Megan's Law and its impact on community re-entry for sex offenders

Community notification, known as "Megan's Law," provides the public with information about known sex offenders in an effort to assist parents and potential victims to protect themselves from dangerous predators. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of community notification on the lives of registered sex offenders. Two hundred and thirty-nine sex offenders in Connecticut and Indiana were surveyed. The negative consequences that occurred with the greatest frequency included job loss, threats and harassment, property damage, and suffering of household members. A minority of sex offenders reported housing disruption or physical violence following community notification. The majority experienced psychosocial distress such as depression, shame, and hopelessness. Recommendations are made for community notification policies that rely on empirically derived risk assessment classification systems in order to better inform the public about sex offenders' danger while minimizing the obstacles that interfere with successful community reintegration.     

International comparison of group differences in general mental ability for immigrants versus non‐immigrants

Globalization has led to increased migration and labor mobility over the past several decades and immigrants generally seek jobs in their new countries. Tests of general mental ability (GMA) are common in personnel selection systems throughout the world. Unfortunately, GMA test scores often display differences between majority groups and ethnic subgroups that may represent a barrier to employment for immigrants. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in GMA based on immigrant status in 29 countries (or jurisdictions of countries) throughout the world using an existing database that employs high‐quality measurement and sampling methodologies with large sample sizes. The primary findings were that across countries, non‐immigrants (n = 139,464) scored approximately half of a standard deviation (d = .53) higher than first‐generation immigrants (n = 22,162) but only one‐tenth of a standard deviation (d = .12) higher than second‐generation immigrants (n = 6,428). Considerable variability in effect sizes was found across countries as Nordic European and Germanic European countries evidenced the highest non‐immigrant/first‐generation immigrant mean differences and Anglo countries the smallest. Countries with the lowest income inequality tended to evidence the highest differences in GMA between non‐immigrants and first‐generation immigrants. Implications for GMA testing as a potential barrier to immigrant employment success and the field's current understanding of group differences in GMA test scores will be discussed.     

Occupational injury among immigrants

The growth in immigrant populations demands an understandign of determinants of their health, including occupational health. The study reported here involved a survey of a non-probability non-clinical sample of immigrants. The results indicate that length of stay, a proxy for acculturation, had no relationship to injury, but working in a language other than English and professing Buddhism did; thus, lack of congruence between individual level culture and workplace culture affects rates of injury. The conclusion is that looking for individual level explanations of differences in workplace injury will do little to advance the field of occupational health promotion.     

Dragon talk: providing pastoral care for Chinese immigrants

This article describes how cultures and pastoral care education processes can be barriers between the patient, the pastoral caregiver, and the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) student. By providing sketches of interviews with Chinese patients, the author tries to explain why the attempt to unveil Chinese patients' feelings and needs through conversation can be a frustrating experience. Moreover, the author argues that the pedagogy of pastoral care education ought to be more culturally sensitive in regard to the diverse cultural backgrounds of both patients and CPE students.     

Support for discriminatory behaviours against immigrants in Italy: Perceived threat and positive beliefs mediate the effect of contact with immigrants

The present study aimed at investigating whether the effects of intergroup contact on support for discriminatory behaviours against immigrants was mediated by perceived threat from immigrants and positive beliefs toward immigrants. Using data from the Italian national survey on “Discrimination by Gender, Sexual Orientation and Ethnic Origin,” which followed a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling procedure, a representative sample of 5509 Italian residents (53.4% women), aged 18 to 74 years, participated. Findings showed that contact with immigrants was negatively related to perceived threat, and positively related to positive beliefs toward immigrants. Mediational analysis conducted by structural equation modelling, indicated that support for discriminatory behaviours was positively associated with perceived threat, and negatively associated with positive beliefs toward immigrants. Both variables together mediated the relationship between contact with immigrants and support for discriminatory behaviours against immigrants; individually, indirect relationships were also significant. To promote interaction between natives and immigrants by reducing the perceived threat and strengthening positive beliefs toward immigrants might lessen support for discriminatory behaviours against immigrants.     

The unmaking of citizenship education for adult immigrants in Canada

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in citizenship education, particularly in the schools. One area, however, that has remained conspicuously absent from the discussion is citizenship education for adult immigrants. This paper reports on the results of studies examining citizenship education for adult immigrants in Canada from 1947 to the present. We conducted interviews with policy-markers and citizenship applicants, reviewed relevant documents, and surveyed program providers across Canada. We conclude that current trends in Canadian citizenship policy are in keeping with larger trends in globalization and consumerism and propose that the Canadian government increase its civil investment in immigrants if the country is to develop an informed and active citizenry.     

Social capital and economic outcomes for immigrants and ethnic minorities

The ambiguities of “social capital” can be clarified by reformulating it as a group-based resource derived from social relations, the effectiveness of which is contingent upon the extensity and intensity of social ties and the group’s resources, and the creation of which may involve a potential cost to an individual. This paper reviews the literature on immigrants and ethnic minorities to see how ethnic attachment as a form of social capital has affected the economic well-being of immigrants and minorities, and refines the concept of social capital. Studies of “ethnic attachment” and of the “ethnic mobility trap” have stressed the “penalty” of ethnic ties and affinity. However, studies on the ethnic enclave economy and transnational communities have attributed the prosperity of the enclave economy and the economic success of some ethnic diasporas to ethnic networks. The paper concludes that social capital can be enabling for individuals and groups, subject to the level of other forms of capital present. But social capital cannot replace other forms of capital to produce unrealistic outcomes beyond the material limits of its contextual boundaries. Thus, social capital is a useful concept, not as a universal virtue, but as a situation-based capacity bounded in specific social and class contexts.     

Adjustment issues affecting employment for immigrants from the former soviet union

This article describes major issues, including culture shock and loss of status, that affect general adjustment of immigrants and refugees from the former Soviet Union who are resettling in the United States. Issues that affect career and employment adjustment are described and the interrelatedness of general and career issues is explored. Practical and positive suggestions for practitioners working with this population are offered.     

Social support reciprocity and occupational self-efficacy beliefs during mothers' organizational re-entry

The present study assesses the effects of a lack of social support reciprocity at work on employees' occupational self-efficacy beliefs. We assume that the self-efficacy effects of received support and support reciprocity depend on the specific work context (e.g., phase in the process of organizational socialization). 297 women who returned to work after maternity leave participated at three measurement points (five weeks, eleven weeks, six months after re-entry). We measured self-reported received and provided support as well as occupational self-efficacy beliefs. Women who received a high amount but provided only little support at work (over-benefitting) reported lowered self-efficacy beliefs. As expected, this effect was not found at the beginning of re-entry, but only later, when over-benefitting began to be negatively related to recipients' self-efficacy beliefs.     

Acculturation attitudes, need for cognitive closure, and adaptation of immigrants

The author validated Berry's model of acculturation (J. W. Berry, 1990a, 1990b, 1991; J. W. Berry, U. Kim, S. Power, M. Young, & M. Bujaki, 1989) and examined the relation between acculturation attitudes and sociocultural and psychological adaptation among Croatian and Polish immigrants to Italy, 2 groups whose cultures are not very different from the Italian culture. Moreover, the author investigated the relation between the need for cognitive closure (NCC; M. D. Webster & A. W. Kruglanski, 1994) and psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The participants completed a questionnaire including measures of sociocultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, social relationships, acculturation attitudes, and NCC. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed main effects of acculturation strategies for both forms of adaptation and a main effect of NCC for psychological adaptation. The Croatian and Polish immigrants differed in the level of sociocultural adaptation but not in the level of psychological adaptation.     

Using nostalgia to reduce prejudice toward immigrants

Based on research that points to nostalgia as a means of warding off stigmatization, this study suggests that nostalgia triggered by a past encounter with a close immigrant from the in‐group can improve attitudes toward out‐group immigrants. Focusing on immigration in Greece, 99 university students (M = 23.06, SD = 5.44) participated in the study. Participants who were induced with nostalgia reported higher social connectedness, inclusion of the out‐group in the self, out‐group trust, and positive out‐group attitude compared with participants in the control condition. The aforementioned findings demonstrated that the positive effects of nostalgia about a close in‐group member (in this case, a Greek person), who shares an identity with the out‐group (being an immigrant), can generalize to the out‐group as a whole (immigrants in general). Further implications and future directions on the use of nostalgia as a means of improving attitudes are addressed.     

the transition experiences of successful chinese immigrants

This article focused on the transition experiences of 20 successful Chinese immigrants, in particular their transition stories and how they accounted for their success (what facilitated and hindered their transition). An enhanced critical incident method was used for data analysis. Four major success categories emerged: having a positive attitude and personality, skills and resource development, education and work experience, and community and family support. There was less emphasis on hindering categories, but some problems were identified. There was specific information on the effectiveness of the employment counseling process from those who had participated in an employment counseling program.     

Acculturative stress among young immigrants in Norway

The study examined the relationship between migration and the incidence of emotional disorders among 568 young Third World immigrants in Norway. Participants were 10–17 years of age. Using a questionnaire, acculturative stress (i.e., change in health status as a result of acculturation) was found to exist among the children, although having to migrate or being born in Norway was not related to mental health status. A stressful acculturative experience (i.e., difficulties in initiating friendship with Norwegian peers) alone could account for only 1% of the self reported emotional disorders. Incidence of depressive tendencies, poor self image, and psychological and somatic symptoms were found to be related to close and supportive parents, marginality, integration, gender and the number of friends the child had. These accounted for between 12 and 15% of the explained variance. The paper theoretically discusses how these factors may be related to acculturative stress, and recommends them as starting points for a primary intervention program to reduce emotional disorders among these children.     

Justice for the Professional Guinea Pig

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) remains a controversial technique, one that has elicited a variety of regulatory responses throughout the world. On March 29, 2005, Canada's Assisted Human Reproduction Act came into force. This law prohibits a number of research activities, including SCNT. Given the pluralistic nature of Canadian society, the creation of this law stands as an interesting case study of the policy-making process and how and why a liberal democracy ends up making the relatively rare decision to use a statutory prohibition, backed by severe penalties, to stop a particular scientific activity. In this article, we provide a comprehensive and systematic legal analysis of the legislative process and parliamentary debates associated with the passage of this law.