the United Kingdom public diplomacy is unquestionable, no matter how it calls its activities: whether it is a cultural relations establishment or a cultural diplomacy implementation. Keywords: The British Council, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, Foreign Office, Her Majesty’s Government, official assistance for development


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