How to Deal with Growing Racism and Discrimination against Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Europe?

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S24-S24 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Küey
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Psychosocial Characteristics ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Almost All ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
Health Field

The growing number of refugees and asylum seekers pouring in Europe due to wars and armed conflicts constitute a great challenge for psychiatry and the mental health field. This challenge also includes the growing racism and discrimination against refugees and asylum seekers. Discrimination could be defined as the attitudes and behavior based on the group differences. Any group acknowledged and proclaimed as ‘the other’ by prevailing zeitgeist and dominant social powers, and further dehumanized may become the subject of discrimination. In a spectrum from dislike and micro-aggression to overt violence towards the other, it exists almost in all societies in varying degrees and forms; all forms involving some practices of exclusion and rejection. Hence, almost all the same specific human physical and psychosocial characteristics that constitute the bases for in-group identities and reference systems could also become the foundations of discrimination towards the humans identified as out-groups. Added to this, othering, rising from imagined and generalized differences and used to distinguish groups of people as separate from the norm reinforces and maintains discrimination.

Room for hope: How to deal with growing racism and discrimination?

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S43-S43
Author(s):  
L. Küey
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Psychosocial Characteristics ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Almost All ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Discrimination could be defined as the attitudes and behavior based on the group differences. Any group acknowledged and proclaimed as ‘the other’ by prevailing zeitgeist and dominant social powers, and further dehumanized may become the subject of discrimination. Moreover, internalized discrimination perpetuates this process. In a spectrum from dislike and micro-aggression to overt violence towards ‘the other’, it exists almost in all societies in varying degrees and forms; all forms involving some practices of exclusion and rejection. Hence, almost all the same human physical and psychosocial characteristics that constitute the bases for in-group identities and reference systems could also become the foundations of discrimination towards the humans identified as out-groups. Added to this, othering, arising from imagined and generalized differences and used to distinguish groups of people as separate from the norm reinforces and maintains discrimination.Accordingly, discrimination built on race, color, sex, gender, gender identity, nationality and ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, physical and mental disabilities, employment, caste and language have been the focus of a vast variety of anti-discriminatory and inclusive efforts. National acts and international legislative measures and conventions, political and public movements and campaigns, human rights movements, education programs, NGO activities are some examples of such anti-discriminatory and inclusive efforts. All these efforts have significant economic, political and psychosocial components.Albeit the widespread exercise of discrimination, peoples of the world also have a long history of searching, aiming and practicing more inclusive ways of solving conflicts of interests between in-groups and out-groups. This presentation will mainly focus on the psychosocial aspects of the anti-discriminative efforts and search a room for hope and its realistic bases for a more non-violent, egalitarian and peaceful human existence.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Meeting the mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers

2014 ◽  
Vol 204 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panos Vostanis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Service Models ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

SummaryMental health provision for diverse refugee populations is faced with a number of challenges, and requires the development and evaluation of flexible service models that maximise capacity and utilise existing non-specialist resources. Emerging therapeutic approaches should be applied in real settings, adapted to cultural needs and integrated with the other agencies involved.

Exploring the Disaster Management of Teachers and Pupils in Iligan City, Philippines

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERTO D. NAPERE JR. ◽  
OLIVA P. CANENCIA
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Management ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Public ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
The People ◽  
Almost All ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Capability Level

With the geologic location and physical characteristics of the Philippines,it is being considered as one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.Disasters occurring in the country can be natural or human-induced (NDRRMC,2011).   Certainly, when there is a disaster, school children are the mostvulnerable. The study examined the disaster management trainings attended bythe teachers and their capability level in managing natural and human-induceddisasters.  It also explored the pupils’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior aboutdisaster management. Employing descriptive research design, 200 teachers and300 pupils in the public central schools in Iligan City served as respondents.Survey questionnaires were used in data gathering and were treated using frequency counts, means, percentages and correlation procedure. Results revealthat almost all of the teachers did not have trainings on disaster managementand yet, they are capable in managing the identified disasters. Meanwhile, thepupils posted a good remark on their knowledge, attitudes and behavior aboutdisaster management. The two powerful typhoons Sendong (Tropical StormWashi) and Pablo (Tropical Storm Bopha) left a learned lesson to the people inIligan City not to be complacent in any disasters. The study recommend for a fullinstitutionalization of disaster management to all schools to protect the schoolpersonnel, pupils, and educational facilities.Keywords: Disaster management, natural and human-induced disasters, capability level,pupils’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior, descriptive research, Philippines

The Dead are Coming

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Stümer
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Fortress Europe ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

The escalating death tolls of migrants seeking to enter Europe are a dramatic testimony to the cynical, dehumanizing, and violent fortification of the European Union, whereby refugees and asylum seekers have become the emblematic figures of contemporary political exclusion. Rather than emerge as a peaceful, open, and postnational community, fortress Europe increasingly relies on a process of (re)walling, evoking the legacy of the camp and redrawing colonial boundaries. Europe’s borders serve as expressions of “necropower” and contemporary biopolitical attempts at subjugating and distinguishing forms of “bare life,” as they regulate forms of life, death, and living death. At the same time, these “necropolitics” remain hidden by the necrogeography of the borderscape. The author argues that this deathscape escalates bare life into bare death as a form of nonrelational death enabled by the constructed otherness of the Muslim refugee. Reading this politics of bare death against Sophocles’s Antigone, this article considers how Europe’s deathscape is mediated and challenged. The author examines the art collective Center for Political Beauty and its controversial project of transporting the bodies of deceased migrants from Italy to Berlin in order to give the dead “dignified burials.” The author suggests that the artists engage a form of “corpse politics” using the ritual of the burial as a way to reintegrate the death of the other. This opening of the European soil enables a reimagining of European sovereignty, acknowledging the relations denied by bare death. The nomos of the earth is reinterpreted as a nomos of the soil, reenvisioning a Europe beyond borders and welcoming “difference” as the grounds for responsible politics.

Choose Your Words Wisely

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 226-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick F. Kotzur ◽  
Nora Forsbach ◽  
Ulrich Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Social Perception ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Factorial Survey ◽  
Stereotype Content Model ◽  
Content Model ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Abstract. Differences in word connotations can have far-reaching consequences. We investigated the content, and emotional and behavioral consequences of the social perception of fled people as a function of their label (“refugees” vs. “asylum seekers”; “war refugees” vs. “economic refugees” vs. “refugees”) using a factorial survey (n = 389). Based on qualitative data on perceived intentions associated with the labels, we deducted predictions regarding differences in the Stereotype Content Model and Behavior from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map. Participants evaluated refugees and asylum seekers similarly. Economic refugees were evaluated more negatively than war refugees or refugees, while the profiles of war refugees and refugees matched. These findings suggest that the choice of words to refer to fled people has profound consequences.

'Damned if You Do, and Damned if You Don't': Nordic Involvement and Images of Third-Party Neutrality in Sri Lanka

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isak Svensson ◽  
Kristine Höglund
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
The Third ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThird-party actors who mediate or monitor peace often strive to uphold an image of neutrality. Yet, they commonly face accusations of partiality. The Nordic engagement in the Sri Lankan peace process is an illustration of this puzzle: despite the efforts to uphold an image of being neutral mediators and monitors, they have been seen as favoring one side or the other. This article suggests that part of the explanation for their failure to be seen as neutral lies in the fact that armed conflicts are characterized by certain asymmetries between the main antagonists – in capabilities, status and behavior. These imbalances pose particular challenges to the third party aspiring to act in a neutral manner. We suggest that third parties have two strategies available to deal with imbalances in the relationship between the contenders: 1) they can choose to disregard the asymmetrical relationship and act in an even-handed manner or 2) they can seek to counterbalance the lopsidedness. This article explores the dynamics of these strategies by analyzing the Nordic involvement in Sri Lanka's peace process that began in 2002.

Hubris to Humility

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald J. Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Environmental Stewardship ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethical Awareness ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The One ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

This chapter examines what environmental stewardship hopes to accomplish by putting it into the context of broader anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric ethical considerations. The ethical awareness and non-economic values that humans have for nature plays an important part in shaping human attitudes and behavior: how humanity views and treats life on Earth. The field of nonanthropocentric environmental ethics emerged in response to a desire for greater humility in human engagement with nature. The chapter considers how nonanthropocentric ethics are expressed in society, citing as an example the animal rights and animal welfare movement. It also discusses environmental stewardship as an emerging ethic that is intermediate between anthropocentrism on the one hand, and ecocentrism on the other. Finally, it reflects on what will happen when humans heavily exploit or damage ecosystems.

scholarly journals Tweeting for peace? Twitter and the Ardoyne parade dispute in Belfast, July 2014

First Monday ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Interface Area ◽  
Shared Space ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Orange Order

This paper explores how social media can facilitate peace building by focusing on how citizens used Twitter during a contentious march in the Ardoyne district of North Belfast in July 2014. Fears of a repeat of sectarian clashes seen a year earlier were not realized, and the study was designed to empirically investigate whether critics and supporters of the Orange Order used the microblogging site to help reduce the sectarian tensions that surrounded the contentious parade. In particular, it focused on how users responded to rumors and disinformation spread on the micro-blogging site, which had the potential to incite violence in the contested interface area. The nature of the debate amongst those ‘tweeters’ who commented on the contentious Ardoyne parade was also investigated, with a focus on how they framed the attitudes and behavior of the ‘other’ community during these events. Results indicate that the majority of tweeters praised both sides for keeping the parade and related protests peaceful. However, Twitter did not appear to be a shared space capable of fostering cross-community consensus on how to resolve the parade dispute. The study suggests that Twitter’s most significant contribution to peace building in Northern Ireland might lie in its empowerment of citizens to correct rumors and disinformation, which have the potential to exacerbate sectarian tensions and generate intercommunal violence.

scholarly journals Language Attitude of Basa Osing Speakers in Banyuwangi

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 417
Author(s):  
Ressi Maulidina Delijar ◽  
Hamamah Hamamah ◽  
Ika Nurhayani Nurhayani
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Group I ◽  
Language Attitude ◽  
Group 3 ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

This research aims to determine the language attitude of Basa Osing speakers. This research is important because of the debate over the Basa Osing linguistic status which considers that Basa Osing is only a variation of Javanese, and the other assumption that Basa Osing is an independent local language. The highlight of the debate was when the Governor of East Java removed Basa Osing from the curriculum of local content. It will affect the attitudes and behavior of Osing speakers, especially young speakers. This research used quantitative method and involved 100 participants around Banyuwangi. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaires. This research proved that there is decline of positive attitudes shown between generation to generation (group I score = 3.19, group 2 = 3.23, group 3 = 3.87). Basa Osing is very possible to experience language shifts in the future if the perspective of the society gets worse.

Ethnic Orientations among Polish Americans

1977 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-362
Author(s):  
Donald Pienkos
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Older Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fraternal Organizations ◽  
Ethnic Consciousness ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
American Ethnicity ◽  
Close Contacts

A survey of the ethnic consciousness of 246 Milwaukee Polish Americans found that the respondents could be divided into three general categories. The largest of these was composed of persons who, for all practical purposes, are assimilated. Among the others, two variations in Polish American ethnicity were identified. One was based on involvement in fraternal organizations while the other was founded in the maintenance of close contacts with Poland. Ethnically defined attitudes and behavior were strongest among members of this last group, who are familiar with the Polish language, usually born in Poland, and retain personal ties with that country. Ethnicity is strongly associated with older age, higher education and residence in heavily Polish neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

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