Immigrant and ethnic neighbourhood concentration and reduced child developmental vulnerability

IntroductionStudies have consistently demonstrated a gradient between median neighbourhood income and child developmental outcomes. By investigating statistical outliers—neighbourhoods with children exhibiting less or more developmental vulnerability than that predicted by median neighbourhood income—there is an opportunity to identify other neighbourhood characteristics that may be enhancing or impeding early childhood development. ObjectiveTesting a variety of neighbourhood factors, including immigrant or ethnic concentration and characteristics of structural disadvantage (proportion of social assistance recipients, homes in need of major repair, residents with high school education only, lone parent families, and residents moving in the last year) we sought to identify factors associated with more or less developmental vulnerability than that predicted by median neighbourhood income, for young children. MethodsFor this cross-sectional study we used validated Early Development Instrument (EDI) data (2003-2013) linked to demographic and socioeconomic Census and Tax Filer data for 98.3% of Canadian neighbourhoods (n=2,023). The purpose of the instrument is to report, at a population-level, children’s school readiness. Children’s developmental vulnerability was assessed in five domains (physical health and well-being, emotional maturity, social competence, language and cognitive development, and communication and general knowledge) in relation to the 10th percentile from a national normative sample. Levels of children’s neighbourhood vulnerability were determined per domain, as percent of children vulnerable at a given domain. Neighbourhoods were grouped into three cohorts, those having lower than predicted, as predicted, or higher than predicted children’s vulnerability according to neighbourhood median income. Using multivariable binary logistic regression we modelled the association between select neighbourhood characteristics and neighbourhoods with lower or higher than predicted vulnerability per domain, compared to neighbourhoods with predicted vulnerability. This allowed us to determine neighbourhood characteristics associated with better or worse child developmental outcomes, at a neighbourhood-level, than that predicted by income. ResultsIn neighbourhoods with less child developmental vulnerability than that predicted by income, high or low immigrant concentration and ethnic homogeneity was associated with less vulnerability in physical (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.66, 95% CI: 1.43, 1.94), social (aOR 1.30, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.51), and communication domains (aOR 1.24, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.47) compared to neighbourhoods with vulnerability concordant with income. Neighbourhood ethnic homogeneity was consistently associated with less developmental vulnerability than predicted by income across all developmental domains. Neighbourhood-level structural disadvantage was strongly associated with child developmental vulnerability beyond that predicted by median neighbourhood income. ConclusionCanadian neighbourhoods demonstrating less child developmental vulnerability than that predicted by income have greater ethnic and ethnic-immigrant homogeneity than neighbourhoods with child developmental vulnerability concordant with income. Neighbourhood social cohesion and cultural identity may be contributing factors. Neighbourhood structural disadvantage is associated with poorer early childhood development, over and above that predicted by neighbourhood income. Neighbourhood-level policy and programming should address income and non-income related barriers to healthy child development.

Racializing Chōsenjin: Science and Biological Speculations in Colonial Korea

Recent literature on the history of medicine in colonial Korea has revealed that Japanese medical scientists studied Korean bodies to expose racial differences between the Japanese and Koreans and justify Japanese colonial rule. Previous scholars, however, have focused mainly on finding a connection between colonial medical research and eugenics. This article attempts to consider things as yet underinvestigated, in particular, the way in which medical research on Koreans emerged and was intertwined with Japanese colonialism in other ways, separate from contemporary eugenics projects. The article examines the emergence and development of what we now considered as “racial sciences”—physical anthropology, serological anthropology, and human genetics—with regard to the biological characteristics of Koreans. In doing so, it argues that biological speculations on Koreans originated as a subdiscipline of Japanese origin studies and resonated with a newly emerging type of colonial racism in colonial Korea—inclusionary racism. The article also presents the colonial scientific enterprise’s conclusion that Koreans were biologically heterogeneous, contradicting colonial Korean intellectuals’ assertion about Korean ethnic homogeneity. The use of Korean ethnic homogeneity as an ideological basis for nation building by two Korean governments meant that postcolonial Korean scientists had to seek a way to reconcile the colonial era’s “scientific conclusion” (biological heterogeneity) with the postcolonial era’s “politically approved” conceptualization (biological homogeneity). Therefore, regardless of whether it was trying to refute, appropriate, or revitalize the colonial legacy, biological research on Koreans in the postcolonial period was carried out under the framework that had been constructed by colonial racial sciences.

The Emphasis on Ethnic Homogeneity and Japanese and Danish Immigration Policy

This essay compares the Japanese emphasis on ethnic homogeneity in immigration policy with its counterpart inDenmark. Japan’s lack of integration policy stands out against the backdrop of Denmark’s elaborate civic integrationpolicy. A key reason for this contrast is the criterion that Japan is for the Japanese, and one has to be ethnically andculturally Japanese to be Japanese. Nihonjinron, a discourse on Japanese cultural uniqueness, has providedammunition for this. Denmark, on the other hand, is in principle open to those who adopt Danish values. Japan needsa strong integration policy as the number of immigrants increase. Until now, its emphasis on ethnic homogeneity hasled Japan to see immigrants as outsiders and to exclude them. Denmark, on the other hand, is willing to includeimmigrants on equal terms, on the condition that they adopt Danish values.

Elusive “Libyans”: Identities, Lifestyles and Mobile Populations in NE Africa (late 4th–early 2nd millennium BCE)

The term “Libyan” encompasses, in fact, a variety of peoples and lifestyles living not only in the regions west of the Nile Valley, but also inside Egypt itself, particularly in Middle Egypt and the Western Delta. This situation is reminiscent of the use of other “ethnic” labels, such as “Nubian,” heavily connoted with notions such as ethnic homogeneity, separation of populations across borders, and opposed lifestyles. In fact, economic complementarity and collaboration explain why Nubians and Libyans crossed the borders of Egypt and settled in the land of the pharaohs, to the point that their presence was especially relevant in some periods and regions during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. Pastoralism was just but one of their economic pillars, as trading activities, gathering, supply of desert goods (including resins, minerals, and vegetal oils) and hunting also played an important role, at least for some groups or specialized segments of a particular social group. While Egyptian sources emphasize conflict and marked identities, particularly when considering “rights of use” over a given area, collaboration was also crucial and beneficial for both parts. Finally, the increasing evidence about trade routes used by Libyans points to alternative networks of circulation of goods that help explain episodes of warfare between Egypt and Libyan populations for their control.

Robot Rights vs. Human Rights

Since 2007, the Japanese state has actively promoted the virtues of a robot-dependent society and lifestyle. As the population continues to shrink and age faster than in other postindustrial nations, the state is banking on the robotics industry to reinvigorate the economy and to preserve Japan’s alleged ethnic homogeneity. The concept of extending citizenship to robots is discussed in conjunction with human rights and policies affecting ethnic minorities and non-Japanese residents. Laws of robotics articulated by Isaac Asimov and Osamu Tezuka are compared, and the familial nature of the latter’s is analyzed. What does the Japanese pursuit of coexistence between humans and robots forecast about new approaches to and configurations of civil society and attendant rights in Japan and in other technologically advanced postindustrial societies? Chapter 5 closes with observations about human exceptionalism and Japanese exceptionalism regarding human-robot relations.

The Euromaidan and the crisis of Russian nationalism

This article examines the reverberations in Russia of the Euromaidan protests and the fall of the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine. It shows how the events in Kyiv provoked a major crisis in the Russian nationalist movement, which was riven by vituperative denunciations, the ostracism of prominent activists, the breakdown of friendships, the rupture of alliances, and schisms within organizations. Focusing on pro-Kremlin nationalists and several tendencies of opposition nationalists, it argues that this turmoil was shaped by three factors. First, the Euromaidan provoked clashes between pro-Kremlin nationalists, who became standard-bearers of official anti-Euromaidan propaganda, and anti-Putin nationalists, who extolled the Euromaidan as a model for a revolution in Russia itself. Second, the events in Ukraine provoked ideological contention around issues of particular sensitivity to Russian nationalists, such as the competing claims of imperialism and ethnic homogeneity, and of Soviet nationalism and Russian traditionalism. And third, many nationalists were unprepared for the pace of events, which shifted rapidly from an anti-oligarchic uprising in Kyiv to a push for the self-determination of ethnic Russians in Crimean and southeast Ukraine. As a result, they were left in the uncomfortable position of appearing to collaborate with the oppressors of their compatriots.

Ethnically homogeneous settlements in ethnically heterogeneous environment

Ethnic homogeneity of settlements, or in other words, formation of ethnically homogeneous settlements in ethnically heterogeneous environment, such as Vojvodina, as well as the regions of Raska and Pcinja, is the issue which will be discussed in this paper. The analysis involves total population according to their ethnic affiliation (the 2011 Census), at the level of settlements. The estimates on the number of Albanian population at the level of settlements were made for the needs of this paper considering the fact that the census was not successful on the entire territory of the Republic because the ethnic Albanian boycotted it. Spatial distribution analysis and the determination of majority of population at the level of settlements represent the research focus of the paper. Furthermore, the aim of this paper was to point out certain ethnic characteristics of Serbian population (excluding Kosovo and Metohija), with the emphasis on the continuous trend of increasing number of people who do not want to declare their ethnic affiliation.

Governing Immigrant City

This article explores the paradoxes of Toronto’s experience of immigrant and minority political incorporation. The city once synonymous with ethnic homogeneity is now among the world’s most multicultural urban centers. The city, which proclaims “Diversity Our Strength” as its official motto, has a poor record of electing immigrants and minorities to public office. And the city, whose municipal council is overwhelmingly composed of White, European-origin politicians, has an exemplary record of promoting inclusion, equity, antiracism, and human rights in its policies and programs. The article analyzes these ambiguities of governing immigrant city Toronto.