This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturati... more This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturation in predicting 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents' mental health and risk behaviors. Participants included 448 seventh to tenth grade Israeli students (mean age 14.50, 53% boys): 128 non-Jewish 1.5 generation migrant adolescents (children of migrants living in Israel), 118 second-generation migrants (children of migrants born and living in Israel), and an age-matched sample of 202 native-born Jewish adolescents. All participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms, engagement in risk behaviors, social adjustment, and school engagement. Both migrant adolescent groups also completed an acculturation questionnaire. Differences between groups in school engagement, mental health symptoms, and risk behavior were examined, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of acculturation. Findings revealed substantially higher levels of mental health symptoms (p Ͻ .001) and risk behaviors (p ϭ .001) among 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents compared with native-born adolescents, with no significant differences between 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants. Migrants' age and gender were associated with mental health symptoms and risk behaviors-older participants engaged in more risk behaviors (p ϭ .02), and females had elevated mental health symptoms (p ϭ .007). Identification with the host country mediated the relationships between school engagement and mental health symptoms (ps .006 and .008) and risk behaviors (ps .001 and .004) in 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants, respectively. The results are discussed in reference to current theories and research, as well as practical implications for prevention and intervention.
It's like clockwork', the saying goes, meaning that things are orderly, linear, dependable, and b... more It's like clockwork', the saying goes, meaning that things are orderly, linear, dependable, and based on a universally shared, knowable concept of time. Standardisation facilitates communication, facilitates order and spurs development (Anderson 1991; Crosby 1997). Shared temporal references are a fundamental concept of social life (Sorokin 1943; Zerubavel 1982). Time is an orientation opportunity, allowing individuals to carve a place in that shared social space (Berger and Luckmann 1967). Sorokin (1943: 173) eloquently explains: (t)he possession of means and ways to 'time' the behavior of the members of any group in such a way that each member apprehends 'the appointed time' in the same way as do other members has been possibly the most urgent need of social life at any time and at any place. Without this, social life itself is impossible.
Governments write us into being by compelling the public to fill in tiny boxes on forms revealing... more Governments write us into being by compelling the public to fill in tiny boxes on forms revealing our most private information. These personal details become matters of public record. What if students thought about how writing in public administration shapes us? In the spring of 2015, my Public Administration class joined with New York City Historic Houses Trust and its LatimerNOW project a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the New York City Parks department whose goal is to reimagine the use of historic house museums, Louis Latimer House and Writing On It All (a participatory art not-for-profit exploring space and identity through writing) to learn public administration through participation in a public participatory art project. The immediate goal was for the students to use public administration theory to design, implement, participate and evaluate a one-day project. The hope was to offer a chance to practice on a real project in a safe space so that they could later us...
This paper seeks to respond to the limited discussion about why remittances cease, by exploring t... more This paper seeks to respond to the limited discussion about why remittances cease, by exploring the dynamic meaning of remittances to senders. We interviewed 43 labor migrants in Israel about remittance practices. We discovered that many migrants no longer regularly remit, and those who do remit changed their initial pattern for remitting, often for reasons independent of a left behind family’s financial need or a sender’s financial ability to send. Remittances help migrants manage the stress from labor migration by providing identity benefits. Labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’ to both left-behind families and people in the receiving country. Remittances can render migrants visible by generating new roles in the family and generating a positive self-image when experiencing downward mobility due to dirty, dangerous and dull work. If migrants form new families, their need to remit declines. If familial roles changes, value as a remitter declines, costs exceed benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices may change or cease. We show how social relations shape this visibility and new family contracts affect remittances practices. The findings have implications for understanding the multibillion-dollar remittances industry, immigrant incorporation, and transnational family relationships. Free Article link: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/kkDFGMgMzhZnAq7AXTbz/full
Naturalizations, unlike inaugurations and national party
conventions, are one of the few daily r... more Naturalizations, unlike inaugurations and national party
conventions, are one of the few daily repeated political theatre
experiences, replete with monologs, dialogues, costumes, props,
actors, stage managers, plural audiences, and staged practices.
They serve as a public ritual to render foreigners into members. In
so doing, they generate a citizen identity, reinforce the power of
the state and confirm a relationship between new citizens, current
citizens, and the state. In this article, through an interpretive
process including participant-observation and grounded theory
approaches, I question the presence, interaction, and roles of the
multiple publics (immigrants, observers, civil servants, judges and
non-governmental groups) in a naturalization ceremony. I present
field notes and reflections from a ‘typical’ US naturalization
ceremony. I deconstruct the choreography and structure of the
public ritual to show what the public performance of
naturalization tells us about what it means to be an American
citizen. I explore what messages the state is trying to convey to
naturalizing immigrants (and others) through the ritual of the
naturalization ceremony. The locus of inquiry is New York City
where 70,000 of the 680,000 naturalizations take place every year.
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implications for understanding the multibillion-dollar remittances industry and immigrant incorporation.
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implicat...
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implicat...
When thinking about time and migration, time appears to be the obvious unchangeable independent v... more When thinking about time and migration, time appears to be the obvious unchangeable independent variable—linear, uniform, and constant—affecting migrants’ experiences. However, what if we reimagine time as a dependent variable affected by migration? Time, thus, is not linear but layered, malleable, and potentially even liquid. Migrants weave time with space, generating past, present, and future, forming multiple simultaneous “heres,” “theres,” and “in-betweens.” A subset of migrants, temporary labor migrants, provides an interesting opportunity to consider how migration affects time (including the perception of time). States permit temporary labor migrants to immigrate only because they consent to emigrate after a predetermined, contracted period. In this paper, we consider what it means to enter into such “migration time” arrangements that warp, transform, and curtail time for migrants, their children, employers, community members, left-behind families, and the state. Migrants’ children who typically exist outside state-brokered labor migration deals develop alternate timescapes from their migrant parents. Based on the analysis of interview data and complementary follow-up conversations with 43 temporary labor migrants in Israel from 11 different countries, we examine how the migration process creates nonlinear time and how migrants discover, lament, manage, enjoy, and struggle with multiple timescapes. Building on the work of Saulo Cwerner, we replicate his model on time and migration to show general patterns for immigrants and modes particular to temporary labor migrants including time ruptures, freedom time (short-term opportunities), and ambiguous time (fuzzy continuities).
This selection can be found in Kazepov, Y. (Ed.). (2008). Cities of Europe: changing contexts, lo... more This selection can be found in Kazepov, Y. (Ed.). (2008). Cities of Europe: changing contexts, local arrangement and the challenge to urban cohesion (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470984482
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is often described as 'the day that changed everything.' But what really changed and what was a temporal expression? Is there something to be learned about space and the transformation of space and the relationship between people and their use of space in the period following the 9/11 events? What does it tell us about how people seek order in times of crisis? What does it tell us about privacy and the plastic nature of norms of public and private space? What opportunities for democracy and community building presented and were lost? Researchers have spent much time already examining how the event has reeled into the war on terrorism and the proliferation of security efforts as well as the economic repercussions. (Burbach and Clarke, 2002; Warren, 2002; Fainstein, 2002; Light, 2002) However, there has been very little examination of the memorials and the transformation of space in the immediate post-9/11 period, In the moments succeeding the 9/11 events, a political spectacle transpired a reorganization and claiming of public, private and personal space generating distinct political messages. The public attempted to do three things: to claim, to mark and to memorialize. To claim, the public carved space from the common property, their own private property and their own bodies. To mark, each site became a symbol and each symbol was imbued with meaning. To memorialize, symbols generated forced viewers to recall the quintessential moment of loss. I would like to describe some spatial transformation and present some ideas for future analysis as the event takes on historical perspective.
Berlin is arguably Europe’s most famous walled city, even though there is no Wall. Divided in 196... more Berlin is arguably Europe’s most famous walled city, even though there is no Wall. Divided in 1961 into East and West, the wall imposed many ironies: a West German city in the middle of East Germany, a door to the East or to the West. Although the wall is now physically gone, the memories of the wall and the long past leading up to its erection, to its demise and aftermath have morphed into new physical, architectural, documentary and social borders. Berlin remains a city of contrasts: Frederick the Great’s imposing edifices, the remnants of the Nazi past, bullet-pocked buildings marking WWII battles, hot fashion boutiques, Turkish markets, high-tech billboards, Stalinist apartment complexes in the east, graceful villas in the south, overcrowded neighborhoods in the north and swanky abodes in the west; the many Berlins inside of one city. The wall that once so importantly divided a city (and the world) is physically gone with virtually no markers, even at its arguably most famous crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie. Yet the remnants of the wall are everywhere: segments remain where originally erected with costumed soldiers stamping fictitious visas for places that no longer exist, and transplanted segments generate borders, for divisions that never were. The Wall’s construction and its demise brought new populations to Berlin. The borders between social, economic, ethnic, racial, and immigration status in these communities are equally as present as any physical border. This chapter examines the plasticity of borders and shows Book chapter from Lena Malm and Sarah Green's Borderlands, Jasilti, 2013. Berlin is, in many ways, still a divided city. I discuss how the removal of the Berlin wall has paradoxically reified some of the borders between the communities of Berlin. These tangible, administrative, symbolic, remembered and reclaimed borders are the missing links in time and space to previous reincarnations of Germany.
Scholarship on citizenship has largely considered citizenship from the perspective of the state, ... more Scholarship on citizenship has largely considered citizenship from the perspective of the state, examining how the state imagines the citizen and the degree to which immigrants meet the state’s expectations. In part, this is understandable as the state confers belonging and no immigrant can unilaterally demand membership, but must be invited into the community of citizens. In ethnic states like Germany, this can be complicated, as the state was built to house the nation and finding space for citizens of consent – not coethnics - requires reimagination. The purpose of this paper thus is to shift the examination from the state to the immigrant and listen to immigrants’ voices, analyze their understandings of citizenship and naturalization and use these understandings to begin to build an immigrant-centered theory of naturalization and citizenship. I argue that in requesting and receiving citizenship, the immigrant exercises his agency and transcends the subjecthood ascribed by the state and in so doing, is recrafting the state and the citizenship relationship. This study responds to what was deemed a critical need cited by the Ministry of Integration to understand labor migrants’ rationale(s) for nationalization. Understanding motivations, expectations and satisfaction is critical for states (and polities as a whole) in order to generate effective immigrant incorporation policies and practices.
1. Qual Health Res. 2010 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] Considering the Qualitative-Quantitative La... more 1. Qual Health Res. 2010 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] Considering the Qualitative-Quantitative Language Divide. Morse JM, Dimitroff LJ, Harper R, Koontz A, Kumra S, Matthew-Maich N, Mihas P, Murphey C. University of Utah. ...
ABSTRACT The study examined the role of resilience factors (self-esteem, secure attachment, and p... more ABSTRACT The study examined the role of resilience factors (self-esteem, secure attachment, and perceived peer support) in predicting mental health symptoms and engagement in risk behaviors among 144 migrant adolescents of work migrants and asylum seekers compared to 146 native-born adolescents in Israel. Migrants’ age and gender were associated with mental health, higher engagement in risk behaviors among older participants, and elevated symptoms among females. Self-esteem, level of secure attachment, and supportive peer-relationships were correlated with lower mental health symptomatology amongmigrants. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening the interpersonal support systems of migrant youth for better mental health outcomes.
ABSTRACT Many states question how to manage burgeoning migration. This is particularly problemati... more ABSTRACT Many states question how to manage burgeoning migration. This is particularly problematic for ethnic states whose foundation myths imagine the state as the home for the nation. In this paper, we argue that ethnic states engage a type of defense mechanism, ‘reaction formation’, as part of migration policy to distract attention from threats to the claimed ethnic homogeneity that undergirds the reason for the state's existence. Using Israel as a case of a planned ethnic state, we show how a state develops a spectrum of membership models to incorporate ‘others’ into the nation-state. We suggest that Israel could conceivably devise some arrangement to incorporate the several hundred thousand labor migrants currently resident there. We argue that the state is reluctant to recognize these migrants as ‘Israeli’ because to do so would reveal a hidden truth: Israel may be becoming more Israeli than Jewish and, thus, the recognition of labor migrants and their children provokes questions about Israel's very reason for existence, that is, being a Jewish state.
Does Israeli have to mean Jewish? In this paper, we explore how the presence and experiences of f... more Does Israeli have to mean Jewish? In this paper, we explore how the presence and experiences of foreign workers in Israel are redefining what it means to be Israeli by creating cleavage between Jewishness and Israeliness. Using survey and interview data gathered from 129 foreign workers in Israel in the winter and spring of 2010, we examine such issues as religiosity, permanence and above all, identity. We focus on the plight of the children of foreign workers as a test on the ability of the Israeli state to contend with the increasing cleavage between Jewishness and Israeliness. We show how the children’s socialization, acceptance and potential for legal and political incorporation is insignificant in real numbers, even in a state obsessed with maintaining Jewish demographic majority, but poses a direct challenge to the dominance of the religious powerbase over the secular state in Israel, generating a true challenge to the Jewishness of Israeli state institutions and to Israel as ...
In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of I... more In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of Israeli society and the challenges posed to Israeliness by the inclusion of first, 1.5 and second generation foreign workers in the Israeli polity. We explore how these migrants perceive life in Israel, their own and their children‘s identities, prospects for incorporation and permanence and intersections between Israeliness and Jewishness. To inform our analysis, we conducted interviews in winter 2010 with 22 foreign workers who are first generation; about half are parents of children in Israel. Our analysis reveals that foreign workers seek acceptance into the Israeli polity, especially for their children who have been socialized into Israeli life and that their potential inclusion has real implications for the understanding of what it means to be Israeli.▶ Foreign workers in Israel are challenging the identity borders of Israeli society, as an ethnonational state in transition. ▶ Foreign workers experience extreme isolation/invisibility, suffer from arbitrary treatment and seek holiness in Israel. ▶ Temporary visas and mistreatment have not precluded attachment and “Israeli” identity development. ▶ The children of foreign workers in Israel create cleavage between Israeliness and Jewishness.
This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturati... more This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturation in predicting 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents' mental health and risk behaviors. Participants included 448 seventh to tenth grade Israeli students (mean age 14.50, 53% boys): 128 non-Jewish 1.5 generation migrant adolescents (children of migrants living in Israel), 118 second-generation migrants (children of migrants born and living in Israel), and an age-matched sample of 202 native-born Jewish adolescents. All participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms, engagement in risk behaviors, social adjustment, and school engagement. Both migrant adolescent groups also completed an acculturation questionnaire. Differences between groups in school engagement, mental health symptoms, and risk behavior were examined, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of acculturation. Findings revealed substantially higher levels of mental health symptoms (p Ͻ .001) and risk behaviors (p ϭ .001) among 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents compared with native-born adolescents, with no significant differences between 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants. Migrants' age and gender were associated with mental health symptoms and risk behaviors-older participants engaged in more risk behaviors (p ϭ .02), and females had elevated mental health symptoms (p ϭ .007). Identification with the host country mediated the relationships between school engagement and mental health symptoms (ps .006 and .008) and risk behaviors (ps .001 and .004) in 1.5 generation and second-generation migrants, respectively. The results are discussed in reference to current theories and research, as well as practical implications for prevention and intervention.
It's like clockwork', the saying goes, meaning that things are orderly, linear, dependable, and b... more It's like clockwork', the saying goes, meaning that things are orderly, linear, dependable, and based on a universally shared, knowable concept of time. Standardisation facilitates communication, facilitates order and spurs development (Anderson 1991; Crosby 1997). Shared temporal references are a fundamental concept of social life (Sorokin 1943; Zerubavel 1982). Time is an orientation opportunity, allowing individuals to carve a place in that shared social space (Berger and Luckmann 1967). Sorokin (1943: 173) eloquently explains: (t)he possession of means and ways to 'time' the behavior of the members of any group in such a way that each member apprehends 'the appointed time' in the same way as do other members has been possibly the most urgent need of social life at any time and at any place. Without this, social life itself is impossible.
Governments write us into being by compelling the public to fill in tiny boxes on forms revealing... more Governments write us into being by compelling the public to fill in tiny boxes on forms revealing our most private information. These personal details become matters of public record. What if students thought about how writing in public administration shapes us? In the spring of 2015, my Public Administration class joined with New York City Historic Houses Trust and its LatimerNOW project a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the New York City Parks department whose goal is to reimagine the use of historic house museums, Louis Latimer House and Writing On It All (a participatory art not-for-profit exploring space and identity through writing) to learn public administration through participation in a public participatory art project. The immediate goal was for the students to use public administration theory to design, implement, participate and evaluate a one-day project. The hope was to offer a chance to practice on a real project in a safe space so that they could later us...
This paper seeks to respond to the limited discussion about why remittances cease, by exploring t... more This paper seeks to respond to the limited discussion about why remittances cease, by exploring the dynamic meaning of remittances to senders. We interviewed 43 labor migrants in Israel about remittance practices. We discovered that many migrants no longer regularly remit, and those who do remit changed their initial pattern for remitting, often for reasons independent of a left behind family’s financial need or a sender’s financial ability to send. Remittances help migrants manage the stress from labor migration by providing identity benefits. Labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’ to both left-behind families and people in the receiving country. Remittances can render migrants visible by generating new roles in the family and generating a positive self-image when experiencing downward mobility due to dirty, dangerous and dull work. If migrants form new families, their need to remit declines. If familial roles changes, value as a remitter declines, costs exceed benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices may change or cease. We show how social relations shape this visibility and new family contracts affect remittances practices. The findings have implications for understanding the multibillion-dollar remittances industry, immigrant incorporation, and transnational family relationships. Free Article link: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/kkDFGMgMzhZnAq7AXTbz/full
Naturalizations, unlike inaugurations and national party
conventions, are one of the few daily r... more Naturalizations, unlike inaugurations and national party
conventions, are one of the few daily repeated political theatre
experiences, replete with monologs, dialogues, costumes, props,
actors, stage managers, plural audiences, and staged practices.
They serve as a public ritual to render foreigners into members. In
so doing, they generate a citizen identity, reinforce the power of
the state and confirm a relationship between new citizens, current
citizens, and the state. In this article, through an interpretive
process including participant-observation and grounded theory
approaches, I question the presence, interaction, and roles of the
multiple publics (immigrants, observers, civil servants, judges and
non-governmental groups) in a naturalization ceremony. I present
field notes and reflections from a ‘typical’ US naturalization
ceremony. I deconstruct the choreography and structure of the
public ritual to show what the public performance of
naturalization tells us about what it means to be an American
citizen. I explore what messages the state is trying to convey to
naturalizing immigrants (and others) through the ritual of the
naturalization ceremony. The locus of inquiry is New York City
where 70,000 of the 680,000 naturalizations take place every year.
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implications for understanding the multibillion-dollar remittances industry and immigrant incorporation.
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implicat...
Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for lef... more Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left-behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left-behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implicat...
When thinking about time and migration, time appears to be the obvious unchangeable independent v... more When thinking about time and migration, time appears to be the obvious unchangeable independent variable—linear, uniform, and constant—affecting migrants’ experiences. However, what if we reimagine time as a dependent variable affected by migration? Time, thus, is not linear but layered, malleable, and potentially even liquid. Migrants weave time with space, generating past, present, and future, forming multiple simultaneous “heres,” “theres,” and “in-betweens.” A subset of migrants, temporary labor migrants, provides an interesting opportunity to consider how migration affects time (including the perception of time). States permit temporary labor migrants to immigrate only because they consent to emigrate after a predetermined, contracted period. In this paper, we consider what it means to enter into such “migration time” arrangements that warp, transform, and curtail time for migrants, their children, employers, community members, left-behind families, and the state. Migrants’ children who typically exist outside state-brokered labor migration deals develop alternate timescapes from their migrant parents. Based on the analysis of interview data and complementary follow-up conversations with 43 temporary labor migrants in Israel from 11 different countries, we examine how the migration process creates nonlinear time and how migrants discover, lament, manage, enjoy, and struggle with multiple timescapes. Building on the work of Saulo Cwerner, we replicate his model on time and migration to show general patterns for immigrants and modes particular to temporary labor migrants including time ruptures, freedom time (short-term opportunities), and ambiguous time (fuzzy continuities).
This selection can be found in Kazepov, Y. (Ed.). (2008). Cities of Europe: changing contexts, lo... more This selection can be found in Kazepov, Y. (Ed.). (2008). Cities of Europe: changing contexts, local arrangement and the challenge to urban cohesion (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470984482
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is often described as 'the day that changed everything.' But what really changed and what was a temporal expression? Is there something to be learned about space and the transformation of space and the relationship between people and their use of space in the period following the 9/11 events? What does it tell us about how people seek order in times of crisis? What does it tell us about privacy and the plastic nature of norms of public and private space? What opportunities for democracy and community building presented and were lost? Researchers have spent much time already examining how the event has reeled into the war on terrorism and the proliferation of security efforts as well as the economic repercussions. (Burbach and Clarke, 2002; Warren, 2002; Fainstein, 2002; Light, 2002) However, there has been very little examination of the memorials and the transformation of space in the immediate post-9/11 period, In the moments succeeding the 9/11 events, a political spectacle transpired a reorganization and claiming of public, private and personal space generating distinct political messages. The public attempted to do three things: to claim, to mark and to memorialize. To claim, the public carved space from the common property, their own private property and their own bodies. To mark, each site became a symbol and each symbol was imbued with meaning. To memorialize, symbols generated forced viewers to recall the quintessential moment of loss. I would like to describe some spatial transformation and present some ideas for future analysis as the event takes on historical perspective.
Berlin is arguably Europe’s most famous walled city, even though there is no Wall. Divided in 196... more Berlin is arguably Europe’s most famous walled city, even though there is no Wall. Divided in 1961 into East and West, the wall imposed many ironies: a West German city in the middle of East Germany, a door to the East or to the West. Although the wall is now physically gone, the memories of the wall and the long past leading up to its erection, to its demise and aftermath have morphed into new physical, architectural, documentary and social borders. Berlin remains a city of contrasts: Frederick the Great’s imposing edifices, the remnants of the Nazi past, bullet-pocked buildings marking WWII battles, hot fashion boutiques, Turkish markets, high-tech billboards, Stalinist apartment complexes in the east, graceful villas in the south, overcrowded neighborhoods in the north and swanky abodes in the west; the many Berlins inside of one city. The wall that once so importantly divided a city (and the world) is physically gone with virtually no markers, even at its arguably most famous crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie. Yet the remnants of the wall are everywhere: segments remain where originally erected with costumed soldiers stamping fictitious visas for places that no longer exist, and transplanted segments generate borders, for divisions that never were. The Wall’s construction and its demise brought new populations to Berlin. The borders between social, economic, ethnic, racial, and immigration status in these communities are equally as present as any physical border. This chapter examines the plasticity of borders and shows Book chapter from Lena Malm and Sarah Green's Borderlands, Jasilti, 2013. Berlin is, in many ways, still a divided city. I discuss how the removal of the Berlin wall has paradoxically reified some of the borders between the communities of Berlin. These tangible, administrative, symbolic, remembered and reclaimed borders are the missing links in time and space to previous reincarnations of Germany.
Scholarship on citizenship has largely considered citizenship from the perspective of the state, ... more Scholarship on citizenship has largely considered citizenship from the perspective of the state, examining how the state imagines the citizen and the degree to which immigrants meet the state’s expectations. In part, this is understandable as the state confers belonging and no immigrant can unilaterally demand membership, but must be invited into the community of citizens. In ethnic states like Germany, this can be complicated, as the state was built to house the nation and finding space for citizens of consent – not coethnics - requires reimagination. The purpose of this paper thus is to shift the examination from the state to the immigrant and listen to immigrants’ voices, analyze their understandings of citizenship and naturalization and use these understandings to begin to build an immigrant-centered theory of naturalization and citizenship. I argue that in requesting and receiving citizenship, the immigrant exercises his agency and transcends the subjecthood ascribed by the state and in so doing, is recrafting the state and the citizenship relationship. This study responds to what was deemed a critical need cited by the Ministry of Integration to understand labor migrants’ rationale(s) for nationalization. Understanding motivations, expectations and satisfaction is critical for states (and polities as a whole) in order to generate effective immigrant incorporation policies and practices.
1. Qual Health Res. 2010 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] Considering the Qualitative-Quantitative La... more 1. Qual Health Res. 2010 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] Considering the Qualitative-Quantitative Language Divide. Morse JM, Dimitroff LJ, Harper R, Koontz A, Kumra S, Matthew-Maich N, Mihas P, Murphey C. University of Utah. ...
ABSTRACT The study examined the role of resilience factors (self-esteem, secure attachment, and p... more ABSTRACT The study examined the role of resilience factors (self-esteem, secure attachment, and perceived peer support) in predicting mental health symptoms and engagement in risk behaviors among 144 migrant adolescents of work migrants and asylum seekers compared to 146 native-born adolescents in Israel. Migrants’ age and gender were associated with mental health, higher engagement in risk behaviors among older participants, and elevated symptoms among females. Self-esteem, level of secure attachment, and supportive peer-relationships were correlated with lower mental health symptomatology amongmigrants. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening the interpersonal support systems of migrant youth for better mental health outcomes.
ABSTRACT Many states question how to manage burgeoning migration. This is particularly problemati... more ABSTRACT Many states question how to manage burgeoning migration. This is particularly problematic for ethnic states whose foundation myths imagine the state as the home for the nation. In this paper, we argue that ethnic states engage a type of defense mechanism, ‘reaction formation’, as part of migration policy to distract attention from threats to the claimed ethnic homogeneity that undergirds the reason for the state's existence. Using Israel as a case of a planned ethnic state, we show how a state develops a spectrum of membership models to incorporate ‘others’ into the nation-state. We suggest that Israel could conceivably devise some arrangement to incorporate the several hundred thousand labor migrants currently resident there. We argue that the state is reluctant to recognize these migrants as ‘Israeli’ because to do so would reveal a hidden truth: Israel may be becoming more Israeli than Jewish and, thus, the recognition of labor migrants and their children provokes questions about Israel's very reason for existence, that is, being a Jewish state.
Does Israeli have to mean Jewish? In this paper, we explore how the presence and experiences of f... more Does Israeli have to mean Jewish? In this paper, we explore how the presence and experiences of foreign workers in Israel are redefining what it means to be Israeli by creating cleavage between Jewishness and Israeliness. Using survey and interview data gathered from 129 foreign workers in Israel in the winter and spring of 2010, we examine such issues as religiosity, permanence and above all, identity. We focus on the plight of the children of foreign workers as a test on the ability of the Israeli state to contend with the increasing cleavage between Jewishness and Israeliness. We show how the children’s socialization, acceptance and potential for legal and political incorporation is insignificant in real numbers, even in a state obsessed with maintaining Jewish demographic majority, but poses a direct challenge to the dominance of the religious powerbase over the secular state in Israel, generating a true challenge to the Jewishness of Israeli state institutions and to Israel as ...
In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of I... more In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of Israeli society and the challenges posed to Israeliness by the inclusion of first, 1.5 and second generation foreign workers in the Israeli polity. We explore how these migrants perceive life in Israel, their own and their children‘s identities, prospects for incorporation and permanence and intersections between Israeliness and Jewishness. To inform our analysis, we conducted interviews in winter 2010 with 22 foreign workers who are first generation; about half are parents of children in Israel. Our analysis reveals that foreign workers seek acceptance into the Israeli polity, especially for their children who have been socialized into Israeli life and that their potential inclusion has real implications for the understanding of what it means to be Israeli.▶ Foreign workers in Israel are challenging the identity borders of Israeli society, as an ethnonational state in transition. ▶ Foreign workers experience extreme isolation/invisibility, suffer from arbitrary treatment and seek holiness in Israel. ▶ Temporary visas and mistreatment have not precluded attachment and “Israeli” identity development. ▶ The children of foreign workers in Israel create cleavage between Israeliness and Jewishness.
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Papers by Robin Harper
conventions, are one of the few daily repeated political theatre
experiences, replete with monologs, dialogues, costumes, props,
actors, stage managers, plural audiences, and staged practices.
They serve as a public ritual to render foreigners into members. In
so doing, they generate a citizen identity, reinforce the power of
the state and confirm a relationship between new citizens, current
citizens, and the state. In this article, through an interpretive
process including participant-observation and grounded theory
approaches, I question the presence, interaction, and roles of the
multiple publics (immigrants, observers, civil servants, judges and
non-governmental groups) in a naturalization ceremony. I present
field notes and reflections from a ‘typical’ US naturalization
ceremony. I deconstruct the choreography and structure of the
public ritual to show what the public performance of
naturalization tells us about what it means to be an American
citizen. I explore what messages the state is trying to convey to
naturalizing immigrants (and others) through the ritual of the
naturalization ceremony. The locus of inquiry is New York City
where 70,000 of the 680,000 naturalizations take place every year.
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is often described as 'the day that changed everything.' But what really changed and what was a temporal expression? Is there something to be learned about space and the transformation of space and the relationship between people and their use of space in the period following the 9/11 events? What does it tell us about how people seek order in times of crisis? What does it tell us about privacy and the plastic nature of norms of public and private space? What opportunities for democracy and community building presented and were lost? Researchers have spent much time already examining how the event has reeled into the war on terrorism and the proliferation of security efforts as well as the economic repercussions. (Burbach and Clarke, 2002; Warren, 2002; Fainstein, 2002; Light, 2002) However, there has been very little examination of the memorials and the transformation of space in the immediate post-9/11 period, In the moments succeeding the 9/11 events, a political spectacle transpired a reorganization and claiming of public, private and personal space generating distinct political messages. The public attempted to do three things: to claim, to mark and to memorialize. To claim, the public carved space from the common property, their own private property and their own bodies. To mark, each site became a symbol and each symbol was imbued with meaning. To memorialize, symbols generated forced viewers to recall the quintessential moment of loss. I would like to describe some spatial transformation and present some ideas for future analysis as the event takes on historical perspective.
conventions, are one of the few daily repeated political theatre
experiences, replete with monologs, dialogues, costumes, props,
actors, stage managers, plural audiences, and staged practices.
They serve as a public ritual to render foreigners into members. In
so doing, they generate a citizen identity, reinforce the power of
the state and confirm a relationship between new citizens, current
citizens, and the state. In this article, through an interpretive
process including participant-observation and grounded theory
approaches, I question the presence, interaction, and roles of the
multiple publics (immigrants, observers, civil servants, judges and
non-governmental groups) in a naturalization ceremony. I present
field notes and reflections from a ‘typical’ US naturalization
ceremony. I deconstruct the choreography and structure of the
public ritual to show what the public performance of
naturalization tells us about what it means to be an American
citizen. I explore what messages the state is trying to convey to
naturalizing immigrants (and others) through the ritual of the
naturalization ceremony. The locus of inquiry is New York City
where 70,000 of the 680,000 naturalizations take place every year.
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is often described as 'the day that changed everything.' But what really changed and what was a temporal expression? Is there something to be learned about space and the transformation of space and the relationship between people and their use of space in the period following the 9/11 events? What does it tell us about how people seek order in times of crisis? What does it tell us about privacy and the plastic nature of norms of public and private space? What opportunities for democracy and community building presented and were lost? Researchers have spent much time already examining how the event has reeled into the war on terrorism and the proliferation of security efforts as well as the economic repercussions. (Burbach and Clarke, 2002; Warren, 2002; Fainstein, 2002; Light, 2002) However, there has been very little examination of the memorials and the transformation of space in the immediate post-9/11 period, In the moments succeeding the 9/11 events, a political spectacle transpired a reorganization and claiming of public, private and personal space generating distinct political messages. The public attempted to do three things: to claim, to mark and to memorialize. To claim, the public carved space from the common property, their own private property and their own bodies. To mark, each site became a symbol and each symbol was imbued with meaning. To memorialize, symbols generated forced viewers to recall the quintessential moment of loss. I would like to describe some spatial transformation and present some ideas for future analysis as the event takes on historical perspective.