“When You See Nature,Nature Give You Something Inside”: The Role of Nature-based Leisure in Fostering Refugee Well-being in Canada

This study investigated the impacts of nature-based leisure on the well-being of refugees in Canada. For this interpretive study we used semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation to explore four refugees' experiences of a two-day winter camping experience in northern Alberta and how it might foster their well-being. Participants, from three African countries, and Iran, welcomed an opportunity to be away in a natural setting, to connect with others, to learn new activities, involve their families, and as a distraction from their daily lives. Refugees acknowledged the welcoming efforts of the social services and parks agencies in bolstering their confidence and well-being. Refugees' experiences underscored both the importance of access to nature-based leisure in mitigating stress, and host societies' attitudes toward newcomers in fostering their well-being. Our findings suggest that developing nature-based leisure opportunities for refugees may promote their well-being and sense of belonging.     

日本“购物难民”的产生、影响及启示

人口老龄化已经成为影响经济发展的全球性问题。日益严峻的老龄化问题,引发了如何为老年人提供相应的生活照料、满足其日常生活需求等经济社会问题。商业设施大型化和郊区化、城市中心商业街空洞化、近邻型的商业设施减少以及私家车的普及均是日本“购物难民”问题产生的原因,并对日本零售业的发展产生影响。为缓解“购物难民”问题,日本政府高度重视,各部门分别制定并实施不同政策,在资金、交通、商业规划等方面解决老年消费群体购物难的问题;零售企业积极参与,采用灵活的经营策略,有针对性地满足老年人的需求;非营利组织帮助零售企业解决痛点问题,提高商品运输和配送效率,发挥会员机制的作用,及时把新鲜健康的食材送到老年消费者手中;政府、零售企业和非营利组织共同构建了为不同层次老年消费者提供服务的协同合作系统。借鉴日本经验,应该认识到我国人口老龄化的严峻性,预测并重视“购物难民”等问题的到来:在政府宏观调控层面,引导开发老年消费市场,完善商业布局;在企业微观经营层面,构建适应老年市场需求的经营战略,创新经营方式,开发新的经营业态;进而构建由市场主导、政府引导、企业作为主力军的“购物难民”问题应对体系。     

Utopian community football? Sport,hope and belongingness in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers

Refugees and asylum seekers have become increasingly demonised as part of anti-migrant sentiment leading to social exclusion. Sport has been utilised as a tool for social cohesion though evidence as to its efficacy in such a task is limited. Based on a three-year research programme exploring the role of football in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in the U.K., this paper examines the concept of belonging, provides evidence for the role of community-based sport in social development and concludes with a call for practitioners to maximise their belief in concrete utopian ideals without losing the inherent critical approach needed to positively develop the industry in which they work.     

生态难民法律保护的不足及其完善

本文将由于生态恶化所导致的流离失所者和生活水平低于一定社会适度的人群定义为生态难民。通过对我国生态难民保护在法律观念、立法以及法律保护机制上的不足的分析,提出转变观念、构建相关法律体系、设置公众参与环境影响评价机制、生态补偿机制、社会保障机制和环境公益诉讼机制等,完善生态难民的法律保护。     

Economic System and Financial Literacy: Evidence from North Korean Refugees

We compare the financial literacy of two groups of Koreans living in South Korea, namely, native-born South Koreans and North Korean refugees, who were born and raised in contrasting economic systems. Examining the financial literacy of North Korean refugees and its changes over time after their settlement in a capitalistic society underscores the importance of institutional environments in developing financial literacy. We find that North Korean refugees, with very limited access to financial markets in their home country, are significantly less financially literate than native-born South Koreans. The gap is significant even after controlling for cognitive ability, which is also starkly different between the two groups. The financial literacy of the refugees increases over time during their settlement in South Korea, but the magnitude of such improvement is insubstantial. Our findings suggest that financial literacy is developed at the early life stages and cannot be easily modified at the later stages.     

The interface between hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship,integration and well-being: A study of refugee entrepreneurs

Previous hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship research has emphasized the economic and financial outcomes of entrepreneurship whilst paying less attention to social outcomes. Specifically, minimal academic attention, both in mainstream entrepreneurship research and hospitality and tourism scholarship, has been paid to entrepreneurship as a means to facilitate the integration of refugees and enhance their well-being. To address this gap, this study aims to showcase how entrepreneurial activities in the hospitality and tourism industry contribute to the integration and subjective well-being of entrepreneurs. Drawing on data collected through 38 semi-structured interviews with Syrian refugee entrepreneurs in Turkey and the UK, the findings reveal that several factors influence the contribution of entrepreneurial activities to the integration of entrepreneurs and their families within the host society. Entrepreneurial activities also appear to have positive spillover effects on subjective well-being. This paper offers new insights into the social outcomes of hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship by conceptualizing and empirically supporting the relationship between hospitality entrepreneurship, integration and well-being.     

Do asylum-seekers respond to policy changes? Evidence from the Swedish–Syrian case*

Do asylum-seekers respond to policy changes in their destination country, and to what extent? We approach this question by using high-frequency data, and we focus on a sudden liberalization in Swedish policy toward Syrian asylum-seekers, which implied permanent instead of temporary residence. We show a clear and fast, yet temporary, increase in Syrian asylum applications in Sweden after the policy change. Also, the policy caused a shift – not limited to the short term – in the share of individuals arriving without family, and consequently in the share applying for family reunification. Our study adds quasi-experimental evidence to the literature on inter-country asylum flows and migration policy.     

GOVERNING MIGRATION THROUGH SMALL TOWNS: Dispersal and the Production of Spaces of Transit

Based on qualitative long-term fieldwork conducted in a peripherally located small town in East Germany, this article compares the dispersal of repatriates from the former Soviet Union with that of recent refugee arrivals. It shows that in this small town the dispersal and local governance of refugees builds on previous approaches to dealing with repatriates. Such approaches repeatedly result in cycles of localized distribution and subsequent small-scale segregation, short-term integration activities, the detachment of both groups from the town and, finally, migrants’ subsequent outmigration and relocation to other (mostly larger) cities. To make sense of this path dependency in terms of its specific patterns and characteristics, and to explore the relationships between dispersal, local policy framings, and in- and outmigration to and from small towns, I apply a studying through dispersal approach. This approach reveals that dispersal is an important factor in making and unmaking local migration policies. It can turn small towns into productive sites for migration governance, often transforming them into mere waiting zones and transit spaces. This not only continues migrants’ experiences of displacement but also impacts on the image of the small town, where migrants themselves may not want to reside permanently.     

Farewell Anatolia: Refugees & the rise of the Greek Left

The population exchange of 1923 between Greece and Turkey consolidated the influx of more than 1.5 million refugees from Anatolia and East Thrace into Greece. In this article, we exploit the regional distribution of refugees at the sub-prefectural (province) level as a natural experiment in order to delineate the political effects of what the Greeks call the Asia Minor Catastrophe. We find that the settlement of refugees produced positive persistent effects on the electoral share of left-wing parties in the interwar and postwar periods. This is particularly the case for provinces with a high settlement rate of refugees originating from Asia Minor rather than from East Thrace or the Black Sea region. However, the refugee impact on the left-wing vote disappears completely in the post-dictatorship period.