Searching for success: boys, family aspirations, and opportunities in Gabon, ca. 1900-1940

Boys growing up in rural Gabon between 1900 and 1940 negotiated with many challenges: the rise of migrant labor, famines and hardships brought on by World War I, the growth of Christianity and African-based spiritual traditions, and the undermining of clans, which had been the main form of social and political organization in the nineteenth century. Parents, extended family members, missionaries, and European businesses recruited boys to serve their varied interests. Boys in turn developed new self-understandings by leaving their homes as students, workers, and clients of older men. This article examines the life histories of four boys to trace the successes and challenges that individual boys encountered in this turbulent era. Interestingly, older biological relatives of boys generally succeeded in maintaining their authority over children living far from home, although the education and wages that boys received forced older men to offer boys more benefits.

Absent husbands, single wives: success, domesticity, and seminuclear families in the nineteenth-century Great Lakes world

The industrial and transportation revolutions of nineteenth-century America separated work from home (at least for the growing middle class) and intensified the development of masculine and feminine spheres devoted to success and domesticity, respectively. This development tended to reduce the husband's traditional patriarchal roles to that of provider only, while leaving the wife and mother with enhanced authority over household management and child rearing, a development with consequences for feminism. This article examines two extreme cases of separation of work from home: absent husbands, respected professional men, who left their wives alone for months or years and, while they provided financial support, surrendered all household authority to "single" wives.

Cubans abroad: a gendered case study on international migrations

Cubans who have migrated since the 1990s after living for two decades or more in their country of origin left with an embedded gender ideology that they acquired in a society where gender relations were undergoing radical transformations. As a result, Cuban feminization of migrations has its peculiarities. In this context, there are three issues to consider: explaining how gender relations attained in Cuba, as part of the overall attitudes gained since childhood, influenced Cuban migrants who have left the island permanently since 1990, introduced uniqueness in their migration processes, and made up a different feminization of migration; identifying the features of Cuban social structure that shaped the gender ideology of Cuban migrants; and producing new knowledge about Cuban international migration processes by using a gender perspective and by analyzing the gender relations prevailing in the years before the crisis of the 1990s, as well as since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The first part of this article focuses on gender distinctiveness of recent Cuban migrants, and the second summarizes some traits of the Cuban social structure—mainly referred to female employment—that could explain the gender training of the migrants.

Tales of deviance and control: on space, rules, and law in squatter settlements

In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of land tenure in dichotomous terms, as simply being either legal or illegal, therefore, fails to reflect this diversity, nor does it capture the evolving nature of the relationship between informal settlements and the state system. Drawing from the development of squatter settlements in Buenos Aires, this article proposes an alternative perspective and shows how settlements alternate strategies of noncompliance with adaptation to the state legal system to gradually increase their legality.

The Peruvian diaspora: portrait of a migratory process

Since the 1980s and especially the 1990s, Peru has become a nation of emigrants. Emigration has become massive over the past two decades, and the Peruvian populations of the United States, Japan, and Spain have tripled in less than a decade. A survey of households in five localities, three urban and two rural, in and around Lima helps to reveal the special character of this emigration. It tends to involve older and better-educated individuals than are typical of international migration and to target a wider variety of destinations. Moreover, it is a multiclass phenomenon. The economic, political, and social crisis brought about by a change in the economic model, two decades of terrorism, and a succession of failed democratic administrations has affected the society as a whole, and international migration seems to operate as an escape valve.

Building an image of Villages-in-the-City: a clarification of China's distinct urban spaces

Villages-in-the-city (chengzhongcun) as distinct urban spaces in Chinese cities have attracted a lot of scholarly attention, and the term has been variously interpreted. The term "urban village" was initially borrowed and applied to describe this urban phenomenon. While the term in a Western context refers to a planned neighbourhood that features good urban planning and design, the question posed in this essay is: are villages-in-the-city the Chinese equivalent of urban villages? Furthermore, within China, villages-in-the-city are always regarded as migrant enclaves, no different from Zhejiang village or Xinjiang village in Beijing. Are they the same kind of settlement? A primary aim of this essay is to reassert the differences between villages-in-the-city and urban villages that have developed in the United Kingdom. A secondary objective is to explore the variations between villages-in-the-city and Zhejiang village. Through investigating the variations between these urban morphologies, this study attempts to fill gaps in the current literature and hence clarify the misconceptions and confusion about Chinese villages-in-the-city.

The shantytowns of Central Park West: fin de siècle squatting in American cities

This article argues that the scope and importance of squatting has been greatly understated in discussions of nineteenth-century urban development. Period newspapers reported often on the struggle of cities and titleholders across North America to evict squatters, indicating that squatters were a common and persistent component of the city landscape. Evidence also suggests that many, if not most, squatters believed that they would eventually win clear title to their homes.

The changing image of the Kurds in Turkish cities: middle-class perceptions of Kurdish migrants in Izmir

Saraçoğlu deals with the ways in which the Kurdish migrants living in the western cities of Turkey have been identified in middle-class discourse by certain pejorative labels and stereotypes. He argues that this new Kurdish image demonstrates the ethnicization of longstanding anti-migrant sentiments in Turkey. He develops and substantiates the argument by means of qualitative data gathered in a field study in zmir between June 2006 and July 2007. The study involved ninety in-depth interviews with middle-class individuals living in the city and explored their anti-Kurdish attitudes. Through a close analysis of two of the common stereotypes that these interviewees deployed in the interviews-namely, that the Kurds were 'benefit scroungers' and that they 'disrupt urban life'- Saraçoğlu explores the formation of the urban social context in which such perceptions have emerged. Close examination of the narratives of the middle-class respondents indicates that the development of a new image of the Kurds has occurred in an urban context shaped by the neoliberal transformation of Turkish cities, on the one hand, and the internal displacement of Kurdish migrants, on the other.

Projections of the ethnic minority populations of the United Kingdom 2006-2056

The ethnic minority populations in the UK are growing substantially through immigration, a youthful age structure, and in some cases relatively high fertility. Their diverse demographic and socioeconomic characteristics have attracted considerable academic and policy attention, especially insofar as those distinctive characteristics have persisted in the generations born in the UK. No official projections of the UK ethnic populations have been published since 1979. This article provides projections to 2056 and beyond of 12 ethnic groups. Given overall net immigration and vital rates as assumed in the office for National Statistics 2008-based Principal Projection, and the ethnic characteristics estimated here, the ethnic minority populations (including the Other White) would increase from 13 percent of the UK population in 2006 to 28 percent by 2031 and 44 percent by 2056, and to about half the 0-4 age group in 2056. Alternative projections assume various lower levels of immigration. Possible implications of projected changes are discussed.

Intra-household conflicts in migration decisionmaking: return and pendulum migration in Morocco

By analyzing the migration behavior and transnational residential strategies of first-generation, aging migrants from a particular Moroccan sending region, this study contributes to a conceptual critique of migration theories that identify the household as the most relevant decisionmaking unit. It highlights the role of intra-household power inequalities and conflicts in migration decisionmaking as well as the effects of migration decisions for intra-household power relations. Many labor migrants who left Morocco to work in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s did not realize their wish to return but instead ended up reunifying their families at the destination. An increasing proportion adopts a pendulum migration strategy to reconcile their own wish to retain strong ties with Morocco with the reluctance of children and spouses to return. Migrants who unilaterally decided not to reunify their families usually return after their active working life. However, this unilateral decision also blocks legal entry into Europe for their children, which has generated considerable intergenerational tensions.

Movement as utopia

Opposition to utopianism on ontological and political grounds has seemingly relegated it to a potentially dangerous form of antiquated idealism. This conclusion is based on a restrictive view of utopia as excessively ordered panoptic discursive constructions. This overlooks the fact that, from its inception, movement has been central to the utopian tradition. The power of utopianism indeed resides in its ability to instantiate the tension between movement and place that has marked social transformations in the modern era. This tension continues in contemporary discussions of movement-based social processes, particularly international migration and related identity formations, such as open borders transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. Understood as such, utopia remains an ongoing and powerful, albeit problematic instrument of social and political imagination.

The health and health system of South Africa: historical roots of current public health challenges

The roots of a dysfunctional health system and the collision of the epidemics of communicable and non-communicable diseases in South Africa can be found in policies from periods of the country's history, from colonial subjugation, apartheid dispossession, to the post-apartheid period. Racial and gender discrimination, the migrant labour system, the destruction of family life, vast income inequalities, and extreme violence have all formed part of South Africa's troubled past, and all have inexorably affected health and health services. In 1994, when apartheid ended, the health system faced massive challenges, many of which still persist. Macroeconomic policies, fostering growth rather than redistribution, contributed to the persistence of economic disparities between races despite a large expansion in social grants. The public health system has been transformed into an integrated, comprehensive national service, but failures in leadership and stewardship and weak management have led to inadequate implementation of what are often good policies. Pivotal facets of primary health care are not in place and there is a substantial human resources crisis facing the health sector. The HIV epidemic has contributed to and accelerated these challenges. All of these factors need to be addressed by the new government if health is to be improved and the Millennium Development Goals achieved in South Africa.

[Materials for an epidemiology of migration]

The data on the international migration worldwide and in Italy are presented and discussed, not only from the specific point of view of health conditions, but also by framing their "health burden" in the broader context of their contribution to the Italian economy.

Bethlem's Irish: migration and distress in nineteenth-century London

Association between migration and mental illness is widely reported. This study aimed to gain insight into the mental health of Irish migrants into Britain in the years 1843-53. Casebooks from the period were examined for Irish ethnicity, and clinical profiles were compared with those of age-matched control samples. Irish-born patients were found to have a greater proportion of diagnoses of mania than controls (p < or = 0.01). They were more likely to be admitted for 12 months or longer (p < or = 0.001) and more likely to receive religious attributions for illnesses by the treating physician. The more common diagnosis of mania in the Irish group can be explained in terms of the effects of migration, differences in idioms of distress, or in terms of prejudice.

Reflections on societal change, adjustments, and responses

Building on Davis (1963) and subsequent work, we propose a conceptual framework that provides a guide for the organization of empirical demographic research. Our approach is based on the notion that changes in nuptiality, fertility, and migration are not objectives in and of themselves, but means for reducing welfare gaps - defined as the gaps between actual welfare and that which could be attained with altered demographic and/or other behavior. We clarify theoretical issues concerning three levels of analysis. At the highest level, societal change leads to welfare gaps for families and/or individuals. In turn, behavioral adjustments are made to reduce these gaps. Finally, demographic responses at the community level result when large numbers of families and/or individuals adjust behavior in a particular manner. We consider and exemplify relationships among demographic and other responses in historical, agricultural contexts.

Migrant clinics and hookworm science: peripheral origins of International Health, 1840-1920

This article proposes a global history of hookworm disease based on the main scientific publications on hookworm disease (ankylostomiasis) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and archival sources from the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board. The location of hookworm research is explained by the presence of large concentrations of migrant laborers who suffered from serious hookworm disease in frontier regions during the second industrial revolution. This hookworm disease pandemic was not the result of a linear spread of infection. The extraordinary labor conditions in these regions created ideal ecologies for the reproduction of the parasite, leading to levels of infection that produced ankylostomiasis. The major findings in hookworm science came from research-oriented physicians building new institutions of medical science in peripheral nation-states. In a number of Latin American states their work led to treatment programs conceived in national terms that preceded the interest of Rockefeller philanthropy in the disease. The Rockefeller Foundation incorporated these programs in order to launch its International Health hookworm eradication program in 1914.

Background migration: the Irish (and other strangers) in mid-Victorian Hertfordshire

Relatively few Irish had settled in Hertfordshire by the time of the 1851 census. Those that did were older, more skilled, less residentially segregated, and more likely to be married to a local person than were the Irish-born in London and other large cities in Britain. The Irish-born in Hertfordshire were also less skilled and less intermarried than were county residents born in Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. All of these migrant groups were very rare in rural areas of the county and very few of the migrants were involved in agriculture, despite the passage of large numbers of Irish harvesters through the county each year.

Stature, economy and migration during the 19th century: comparative analysis of Haute-Vienne and Hautes-Alpes, France

Data sources are achieved records of men workers' passbooks and registry for work permits in two rural parts of Southern France. We obtained three samples: masons from Rancon, a Limousin village, local sedentary alpine workers and Italian immigrants. The results obtained provide two types of information. The first concerns adult height, which is thought to be a result of both a growth pattern and environmental factors. The second concerns growth rates at the end of adolescence. The results seem to contradict the statements made above concerning the relationships between misery, elevation and height. While the alpine inhabitants are shorter, the Limousin inhabitants are taller in sprite they live in a miserable environment. It appears that taller individuals select themselves into migration. Thus, this model would contradict the idea of a regional genetic base.

Some contributions from the doctor of the miners in the Simplon tunnel: The most human of victories. The Provinces of Italy to the Simplon tunnel. The family of the miner at Simplon. 1906

Similarly to Daniele Pometta (1869-1949) on the northern front, Giuseppe Volante (1870-1936) from Turin, a valid clinician and hygiene expert was the field doctor for the firm of Brandt, Brandau e C., on the southern part of the Simplon tunnel for the whole period of its excavation (1898-1906). He meticulously organised and carried out with determination the main mission entrusted him which was to prevent the hookworm epidemic which a mere twenty years earlier had cast its shadow over the St. Gotthard tunnel. Volante also authoritatively directed the first aid post and the hospital that the company built at Nante. Evidence of Volante's vast medical experience was seen in the scientific works he published as well as in a report published in the acts of the International Conference on Work-related Illnesses (Volante, 1906a) and then in a comunication at No. 3 Italian Congress on Work-related Illnesses in Turin (Volante, 1911). There are three interesting works reproduced here (Volante, 1906b-c-d) which are substantially aimed at a broad readership and which clearly illustrate the work carried out, the experience gained and also the author's cultural background. Volante's remarks and the data he supplies are "official" but show no sign of partiality; they convey the grandness of the work he contributed towards creating and in some ways also the "generosity" of the company towards the labour force who "only" went on strike three times for better pay, fewer hours and improved working conditions. Volante's opinion on the low morbidity and mortality of the workers is certainly motivated although it is still relative, first and foremost because he had the tragedy of the St Gotthard as a yardstick, but also because it was swayed by the idea, widespread at the time, of fatalism about the potentially negative effects of the type of work. During the International Conference in 1906 Violante was awarded a gold medal for the work he had conducted, and for three years afterwards he worked under Luigi Devoto (1864-1936) in Milan. After that, he returned to his native Turin where he practised urology. According to his direct descendents, he died aged 64 from respiratory insufficiency the causes of which included a "pneumoconiosis" diagnosed by Prof. Quarelli (1881-1954), a renowned doctor of work-related illnesses, which he had obviously contracted in the period when he had been the doctor of the miners (Gius Volante, 2006).

[Ethics and the severina condition in the mangrove swamps of Capibaribe]

João Cabral de Melo Neto's poem "Morte e vida severina" focuses primarily on the satisfaction of human needs and on the condição severina--i.e., the poverty, hunger, joblessness, injustice, and early death that characterizes much of life in Northeast Brazil. In two episodes of the poem, human life is presented as a value ideal: during the dialog between the master carpenter and the protagonist Severino (a retirante, or migrant fleeing drought-stricken areas of the Northeast) and likewise during the birth of another Severino, on the banks of the Capibaribe River in Recife.

When push comes to shove: sites of vulnerability, personal transformation, and trafficked women's migration decisions

Discussions of the push and pull factors behind trafficked women's decisions to migrate abroad for tenuous work opportunities in the "entertainment" sector tend to variously privilege poverty, familial obligations, and, more recently, personal opportunism. This reinforces more general observations about motivations for "Third World" women who migrate to more developed regions globally. Although these factors are indeed important, the author's research has revealed the relevance of other explanations for migration decisions, including the prevalence of domestic violence, family dissolution, and escape from personal circumstances, which are themselves products of low self-esteem and sense of self-worth.