Health Inequalities amongst Refugees and Migrant Workers in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Report of Two Cases

Malaysia hosts a significant number of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrant workers. Healthcare access for these individuals has always proved a challenge: language barriers, financial constraints and mobility restrictions are some of the frequently cited hurdles. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these existing inequalities, with migrants and refugees bearing the brunt of chronic systemic injustices. Providing equitable healthcare access for all, regardless of their citizenship and social status remains an ethical challenge for healthcare providers, particularly within the framework of a resource-limited healthcare system. Inclusive healthcare and socio-economic policies are necessary to ensure every individual’s equal opportunity to attain good health. The collective experiences of refugees and migrants in the pursuit of healthcare, as highlighted by the two cases described, showcases the importance of equity in healthcare access and the detrimental implications of non-inclusive healthcare and socio-economic policies.

Unequal Opportunities and Individual Achievements: Effect of Family Background

Equal opportunity theory is based on the idea that inequality of individual achievements is a complex phenomenon. It is formed by two groups of factors: (1) one's own decisions and efforts (inequality of efforts) and (2) circumstances beyond one's control (inequality of opportunities). Therefore, wealth inequality caused by effort factors (1) is fair and is not to be compensated for, whereas differences in welfare caused by objective circumstances (2) are unfair and should be compensable (the compensation principle). This paper introduces an assessment of circumstances associated with family background: composition, psychological atmosphere, well-being, occupation, education, etc. Parents' education and two-parent status appeared to be the most important circumstances. Respondents who grew up in a two-parent family with both biological parents had a higher income than those who grew up in one-parent families or with one biological and one stepparent. The low economic status of the parental family also proved to affect the well-being of grown-up children. Thus, efforts to provide equal opportunities can have a long-term effect on social inequality and build a more just society.

Are Pakistani Business Schools Fulfilling the Requirements of Pakistan’s Growing IT Industry?

Even with its expanding nature, IT industry in Pakistan has been neglected by the researchers and no research has been conducted to understand the needs of this industry with regards to the required employability skills in business school graduates. This is research conducted to understand the extent to which business schools are satisfying the needs of the IT industry for which 15 IT firm HR managers were interviewed. It can be concluded that the most important and sought after employability skills by IT firm HR managers are interpersonal communication skills and lifelong learning skills. It was surprising to note that even though IT firms realized the high standard of foreign universities they felt that graduates from high ranking Pakistani universities were a better option for them as they understood the dynamics of Pakistani market. Even though all firms were dissatisfied by low ranking business schools, there were still those that gave equal opportunity to all business school graduates and gauged them in isolation regardless of their business school. The paper at the end provides recommendations for Pakistani business schools that would help them to place themselves among world’s top ranking business schools.

Burnt Out and Dropping Out: A Comparison of the Experiences of Autistic and Non-autistic Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Autistic students are more likely to drop out of university, while facing both challenges and opportunities within university environments. This study compared the experiences of autistic and non-autistic current United Kingdom students, in terms of thoughts about dropping out, burnout, mental health and coping, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout was of particular interest as this is a relatively unexamined phenomenon for autistic students. Seventy autistic and 315 non-autistic students, completed a mixed methods questionnaire with standardized measures of burnout (personal and academic), mental health (depression, stress, and anxiety), and coping styles (adaptive and maladaptive). We also included qualitative questions about dropping out and COVID-19 experiences. We found autistic participants experienced higher rates of burnout and mental health symptoms and were more likely to have thought about dropping out. Reasons given for thinking about dropping out, for both groups, focused on poor mental well-being, doubts about university, and academic challenges. For autistic participants, further analyses did not identify specific predictors of thinking about dropping out, but for non-autistic participants, this was predicted by maladaptive coping styles and academic burnout. Academic and personal burnout predicted one another for autistic students, and age, maladaptive coping, autistic characteristics, stress, and anxiety additionally predicted burnout for non-autistic students. Similarities in experiences during the pandemic were noted, with both groups experiencing negative social implications, difficulties adjusting to emergency online learning, and poorer psychological well-being. Moving forward from COVID-19, universities must find ways to enhance both academic and social support, to enable equal opportunity within Higher Education for autistic students.

Re-Conceptualizing Diversity Management

This chapter highlights how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. However, the adverse, lived experiences that socially marginalized people experience are concealed within business goals despite having their “difference” marketed as a competitive advantage. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize diversity management as having mutually inclusive, intersecting goals rather than mutually exclusive, competing goals.

Satisfaction of visually disabled users with California educational websites

BACKGROUND: College and university websites in the United States are legally required to meet accessibility standards to promote equal opportunity in education for blind and visually disabled students. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the recognized standard for website accessibility. OBJECTIVE: Determine how satisfied blind and visually disabled college and university students are with college and university websites in California, and whether compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a good predictor of that satisfaction. METHODS: A random sample of websites from California colleges and universities was evaluated for accessibility compliance. A stratified sample of six websites was taken from the initial sample. Thirty blind or visually disabled students performed a prescribed series of tasks on each of the six websites, then answered a Likert-format survey regarding their satisfaction with each website. RESULTS: Sixty-three percent of websites did not meet the first priority accessibility criteria. Participant responses showed a majority were satisfied with websites, both compliant and non-compliant, and a strong correlation between satisfaction and accessibility compliance. CONCLUSIONS: Despite legal requirements, a majority or large minority of college and university websites in California do not meet accessibility guidelines, indicating a significant opportunity to improve the accessibility of those websites.

Too old to vote? A democratic analysis of age-weighted voting

Are there any prima facie reasons that democracies might have for disenfranchising older citizens? This question reflects increasingly salient, but often incompletely theorized complaints that members of democratic publics advance about older citizens’ electoral influence. Rather than rejecting these complaints out of hand, we explore whether, suitably reconstructed, they withstand democratic scrutiny. More specifically, we examine whether the account of political equality that seems to most fittingly capture the logic of these complaints – namely, equal opportunity of political influence over electoral outcomes – can justify disenfranchising older citizens. We conclude that equal opportunity of influence cannot ground a blanket disenfranchisement of older people and that, taken in conjunction with other general considerations that apply to all sound electoral policies, partial disenfranchisement proposals (i.e. proposals for reducing the electoral influence of older citizens via age-weighted voting) are both quasi-inapplicable and practically unrobust across a relevant range of political contexts.

Voices for egalitarian society

Periyar E. V. Ramasami Naicker is a social reformer far ahead of his times in Tamil Nadu. He wanted men and women to live with dignity and have equal opportunity to develop their faculties. To secure this, he was against all types of discrimination and advocated social justice and a rational outlook. His voices are echoed for an egalitarian and casteless society where equality of status of all the people including women is ensured. Dravidians are inspired by him, and they emulate his courage, which came not from bravery but from a deep commitment to Self-Respect, which gained Periyar the world’s adulation.

Saved by the Bell: A Feminist Approach to High School Architecture

<p>The years spent as high school students are some of the most formative to the development of confidence in identity, and in preparing young people to be resilient adults. The school environments in which development occurs have an imperative role to play in providing space for identity to form freely and in providing equal opportunity for students to succeed. This research will focus on understanding how architecture might provide the space for identities to form freely and how processes and spatial outcomes could encourage this development to happen equitably. This research engages feminist theory, processes and practices to increase spatial agency and identity agency for students. Encouraging the autonomy of students hopes to influence a sense of purpose and belonging to the space, and help students feel belonging within a community. The theoretical position of this research is between feminist practice and gender and space. Supporting fields of research include pedagogy and policy. Whilst each existing field is independently expansive in scope, this research explores how these fields intersect, overlap and function when applied to the context of high school architecture. A design-led methodology will inform four Pieces towards the completion of this research, each considering ‘design’ as the process, outcome and representation strategies. The first Piece, Processes, will involve the design and running of participatory workshops with students. The second Piece, Sites, will include photo analysis of existing schools to uncover what information existing architecture might be disseminating. The third Piece, Interventions, will be the design of actionable guides, posters, zines and ‘take- aways’ that share the findings of the research. The fourth and final Piece, Speculations, will include speculative concept designs that respond to the accumulated knowledge and provoke curiosity for the potential in this research area and way of practicing. The outcomes of this research, the feminist architectural processes, designs and communication, aim to better understand how to facilitate participation in architecture for identity development and therefore help equalise opportunities in education.</p>

Saved by the Bell: A Feminist Approach to High School Architecture

<p>The years spent as high school students are some of the most formative to the development of confidence in identity, and in preparing young people to be resilient adults. The school environments in which development occurs have an imperative role to play in providing space for identity to form freely and in providing equal opportunity for students to succeed. This research will focus on understanding how architecture might provide the space for identities to form freely and how processes and spatial outcomes could encourage this development to happen equitably. This research engages feminist theory, processes and practices to increase spatial agency and identity agency for students. Encouraging the autonomy of students hopes to influence a sense of purpose and belonging to the space, and help students feel belonging within a community. The theoretical position of this research is between feminist practice and gender and space. Supporting fields of research include pedagogy and policy. Whilst each existing field is independently expansive in scope, this research explores how these fields intersect, overlap and function when applied to the context of high school architecture. A design-led methodology will inform four Pieces towards the completion of this research, each considering ‘design’ as the process, outcome and representation strategies. The first Piece, Processes, will involve the design and running of participatory workshops with students. The second Piece, Sites, will include photo analysis of existing schools to uncover what information existing architecture might be disseminating. The third Piece, Interventions, will be the design of actionable guides, posters, zines and ‘take- aways’ that share the findings of the research. The fourth and final Piece, Speculations, will include speculative concept designs that respond to the accumulated knowledge and provoke curiosity for the potential in this research area and way of practicing. The outcomes of this research, the feminist architectural processes, designs and communication, aim to better understand how to facilitate participation in architecture for identity development and therefore help equalise opportunities in education.</p>