Group Violence and Migration Experience among Latin American Youths in Justice Enforcement Centers (Madrid, Spain)

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Martínez García ◽  
María Jesús Martín López
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Group Violence ◽  
American Immigrant ◽  
Immigrant Experience ◽  
And Migration

AbstractGroup violence among Latin American immigrant youth has led to ongoing debates in political, legal, and media circles, yet none of those many perspectives has arrived at a solid, empirically supported definition for the phenomenon. This study aims to explore the relationship between the immigrant experience and violent group behavior in youths from Latin America serving prison sentences in Justice Enforcement Centers in the Community of Madrid. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 juveniles, and content analysis was applied to the resulting transcripts, employing Grounded Theory to create an axial codification of intra- and inter-categorical contents, and Delphi panels for quality control. The research team delved into 62 topics, addressing participants’ perceptions of the immigrant experience and its effects on five socialization settings (neighborhood, school, family, peer group, and significant other), and each one’s relationship to violent behavior. The results led us to believe the young people’s immigration experiences had been systematically examined. Their personal and social development was influenced by negative socioeconomic conditions, ineffective parental supervision, maladjustment and conflict at school, and experiences of marginalization and xenophobia. All those conditions favored affiliation with violent groups that provided them instrumental (economic and material), expressive, or affective support.

Positioning level 3

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna De Fina
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Identity Studies ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
American Immigrant ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Language Conflict

In this article I discuss the positive impact of the concept of positioning on identity studies, with particular reference to the analysis of narratives. I argue that the notion of positioning (particularly as developed in Bamberg’s 1997 three levels model), together with other constructs such as indexicality, has helped enormously in bridging the gap (particularly in interview based research) between interactionally-oriented and more traditionally oriented studies of narrative identities. I focus on level 3 positioning to argue that this construct allows for an approach to the construction of identity in discourse that occupies a middle ground between talk-in-interaction approaches that center exclusively on participant orientations at the local level and approaches that regard identity as basically determined by macro social processes and only manifested in discourse. To illustrate level 3 positioning I analyze a narrative taken from a corpus of stories of language conflict told by Latin American immigrant women to the US. I show that the narrator constructs her identity in relation to Discourses and ideologies about language and migration showing that interpretation of her positioning is based on close analysis of discourse at the local level, ethnographic data and understanding of macro social processes underlying power relations.

scholarly journals Immigration experience of Latin American working women in Alicante, Spain: an ethnographic study

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 857-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana González-Juárez ◽  
Ana Lucía Noreña-Peña ◽  
Luis Cibanal-Juan
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Working Women ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Daily Life Activities ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
American Immigrant ◽  
Work Integration

OBJECTIVE: to describe the experience of Latin American working women regarding immigration, taking into account the expectations and conditions in which this process takes place.METHOD: ethnographic qualitative study. Data collection was performed by means of semi-structured interviews with 24 Latin American immigrant women in Spain. The information collected was triangulated through two focal groups.RESULTS: the expectations of migrant women focus on improving family living conditions. Social support is essential for their settling and to perform daily life activities. They declare they have adapted to the settlement country, although they live with stress. They perceive they have greater sexual freedom and power with their partners but keep greater responsibility in childcare, combining that with the role of working woman.CONCLUSIONS: migrant women play a key role in the survival of households, they build and create new meanings about being a woman, their understanding of life, their social and couple relationships. Such importance is shaped by their expectations and the conditions in which the migration process takes place, as well as their work integration.

Challenges and Strengths of Immigrant Latino Families in the Rural Midwest

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Raffaelli ◽  
Angela R. Wiley
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Latino Families ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Latina Mothers ◽  
Formal Services ◽  
American Immigrant

This study assessed challenges and strengths reported by 112 Latin American immigrant mothers in rural Illinois communities. Respondents (mean age = 34.5 years; 93% Mexican) took part in structured interviews that covered a range of topics relevant to their families and the broader Latino community. These Latina mothers emphasized language, documentation, and economic issues as key challenges for immigrants. Some challenges decreased with time in the United States but others remained salient among long-term residents. Respondents described an array of individual assets and social resources used by Latino families to confront challenges. The findings suggest opportunities for practitioners to disseminate information about available formal services and resources through existing informal networks.

Migration vs. development? The case of poverty and inequality in Mexico

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Escobar Latapi
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Inequality Index ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
And Migration

Although the migration – development nexus is widely recognized as a complex one, it is generally thought that there is a relationship between poverty and emigration, and that remittances lessen inequality. On the basis of Latin American and Mexican data, this chapter intends to show that for Mexico, the exchange of migrants for remittances is among the lowest in Latin America, that extreme poor Mexicans don't migrate although the moderately poor do, that remittances have a small, non-significant impact on the most widely used inequality index of all households and a very large one on the inequality index of remittance-receiving households, and finally that, to Mexican households, the opportunity cost of international migration is higher than remittance income. In summary, there is a relationship between poverty and migration (and vice versa), but this relationship is far from linear, and in some respects may be a perverse one for Mexico and for Mexican households.

Imaginings

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Kelly James Clark
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
First Order ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Group Violence ◽  
The World ◽  
The Universe

In Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican’s challenging and provocative essay, we hear a considerably longer, more scholarly and less melodic rendition of John Lennon’s catchy tune—without religion, or at least without first-order supernaturalisms (the kinds of religion we find in the world), there’d be significantly less intra-group violence. First-order supernaturalist beliefs, as defined by Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican (hereafter M&M), are “beliefs that claim unique authority for some particular religious tradition in preference to all others” (3). According to M&M, first-order supernaturalist beliefs are exclusivist, dogmatic, empirically unsupported, and irrational. Moreover, again according to M&M, we have perfectly natural explanations of the causes that underlie such beliefs (they seem to conceive of such natural explanations as debunking explanations). They then make a case for second-order supernaturalism, “which maintains that the universe in general, and the religious sensitivities of humanity in particular, have been formed by supernatural powers working through natural processes” (3). Second-order supernaturalism is a kind of theism, more closely akin to deism than, say, Christianity or Buddhism. It is, as such, universal (according to contemporary psychology of religion), empirically supported (according to philosophy in the form of the Fine-Tuning Argument), and beneficial (and so justified pragmatically). With respect to its pragmatic value, second-order supernaturalism, according to M&M, gets the good(s) of religion (cooperation, trust, etc) without its bad(s) (conflict and violence). Second-order supernaturalism is thus rational (and possibly true) and inconducive to violence. In this paper, I will examine just one small but important part of M&M’s argument: the claim that (first-order) religion is a primary motivator of violence and that its elimination would eliminate or curtail a great deal of violence in the world. Imagine, they say, no religion, too.Janusz Salamon offers a friendly extension or clarification of M&M’s second-order theism, one that I think, with emendations, has promise. He argues that the core of first-order religions, the belief that Ultimate Reality is the Ultimate Good (agatheism), is rational (agreeing that their particular claims are not) and, if widely conceded and endorsed by adherents of first-order religions, would reduce conflict in the world.While I favor the virtue of intellectual humility endorsed in both papers, I will argue contra M&M that (a) belief in first-order religion is not a primary motivator of conflict and violence (and so eliminating first-order religion won’t reduce violence). Second, partly contra Salamon, who I think is half right (but not half wrong), I will argue that (b) the religious resources for compassion can and should come from within both the particular (often exclusivist) and the universal (agatheistic) aspects of religious beliefs. Finally, I will argue that (c) both are guilty, as I am, of the philosopher’s obsession with belief. 

scholarly journals New Mobility Paradigm and Indigenous Construction of Places: Physical and Symbolic Mobility of Aymara Groups in the Urbanization Process, Chile

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4382
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Salazar ◽  
Paloma González
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Physical Movement ◽  
Rural Municipality ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Geographical Elements ◽  
Construction Of Place ◽  
The City

In the current global scenario, in which mobility has been strongly impacted, it is relevant to highlight certain mobility experiences of Indigenous Latin American peoples, in which new cultural and geographical elements justify revisiting this phenomenon. In this context, the mobility of the Aymara ethnic group offers an opportunity for such a second look. Although the subject has been approached from the perspectives of internal migration processes and physical movement, as in other Latin American cases, studies have omitted some important aspects for its analysis, such as the practices, meanings, and political implications associated with mobility. Based on the new mobility paradigm, this article seeks to strengthen the perspective on mobility by researching rural-urban mobility practices and their meaning regarding the experiences of Aymara people who migrated from the rural municipality of Putre to settle in the city of Arica from the 1950s. At the same time, it is shown that these Aymara mobility practices imply spatiotemporal dynamics that are key for the construction of place, and allow for a widening of base elements that should be considered in the new mobility paradigm. This research is based on five years of ethnography, including mobile accompaniment and semi-structured interviews. This methodological approach has allowed researchers to explore how elements related to physical and symbolic mobility have constantly constructed relational spaces within the Arica and Parinacota region over time. This shows that mobility does not only refer to physical movement, but to politics, emotions, culture, and memory as well. From these results, the article examines and discusses key elements related to physical and symbolic mobility, and their implications in political and intercultural terms.

scholarly journals Campaigning across continents: how Latin American parties link up with migrant associations abroad

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Fliess
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Migrant Associations

AbstractEmigrant voting rights have opened new electoral arenas, and many political parties increasingly campaign across borders. Yet relatively little is known about the challenges parties confront when campaigning transnationally and the strategies they have developed in response to these challenges. This paper addresses these shortcomings. First, I investigate the hurdles Latin American parties face in linking up with organized migrant collectives in residency countries for campaigning purposes. Second, I probe into the transnational linkage strategies these parties deploy to tap into migrant associations’ resources and mobilization capacities. This study builds on a comparative research design and draws on almost 40 semi-structured interviews with Bolivian and Ecuadorian party activists as well as association leaders in Barcelona, Spain. Departing from the party interest group literature, I identify three transnational linkage strategies Bolivian and Ecuadorian parties implement: 1) Infiltration, 2) Co-optation, and 3) Cooperation. All parties execute these tactics informally in order to comply with local norms that require associations to remain apolitical. The analysis further demonstrates that differences between home-country electoral systems shape the types of linkage strategies Bolivian and Ecuadorian parties use. This article contributes to the study of migrant politics and political parties in important ways. This study highlights how political parties actively negotiate their entry into the transnational electoral arena, and sheds light on how migrants remain politically connected to their home countries.

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