Ethnic Studies

"The purpose of my presentation is to describe representations of ethnicities and memories of immigrants in a multiethnic area in Japan. Especially I focus on ethnicity brewed through food.
Global immigration has produced many multiethnic areas in Japan. Most of ethnicity studies in Japan have observed only ‘single’ ethnic group like Koreans or Brazilian in Japan. However, this traditional perspective is not useful to study the areas where ‘plural’ ethnic groups live together. Being directed dual diagram of host-guest relationship, traditional perspective also fails to understand multiethnic relationship. From micro-anthropological perspective, "eating" (here signifies not only food and its consumption, but also cuisine and selling grocery.) can be understood as a typical everyday practice. Moreover, food is strongly connected with the culture of immigrants. For these reason, my presentation focuses on the relationship between food and people.

This study is based on fieldwork in Tsurumi ward, Yokohama city, where historically many ethnic minorities including Okinawan, Korean, Chinese and Nikkei Latin American (Brazilian, Bolivian and Argentine etc.) have lived. In this multi ethnic area, I conducted participant observations to some ethnic groups (Okinawa Association, Brazilian NPO etc.). Also I conducted in-depth interviews with some families who have multiethnic backgrounds and experiences in order to understand their ethnicities and changes in the migration process through food.

My presentation describes transformation of ethnicity of migrants based on food from a global historical and spatial angle. From this ethnographical research, food can be understood as an integral of three codes; society, situation, and history. ‘Society’ code corresponds to an entangled country and the area. ‘Situation’ code means a commutative situation according to time, place and occasion. ‘History’ code is aimed at a family's experience inherited among parents and children. Through this understanding, ethnicity is described as an arena of essentialism, hybridity, and flexibility."

"When examining ethnic minorities’ educational attainments in urban China and Canada, they outperform or are on par with the non-minority population. However, when analyzing high-wage, education-intensive occupations, this cohort are not as prevalent as the non-minority population. What accounts for this discrepancy? How far does ethnicity affect one's occupational opportunities? What does this tangibly mean with respect to the management of urban ethnic differences? And, what steps can we take to improve this situation? Drawing upon the latest statistics and detailed interviews, this book examines the experiences of ethnic minorities from schooling to the job search, hiring, and promotion processes."

Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern. There was some doubt about whether specific legal provision should be brought in to guarantee reasonable accommodation. However, there was broad support for having the principle adopted in the practice of employers, whereas some preferred the current informality rather than the principle being enforced through litigation. None of the respondents came up with illustrations outside Judaism, Christianity or Islam. The results are consistent with recent critical studies showing that the assumption in social sciences that religion is a universal has been imported from theology. Religion-based questions only pick out certain phenomena specific to some cultures and an inevitable skew is created when asking such questions because they make sense only within an Abrahamic religious framework. Although enabling the identification of some aspects of culture considered to merit reasonable accommodation on the grounds of religion, the results also pose questions about the adequacy of current standard research methodologies which assume that religion is a universal.

"Les traces des absences et des retours: Les empreintes de la migration sur le pasayge religieux mexicain.

La relation entre religion et migration a été principalement abordée à partir de la perspective des sociétés « d’ accueil ». Que ce soit en s’attachant aux religions transnacionales observables dans les grandes métropoles multiculturelles, ou bien en analysant la capacité des immigrants à adapter leur pratique religieuse dans un nouveau cadre de vie, l’accent est mis sur les lieux d’arrivée, laissant en deuxième terme l’examen des conséquences des réseaux migratoires transnationaux dans les pays d’origine.
À partir des sources statistiques disponibles et du travail ethnographique réalisé dans le champ migratoire Mexique/États-Unis, cet article s’interroge sur les conséquences de l’intensification des flux migratoires dans le paysage religieux mexicain. Nous faisons l’hypothèse que l’empreinte de la migration peut être observée au moins sur trois registres : la relation entre les réseaux migratoires et l’accélération du processus de pluralisation religieuse, l’importance de la pratique religieuse dans la réorganisation de l’espace de vie des migrants – lieux d’accueil, d’arrivée et de circulation-, et finalement la transformation dans la perception de la diversité religieuse et des attitudes de tolérance ou d’intolérance religieuse.
*Mots-clés : religions transnatinales- Mexique- États-Unis- catholicisme- pluralisation religieuse- conversion religieuse- intolérance religieuse- Saints patrons."

""English Summary “Potatoes for Peace”

A more liberal and transparent potato trade across Cyprus could be an important factor in solving the Cyprus issue. This trade – in which Netherlands suppliers play a prominent role – has the potential to pull the stagnant economy of northern Cyprus out of its deadlocked position and to start harmonizing the two economies which have been drifting apart.

At the moment the capacity for potato cultivation is heavily underutilized. The cultivation and trade of potatoes could be eight times larger than it is today. Changing the EU Green Line Regulation (GLR) is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. Many existing non-tariff trade barriers still need to be
broken down.

The story of what potato trade can do for peace in Cyprus:
Potatoes constitute the most important single product traded across the cease-fire line (so called Green Line) between the so called free areas of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish occupied north. Since 2006 it is possible to trade potatoes across the Green Line thanks to the EU Green Line regulation
(GLR). These potatoes have to originate directly from EU-certified potato seeds.

As from May 31, 2011 it is also possible for the Turkish Cypriot community to grow so called second crop potatoes from farm saved seed potatoes produced in the north, making it possible to use the EU imported potato seeds twice a year instead of once a year. Research has shown that these potatoes do not pose an undue risk to plant health when introduced in the areas under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus.

This change in the GLR ensures that the Turkish Cypriots could potentially double their capacity in potato cultivation. Currently the north of Cyprus has an estimated potato cultivation capacity of 9.000 tons. The area, however, has a much greater potential. If there were no trade barriers whatsoever for the Turkish Cypriot community, the estimated capacity would be 70.000 to 80.000 tons. This is more than eightfold the amount of what it is today.

The price of Turkish Cypriot potatoes fluctuates between €300 and €700 per ton, depending on the customer and the period. Supposing an 80.000 tons production selling at €700 the cultivation of and trade in potatoes would represent at the maximum a value of € 56.0 million. By comparison, the total
value of the Green Line trade in the period May 2009 to April 2010 amounted to € 5.2 million, while the total export value of northern Cyprus was USD 83.7 million in 2008.

These are interesting figures for Netherlands exporters as Dutch potato seeds are in great demand amongst private traders in northern Cyprus.

Out of the 400 tons of seeds that private traders are allowed to import themselves (another 300 tons are imported by the authorities of the so called ‘TRNC’) about 350 tons potato seeds are from the Netherlands.

Given the potentially possible doubling of the potato cultivation capacity in the north (an even larger figure is possible) this means that there are plenty of opportunities for Dutch potato seed traders to increase both the quantity and the market share of their potato seed trade. In that sense creating a larger northern Cypriot production capacity through the recent change in the EU GLR – which was supported by the Republic of Cyprus – is beneficial for Dutch interests.

If northern Cyprus wants to utilize its full potential capacity in potato cultivation, it is important that remaining current obstacles are removed.

The problems of the non-recognition of northern Cypriot road-worthiness certificates of commercial vehicles or professional driving licenses and of the extensive smuggling between the two communities testify that the GLR is far from resolving all problems. These unresolved problems have a negative
impact on potato trade. This is illustrated by the fact that almost no goods of northern Cypriot origin – including potatoes – cross the Green Line and directly end up as Community goods in the rest of the European Union. Both communities can be blamed for this. Crucial is the existence of a ‘psychological barrier’ between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities; a barrier that is reinforced by the political leaders and media on both sides of the Green Line. Turkish Cypriot traders, for example, complain about the difficulties of advertising in several Greek Cypriot media and about the inability to get their products in the assortment of Greek Cypriot shops, while on the other hand forces inside the
Turkish Cypriot community repeatedly pressured traders to cancel deliveries of goods to the South because they do not want to see trade under the Greek Cypriot flag.

The exponentially increasing trade between the ‘TRNC’ and Turkey – in comparison with other nations and the EU in particular – suggests that one can speak of a drifting apart rather than of a rapprochement as far as the traffic of goods since the mid-90’s between the two communities is concerned. In 1994, the import coming from Turkey amounted to USD 129.3 million while it reached USD 1172.5 million in 2008. Both the GLR and the accession of Cyprus to the EU did not result in a reversal of this trend.

This dependency – which is of a structural nature – is primarily linked to the unresolved Cyprus issue. The political situation (i.a. the non-recognized nature of the so-called TRNC) makes that the Turkish Cypriot community lacks access to international markets for goods, services and capital. The European assistance aimed at reducing the “economic isolation” is a drop in the ocean as long as the discussion about ‘Direct Trade’ (promised by the EU in 2004) between the Parliament, Council and Commission in Brussels does not end in with a positive outcome. Neither the Republic of Cyprus nor Turkey does anything extra to compensate the northern economy for this handicap.

In addition, the ‘TRNC’ should also look at itself in the mirror and do more to defend its true interests. It seems that it is not doing everything in its power to reduce the “economic isolation”. Nationalistic ideas and seemingly arbitrary policies towards the Green Line trade hinder the success of the GLR.

Furthermore, it is said in the trade that certain officials under the auspices of the so-called ‘Ministry of Agriculture’ of the ‘TRNC’ are hindering the full application of the principles of the free market, either because of ideological conviction or because of personal financial gain. It is so said that certain forces in or around the so-called ‘Ministry of Agriculture’ of the ‘TRNC’ prefer to promote the import low quality potato seeds because they or their friends receive ‘money under the table’ for doing so, while on the other hand the “nationalistic” president of the Turkish Cypriot potato union is accused to be very critical towards Green Line trade in general. If this is true it would also be up to the ‘TRNC’ to implement a more consistent and liberal potato production and trade policy.

Conclusion
Initiatives to bring Dutch and (northern) Cypriot potato farmers closer together have little chance of success without prior changes in the context. The problem lays not so much in the unwillingness of traders to trade more, but in its impossibility to do so because of the thwarting of (semi-) public institutions. Although the GLR in itself does not solve all problems, it creates nevertheless plenty of opportunities for the Turkish Cypriot community to trade more with the EU. These are not fully utilized
due to the problematic relations between the communities. It may be possible – in cooperation with DG ELARG en certain interested (potato seed exporting) EU states (f.i. the UK and DEN, but why not FRA, BEL or GER) – to attempt to achieve a favorable change through informal channels. For a favorable shift in the conditions to produce and trade more potatoes in and from the north, it is a condition that both sides in Cyprus want to cooperate in the growth of the potato export from the north via the GLR.

Note: This article summarizes the main conclusions of the report written by Roger Voncken
during his internship at the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands in Cyprus. Upon request, a PDF-format of this report (in Dutch language) is
available (8MB).""

The political and spatial reorganization brought about by the progressive consolidation of the Spanish Estado de las Autonomías (State of Autonomies) is in line with a model of 'multiple ethnoterritorial concurrence'. This model relates sociopolitical sub-state ethnic mobilization to the competitive interplay among Spanish regions and nationalities pursuing political and economic power, as well as the achievement of the legitimation for their institutional development. Ten 'axioms' 'premises', 'principles', and 'rules' are identified as being mainly responsible for setting the conceptual boundaries of the type of plural competition and solidarity put into play in decentralized Spain.