Social housing in France: A permanent and multifaceted challenge for public policies

This paper examines the dynamics of the overwhelmingly generous social housing in France that covers a wide spectrum of recipients. Being influenced by electoral power of rotating ruling parties and social ideals, policy formulations are often reflected by idealistic politics which tends to over-stretch the nation’s budget and restrict its scope in reaching its target groups. From the 1990s, fund availability has been further hit by economic globalization causing falling business profitability and high unemployment rates affecting notably ethnic minorities. Upcoming social crisis has been met with public response via a series of technical-led remedial acts to promote social integration in housing and by identifying social ills and polarization in sensitive and problematic urban quarters. New technical and financial measures in coping with the complexity and magnitude of social housing are expected to remain highly challenging in the French parliamentary politics.     

Ethnic patterns of returns to education in Bulgaria

It is widely accepted that disparities in education contribute to the poor labour market outcomes experienced by ethnic minority groups and consequently to their poverty. In this article, I analyse differential educational benefits in Bulgaria and compare returns to education for the Roma minority with the majority population and the Turkish minority. I show that both ethnic minority groups have lower education levels and employment rates than the majority population and that they also have lower returns to education. This result could be related to minorities' lower education quality as well as to discrimination in the labour market. Integration policies should thus aim to improve employability and labour market competence of vulnerable groups starting from school.     

Analysis of travel behavior in Arab communities in Israel: a comparison of household surveys

This paper analyzes the main characteristics of travel behavior by the Arab minority community in Israel and discusses two issues related to household travel surveys: data collection among minorities and under-reporting of mid-day trips.Household travel surveys are generally designed and conducted for the majority population and, therefore, lack a proper accounting of minorities and miss many of their less-frequent trips. An alternative approach to conducting household surveys is presented, with the aim of improving data quality for transportation planning. The survey was designed for and conducted in three Arab towns in Israel. The main improvement of the survey involves better interaction between interviewer and interviewee, which should materialize into a relaxed environment that allows for obtaining detailed, reliable results within a reasonable amount of time.The results of the survey employing the alternative approach were compared to a sub-sample of the same towns taken from a regional survey conducted by the regional planning agency at the same time. The paper presents simple statistics on the main variables for each survey. Significant differences are found in the two data sets, mostly regarding the frequency of less frequent, non-home-based trips. A plausible explanation for these differences relates to the more detailed and improved data collected in the new survey.     

面向民汉融合的实践教学创新模式分析

本文在分析新疆教育现状的基础上,讨论了面向民汉融合的实践教学改革的必要性,提出了面向民汉融合的新疆高等教育实践教学创新改革模式;深入分析如何构建专业知识网络体系及基于民汉融合小组的实践网络模式;讨论如何加强实践教学的知识传导管理,引导教师与学生在教学知识网络中通过反馈进行互动。     

Employment discrimination in a former Soviet Union Republic: Evidence from a field experiment

We provide the first experimental evidence about ethnic and gender discrimination in the labor market of a former Soviet Union country, Georgia. We randomly assign Georgian and non-Georgian, male and female, names to similar resumes and apply for jobs as advertised on help-wanted websites in Georgia. We find that gender has no effect on the probability of callback, but a job applicant who is ethnically Georgian is more than twice as likely to be called for a job interview than an equally skilled ethnic non-Georgian (Azerbaijani or Armenian). The 113% ethnic gap in callbacks (167% among males and 79% among females), which is substantially larger than the gap typically documented in the existing literature for both developed and developing countries, is statistically significant and cannot be abridged by having more experience or education. There is no evidence of gender discrimination in callbacks, both within the Georgian group and the non-Georgian group.     

新疆少数民族人口增长对少数民族地区经济发展的影响分析

人口问题是当今世界面临的重大问题之一,人口规模及其增长速度的变化影响着社会经济的发展。新疆是边疆少数民族地区,生态环境脆弱,经济发展滞后,人口增长过快。本文以人口与经济相互影响、相互制约的关系为主线,分析新疆少数民族人口增长对少数民族地区经济发展的影响,并提出协调新疆少数民族人口增长与少数民族地区经济发展的政策建议。     

Women of influence: A case study of three telecommunications policymakers

With some notable exceptions, the scholarly literature in communications policy mostly reflects the accomplishments of men. “Women of Influence” expands this literature by profiling the experiences and contributions of three women: Cardiss Collins, the first African American Congresswoman from Illinois; Patricia Diaz Dennis, one of the first Hispanic FCC Commissioners; and Janice Obuchowski, the first woman appointed Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. Their policy work affected various issues from creating opportunities for minorities in broadcasting to helping countries privatize formerly government-owned media. Their experiences demonstrate the importance of including women and minorities in the policymaking process.     

Earnings Differentials among Ethnic Groups in Canada: A Review of the Research

Canada has a large foreign-born population with an increasingly diverse ethnic profile. The 1986 Employment Equity Act designated ''visible minorities,'' Aboriginal peoples, women, and disabled persons as facing labor market disadvantages. This review of a growing body of research on ethnic earning differentials shows that the sizeable earnings shortfall of Aboriginal peoples could be ''explained'' by their lesser endowments of work-related characteristics. The high variance in discrimination estimates among men can be traced to the treatment of immigration effects, aggregation of diverse ethnic groups, and the choice of the non-discriminatory earnings norm.     

城市少数民族文化传承与社区关系重构——以开封市H回族区为例

随着近年来城市的快速发展,开封市H回族区民族文化与社区关系出现了新变化。一方面,域市文化旅游业带动了经济的发展,激发了人们对经济利益的追求,也重塑了居民的价值观念。当地回族在宗教文化的“重商观念”中探寻与文化旅游业的结合点,既传承和发扬了回族的饮食文化,又适应了城市经济的发展需求。另一方面,域市拆迁和城市改造打破了封闭的社区格局,回汉社区之间的交流增多,原有的社区关系面临着不断消解的危机。当地回族通过民族学校教育、民族饮食文化展示等方式,不仅提升了回族社区内部的凝聚力与归属感,而且增强了其他民族对回族文化的理解和认同,促进了各社区间和谐关系的形成,由此完成了社区关系的重构。     

Consumer ethics: moral ideologies and ethical beliefs of a micro-culture in the US

This study explores the ethical ideologies and ethical beliefs of African American consumers using the Forsyth ethical position questionnaire (EPQ) and the Muncy–Vitell consumer ethics questionnaire (MVQ). The two dimensions of the EPQ (i.e. idealism and relativism), and gender were the independent variables and the four dimensions of the MVQ (i.e. illegal, active, passive and no harm) were the dependent variables. A sample of 283 students from a historically black university was used to explore the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Findings suggested that consumers who scored higher on the idealism scale and lower on the relativism scale were more likely to reject questionable activities. On average, females expressed more willingness to reject questionable activities than males.