Weekend Links

• Boys with sisters are more likely to be Republican
• We are asking men the wrong question when it comes to violence against women
• Responding to Anne-Marie Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg
• Freida Pinto says the film industry is too male dominated
• Coming to a refugee camp near you: Ikea
• Brazilian youth entry into drug gangs
• Cell phones cause war?

Links I like

• As the post-Khmer Rouge generation of Cambodians grows up, they’re producing a flurry of films that mimic the vintage style of the 1960s – widely considered the country’s golden era. Much of the revival is owed to educated filmmaker refugees who are repatriating to Cambodia from France and the United States and opening the country’s first film institutes at local universities.
• Hundreds of Somali refugees are being forced at gunpoint to join rebels fighting in northern Yemen
• Paddington Bear is launching a campaign to to highlight the British Government's continued arrest and detention of hundreds of child asylum-seekers in prison-like conditions.
• A disabled athlete who has won five gold medals for Britain was set to be deported to Nigeria after losing his legal battle to live in the UK.
• British Muslims feel a greater sense of patriotism than their counterparts living in mainland Europe, according to a study by the Open Society Institute
• Rather than living in rows of neatly pegged white canvas UN tents set up in fields as the public might imagine it, aid officials have revealed that more than 50 per cent of the planet's 10.5 million refugees are now battling to get by in urban areas.
• The proportion of the population that is foreign-born has almost doubled in the past two decades to 11 per cent, or 6.7 million people.

Who Benefits from Detaining Young People in the UK?

Who benefits from detaining young people in the UK?

From the Guardian:

Clearly not the children who, according to every study ever written on this issue, suffer acutely from being taken from their homes on the orders of the UK Border Agency and placed in a confined space for an indeterminate period.

Many argue that society benefits because it is protected from the asylum seekers and their families. Sambrook wonders how that can be when there is no evidence that asylum seekers are likely to abscond.

So who benefits? Clearly the private companies that run so much of this operation have a lot to gain. G4S, the company that operates Tinlsey House, one of three detention centres where last month 10-year-old Adeoti Ogunsola tried to strangle herself after being forcibly redetained, recently reported rising profits and growth in government business which had offset weakness in commercial sectors.

As Sambrook reports: "Last year G4S handed chief executive Nick Buckles a £1.4m pay package. That's £3,835 every day. He owns £4m in G4S shares, tipped by the Daily Telegraph recently as, 'a solid buy for these uncertain times'."

Someone else who may reasonably be said to benefit from this policy is Christopher Hyman, the chief executive of Serco, who also earns in the region of £3,000 a day. His company runs the notorious Yarl's Wood detention centre where children have been detained far beyond the 28-day with charge maximum allowed for terror suspects. "Traumatised child inmates, who must carry ID cards at all times, refer to Yarl's Wood as 'prison' and 'the camp'," says Sambrook.

Among the indirect beneficiaries she also identifies John Reid, the former home secretary, who is paid £50,000 a year as a consultant to G4S for, among other things, hosting government and security industry breakfasts.

Shift in Young People's Morals and Values

Many people think that the morals and values of young people have declined over the past decade or two. But a new survey seems to indicate that this is actually not the case at all. More American teens today say they would make responsible decisions on everything from cheating on tests to cyberbullying, smoking and sex than teens did 20 years ago.

Via San Francisco Chronicle:

Girl Scouts of the USA just released the findings of a nationwide random sample of schools and 3,263 girls and boys from the third through twelfth grades, asking the same questions as a 1989 survey, with some updates for relevance.

The 2009 survey, conducted with Harris Interactive (formerly Louis Harris Inc., the same firm that worked on the 1989 study) shows a marked shift in values and civic involvement among teens and tweens. This study focuses on self-reported attitudes and beliefs. And we all know that attitudes don't always translate into behaviors. But knowing and caring about good behavior is a step in the right direction.

he findings on views about diversity and civic engagement are striking. Among 7th- to 12th-graders, nearly six in 10 (59 percent) say that being around people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds is important to them. This appears to be particularly important to girls (63 percent versus 55 percent of boys) and youth from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Youth are more accepting of gay relationships. Fifty-nine percent of teenagers agree with the statement, "Gay and lesbian relationships are OK, if that is a person's choice." Only 31 percent agreed in 1989. And when asked whether they would continue a friendship with a gay or lesbian friend, 48% said they would, compared to just 12% in 1989.

Compared to 20 years ago, youth today are more likely to say they intend to vote in the future (84 percent vs. 77 percent), as well as give to charity (76 percent vs. 63 percent). Some 79 percent say they will volunteer in their communities. And here's some good news -- youth exhibit a strong sense of community and global responsibility in their attitudes toward environmental stewardship. Fully 78% of 7th- to 12th-graders -- girls and boys across all age groups -- agree that everyone has a responsibility to take care of the environment.

Nearly two out of three young people (62 percent) surveyed in 2009, say they would not cheat on a test compared to about half in 1989. And only 18 percent say they believe smoking is acceptable if a person finds it enjoyable. In 1989, more than a quarter of those surveyed thought smoking was acceptable.

Some might think that these statistics actually show a moral decline (accepting gay marriage etc.) but, it simply demonstrates a shift in morality and values towards a more accepting community and tolerance for diversity, which is great news for the future.

Climate Change News

Two articles from BBC outline some dangerous effects of climate change.
'Climate' is a Major cause of conflict in Africa:

Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows- and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war. US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm years. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they suggest strife arises when the food supply is scarce in warm conditions.

The researchers used databases of temperatures across sub-Saharan Africa for the period between 1981 and 2002, and looked for correlations between above average warmth and civil conflict in the same country that left at least 1,000 people dead.

If temperatures rise across the continent as computer models project, future conflicts are likely to become more common, researchers suggest. Their study shows an increase of about 50% over the next 20 years.

"Our findings provide strong impetus to ramp up investments in African adaptation to climate change by such steps as developing crop varieties less sensitive to extreme heat and promoting insurance plans to help protect farmers from adverse effects of the hotter climate," said Dr Burke.

Nana Poku, Professor of African Studies at the UK's Bradford University, suggested that it also pointed up the need to improve mechanisms for avoiding and resolving conflict in the continent.

The effect of climate change on children written by Lord David Putnam:

What price today's decision makers will place on the well-being of future generations when carving out their response to climate change? A new paper released by Unicef UK - Climate Change, Child's Rights and Intergenerational Justice - makes it clear that their responsibility is huge, particularly when it comes to protecting the rights and future well-being of children.

With the potential rise of up to 160,000 child deaths a year in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia directly resulting from climate change, it is children, the most vulnerable children, who will be caught at the centre of the storm.

They will unquestionably carry the greatest burden - both as children and as future adults - and yet they are the least culpable for its damage.

So what exactly does this mean? It means that the implications of climate change for children must be at the top of the agenda at Copenhagen, and that the voices and opinions of children and young people are heard, respected and represented - a key right as outlined in the CRC.

The youth delegates being granted official recognition in Copenhagen are a welcome and crucial step forward in ensuring this happens, but more needs to be done to embed children into the core of the outcome of negotiations.

Immigrant Children and Integration

Via ImmigrationProf Blog:

There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States, one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. It’s an old American story made new in the age of globalization, when waves of human displacement in recent decades have led to immigration on a scale not seen since Ellis Island. But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge.

That is the conclusion of Professors Marcelo and Carola Suárez-Orozco, fellows at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and co-directors of immigration studies at New York University. They have done basic research in immigration for more than 20 years, five of them studying 400 children from China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central America and Mexico.a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge. The results of their research, released this month, show the stark effects of what Marcelo Suárez-Orozco calls “the age of global vertigo.” Dislocation breeds a host of difficulties, starting with family separation. Nearly half of the children in their sample had at some point lost contact with one or both parents, either through migration directly or through divorce or death. The absent parent was most often the father for long stretches or permanently. For 49 percent of the Central American children, separations lasted more than five years. Click here for the rest of the piece.

Response to my Obama Education Speech Post

I think the "stay in school" speech can be seen as a form of propaganda--some see schools as mechanisms for recreating inequality across generations and the way the poor/those with least power are taught that school failure and their low socioeconomic status is their own fault, not the fault of public policies and those who hold on to their own privilege so they can pass it on to their own children. Schools can become a way to socially certify and justify people's low s.e.s.--and to get children to participate in their own oppression.

These ideas probably won't be part of the discussion when students are given an opportunity to discuss and critically evaluate the President's message in class.

I'm with you on the way the Post overlooks young people's ability to think for themselves. On the other hand, when it comes to schools, how much can any of us think for ourselves when we were socialized within them 5 days a week for 16+ years to believe in their goodness and necessity.

My professor from college makes a valid point. However, I dont think we should underestimate life experience and the "non-school" arena as parts of our lives that inform the way we think and that shape our values. I can say with near 100% certainty that the curriculum in my public school did not lead me to have the values that I have today. My social studies classes, history classes and civics classes did not indoctrinate me with liberal propaganda. Rather I attribute my values largely to my life experience and family. For this reason, I do think that young people can think for themselves. Students have organized against systematic oppression at public schools, so I would not underestimate their capacity to think and act for themselves.

Staying in School is Liberal Propoganda

Apparently listening to the President is liberal propaganda these days, especially if he is speaking directly to young people. The Denver Post:

President Barack Obama's plan to address the nation's students during the school day Tuesday has polarized parents over whether it's OK for their kids to listen to the speech.

On one side are parents who say the webcast speech to K-12 students is "political recruiting" and "spreading the liberal agenda."

On the other are those who say listening to presidential speeches is an important part of American culture and the education process.

The White House officially announced the speech Wednesday morning, and the U.S. Department of Education followed up with a letter to school principals and a lesson plan for discussing the talk. The White House said the speech will address the importance of studying and staying in school.

I dont know if "staying in school" is liberal propaganda, but it seems to me that a president that is pretty popular among young people, is a good role model to be spreading the message about the importance of school. Also, people that assume that by listening to him, young people will become brainwashed also assume that young people cannot think for themselves. Here is a newsflash: we can and we do.

A Billion Young People and Counting

It is possible that the world population could reach 7 billion by 2011. One of the largest segments of that population with be youth. The New York Times reports:

What’s most notable in the new analysis is confirmation that while fertility rates are dropping in many places, some of the world’s most turbulent and poverty-stricken regions are seeing explosive population growth leading to enormous numbers of teenagers and children. (More evidence that puberty rules planet Earth at the moment?)

Such a youth bulge can be an asset if education and economic activity are there to build a work force. But without prospects, the result can be higher risks of conflict. Look at the population projection for Uganda, showing that country heading to a population of 96 million in 2050 from 31 million today. How does a country like Uganda build schools fast enough, train teachers fast enough and improve sanitation fast enough to harness the potential in its youth? Ideas welcome.

Below you can see a novel tool for assessing population and education scenarios in sub-Saharan Africa (and elsewhere).

Often an automatic assumption towards a rising youth population is the youth bulge principle described in this article that states that young boys in particular from the global south can be dangerous to social order if they are not employed, disciplined or under parental control. Otherwise they are very prone to engaging in violent activity. I dont think this is a completely fair characterization because it places blame on individual youth and describe them a certain way without taking into consideration the context of their environment or their life experiences.

Losing Freedom, Losing Children

Imagine if after an immigration raid, a you are forced to give your child to the state due to 'abandonment,' and that child is then adopted by someone else. See this heart wrenching article in the New York Times:

When immigration agents raided a poultry processing plant near here two years ago, they had no idea a little American boy named Carlos would be swept up in the operation.

One of the 136 illegal immigrants detained in the raid was Carlos’s mother, Encarnación Bail Romero, a Guatemalan. A year and a half after she went to jail, a county court terminated Ms. Bail’s rights to her child on grounds of abandonment. Carlos, now 2, was adopted by a local couple.

In his decree, Judge David C. Dally of Circuit Court in Jasper County said the couple made a comfortable living, had rearranged their lives and work schedules to provide Carlos a stable home, and had support from their extended family. By contrast, Judge Dally said, Ms. Bail had little to offer.

It is unclear how many children share Carlos’s predicament. But lawyers and advocates for immigrants say that cases like his are popping up across the country as crackdowns against illegal immigrants thrust local courts into transnational custody battles and leave thousands of children in limbo.

Next month, the Nebraska Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal by Maria Luis, a Guatemalan whose rights to her American-born son and daughter were terminated after she was detained in April 2005 on charges of falsely identifying herself to a police officer. She was later deported.

And in South Carolina, a Circuit Court judge has been working with officials in Guatemala to find a way to send the baby girl of a Guatemalan couple, Martin de Leon Perez and his wife, Lucia, detained on charges of drinking in public, to relatives in their country so the couple does not lose custody before their expected deportation.

UK far Down Youth Wellbeing Table

The BBC reports:

A table of young people's wellbeing in 29 European states - the EU plus Norway and Iceland - has ranked Britain 24th.

The Netherlands was top while only Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta came lower than the UK.

The table, about youngsters aged up to 19, was compiled by York University researchers for the Child Poverty Action Group using mostly 2006 data.

The government commented that its policies were lifting more than a million children out of poverty.

The researchers assessed the countries on 43 separate measures, ranging from infant mortality and obesity to material resources - like poverty and housing.

Also included were how children felt about their lives, schools and relationships.

Second Generation 'Troubled' Immigrant Youth

Another part of the New York Time's 'Remade in America' looks at a small number of children of immigrants who are falling behind:

About one in four youths in the United States are immigrants or children of one, and most appear to be elevating fine: working, studying and advancing at rates comparable to nonimmigrant peers. But a troubled minority offers cause for alarm.

Raised in blighted neighborhoods, alienated from parents and school, disheartened by the prospect of dead-end jobs, these youths risk joining what some scholars have warned could be a “rainbow underclass.”

While poor immigrant families have found economic success in the past, many analysts say today’s generation faces steeper hurdles, especially because good jobs now require more education. The children of those with the least education — most notably Mexicans and Central Americans — are considered especially at risk

Some call this a problem of integration, but perhaps it is integration, but towards aspects of American life that is are generally looked down upon. As Jesselyn from the article says, “If you’re Hispanic, people already expect you to steal, to fight, to be rude, to be ghetto.” “If everyone thinks wrong of you, eventually you’re going to start thinking wrong about yourself.”

That is why there is a good sign that some see the positive:

But other scholars, mining the same stacks of data, find reason for optimism. Even among the immigrant groups considered at risk, most children surpass their immigrant parents in income and education. And on some measures, including employment, they outperform native minorities.

A debate that began with warnings of “second generation decline” now includes scholars who see a “second generation advantage.”

Immigrants' Children: A Foot In Two Worlds

NPR has a great series on Immigrants' Children: A Foot In Two Worlds.

Immigrants bring many things to the U.S., but their lasting contribution to the country has always been their children. NPR's series Immigrants' Children looks at that legacy, telling the stories of those children and examining the issues they face.

IN THIS SERIES:

Ethnic Outlets Survive In Sinking Media Market April 7, 2009 : As many major nationwide news organizations are sinking in the tough economy, the "ethnic media," news organizations that tailor content toward the sons and daughters of immigrants, are thriving with growing audiences. Multiplatform interactions — television, radio and the Internet — are popular.

Authors Explore American Immigrant Experience April 5, 2009: Award-winning authors Edwidge Danticat, Junot Diaz and Samina Ali all came to this country as children. As part of NPR's series on the children of immigrants, these writers offer perspective on the transformation of immigrants in America as the next generation assimilates.

In Rural Wisconsin, German Reigned For Decades April 1, 2009: In the contentious debate over immigration, critics often assert that immigrants and their children are not learning English as quickly as previous waves of newcomers did. In one Wisconsin town, German flourished as a dominant language and culture almost until World War II.

On TV, Immigrants' Kids Mine Cultural Convergence April 2, 2009: As part of a new NPR series on the U.S.-born children of immigrant parents, Neda Ulaby talks to three actors of South Asian heritage — asking how inhabiting two worlds helps them shape the characters they play.

Congres Passes the 'Give Act'

Congress passed the GIVE Act, also known as the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which will expand AmeriCorps by 170,000 positions and direct much of the service toward three national priorities: reducing the high school dropout rate, conserving energy, and providing health care to needy people. Here is some analysis.

Here are some articles:
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Reuters
AP
Chronicle of Higher Education
Chronicle of Philanthropy

UNHCR Educational Toolkit for Young People

The UN refugee agency and its partner, the International Organization for Migration, launched an innovative educational toolkit designed to inform young people about the main migration and asylum issues in the European Union (EU).

Aimed at 12-18-year-olds in Europe, the kit will contribute to the efforts of UNHCR, the IOM and the EC to promote public understanding of the situation of asylum seekers and migrants and to combat discrimination and prejudice. Many young people in Europe have concerns about immigration and asylum that are based on misperception and misinformation – the toolkit aims to counter this. UNHCR and IOM believe education is the key to forging a healthy relationship between host communities and immigrants.

By means of short films and a simple teacher's manual, the toolkit provides lesson plans, learning activities and other educational resources that can be used inside and outside the classroom. The kit is currently available in English, but there will soon be versions in 20 European languages on the UNHCR and IOM websites.

The Serve America Act

Last night, the president spoke strongly and explicitly in favor of the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act, which would increase the number of paid national and community service positions and increase the quality of those positions.



Peter Levine has more to offer about this bill.

Slumdog Millionaire million dollar question answered

How did the slumdog kids learn English before they arrived to the Taj Mahal? On the streets

A Response to Adam Fletcher's Post on "Real Participation"- Humanitarianism and the Role of Young People in Conflict

I would like to take a moment to respond to Adam Fletcher's blog post entitled "Real Participation"

I wrote my master's dissertation on "Humanitarianism and the Role of Young People in Conflict: Challenges to the Current Normative Framework of Children's Participation." The central thesis argues that many humanitarian organizations do not recognize how young people in the global south participate in the context of structural, armed, and political conflict and that this non-recognition is rooted in organizations’ conceptual framework for understanding childhood. Organizations operate based on a set of assumptions that interpret childhood as a time to develop towards adulthood, a stage separate from the adult realm, and a period associated with certain behavioral characteristics. Although organization-sponsored participation emerged within the context of a rights based approach and the ‘localization’ of development, which suggest sensitivity to local contexts and to the agency of young people, actual participation has largely been limited by these conceptual assumptions about childhood. Young people’s participation that challenges these assumptions is not recognized or even delegitimized by organizations. I think this arguement can apply to most organizations that work on inclusion of children in programming through participatory activities.

I do not think that Adam Fletcher and I disagree, but what I am concerned about is that the paradigm in which children's participation occurs is one that is based on certain assumptions about childhood, whereas children are often forced due to structural problems to participate in a way that is not acceptable to society. For example, many young people who are exposed urban or gang life have had many life experiences that are beyond childhood, they have had adult experiences, and these experiences cannot be discredited when working with them to achieve a sense of liberty. I came to understand this fully when working with high school students at Ballou High School in D.C. Many could not focus on education because they had to support their families by working. Thus, when we worked with them on civic engagement projects, they wanted to be treated as adults who came up with adult solutions. For example, they wanted to change the school cell phone policy because many needed their cell phone in case of an emergency at home (which were frequent) or for work after school. However, the administration did not understand this because they did not see the students as having adult experiences, but rather as child becomings. (Ultimately, a deal was brokered)

For this reason, rather than a consultative process, or training programs that are based on who the child will become rather than who the child already is, participation should include direct action and voice so that young people can use their life experiences as a point of departure for change. And that is why real participation means recognition of how people already participate and using that to enhance their own personal liberty. It is a necessary first step for participation to ensure that we recognize young people for who they are not what they will become.

No Child Left Behind: Over 100,000 citizen children's parents deported

The Associated Press reports that "[m]ore than 100,000 parents whose children are U.S. citizens were deported over the decade that ended in 2007, a Department of Homeland Security's investigation has found." The parents were removed from the country on immigration violations or because they had committed crimes. The removals of the 108,434 parents were among the approximately 2.2 million carried out by immigration officials between 1998 and 2007.

The de facto deportation of U.S. citizen children when there parents are deported from the United States has long been a problem, and troubled federal judges like Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson (He submitted dissents in a series of unpublished dispositions and contends that, in those cases, ordering the deportation of a noncitizen parent in effect will result in the deportation of a U.S. child).

US System for Immigrant Children is Improving

Conditions have improved for unaccompanied children, but some still face inadequate services and overly harsh discipline. This is according to a new report by the Womens Commission and the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. The AP reports:

Researchers visited more than 30 facilities around the country to examine the effects of a 2003 change in the federal system for overseeing the thousands of children who arrive alone.

More than 90,000 such children were apprehended in 2007 along the country's southern border. Most were immediately sent back to their homeland — Mexico, in many cases — but about 8,000 were placed in U.S. custody, the report said.

Those children must be transferred to HHS' Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services, created in 2003. Before that, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service handled the apprehension and custody of unaccompanied immigrant minors.

The division has placed some children in foster care, housed others in child-friendly shelters or group facilities, and reunited many more with parents or relatives while awaiting the outcomes of their immigration cases, the report said.

Children have gotten better medical care, psychological treatment and education under the division's oversight than they did before, said Brane, director of the refugee commission's detention and asylum program.

But the study also found that as the number of children in custody surged, some facilities became more restrictive of the children's activities and behavior, and there were few therapeutic programs for those who were victims of gang violence, sexual abuse or abandonment. Some children also lacked legal representation, the study said.

Researchers also found some children weren't transferred into the division's care within the required 72 hours and were treated like criminals.

Children and staffers reported that some children arrived at shelters and homes in handcuffs. One girl said she was thrown to the ground and accused of being a drug smuggler; a boy with a broken shoulder said a Border Patrol agent twisted his arm when he did not raise it.

The study authors visited facilities in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington state between April 2007 and February 2008.