Devalued Germans

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Bauder
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Small Business Loans ◽  
Labor Market Access ◽  
The Right

Despite the privilege of German citizenship, Spätaussiedler experience difficulties in the German labor market. Unemployment tends to be high, and many of those who are employed fill positions in the secondary segment of the labor market. A problem for many Spätaussiedler is that their former occupations do not exist or are not in demand in Germany. Tractor operators, technicians in the oil industry, and coal miners from the former Soviet Union have difficulty finding employment in their fields, particularly in Berlin. Other Spätaussiedler still work in their general field, but below their original qualifications. Of these, many are denied work in their former occupations because their foreign occupational and educational credentials are not recognized by German authorities and employers. Government efforts to streamline the transferability of foreign credentials have concentrated on countries within the European Union (Schneider 1995); however, Spätaussiedler from the territory of the former Soviet Union do not benefit from these efforts. Although, as German citizens, they are legally entitled to credential assessment, exclusionary practices in the credential assessment and recognition process still make it difficult for Spätaussiedler to obtain work in the upper labor market segment. These immigrants fall victim to a double standard that values domestic and foreign credentials differently. The nonrecognition of foreign credentials as a mechanism of labor devaluation is not unusual in countries that receive large numbers of immigrants, as illustrated in chapter 5 in the case of immigrants in Vancouver. In Germany, Spätaussiedler present an interesting group because they enjoy citizenship rights and privileges unavailable to other immigrant groups. They receive full legal labor market access, economic integration assistance, the right to credential assessment, privileged treatment by labor market institutions, and, unlike foreigners and naturalized migrants, they are able to use their foreign qualifications to establish small businesses and offer vocational apprenticeships. In some instances, Spätaussiedler even receive preferential treatment relative to other Germans, for example, when applying for small business loans (Juris 2003, BFVG §14). In light of these privileges, labor devaluation through legal exclusion is apparently not an issue for Spätaussiedler.

Georgia and International Law

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoni Blanc Altemir ◽  
Eimys Ortiz Hernández
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Right

The dissolution of the USSR at the end of December 1991 and the reunification of Germany were, without doubt, two of the most remarkable international events at the end of the 20th century. Analysis of the consequences of these events with respect to international law has proved challenging to international legal norms due to the fact that the kind of “micro cosmos” exemplified by these events served to highlight the principal sectors of international law. The consequences of the dismemberment of the USSR proved to be extensive and they were felt not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world. The breakup of such a prominent strategic actor put an end to the restricted stability that characterized the bipolar nature of the Cold War. Thus, international society witnessed a period of instability in succeeding years marked by a renewed rise in issues such as the right of self-determination and the principle of uti possidetis. Therefore, events unfolding in the former Soviet Union, at times tedious and even tragic, led to the creation of a new international organization called the Commonwealth of Independent States, which tried to fill the “black hole” left by the breakup of the USSR as well as deal with the problems confronted by the successor states, notwithstanding its own deficiencies. Moreover, some disputes of a territorial, interethnic, or national character became very violent, such as those in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in particular in Georgia. Over the years Georgia has intensified its process of approximation to the European Union (EU). On the one hand, the EU-Georgia Association Agreement that entered into force on 1 July 2016 is remarkable for establishing a deep and comprehensive free trade area. On the other hand, the effective application of the Schengen—visa-free travel for short stays for Georgian citizens—has been of great importance. This article provides researchers with instruments to study the recurring problems in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the Georgian-Russian conflict in 2008, and also treats the consequences of these crises in international law. Issues such as military operations, the cease-fire agreement, and the succeeding evolution of events are discussed. A section focuses specifically on important violations of international law that took place during the conflict, for which an international report was published. In addition, the consequences of the conflict are addressed with respect to NATO-Russia and EU-Russia relations while the effects of the conflict in the geostrategic and energy fields are also considered. Additionally, the rapprochement between Georgia and the European Union is analyzed.

scholarly journals Are asylum seekers more likely to work with more inclusive labor market access regulations?

2019 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Slotwinski ◽  
Alois Stutzer ◽  
Roman Uhlig
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Early Integration ◽  
Labor Market Policies ◽  
The Face ◽  
Labor Market Access ◽  
The One

Abstract In the face of recent refugee migration, early integration of asylum seekers into the labor market has been proposed as an important mechanism for easing their economic and social lot in the short as well as in the long term. However, little is known about the policies that foster or hamper their participation in the labor market, in particular during the important initial period of their stay in the host country. In order to evaluate whether inclusive labor market policies increase the labor market participation of asylum seekers, we exploit the variation in asylum policies in Swiss cantons to which asylum seekers are as good as randomly allocated. During our study period from 2011 to 2014, the employment rate among asylum seekers varied between 0 and 30.2% across cantons. Our results indicate that labor market access regulations are responsible for a substantial proportion of these differences, in which an inclusive regime increases participation by 11 percentage points. The marginal effects are larger for asylum seekers who speak a language that is linguistically close to the one in their host canton. Summary Inclusive labor market access regulations substantially increase the employment chances of asylum seekers, in particular if the language distance is short.

scholarly journals Systematization of private international law in Ukraine and foreign countries: present state and tendencies

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 122-128
Author(s):  
Mykola Lazarenko
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Present State ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Foreign Countries

Systematization of private international law in Ukraine and foreign countries: present state and tendencies.The article deals with the comparative legal analysis of the systematization of the statutory provisions of private international law in the countries of the European Union and some countries of the former Soviet Union. The main arguments regarding different approaches to the systematization of private international law in Ukraine are outlined, as well as the main directions and tendencies of the codification processes of legislation in this area.

scholarly journals Double Jeopardy: How Refugees Fare in One European Labor Market

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dries Lens ◽  
Ive Marx ◽  
Sunčica Vujić
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Labor Market Access ◽  
First Job ◽  
Work Histories ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

AbstractThis paper examines the labor market trajectories of refugees who arrived in Belgium between 1999 and 2009. Belgium offers a relatively easy formal labor market access to refugees and other types of migrants but they face many other barriers in this strongly regulated and institutionalized labor market. Based on a longitudinal dataset that links respondents’ information from the Belgian Labor Force Survey with comprehensive social security data on their work histories, we estimate discrete-time hazard models to analyze refugees’ entry into and exit out of the first employment spell, contrasting their outcomes with family and labor migrants of the same arrival cohort. The analysis shows that refugees take significantly longer to enter their first employment spell as compared with other migrant groups. They also run a greater risk of exiting out of their first employment spell (back) into social assistance and into unemployment. The low employment rates of refugees are thus not only due to a slow integration process upon arrival, but also reflect a disproportional risk of exiting the labor market after a period in work. Our findings indicate that helping refugees into a first job is not sufficient to ensure labor market participation in the long run, because these jobs may be short-lived. Instead, our results provide clear arguments in favor of policies that support sustainable labor market integration.

scholarly journals Kerrottu ja muisteltu inkerinsuomalaisten paluumuutto

Elore ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna-Liisa Salonsaari
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Practical Work ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Right ◽  
Unique Part

The remigration of the Ingrian Finns and other ethnic Finns from the territories of the former Soviet Union is a unique part of Finnish history. Ever since the beginning of the right of return established in 1990, about 30 000 returnees and their family members have moved to Finland. According to the amendments of the Aliens Act introduced in July 2011, remigration is supposed to end after the transition period. In her article Salonsaari writes about the narrated and remembered remigration of the Ingrian Finns. She deals with remigration issues through the interviews with two returnees. In her own concept of narrated remigration, she regards the presentations of the remigration experience as narrations, created, for example, within the framework of interviews. Interviews produce individual life stories focused on remigration experience. While analysing them, she discusses what kind of narrations they are and how remigration comes up. Those narrations show that there are different kinds of remigrations and remigration experiences, as well as different ways to narrate them. Narrated remigration includes, for example, meaning, turning points and interpretations on remigration experience. Salonsaari notes that, while listening to remigration narrations, it is possible to understand the returnees’ point of view, which can be used in practical work with the immigrants.

scholarly journals China’s “One Belt, One Road Initiative”: challenges and requirements for its successful implementation in Central Asia

2017 ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Francisco Gómez Martos
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Trade Integration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Intergovernmental Cooperation

Twenty five years after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the reemergence of the Central Asian Republics as independent States, this region continues to be the scene of rivalries amongst the big powers (Russia, China, the European Union, USA, India, Japan, Turkey and Iran) competing in a sort of a “new Grand Game” to increase their geopolitical and economic influence in the region. Its geography, diverse and rich natural resources, like oil and gas, explain the ongoing hidden rivalries. Despite its common historical and cultural past, Central Asia constitutes a heterogeneous region with a multiethnic and multi-linguistic composition and a low degree of physical, economic and trade integration. The lack of mutual trust, the persisting tension over borders and the use and sharing of natural resources, as well as different levels of economic performance have so far jeopardized the development of genuine regional cooperation. Against this background, the idea behind the Chinese OBOR Initiative to develop rapid transportation, if well implemented, could theoretically, by improving interregional connectivity, develop the Central Asia regional market and foster intergovernmental cooperation and people-to-people contacts within the region. In this context, could we expect that the ambitious Chinese OBOR Initiative will boost geopolitical stability and promote shared economic and trade benefits in Central Asia? What are the conditions for that need to be fulfilled?The author analyzes in depth certain crucial political, economic and institutional requirements for the successful implementation of the OBOR Strategy and concludes, however, that three years after the launching of this crucial instrument of the Chinese “globalization without democracy” model, its implementation faces major problems and thus raises more doubts than certainties.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ALBANIAN IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS IN GREECE

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAPHNE HALKIAS ◽  
NICHOLAS HARKIOLAKIS ◽  
PAUL THURMAN ◽  
MEENAKSHI RISHI ◽  
LAMBROS EKONOMOU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Urban Center ◽  
Immigrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

Greece has experienced rapid growth in immigrant and refugee populations since 1990. Although most are immigrants from Albania and throughout the Balkan region, some immigrant and refugee groups arriving in Greece also come from the former Soviet Union, Southeast Asia and Africa. Some of these newcomers have started small businesses in their quest to become economically self-sufficient, serve the consumer needs of fellow newcomers, and integrate into community life. The purpose of this research is two-fold: to review the extant literature on social and economic factors influencing immigrant entrepreneurship in Greece, and to determine characteristics and business profiles of Albanian immigrant-owned small businesses within the municipality of Attiki — the location of Athens, Greece's capital city and largest urban center.

The Desire for Adoptive Invisibility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Sadowski-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Transnational Adoption ◽  
White Children ◽  
The Right ◽  
Death Cases ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations

This chapter explores three of the most influential parental memoirs of adoption from the former Soviet Union—Margaret L. Schwartz’s The Pumpkin Patch (2005), Theresa Reid’s Two Little Girls (2007), and Brooks Hansen’s The Brotherhood of Joseph (2008)—to complement scholarship on transnational adoption that has focused on questions of race for adoptions from China and Korea, while emphasizing adoption failures for Eastern European adoptees. In these memoirs, parents explicitly eschew the traditional humanitarian narrative of adoption and portray themselves as neoliberal consumers who have the right to select healthy white children from the international adoption market in order to forge families whose members look as though they could be biologically related. While the authors’ belief that they share a preexisting racial identity with post-Soviet children grants them immense privileges, it also subjects adoptees to unrealistic expectations of their complete assimilation that ignore the conditions for the children’s relinquishment and displacement from their birth countries, languages, and cultures. The belief that US adoptive parents share a racial identity with children in the former East Bloc not only turns them into preferred commodities but also renders them particularly vulnerable to rejections or adoption disruptions, which may help explain the significant numbers of abuse and death cases of post-Soviet adoptees at the hands of their US parents.

Does the Current State of Environmental Impact Assessment in Armenia Pose a Challenge for the Future?

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950004
Author(s):  
Sophya Geghamyan ◽  
Katarina Pavlickova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Current State

Many post-Soviet countries are still improving their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems, and Armenia is no exception. In recent years, approximation to and harmonisation with the laws of the European Union has seen Armenia increasingly adopt and apply EU regulations and directives, and this process was supported by adoption of the new law on EIA and Expertise in 2014. The main objectives of this study are to review and analyse the current state of the Armenian EIA system and to assess its legal framework. We applied a method divided into two parts: review and analysis of the legislative aspects of the EIA system in Armenia and the circulation of a survey-questionnaire to EIA experts to establish current practices. The findings of this research provided positive and negative factors which can both be used to improve the assessment system in Armenia. While the most significant EIA strength combines the existence of a systematic law and public involvement in this process, the law has weaknesses in its monitoring, informative and quality control provisions. Moreover, public participation has many weaknesses in practice, including the definition of stakeholders and the lack of guidelines and manuals which challenges expert action. Finally, this paper has explored the major positives and negatives of the Armenian EIA system in practice, and we consider that this should help other Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries define and combat the challenges of their EIA systems.

scholarly journals A Geografia Universitária em época de Benchmarking

Finisterra ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (79) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Barata Salgueiro
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
University Studies ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Labor Market Access ◽  
The Bologna Process

The Bologna process has brought some new dimensions to the discussion around the structure and organization of university degrees. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by focusing on three particular aspects: the increase in the level of competition between the schools, the type of labor market access rendered possible by the first cycle of studies and, in close relationship with the latter aspect, the issue of the skills and competences that the students are supposed to have acquired upon ending their university studies. Finally, we address the issue of the teaching methods and their repercussions upon the structure of the courses.

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