scholarly journals What Drives Youth’s Intention to Migrate Abroad? Evidence from International Survey Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santo Milasi

AbstractDespite the bulk of international migrants being youth, little is known about the factors driving young people’s migration behavior at the global level. Using the individual-level survey data from Gallup World Poll across 139 countries over the period 2010–2016, this study contributes to the literature by exploring a wide range of factors potentially shaping young people’s (aged 15–34) desire, and a more concrete plan, to migrate abroad permanently. Results show that factors, such as holding post-secondary education, being unemployed, and working part-time involuntary, are increasing the desire of youth to migrate abroad as well as the probability that they turn this aspiration into a more concrete plan over the following year. Similarly, having negative expectations about the economic outlook, the number of available job opportunities, and the prospects for upward career mobility are found to increase the propensity to migrate abroad, both among unemployed and employed youth. Results also show that material deprivation may represent a significant push factor behind youth migration, although budgetary constraints may prevent youth from transforming their migration desires into actual plans in low-income countries. Moreover, findings suggest that contextual factors, such as discontent with local amenities and national governments, increase the desire of youth to migrate abroad, but they have little or no influence on the probability that these dreams are turned into more concrete plans. Finally, this study shows that while youth’s and adults’ migration propensities are often driven by the same motives, the influence of education and labor market-related factors on migration intentions is considerably stronger among youth than adults.

Author(s):  
Fréric Pagè ◽  
Dominique Maison ◽  
Michael Faulde

The burden of communicable diseases is ten times higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in terms of mortality rate and of years of life lost. Most of the LMCIs are in tropical or subtropical areas with vector-favorable climate conditions and poverty impeding access to improved water supply, sanitation, and efficient health care coverage. Public health strategies to control infectious diseases can be sorted by prevention level. Infectious diseases control strategies often combine actions from different prevention levels according to the stage of a disease. At the individual level, actions and interventions are succeeding in a logical cascade following the stage of the disease as community-level actions are implemented. We present strategies that have been implemented to control infectious diseases, their limits and the needs to attain successful control of infectious diseases in LMICs.


Author(s):  
David M. Wineroither ◽  
Rudolf Metz

AbstractThis report surveys four approaches that are pivotal to the study of preference formation: (a) the range, validity, and theoretical foundations of explanations of political preferences at the individual and mass levels, (b) the exploration of key objects of preference formation attached to the democratic political process (i.e., voting in competitive elections), (c) the top-down vs. bottom-up character of preference formation as addressed in leader–follower studies, and (d) gene–environment interaction and the explanatory weight of genetic predisposition against the cumulative weight of social experiences.In recent years, our understanding of sites and processes of (individual) political-preference formation has substantially improved. First, this applies to a greater variety of objects that provide fresh insight into the functioning and stability of contemporary democracy. Second, we observe the reaffirmation of pivotal theories and key concepts in adapted form against widespread challenge. This applies to the role played by social stratification, group awareness, and individual-level economic considerations. Most of these findings converge in recognising economics-based explanations. Third, research into gene–environment interplay rapidly increases the number of testable hypotheses and promises to benefit a wide range of approaches already taken and advanced in the study of political-preference formation.


Author(s):  
Maria F. Hoen ◽  
Simen Markussen ◽  
Knut Røed

AbstractWe examine how immigration affects natives’ relative prime-age labor market outcomes by economic class background, with class background established on the basis of parents’ earnings rank. Exploiting alternative sources of variation in immigration patterns across time and space, we find that immigration from low-income countries reduces intergenerational mobility and thus steepens the social gradient in natives’ labor market outcomes, whereas immigration from high-income countries levels it. These findings are robust with respect to a wide range of identifying assumptions. The analysis is based on high-quality population-wide administrative data from Norway, which is one of the rich-world countries with the most rapid rise in the immigrant population share over the past two decades. Our findings suggest that immigration can explain a considerable part of the observed relative decline in economic performance among natives with a lower-class background.


Author(s):  
Michele J. Gelfand ◽  
Nava Caluori ◽  
Sarah Gordon ◽  
Jana Raver ◽  
Lisa Nishii ◽  
...  

Research on culture has generally ignored social situations, and research on social situations has generally ignored culture. In bringing together these two traditions, we show that nations vary considerably in the strength of social situations, and this is a key conceptual and empirical bridge between macro and distal cultural processes and micro and proximal psychological processes. The model thus illustrates some of the intervening mechanisms through which distal societal factors affect individual processes. It also helps to illuminate why cultural differences persist at the individual level, as they are adaptive to chronic differences in the strength of social situations. The strength of situations across cultures can provide new insights into cultural differences in a wide range of psychological processes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimba Henerico ◽  
Richard V. Makapa ◽  
Bernard C. Okamo ◽  
Benson R. Kidenya ◽  
Geoffrey Japhet ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a global public health problem, with the highest burden occurring in low-income countries, wherein the use of more sensitive diagnostics, such as Xpert MTB/RIF (GeneXpert), is still limited by costs. Testing of pooled samples from various individuals has been thought and thus investigated as a cost saving strategy to diagnose some diseases including TB. Then in cases where a pool is positive, retesting of the individual samples in that pool is done to identify the positive sample. We assessed the utility of a pooled testing strategy to optimize the affordability of GeneXpert for the diagnosis of TB Mwanza Tanzania. Methods: Remainder of samples from presumptive TB patients submitted for routine TB diagnosis were used for pooled samples (5 per pool) testing. The agreement of the results between individual sample testing against pooled samples testing and cost-effectiveness were assessed.Results: A total of 250 individual routinely submitted samples for TB diagnosis were tested using the established protocols. The median age of study participants was 35 [IQR 27 – 40] years and 143 (57.2%) were males. Of the 250 samples, 28 (11.2%) were detected to have MTB whereas 222 (88.8%) samples, were negative. Of the 50 sputum pools made, MTB were detected in 17 (34.0%) pools. Following retesting of these 17 positive pools, all 28 (100%) individual MTB samples were detected with the overall agreement being 100% (With the sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 100%). The number of individual MTB positive ranged from 1 to 3 per pool. Using pooling of sputum samples, the technique saved 115 (46.0%) of the cartridges in running 250 samples. This is equivalent to saving US$ 1147.7. Conclusion: The pooled sputum testing strategy reduced cartridge costs by 46.0%. The use of the pooled testing strategy reduces costs and has the potential to increase the affordability of GeneXpert testing in countries with limited resources. Pooled sputum for Xpert MTB/RIF can be used as an affordable diagnostic and/or screening tool in resource limited settings, such as Tanzania.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. e001830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladson Hinton ◽  
Duyen Tran ◽  
Thuc-Nhi Nguyen ◽  
Janis Ho ◽  
Laura Gitlin

IntroductionDespite increasing numbers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s-related dementias (AD/ADRD) in Asia, particularly in low-income countries (LIC) and middle-income countries (MIC), surprisingly little is known about the current state of the evidence for family caregiver interventions. The objectives of this scoping review were to: (1) describe the evidence for efficacy of family dementia-caregiver psychosocial interventions in Asian countries, (2) compare evidence across LIC, MIC, and high-income countries (HIC), and (3) characterise cultural adaptions to interventions developed outside Asia.MethodsThe inclusion criteria included: (1) conducted in Asia (2) included an intervention delivered to a family caregiver of a person living with AD/ADRD, (3) reported quantitative outcomes for the family caregiver and (4) published in a peer-reviewed journal with full text available in English.ResultsThirty intervention trials were identified meeting inclusion criteria and all reported statistically significant (p<0.05) improvement in one or more caregiver outcomes. Interventions usually included multiple components. The most frequently reported outcomes (ie, by ≥20% of studies) were caregiver depression, burden, quality of life and self-efficacy. Overall, 26 (87%) of the studies were conducted in HIC in Asia, primarily in Hong Kong SAR—China and Taiwan, and only 4 (13%) in LIC and MIC in Asia. Seven studies (23%) used interventions developed in USA and several described cultural adaptations.ConclusionThis scoping review found substantial evidence, particularly from high-income Asian countries, that a wide range of interventions improve AD/ADRD family caregiver outcomes. However, critical knowledge gaps exist, particularly for LIC and MIC in Asia, where the number of persons with dementia is numerically largest and projected to increase dramatically in coming decades. The field could also benefit from more detailed descriptions of the process and types of cultural adaptations to interventions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (17) ◽  
pp. 3140-3150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie L Flax ◽  
Chrissie Thakwalakwa ◽  
Courtney H Schnefke ◽  
Heather Stobaugh ◽  
John C Phuka ◽  
...  

AbstractObjective:To validate digitally displayed photographic portion-size estimation aids (PSEA) against a weighed meal record and compare findings with an atlas of printed photographic PSEA and actual prepared-food PSEA in a low-income country.Design:Participants served themselves water and five prepared foods, which were weighed separately before the meal and again after the meal to measure any leftovers. Participants returned the following day and completed a meal recall. They estimated the quantities of foods consumed three times using the different PSEA in a randomized order.Setting:Two urban and two rural communities in southern Malawi.Participants:Women (n 300) aged 18–45 years, equally divided by urban/rural residence and years of education (≤4 years and ≥5 years).Results:Responses for digital and printed PSEA were highly correlated (>91 % agreement for all foods, Cohen’s κw = 0·78–0·93). Overall, at the individual level, digital and actual-food PSEA had a similar level of agreement with the weighed meal record. At the group level, the proportion of participants who estimated within 20 % of the weighed grams of food consumed ranged by type of food from 30 to 45 % for digital PSEA and 40–56 % for actual-food PSEA. Digital PSEA consistently underestimated grams and nutrients across foods, whereas actual-food PSEA provided a mix of under- and overestimates that balanced each other to produce accurate mean energy and nutrient intake estimates. Results did not differ by urban and rural location or participant education level.Conclusions:Digital PSEA require further testing in low-income settings to improve accuracy of estimations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ângelo J. Mendes ◽  
Daniel T. Haydon ◽  
Emma McIntosh ◽  
Nick Hanley ◽  
Jo E. B. Halliday

This paper aims to illustrate the interdependencies between key epidemiological and economic factors that influence the control of many livestock infectious diseases. The factors considered here are (i) farmer heterogeneity (i.e., differences in how farmers respond to a perceived disease risk), (ii) off-farm effects of farmers' actions to control a disease (i.e., costs and benefits borne by agents that are external to the farm), and (iii) misalignment between privately and socially optimal control efforts (i.e., privately optimal behavior not conducive to a socially optimal outcome). Endemic chronic diseases cause a wide range of adverse social and economic impacts, particularly in low-income countries. The actions taken by farmers to control livestock diseases minimize some of these impacts, and heterogeneity in those actions leads to variation in prevalence at the farm level. While some farmers respond to perceived disease risks, others free-ride on the actions of these individuals, thereby compromising the potential benefits of collective, coordinated behavior. When evaluating a plausible range of disease cost to price of control ratios and assuming that farmers choose their privately optimal control effort, we demonstrate that achievement of a socially optimal disease control target is unlikely, occurring in &lt;25% of all price-cost combinations. To achieve a socially optimal disease control outcome (reliant on farmers' voluntary actions), control policies must consider farmer heterogeneity, off-farm effects, and the predicted uptake of control measures under the assumption of optimized behavior.


Author(s):  
Jérôme Gautié ◽  
Sophie Ponthieux

This article examines the phenomenon of working poverty and issues relating to employment and the working poor. It first provides an overview of the problems of definition and measurement regarding the working poor, along with the consequences of the diversity of definitions. In particular, it considers different current definitions of the statistical category “working poor” and how definitions affect the assessment of the in-work poverty phenomenon. It also provides a “statistical” portrait of the working poor and explores how the risk of working poverty has evolved in the 2000s. Finally, it discusses the causes of working poverty, including low income at the individual level and the role of welfare states, and outlines potential remedies in terms of public policies.


Policy Papers ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (33) ◽  
Author(s):  

In April 2011, Executive Directors held a preliminary discussion on the use of the profits of SDR 6.85 billion from the Fund’s limited gold sale. They noted their expectation that at least SDR 4.4 billion of the profits would be placed in an endowment within the Investment Account, and affirmed their support for the 2009 financing package for low-income countries (LICs), including the distribution to the Fund’s membership of up to SDR 0.7 billion from the profits linked to gold sales, with the expectation that most members will return equivalent funds to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT). There was a wide range of views among Directors on the three main options presented for the windfall of SDR 1.75 billion, but no consensus favoring a single option. The main options presented included use of resources linked to the windfall to boost the capacity of the PRGT, counting the windfall towards precautionary balances, or investing the windfall profits as part of the Investment Account’s endowment. Many Directors indicated that they could support a combination of two or more of the main options.


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