Ethnicities

Dominant depictions of Black families in US scholarship and political discourse have been negative; tropes of defunct, hyper-masculinized men and welfare queens along with a general ‘tangle of pathology’ indictment are common. This article supports other scholarship, which challenges these depictions and acknowledges common positive traits associated with Black families. Through an examination of interviews with 39 famous Black leaders from the US Civil Rights Era coupled with an extant review of sociological Black family literature, this article highlights three positive, supportive traits common to Black families: (1) extended and fictive kin; (2) racial socialization; and (3) education. These findings challenge the assertion of the Black family as dysfunctional by highlighting multiple Black family voices. The analysis relies upon Black families’ articulations of their cultural strengths and successes, which contrasts with the prevailing review of Black families that uses structural approaches and a rigid, White family model.

Greek national identity has been challenged by processes of European integration and migration-related cultural diversity. This article begins with a socio-historical analysis of the impact of national, European and multicultural political agendas on education policy in Greece. Drawing on curriculum documents and semi-structured interviews, the article argues that these three agendas were put together in rather different ways, depending on the school material. History remained largely ethnocentric while geography and citizenship curricula veered between ethnocentrism and Europeanism; in doing so they marginalized topics relating to migration, ‘otherness’ and integration. Some policy makers also struggled to move beyond a mere recognition of the plural character of Greek society while others revealed more progressive views of a synthesis between notions of Europe and diversity. The study is drawn from a larger Greek case study and addresses a number of broader sociological concerns in Europe including how to respond to increasing diversity resulting from migration. It departs from standard two-way comparisons of national-versus-European or national-versus-multicultural agendas in addressing the complex interface of national, European and migration-related issues.

When discussing barriers to integration, we often focus on language skills, cultural capital, supportive environments and other more obvious, distinct and material aspects that have an impact on educational achievement. In the present study, we have instead chosen to look at how young immigrants construct their life plans, and how this relates to their perceptions of ethnicity, neighbourhood and identity. The sample used here consists of a total of 10 individuals. The interviews were used to explore certain designated dimensions and processes. All interviews were conducted in the school environment, in classrooms and other locations within the school. The students attended two different vocationally oriented study programmes: one focused on health promotion, the other on pre-school children. A narrative—sociological approach is used in the analysis. The young people’s perceptions and narratives are analysed in relation to concepts such as: territorial stigmatization, identity, inclusion/exclusion and life plans. The key finding is that these young people try to adapt to certain normative expectations connected to the notion of Swedishness. Being ‘in sync’ with this normative conception leads to self-confidence, whereas being ‘out-of-sync’ leads to low self-esteem.

This study aims to identify, from an ethnographic perspective, how panethnic boundaries are being created between Gitano people and Roma newcomers who have emigrated from eastern to western Europe. This migration has been driven mainly by discrimination and lack of opportunities in eastern Europe after the transition to a new economy. Although Roma immigrants try to keep connected to their regions of origin, changes in their ethnic identities can also be observed when they settle in their new environment. The fieldwork was conducted in a Spanish neighbourhood with a high percentage of Gitanos and Roma immigrants from eastern Europe. Evidence from this research shows how interactions between people from both groups can promote or diminish panethnic identities and the emergence of panethnic institutions. There is mutual identification between the subgroups even though some elements of dissent and rejection may appear. One of the key components to be taken into account in the shaping and institutionalization of a panethnic identity is the presence of dialogic interactions among the Roma people of different subgroups. These interactions give rise, in a hostile context, to a common identity and solidarity among subjects. Indeed, this has been the social and symbolic base that has promoted the incorporation of newcomers in Roma religious institutions.

This article presents one aspect of an investigation concerning a Japanese language-tutoring programme for foreign children. Here, I draw on a wider, three-year ethnographic study that was conducted with three Latin American families whose children attended three public Japanese primary schools. This article attempts to disentangle issues of ethnicity, gender and language in the children’s schooling from the families’ perspective. A total of 46 group/individual interviews with the informants and extensive participant observation were conducted from 2003 to 2006. In two of the households the mothers were Colombian prostitutes married to Japanese citizens; the third was a Colombian family who had overstayed their visas. Bourdieu’s notion of different forms of capital is used in the analysis of the interviews, which suggested that education was key to understanding the circumstances of these families. Although the informants encountered difficulties at Japanese schools, schooling was reported as a means to break the pervasive influence of their ethnic, gender and language ‘enclosures’.

This article examines the gap in meaning systems between the dominant mainstream understanding in North America of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the meaning given to it within different Pakistani communities in Canada and in Pakistan. It describes the emergence of 9/11 conspiracy theory discourses in three different studies involving Pakistani immigrants in Montreal and Pakistanis in Karachi, carried out at three different points in time over the last five years. The polarization of meaning in the war on terror between the host society and Muslim immigrant communities in North America is associated with the emergence of feelings of fear and threat in all communities. The results also suggest that views of local and global power relations play a role in shaping these conspiracy theory discourses.