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1 – 10 of 61Suhair Alkilani, Martin Loosemore, Ahmed W.A. Hammad and Sophie-May Kerr
The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural, symbolic and economic capital to find meaningful work in the Australian construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports the results of a survey of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who have either successfully or unsuccessfully searched for employment in the Australian construction industry.
Findings
The findings dispel widely held negative stereotypes of about this group by describing a highly capable workforce which could address significant skills shortages in the industry, while concurrently diversifying the workforce. However, it is found that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants face considerable barriers to finding meaningful employment in the construction industry. In circumventing these barriers, education institutions, charities and community-based organisations play an especially important role, alongside friends and family networks. They do this by helping refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and deploy the necessary capital to secure meaningful work in the construction industry. Disappointingly, it is also found that the construction industry does little to help facilitate capital accumulation and deployment for this group, despite the urgent need to address diversity and critical skills shortages.
Originality/value
Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus, the findings make a number of new theoretical and practical contributions to the limited body of international research relating to the employment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the construction. The results are important because meaningful employment is widely accepted to be the single most factor in the successful integration of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into a host society and the construction industry represents an important source of potential employment for them.
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Patrick Hopkinson and Mats Niklasson
This paper aims to introduce International Digital Collaborative Autoethnographical Psychobiography (IDCAP).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce International Digital Collaborative Autoethnographical Psychobiography (IDCAP).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes how IDCAP was developed to answer research questions about what it takes and what it means to recover from mental illness. During its development, IDCAP combined the diverse and intersectional experiences, knowledge and interests of an Anglo-Swedish research team with what could be found in different publications concerning the experiences and the mental illnesses of the musicians Syd Barrett, Peter Green and Brian Wilson.
Findings
IDCAP combines features of autoethnography and psychobiography to offer a novel qualitative research method.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst IDCAP was created to focus on recovery from mental illness and musicians, it can be applied to other areas of research. It shares the same limitations as autoethnography and psychobiography, although some of the features of IDCAP may go some way to mitigate against these.
Practical implications
IDCAP is a novel research method that is offered to other researchers to develop and enhance further through application.
Social implications
IDCAP is a collaborative research method that encourages the involvement of a wide range of researchers from different countries and cultures. It can be used to give voice to marginalised groups and to counter discrimination and prejudice. Recovery from mental illness is a topic of great personal and social value.
Originality/value
IDCAP is a novel research method that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has not been explicitly used before.
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Daniela Silva, Marta Patrão and Liliana Sousa
Material inheritance transmission is a normative task in later life that has been scarcely studied, particularly when involving older childless adults. This study aims to deepen…
Abstract
Purpose
Material inheritance transmission is a normative task in later life that has been scarcely studied, particularly when involving older childless adults. This study aims to deepen the knowledge about the transmission of material inheritances by older (65+ years) childless Portuguese adults.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative exploratory study comprises 43 participants. A semi-structured interview was administered and submitted to content analysis.
Findings
Material inheritance transmission involves precipitant events (realizing they will not have children), deciding on content and moment (what and when), planning (getting legal advice, making a will and preventing family conflicts), distributing (usually based on values of reciprocity and strategic exchange) and resolution (marked by conflict).
Originality/value
Material inheritances have been mostly studied from economic and legal perspectives. This research examines material inheritances transmissions within family dynamics, showing that older childless individuals seem to use material inheritances in a strategic exchange way, to ensure they will be well cared for in old age.
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This paper aims to explore how employees reconceptualized their time and space to order and structure their lives in an unprecedented scenario of nonvoluntary work from home.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how employees reconceptualized their time and space to order and structure their lives in an unprecedented scenario of nonvoluntary work from home.
Design/methodology/approach
Set in the context of lockdowns due to the pandemic scenario, the study uses a constructivist approach to collect data through in-depth online interviews to understand how employees coped with the challenges emanating in a nonvoluntary work from home situation. The respondents were purposively selected to reflect a diverse pool in terms of gender, familial responsibilities and age/tenure.
Findings
The findings present temporal and spatial themes that provide several insights into how employees made sense of time and space as resources to navigate their challenging work-home roles.
Research limitations/implications
In the present study, the authors found that when boundaries get violated, it does not necessarily manifest in the form of dissatisfaction with one or the other domain. The respondents in the current study show-cased adjustment mechanism to cope with the boundary permeability that happened. They adopted ways in which they could safe-guard their multiple identities in the situation they found themselves in, do justice to the salient roles in their lives, emerge as more empathetic humans and look forward to a brighter and more hopeful future. This opens-up a possibility of studying the theory behind human behavior in crisis-like situations and the degree of acceptance that people show when they find themselves in undesirable-unalterable situations.
Practical implications
A mental reorientation is required on the part of both employees and employers to navigate smoothly in this new “normal” and find more sustainable solutions to the problem if the remote working or hybrid mode of working becomes mainstay. Clear demarcations between work and nonwork time are a key element to ensure proper work schedules for remote workers. Offline meetings and get-togethers can be organized on a periodic basis to facilitate employee interaction and engagement. Participation of employees in key decisions becomes more important in such situations as it makes employees feel more connected with their work space.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is original as it is set in a completely unprecedented situation of lockdowns (during the pandemic) that affected the lives of everyone in some way or the other. The findings of the study are unique and insightful, as they help understand the sense-making mechanism adopted by people to successfully navigate through the crisis.
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This paper explores the context within which experimental, pedagogically progressive schools were established in Australia during the first decades of the 20th century.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the context within which experimental, pedagogically progressive schools were established in Australia during the first decades of the 20th century.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a case study of the establishment of Rosbercon Girls’ Grammar School. It draws on educator accounts, archival documents and contemporary literature to provide a brief narrative of the events leading to the opening of the school; to sketch the family of educators who were pivotal in making it a reality; and to identify key aspects of the social and legislative context that made such an initiative possible.
Findings
Rosbercon was established at a time when a modest school could be established relatively easily by a small group of educators with a shared vision. The early 20th century was a moment of national optimism in Australia, where an appetite for new educational ideas created a climate in which innovative educators found fertile soil for their pedagogical experiments and adaptation of emerging ideas from around the world. Their efforts were facilitated by an emerging global network of personal interactions, professional learning, professional associations and educational literature.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the relative lack of scholarly examination of the origins of Rosbercon Girls’ Grammar School, an institution that previous authors have identified as Australia’s oldest experimental school. The case study also contributes to a broader appreciation of the trajectory of progressive education during the early 20th century.
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Patricia Yocie Hierofani and Micheline van Riemsdijk
As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on…
Abstract
Purpose
As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.
Findings
The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.
Originality/value
The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.
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This study aims to develop an extended social attachment model for expatriates, integrating a multiple stakeholder perspective, to understand evacuation decisions during disasters.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop an extended social attachment model for expatriates, integrating a multiple stakeholder perspective, to understand evacuation decisions during disasters.
Design/methodology/approach
Through interviews with 12 Tokyo-based expatriates who experienced the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, this study collects the lived experiences of a diverse set of expatriates. This data is analyzed abductively to map relevant evacuation factors and to propose a reaction typology.
Findings
While the 2011 Tohoku disasters caused regional destruction and fears of nuclear fallout, Tokyo remained largely unscathed. Still, many expatriates based in Tokyo chose to leave the country. Evacuation decisions were shaped by an interplay of threat assessment, location of attachment figures and cross-cultural adjustment. The study also discusses the influence of expatriate types.
Practical implications
Disaster planning is often overlooked or designed primarily with host country nationals in mind. Expatriates often lack the disaster experience and readiness of host country nationals in disaster-prone regions in Asia and beyond, and thus might need special attention when disaster strikes. This study provides advice for how to do so.
Originality/value
By unpacking the under-researched and complex phenomenon of expatriate reactions to disasters, this study contributes to the fields of international human resource and disaster management. Specifically, seven proposition on casual links leading to expatriate evacuation are suggested, paving the way for future research.
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Aktieva Tri Tjitrawati and Mochamad Kevin Romadhona
This study aims to analyse in the health access of Indonesian illegal migrant workers in Malaysia, during which time they were not covered by Indonesia’s national social health…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse in the health access of Indonesian illegal migrant workers in Malaysia, during which time they were not covered by Indonesia’s national social health insurance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a sociolegal approach, the research approach is conducted to understand the effect of a law, policy and regulation on access to health-care access among Indonesian migrant workers working illegally in Malaysia. This research involved 110 respondents who work illegally in Malaysia. The research explored the perceptions of respondents concerning to health access services of illegal migrant workers.
Findings
The study demonstrated the weakness of provisions intended to guarantee the health access to health care of migrant workers from Indonesia illegally working in Malaysia. A decline in health status was observed, but it was not significant. Bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia is necessary to provide a framework for Indonesia providing health care to its citizens working in Malaysia, regardless of their legal status.
Originality/value
This paper concerns on the Indonesia illegal migrant workers experiencing illness and the access to the health service in Malaysia, and also the implementation of international regulation to protect Indonesian illegal migrant workers in Malaysia under ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.
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Michaela Dakota Castor, Nora Hernandez and Adriana Orozco
The purpose of this paper is to present findings on a community-based participatory research project where the authors examined access and ability to use technology, attitudes and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present findings on a community-based participatory research project where the authors examined access and ability to use technology, attitudes and perceptions of technology, and COVID-19 and mental health beliefs in the time of COVID-19, among predominantly Hispanic/Latinx farmworker males residing in the US–Mexico border city of El Paso, Texas.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used a qualitative narrative analysis which consisted of in-person interviews in Spanish with male farmworkers (n = 10) between the ages of 49–60 years. This paper applied a research approach designed to engage researchers and community stakeholders as equal partners with the goal of improving practice.
Findings
Of the participants, eight reported having a phone and only three reported knowing how to use the internet. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants reported living a relatively stress-free life. When the pandemic impacted their community, they reported experiencing heightened anxiety and stress. To relieve stress, all participants used healthy coping strategies (e.g. walking and gardening).
Originality/value
The findings suggest that farmworker males are receptive to obtaining mental health services. In addition, they would benefit from resources highlighting healthy stress coping mechanisms. Due to their limited knowledge of current internet technology, efforts on how to promote and deliver mental health services and resources to farmworkers should be strategic and appropriate.
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Research highlights that residential care experienced children and young people in Scotland have poorer educational outcomes than their peers within the wider population. Despite…
Abstract
Purpose
Research highlights that residential care experienced children and young people in Scotland have poorer educational outcomes than their peers within the wider population. Despite this, poor educational attainment is not inevitable, and further research is needed to increase the understanding of long-term trajectories. This paper aims to address a gap in contemporary literature that is of benefit to practitioners, academics and policymakers. Despite experiencing adversity, attachment, separation and loss, school attainment data on leaving care only reflects part of the educational journey.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a mixed methodology and social constructionist theoretical framework, a practitioner-led PhD study gathered data from questionnaires and qualitative information from 13 semi-structured interviews with young people who had experienced residential care in Scotland. Recruitment was through a gatekeeper within a national third-sector organisation. The educational trajectories for young people with experience of residential care in Scotland are complex. A lived experience perspective from a PhD study illustrates that statistical data only captures part of the journey and the author needs to reconsider how success is measured.
Findings
Of the 13 participants in the study, 12 achieved success educationally, although for the majority of those interviewed, attainment continued after leaving compulsory education. Barriers to greater success included placement uncertainty and movement, stigma, low expectations, pressure to not become a statistic, procedural obstacles and inconsistency or poor relationships.
Research limitations/implications
Supportive relationships and stable placements can create circumstances conducive to effective learning, but evidence reflects that support is necessary throughout the life course if children, young people and adults with care experience are to reach their full academic potential.
Originality/value
Research into the educational outcomes for those with experience of residential care in Scotland is limited. This paper, from a PhD, provides lived experience accounts from a practitioner-led study.
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