Refugee flow or brain-drain? The humanitarian policy and post-Tiananmen mainland Chinese immigration to Canada

"The humanitarian policy that the Canadian government implemented in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown changed a migration system primarily based on personal networks into a brain drain. Post-Tiananmen mainland Chinese immigrants (MCIs) were better educated than those arriving in Canada previously. Among the post-Tiananmen MCIs, those who landed under the policy were better educated than those landing in other categories. The analysis suggests that post-Tiananmen MCIs represented a brain-drain rather than a refugee flow, that the humanitarian policy implicitly contained ideological and human capital concerns in addition to humanitarian concerns, and that Canada benefited from the policy by obtaining human capital as well as satisfying its humanitarian obligations and ideological aspirations."

Moral and policy issues in long-acting contraception

The advent of reversible long-acting contraceptives-IUDs, injectables and implants-has provided women throughout the world with valuable new fertility regulation options. These highly effective methods, together with male and female sterilization, have proven to be enormously popular and are now used by the majority of women and men who are currently contracepting worldwide. Despite their remarkable popularity, long-acting contraceptives have engendered considerable controversy. Political, ethical, and safety questions have emerged, stemming from the ways in which these contraceptives have been developed and used over the course of this century. At the heart of the concern is the issue of reproductive rights and freedom. This paper reviews the history of the development of long-acting contraceptives, including the prospect of new methods that will likely emerge from ongoing research and development. It also examines the history, in the United States and in developing countries, of the use and abuse of long-acting methods, including sterilization, in the context of eugenics and population control policies. It then describes a new paradigm of reproductive health and rights that has emerged from the International Conference on Population Development in Cairo, and which offers an enlightened approach to future policies and programs. In light of the wide variety of ways in which long-acting contraceptives have been provided, the paper examines the rights and responsibilities of governments, family planning providers, and individuals. An ethical framework for the use of long-acting methods is discussed, and public policies for the future are proposed.

Urbanization and apartheid in South Africa: influx controls and their abolition

"This study will take up the particular aspects and characteristics of urbanization [in South Africa] from the standpoint of the effects exerted by the apartheid system. It will then examine the trends which have taken place since abolition of the pass laws and restrictions on the influx of blacks into urban areas....[The author considers] the relationship between restrictions on the movement of blacks into urban areas on the one hand and the maintenance of low-wage migrant labor and retention of farmland in home districts on the other."

UN conference reaffirms reproductive rights

The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, also known as the Habitat II conference, met in Istanbul from June 3 to 14. It was the last major UN gathering of this millennium and the first major UN meeting since 1995's Fourth World Conference on Women (the "Beijing Conference")--and thus an important opportunity for a wider international community to weigh in on agreements reached in Beijing and at the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994. The final document that emerged from Habitat II, the "Global Plan of Action," affirmed crucial elements of those earlier accords. The Habitat documents calls for action to "[d]evelop and implement programmes to ensure universal access for women throughout their life-span to a full range of affordable health care services, including those related to reproductive health care, which includes family planning and sexual health, consistent with the Report of the International Conference on Population and Development." Language adopted at the Cairo meeting is also affirmed in Habitat's call for "universal access to the widest range of primary health care services." Perhaps most significantly, the Istanbul document reiterated an important declaration from the Beijing conference: "While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of all States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms." Most of the 189 UN members and observer states that attended the conference upheld all three of these provisions. Only a small group of states--Argentina, Guatemala, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and the Holy See--filed reservations on the health care sections.

PVO / NGO initiatives, Latin America. Grupo pela VIDDA, Brazil

"VIDDA" is a Portuguese acronym representing enhancement, integration, and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs). The groups are composed of people infected with HIV, their friends, relatives, lovers, and anyone who feels that his or her everyday life has been affected by the epidemic. They hope that through solidarity they can respond to the difficult situation facing people who are HIV positive in Brazil. Grupo pela VIDDA seeks to raise the consciousness of the government and the society and force them to take responsibility for the epidemic. Their fundamental objective is to fight for PWAs to have a full range of civil rights. "This is a fight that we have in common with all the Brazilian people who are searching for democracy, the right to work, and access to good health services," states a Grupo pela VIDDA brochure. Through their network they provide accurate and current information, counseling, legal assistance, and sponsor support groups. For more information, please contact Grupo pela VIDDA, Rua General Jardim, 556 CEP 01223-010, Cx Postal 54063, CEP 01296, Sao Paulo SP, tel/fax: +55 11 258 7729; or Rua 7 de Setembro, 48 12 andar CEP 20050-000, tel: +55 21 224 1654, fax: +55 21 294 5602. There are also offices in Curitiba, Goiania, Niteroi, Recife, and Vitoria.

Environmental concerns and international migration

"This article focuses on international migration occurring as a result of environmental changes and processes. It briefly reviews attempts to conceptualize environment-related migration and then considers the extent to which environmental factors have been and may be significant in initiating migration. Following is an examination of migration as an independent variable in the migration-environment relationship. Finally, ethical and policy dimensions are addressed."