Dame Edna and ‘the help’

‘Dame Edna Everage’, a persona originally created by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries in 1955, is a character designed to simultaneously shock and amuse. Dame Edna voices (and satirizes) the discourse of ‘average’, older, politically conservative Anglo-Australians who feel compelled to ‘tell it like it is’ – no matter how offensive their opinions might be. In the Anglosphere, Edna’s humour is well understood and sustained international success has followed Edna for more than 60 years in Britain, Canada, the US and Australia. However, Edna occasionally misfires. In 2003, for instance, Edna’s satire outraged Latinos across the USA, in fulfillment of Poe’s Law (Aikin, 2009). Simply put, Latinos assumed that Edna’s comments satirising negative mainstream attitudes towards them were expressive of Edna’s authentic racism. This paper investigates the Edna joke in the overall context of failed humour and then specifically for the offensiveness it generated amongst the Latino minority in the United States. It then tests whether this reaction was the result of a discursive frame specific to the US context, by conducting an exploratory study amongst a small sample of highly educated Australian bilingual Latin American immigrants and their adult children, to see whether they thought Edna’s joke was funny. These Australian individuals of Latin American heritage responded via an online questionnaire, and an analysis of their responses is presented here. The study’s main finding is that while these individuals generally demonstrated a high comedic literacy across both English and Spanish, including a prior awareness of Edna’s and Australian humour, they overall rejected the intention and humour of Edna’s joke. This paper asserts that, when it comes to humour, some transnational migrant speech community loyalties transcend other notions of identity and language competence.

Interregional Mobility of Latin American Immigrants in Canada: Explorations Using Tax Filer Data

Using data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), which links tax filer information to provinces of landing information and current regions, the author carried out data explorations regarding the interregional mobility of 98,440 Latin American immigrants arriving in Canada between 2000 and 2014. These were observed in the tax year 2014. The interregional mobility of citizens from 15 citizenship countries was examined: Argentinians, Bolivians, Brazilians, Chileans, Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Salvadoreans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Peruvians, Uruguayans, and Venezuelans. Immigrants were allowed entry into Canada under various immigrant intake classes such as economic, family, and refugee. Examination of retention and net migration rates showed that Alberta and British Columbia were among those who benefited the most from Latino immigrant inflows during the observation period. About one in five Latinos had moved outside their original landing region by the tax year 2014. Citizens of various nationalities left the Atlantic, Quebec and Manitoba regions for other ones. Interregional mobility was found the highest among males, earlier arrival cohort members, those with higher educational levels and economic principal applicants. Colombian citizens were the most mobile group while Nicaraguans, Bolivians, and Ecuadorians were the least mobile. The regional triangle constituted by Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec was found to be the dominant one in the network of all migratory exchanges. Tracking the interregional mobility of Latin American immigrants to Canada after arrival provides interesting insights into how this particular immigrant population is redistributed, how it may respond to the needs of regional economies, and also speaks to the success of immigrant integration and resettlement of Latin American immigrants in particular regions of Canada.

High Mortality Rate Among Latin American Immigrants With Covid-19 Hospitalised in Milan, Italy: Data From the Luigi Sacco Hospital Registry

Background To assess differences in the probability of COVID-19-related death between native Italians and immigrants hospitalised with COVID-19. Methods This was a retrospective study of prospectively collected data conducted at the ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco Hospital in Milan, Italy, between 21 February and 31 November 2020. Uni- and multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the impact of the patients' origin on the probability of COVID-19-related death. Results The study population consisted of 1,179 COVID-19 patients: 921 Italians (78.1%) and 258 immigrants (21.9%) from Latin America (99, 38.4%), Asia (72, 27.9%), Africa (50, 19.4%) and central/eastern Europe (37, 14.3%). The Italians were older (p < 0.001) and more frequently affected by co-morbidities (p < 0.001). Mortality was significantly greater among the Italians than the immigrants as a whole (26.6% vs 12.8%; p < 0.001), and significantly greater among the immigrants from Latin America than among those from Asia, Africa and central/eastern Europe (21.2% vs 8.3%, 6% and 8.1%, respectively; p = 0.016). Multivariate analyses showed that a Latin American origin was independently associated with an increased risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio 1.95, 95% confidence interval 1.17–3.23). Conclusions Our findings support the need to strengthen COVID-19 information and prevention initiatives in the Latin American community living in Milan.

The Nature and Structure of MS-13 in Los Angeles County

Recent descriptions of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) by senior U.S. government officials suggest that the gang is highly organized, has significant transnational capacity, and is heavily involved in violence. Arguably, these depictions have created moral panic among the public and have fed xenophobic attitudes toward Latin American immigrants. However, little is known from empirical research about the nature and structure of MS-13 in the United States. In this article, we draw on data from interviews with incarcerated MS-13 members in Los Angeles County, the birthplace of MS-13. We examine three key aspects of MS-13: its organizational characteristics, its transnational capacity, and its involvement in criminal behavior, including violence. Our findings provide a useful descriptive summary of MS-13 in Los Angeles County, where the gang originated. Our findings also suggest that while there are good reasons to take MS-13 seriously as a threat to public safety, much of the public discourse on the gang is based on inaccurate assumptions.

Links between White Settler Colony in Quebec and the Barriers to the Economic Integration of Skilled Latin American Immigrants

Although Quebec has gone through a period of strong economic growth, it is now struggling with a new labour shortage caused by the shrinking labor pool. Ironically, many foreign-educated immigrants face difficulties associated with entering the labour market and integrating into the workforce. Specifically, recent immigrants from African, Asian, and Latin American countries, who are considered part of visible minority groups, have faced barriers to entry. This paper focuses on the Latin American economic immigrant group and argues that the gap on human and social capital of minority group immigrants and majority group Quebecers cannot be explained simply by analyzing racially motivated actions. Rather, Quebec as a White colonial settler society plays a much more important role in making it very difficult for skilled immigrants to get equal levels of income. By analyzing postcolonial concepts, this document underlines how language politics, notions of citizenship and global neoliberal capitalism have shaped a harsh labour market that contributes to structural causes for inequality among skilled Latin American immigrants in Quebec.