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TES: The largest network of teachers in the world
Responses
Secularisation in France
Secularisarion: To remove allegiance from a particular religion. This basically means that there is no specific state religion.
Islamaphobia: The fear of, or prejudice behaviour against the Islamic faith.
France actually passed a law as far back as 1905 that separated the state from religion. The law was designed to give neutrality to the state and give more freedom to religious expression. From this point the French government did not fund any religion. Although the idea of secularisation has been around in France for over a century, the debate about secularisation has recently resurfaced with new laws about religious symbols.
In 2004 the French parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of banning religious symbols in France. This meant that students were no longer allowed to wear headscarves, crosses, skull caps and turbans. The idea behind the ban was to make all students equal inside the classroom and to promote the idea of being French. Then later in 2010 the French parliament voted to ban the full face veil in public. This time the argument was to improve integration of immigrant groups and to stop the repression of women. The ban was believed to impact about 2000 women. Punishments for women wearing the full veil included fines, punishments for men forcing women to wear the veil included prison sentences.
Both laws have proved highly controversial, with many arguing that freedom of choice has been removed, not enhanced and that it is anti-Islamic. Whatever the rights and wrongs are though, this is an example of one country trying to combat the globalisation of religion in order to promote French cultural values. The French government strongly defends its position saying that it is standing up for French values, where the church and the state are separated by law.
French MPs vote to ban Islamic full veil in public - BBC article
Women in face veils detained as France enforces ban - BBC article
The deep roots of French secularism - BBC article
French headscarf ban opens rifts - BBC article
French Senate votes to ban Islamic full veil in public - BBC article
Emiratisation in the UAE
Emiratisation: The policy of promoting Emirati's in the workplace (private and public sectors).
The UAE is located in the Middle East and is a rapidly developing country. Its development is largely based on the discovery of oil in the 1950's. Its rapid growth and small population has meant that it relies heavily on foreign labour for both manual and professional jobs. The UAE has a population of about 7 million people. However, the majority of the UAE population is foreign, only about 15% is Emirati (for further information on migration to the UAE go to: Movement responses - Migration). The main migrant groups are from Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines). The UAE government has become increasingly worried about the dependence on foreign labour so they have introduced a policy of Emiratisation.
The policy aims to increase the amount of Emirati's in the public and private sector - at the moment less than 1% of employees in the private sector are Emirati. The policy aims to do a number of things. It aims to increase the education and skill level of Emirati's to make them more attractive to the private sector and to increase the number of Emirati's employed in the the government sector.
Although the number of workers has increased in government jobs, still 90% of jobs in the UAE are done by expatriates (foreigners). Emirati's often prefer the government sector because of the higher pay and shorter hours, but increased training and an increase of women entering the workplace will hopefully change this in the future.
The policy is basically aimed to counter the impacts of a global workforce that threatens to increase dependency and cause the loss of culture. However, the policy has to step a careful path, because foreign labour is necessary to allow the growth of the UAE economy so it can't afford to lose too many foreign workers.
Emiratisation pushed in the United Arab Emirates - BBC article
Emiratisation - The National
Emiratisation - The Gulf News
http://emiratisation.org/
Nationalism in the UK
Nationalism: Loyalty to ones nation and/or the desire for independence.
Europe has had a recent history of far right nationalist groups. The most horrific and disturbing example was the rise of Fascism in Germany between the World Wars leading to the emergence of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Adolf Hitler was an extreme example and modern-right parties do not support his policies of extermination, but many do support restrictions on immigration and even deportation of existing citizens.
The British National Party (BNP) founded in 1982 is an example of a far right nationalist party. Their current leader is Nick Griffin. The BNP has a number of policies which it says will promote the nation of Britain. Policies include:
The BNP currently has very little support in the UK, winning only 1.9% of the vote in 2010 general election, although they have won two seats in the European Parliament, one seat on the London Assembly and have one council seat.
Although some people believe that the BNP is fighting the negative impacts of globalisation, many more believe that it is a racist group that will harm Britain's reputation around the world as being a welcoming multi-cultural society.
BNP secures two European seats - BBC article
http://www.bnp.org.uk/
Far right on rise in Europe, says report - Guardian Article
Neo-nationalism threatens Europe - Guardian article
Anti-globalisation Movements
Anti-globalisation: Opposition to the emergence of a single world market dominated by large TNCs.
The anti-globalisation movement began life in the late 1980's and early 1990's in protest to the OECD's call for greater liberalisation of global markets. In 1988 in Berlin and later in 1994 in Madrid there were protests held at IMF and World Bank meetings. In 1999 more coordinated protests took place in London and Eugene in the US. Later that same year protests took place in Seattle in the US during the meetings of the WTO. Protesters managed to stop on the opening ceremony taking place. Since 1999 protests have taken place at most global meetings and conferences of international organisations like the OECD, WTO, IMF and World Bank. Also May 1st has become widely used an international day of protest against many national and global issues, including globalisation.
Anti-globalisation movements protest against a number of issues include:
Because the anti-globalisation is so broad, protesting against many different aspects of globalisation there are thousands of groups and individuals involved encompassing every socio-economic group. Recent protests in Wall Street, New York attracted the support of people ranging from the unemployed to the writer and director Michael Moore. Two groups that we will look at more detail in the next section are the "Focus on the Global South Group" and "People's Action Group" as well as the role of trade unions (Local responses to globalization).
What is anti-globalisation? - BBC article
May Day protests take place globally - Guardian article
Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested - BBC article
US Immigration Controls (Arizona)
The exact number of illegal immigrants in the US is unclear because they are unregistered and don't want to be found. However, the most common estimate is about 11 million (although figures range from 7 to 20 million). California, Florida and Texas have the largest number of illegal immigrants, at about 1 million each. The main source country for illegal immigrants is Mexico accounting for about 57%, other Latin American countries account for a further 24%. The other illegal migrants mainly come from Europe and Asia.
Migrants move to the US for a number of push and pull factors (Lee's migration model - Movement responses - Migration). From Latin America, push factors include crime, unemployment, low wages, poor education and poor healthcare. Pull factors to the US include friends and family already living there, Spanish speaking communities, better job prospects, better safety and better schools.
Most migrants on there journey to the US will face intervening obstacles, like the cost of transport, problems of crossing the border and becoming victims of crime. Robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder all fairly common crimes committed against migrants crossing Mexico. For many migrants there will also be factors that stop them wanting to leave their country of origin e.g. friends and family and familiarity with language and customs. There will also be facts that stop them wanting to travel to the US e.g. language barrier, fear of being caught, no friends and family and worries about adjusting to new culture and finding a job.
Migrants that do arrive in the US bring many advantages. They provide a cheap source of labour and are willing to work long hours for relatively low pay. They also bring aspects of their culture like food (Mexican) and dance as well as forging closer links with source countries. However, they can also create problems like housing shortages, racial tension, cost of providing education and healthcare. For more details on general push and pull factors as well as impacts to both source and receiving country go to: Movement responses - Migration and Labour flows.
Despite the large number of advantages that migrants bring, concerns like racial tensions, terrorism, identity theft, loss of US jobs, political opinion, welfare fraud and criminal gangs has meant that US politicians are constantly discussing ways of dealing with illegal immigrants. Suggested solutions have included; an increase in border controls, an extension of the US-Mexico border fence, an amnesty for current illegal migrants, heavy fines for employers using illegal immigrants, greater workplace checks, heavier punishments for illegals ( including prison sentences), extended working visas, country immigration quotas and economic support for source countries to reduce push factors and therefore migration.
Arizona which has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants has recently introduced some controversial new immigration laws (Arizona Senate Bill 1070). The law enforced existing US laws like imprisonment and deportation of people found to be living illegally. However, it also made it a crime for aliens not to be carrying the correct documentation and allowed the police to make document checks on people stopped for routine police business. Fines and prison sentences is the punishment for not having the correct documents. The new law also meant that there would be more workplace checks and greater punishments for people employing, trafficking or housing illegal immigrants. The new law was very controversial because it was accused of infringing on civil liberties and it was said that it would encourage racial profiling by the police. As such the law got blocked by the US Department of Justice although Arizona is trying to overturn the injunction.
Any future laws are also likely to prove controversial, because much of the US economy depends on illegal immigrants, the cost of imprisoning and deporting illegals is expensive, the cost of patrolling the border between the US and Mexico is expensive, many illegal immigrants and their families were actually born in the US and illegal immigrants are impossible to track because there are new arrivals everyday.
Arizona immigration law set to come in amid protests - BBC article
Judge blocks Arizona's controversial immigration law - BBC article
Mexico warns citizens over new Arizona immigration law - BBC article
Arizona immigration law stokes fear in Mexico village - BBC article
Obama calls for immigration system reform - BBC article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17829808