The Political Justification of Migrant Workers in Alberta,Canada

Considering a series of oil-driven economic booms, the use of inter-provincial and international migrant labour has become an important part of labour market policy in the Canadian province of Alberta. The increased use of temporary foreign workers is controversial. Narrative analysis of legislators’ statements in the legislature and the press between 2000 and 2011 reveals the government using three narratives to justify policies encouraging greater use of foreign migrant workers: (1) labour shortages require migrant workers, (2) migrants do not threaten Canadian jobs and (3) migrants are not being exploited. Close scrutiny of each narrative demonstrates them to be largely invalid. This suggests a significant disconnect between the real and espoused reasons for the significant changes to labour market policy, changes that advantage employers and disadvantage both Canadian and foreign workers. The findings are relevant to understand the political dynamics of economically related migration.     

“I will accept whatever is meant for us. I wait for that—day and night”: The search for healing at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan

This paper describes an ethnographic perspective on the role of a Muslim shrine in Pakistan. Most shrines in Muslim countries represent the Sufi tradition in Islam where followers seek healing and fulfilment of their wishes using Sufi saints as intermediaries. In Pakistan, the shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ashabi provides a significant religious, social, physical, and psychological resource where people engage in religious rituals, community living and healing rituals to address physical, emotional, and social ailments. In addition to the explanatory models of misfortune described by the informants, gender, poverty, availability of formal health services, and social support seem to play a significant role in emphasizing the position of the Sufi shrine in a Muslim setting.     

A Person‐Centered Examination of Adolescent Religiosity Using Latent Class Analysis

Empirical studies of religion's role in society, especially those focused on individuals and analyzing survey data, conceptualize and measure religiosity as ranging from low to high on a single measure or a summary index of multiple measures. Other concepts, such as “lived religion,” “believing without belonging,” or “fuzzy fidelity” emphasize what scholars have noted for decades: humans are rarely consistently low, medium, or high across dimensions of religiosity including institutional involvement, private practice, salience, or belief. A method with great promise for identifying population patterns in how individuals combine types and levels of belief, practice, and personal religious salience is latent class analysis. In this article, we use data from the first wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion's telephone survey to discuss how to select indicators of religiosity in an informed manner, as well as the implications of the number and types of indicators used for model fit. We identify five latent classes of religiosity among adolescents in the United States and their sociodemographic correlates. Our findings highlight the value of a person‐centered approach to understanding how religion is lived by American adolescents.     

Are secret relationships hot, then not? Romantic secrecy as a function of relationship duration

Are secret romances alluring or aversive? One theory suggests that romantic secrecy increases obsessive preoccupation with romantic partners and thereby enhances romantic relationships. Another theory suggests that romantic secrecy is burdensome and thereby undermines romantic relationships. We sought to rectify these conflicting perspectives by examining romantic secrecy and relationship duration using a large, Internet-based sample (N = 564). We predicted that romantic secrecy would have a positive influence in newer romantic relationships (obsessive preoccupation theory) and a negative influence in older romantic relationships (burden theory). In contrast, the obtained results indicate that romantic secrecy is a burden to both new and old romantic relationships.     

An Integrative Approach to Teaching Dreamwork in Group Supervision

Dreams can be an important part of the counseling process to increase clients’ awareness of potentially unfinished business. We present an approach to teaching dreamwork in group supervision that is designed to assist supervisees’ integration of dreamwork techniques into their client consultation and to contribute to further development of advanced counseling skills.