scholarly journals Latent Hybridity in Administrative Crisis Management: The German Refugee Crisis of 2015/16

Author(s):  
Steffen Eckhard ◽  
Alexa Lenz ◽  
Wolfgang Seibel ◽  
Florian Roth ◽  
Matthias Fatke

Abstract Studying the so-called refugee crisis in Germany, this article asks about the effectiveness of crisis management by a large number of local administrations, each acting upon the same crisis impulse of a high number of asylum seekers who entered the country in 2015 and 2016. Instead of theorizing the exact administrative design features fit for an effective crisis response, the focus is on the ability of administrations to adjust. We conceptualize such shifts in administrative practices as informal and temporary (latent) deviations from routine action along two dimensions of organizational behavior typically dominant in private and nonprofit sector organizations, respectively: internal flexibility and citizen participation (hybridity). Novel survey data from 235 out of 401 German district authorities are reported. We test the effects of different forms of latent hybridization on administrative effectiveness using regression modeling. Findings indicate that changes in administrative practices towards more flexible and participatory action had a positive impact on self-reported crisis management effectiveness. The effect of flexible action was especially pronounced in districts that were allocated higher shares of asylum seekers. These findings advance theory on crisis management and bottom-up implementation, highlighting the ability of local agencies to shift practices as a key explanatory factor for effective administrative action in exceptional situations.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosanne Anholt

Little is known about how the idea of ‘resilience’ translates into practice. It has nonetheless emerged as a dominant theme in the governance of crises, such as political instability, armed conflict, terrorism, and large-scale refugee movements. This study draws on interviews with humanitarian and development practitioners in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon working under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan to explore how resilience is interpreted and translated on the ground. Results suggest that resilience is translated as the economic self-reliance of refugees, and the capacity for crisis management of refugee-hosting states, enacted through ‘localization’ and strengthening the ‘humanitarian-development nexus.’ The prominence of the political and economic context and the power relations between crisis response actors that it generates reveals the limits of what a buzzword like resilience can achieve on the ground. The findings highlight the need for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to engage in continuous critical reflection on whether the ways in which resilience policies and programmes are implemented actually improve the ability of systems and vulnerable populations to recover from crisis, as well as on the validity of the assumptions and interpretations on which such policies and programmes are built.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumari Kumkum ◽  
R. N. Singh ◽  
Yogershi Rajpoot

There may be so many negative consequences of stress for human beings and dissatisfaction among employees happens to be one of the major problems. It indicates negative feelings that individuals have regarding their jobs or its facets. On the other hand, social support is assumed to be mitigating the relationship between negative aspects of the work environment and job satisfaction. Job stress is said to be associated with job dissatisfaction as well as experience of strain. In view of the above, this study examined the role of job stress and social support in job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 30 school teachers from different school of Varanasi (U.P.). The job stress, job satisfaction and social support scales were administered on the participants. The responses of the participants were converted into scores for statistical analyses. The scores of participants on the scales were correlated. The findings revealed that job stress led to increased job satisfaction. It is against the proposed hypothesis and it appears as if the social support received by the participants is a factor behind it. Two of the four dimensions of social support were found to exert positive impact on job satisfaction but the other two dimensions were not found to be correlated with it. The findings are thoroughly discussed and interpreted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Peer Smets ◽  
Younes Younes ◽  
Marinka Dohmen ◽  
Kees Boersma ◽  
Lenie Brouwer

During the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, temporary refugee shelters arose in the Netherlands to shelter the large influx of asylum seekers. The largest shelter was located in the eastern part of the country. This shelter, where tents housed nearly 3,000 asylum seekers, was managed with a firm top-down approach. However, many residents of the shelter—mainly Syrians and Eritreans—developed horizontal relations with the local receiving society, using social media to establish contact and exchange services and goods. This case study shows how various types of crisis communication played a role and how the different worlds came together. Connectivity is discussed in relation to inclusion, based on resilient (non-)humanitarian approaches that link society with social media. Moreover, we argue that the refugee crisis can be better understood by looking through the lens of connectivity, practices, and migration infrastructure instead of focusing only on state policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-195
Author(s):  
Johanna E. Nilsson ◽  
Katherine C. Jorgenson

According to 2019 data, there are 26 million refugees and 3.5 million asylum seekers around the globe, representing a major humanitarian crisis. This Major Contribution provides information on the experiences of refugees resettled in the United States via the presentation of five manuscripts. In this introductory article, we address the current refugee crisis, refugee policies, and resettlement processes in the United States, as well as the American Psychological Association’s response to the crisis and the role of counseling psychology in serving refugees. Next follows three empirical articles, addressing aspects of the resettlement experiences of three groups of refugees: Somali, Burmese, and Syrian. The final article provides an overview of a culturally responsive intervention model to use when working with refugees.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-118
Author(s):  
Tali Hatuka ◽  
Miryam Wijler

This paper focuses on a particular form of protest that emerges in what this paper calls an 'agonistic environment'. It defines the latter as a form of contentious politics within deliberative democracies in which concurrence rather than estrangement is more likely to define the relationship between citizens and the state. It then asks what is the nature of conflict in such environments, and will activism in the settings be more or less likely to generate change. Finally, it considers whether protest in agonistic environments produces a form of shared knowledge among parties to the conflict, particularly with respect to the possibility of change and how best to achieve it? In exploring these questions, the paper focuses on the political dynamics in Israel associated with the wave of African asylum seekers who arrived from 2010 to 2012, most of whom originated from Eritrea and Sudan. Using a quantitative approach, the paper analyses this agonistic environment focusing on two dimensions: (a) protest events; and (b) state policy and juridical decisions as well as legal initiatives aimed at challenging state policy and relevant court decisions. By highlighting the scalar mismatch between protests focused on delimited urban spaces and responses of authorities at the scale of the nation – in this case, legal rulings – the paper further advances our understanding of agonistic conflict and how it produces change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Ming Zhong ◽  
Fuangfa Amponstira

Senior managers can influence the cognition and behavior of other members of the enterprise by formulating informatization strategies and initiating informatization reforms, thereby affecting the success or failure of enterprise informatization. This paper establishes a model of the influence mechanism of the level of executive support on the performance of enterprise informatization. Taking enterprises in Guangdong Province, China as the survey object, through a three-stage questionnaire survey, 419 valid questionnaires were obtained. This paper shows that: executive support has a positive impact on team entrepreneurial passion. Executive support is the antecedent variable of enterprise informatization reform, and informatization reform plays an intermediary role between the executive support variables and informatization performance variables. Organizational communication plays a moderating role between informatization reform and informatization performance. This will improve the guiding theories in the field of organizational behavior and provide new ideas for the construction of the mechanism model of informatization performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Hang Minh Le

How has education for refugees been shaped by broader dynamics of educational privatization? This paper argues that the invoking of the ‘refugee crisis’ narrative has been a crucial force in facilitating the privatization of this sector. The urgency of crisis helps to naturalize private actors’ participation in refugees’ education as equal partners to host governments, multilateral agencies, and civil society. Consistent with Stephen Ball’s (2012) distinction between privatization in and of education, the privatization of refugee education also advances through two dimensions: the creation of a new space – a new ‘market’ – for private actors, and the infusion of market and business principles such as ‘innovation’ into all aspects of education. The crisis narrative has created a new ‘horizon of taken-for-granted’ (Hall, 1993), where it is simply natural that private actors must participate in the assumption of the traditional responsibilities of the state in providing education for refugees. 


Author(s):  
Magdalena Denham ◽  
Scott Vautrain

Using macro-, exo-, meso-, and micro-level framework for assessing interdependencies in crisis management system in Poland, this chapter addresses expansion of planning and preparedness to novel hazards and threats such as precipitated mass movements of populations due to environmental changes. The Ukrainian refugee crisis served as backdrop for Poland's crisis management system testing. Benefits of planning and preparedness for mass displacements highlighted (a) an emerging all-hazard approach to crisis management, (b) proactive threat identification and assessment, (c) issuance of acts, laws, and regulations based on novel threats, (d) comprehensive multi-jurisdictional exercises, and (e) increasing importance of mutual aid agreements.


Author(s):  
Thomas Grochtdreis ◽  
Hans-Helmut König ◽  
Steffi G. Riedel-Heller ◽  
Judith Dams

Abstract The purpose of this study was to estimate the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of asylum seekers and refugees that arrived during the European migrant and refugee crisis in Germany between 2014 and 2017. The analysis was based on the 2016 and 2017 refugee samples of the German Socio-Economic Panel (n = 6821). HrQoL was measured using a modified version of the SF-12v2 questionnaire and presented as physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary scores. PCS and MCS scores for the total sample, males and females were calculated by sociodemographic characteristics. Associations between PCS and MCS scores and sociodemographic variables were examined by a linear regression with bootstrapped standard errors. The mean PCS and MCS scores of the sample were 53.4 and 47.9, respectively. Female sex was statistically significantly associated with lower PCS and MCS scores. The SF-12 subscale general health was valued highest with a score of 55.4, whereas the subscale role emotional was valued lowest with a score of 46.9. Employment was statistically significantly associated with higher PCS and MCS scores. Persons from Afghanistan had statistically significantly lower MCS scores than persons from Syria, whereas MCS scores were statistically significantly higher for persons from Eritrea. Physical and mental HrQoL of asylum seekers and refugees that arrived during the European migrant and refugee crisis in Germany between 2014 and 2017 was higher and lower than the German norm, respectively. Female sex, older age, unemployment and being separated, divorced or widowed were negatively associated with HrQoL. The three largest ethnical groups of asylum seekers and refugees, Syrians, Afghans and Eritreans, differ inherently in their HrQoL.


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