Sokchea Lim and A.K.M. Mahbub Morshed
The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics and persistence of interpersonal trust among immigrants in the USA. More specifically, the authors investigate the association…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics and persistence of interpersonal trust among immigrants in the USA. More specifically, the authors investigate the association between the levels of trust of US immigrants and the levels of trust in their home countries across different cohorts and generations of immigrants.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to quantify the extent of this relationship, the authors use two large sets of survey data, the General Social Survey and the World Value Survey, to construct the trust of immigrants in the USA and their levels of trust in their country of origin. The final sample size for the immigrants’ trust is 27,531 observations.
Findings
The examination of the two trust variables at different levels and for different cohorts show that there is an association between the levels of US immigrants’ trust and the levels of trust in the country of origin, suggesting that immigrants bring their culture with them and transmit it to the next generation. However, this association differs across various cohorts and generations of immigrants. The transmission of trust is strong in the second generation but becomes weaker in the third generation and seems to disappear in the fourth generation.
Social implications
Empirical estimates of how long the cultural traits embodied in a new immigrant are sustained in the newly adopted country are essential to the appraisal of the current apparent segregation of immigrants in the USA.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on the under-researched area of the dynamic properties of immigrants’ trust by using large data sets from social surveys. The authors examine this cultural assimilation across different cohorts and generations.
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Assandé Désiré Adom, Subhash C. Sharma and A.K.M. Mahbub Morshed
This paper aims to investigate the presence of currency substitution in eight African countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the presence of currency substitution in eight African countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This study investigates the presence of currency substitution in eight African countries – Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia – for the period 1976 to 2005 using both regional and US dollar as anchor currencies.
Findings
The paper finds that currency substitution is prevalent in Ghana and Nigeria when CFA franc is used as an anchor currency. However, when US dollar is used as an anchor currency there is no evidence of currency substitution in Ghana, but the presence of currency substitution in Nigeria is still observed. The paper also finds the presence of currency substitution in South Africa, but not in Egypt when the US dollar is the anchor currency. For Kenya, Tunisia and Zambia there is no evidence of currency substitution irrespective of the anchor currencies considered. In the case of Morocco, no evidence of currency substitution is observed when the Egyptian pound is used as anchor currency, but there is weak evidence of currency substitution when the US dollar is considered.
Originality/value
This paper provides useful information on the presence of currency substitution in African countries.
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The purpose of this manuscript is to examine the negotiations of health among low-wage migrant workers in Singapore amidst the COVID-19 outbreaks in dormitories housing them. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this manuscript is to examine the negotiations of health among low-wage migrant workers in Singapore amidst the COVID-19 outbreaks in dormitories housing them. In doing so, the manuscript attends to the ways in which human rights are constituted amidst labor and communicative rights, constituting the backdrop against which the pandemic outbreaks take place and the pandemic response is negotiated.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is part of a long-term culture-centered ethnography conducted with low-wage migrant workers in Singapore, seeking to build communicative infrastructures for rights-based advocacy and interventions.
Findings
The findings articulate the ways in which the outbreaks in dormitories housing low-wage migrant workers are constituted amidst structural contexts of organizing migrant work in Singapore. These structural contexts of extreme neoliberalism work catalyze capitalist accumulation through the exploitation of low-wage migrant workers. The poor living conditions that constitute the outbreak are situated in relationship to the absence of labor and communicative rights in Singapore. The absence of communicative rights and dignity to livelihood constitutes the context within which the COVID-19 outbreak emerges and the ways in which it is negotiated among low-wage migrant workers in Singapore.
Originality/value
This manuscript foregrounds the interplays of labor and communicative rights in the context of the health experiences of low-wage migrant workers amidst the pandemic. Even as COVID-19 has made visible the deeply unequal societies we inhabit, the manuscript suggests the relevance of turning to communicative rights as the basis for addressing these inequalities. It contributes to the extant literature on the culture-centered approach by depicting the ways in which a pandemic as a health crisis exacerbates the challenges to health and well-being among precarious workers.