Turkey commemorates Holocaust, vows to fight antisemitism

2016/01/28 Leave a comment

Now if the Turkish government could be more open about the Armenian genocide… Also wonder whether this appeared in Turkish-language media or only in English:

Turkey has voiced resolve in continuing its fight against anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia in a message to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“We commemorate with respect millions of people who lost their lives in the Holocaust which is one of the darkest and most painful eras in the history of humanity,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, recalling that Jan. 27 had been chosen by the United Nations to commemorate victims of the Holocaust during World War II.

“As it has done so far, our country will continue to fulfill its responsibility to ensure such atrocities are not experienced again and will continue its fight with determination against phenomena, such as anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia which have unfortunately been observed and strengthened,” the ministry said in a written statement released late Jan. 26.

Source: Turkey commemorates Holocaust, vows to fight anti-Semitism – DIPLOMACY

Filed under Antisemitism, Holocaust, TFWP Tagged with ,

#OscarsSoWhite: How a Lack of Diversity Historically Dooms Oscars Ratings – The Daily Beast

2016/01/28 Leave a comment

Interesting correlation how greater diversity of Oscar nominees is reflected in greater viewership. While other factors may also be at play as noted in the article, the business argument appears persuasive:

Using ratings data provided by Nielsen that broke Oscars viewership down by race, stretching back to the 2004 telecast, we found that the largest percentage of black viewers and non-white viewers tuned in to the Academy Awards in years when the most nominees of color and films featuring protagonists of color were in contention.

The reverse is also true: Generally, the years with the least diversity were the least-watched among people of color.

Not only that, but the years that had the highest percentages of black and non-white viewers also happened to be the highest rated Oscars telecasts overall. That means that people of color have been a major force in driving the biggest Oscars ratings.

Simply put, a more diverse slate of nominees leads to better ratings. Assuming that the Academy needs big ratings numbers to make money and stay relevant, #OscarsSoWhite—or, at the very least, a resistance to diversity—is bad for business.

For example, 2005 was the year with the highest ratings among black viewers, with 5.3 million tuning in, amounting to 12.5 percent of that year’s total viewers. It was also among the highest rated Oscars ceremony in the years that we surveyed, topping out at 42 million viewers.

That year, six nominees were actors of color: Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), and Jamie Foxx, who won for Ray and was nominated for Collateral.

Plus Ray was a Best Picture nominee, one of only nine Best Picture nominees in the 12 years we surveyed featuring a protagonist of color. (The others: Crash, Babel, Precious, The Help, Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave, and Selma. And we will concede that several of the films on that list are dubious inclusions.)

Over the course of the 12 years we looked into, viewership among black and non-white viewers, which includes Hispanic and Asian viewers, reliably spiked in years with the most nominees of color.

In 2007, there were a remarkable eight nominees of various non-white races contending for acting trophies: Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Penelope Cruz (Volver), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), and Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kinkuchi (Babel).

That year 12.15 percent of the total viewership was black, the second-highest in that period. Just more than 20 percent of the viewership was non-white as a whole—the highest of any year. And it was the year with the second-biggest ratings overall, with 40.2 million viewers tuning in, signaling again that people of color help to drive viewership in the biggest Oscars years.

Babel was also a Best Picture nominee that year. Though it didn’t get a Best Picture nod, Dreamgirls was the most nominated film of the year. Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson were among the performers at the ceremony, and Hudson and Forest Whitaker were presumed victors long before the ceremony aired.

There’s no factual correlation between an Oscar telecast that spotlights black performers and higher ratings, but there certainly is an anecdotal case to be made suggesting that.

And while the numbers indicate that total viewership surges when black viewership surges—2010’s telecast, in which Precious was nominated, scored a stellar 42 million viewers and was third-ranked among black viewers and nominees of color—there is also a correlation between a lack of diversity and ratings.

Up until last year’s first #OscarsSoWhite telecast, during which Selma was nominated for Best Picture, the least watched Oscars telecasts among black and non-white viewers were, perhaps expectedly, the years featuring only two nominees of color or less, and no Best Picture nominees featuring diverse protagonists.

The lowest percentage of black viewers tuned in for the 2004, 2008, and 2011 telecasts. In 2004, only Djimon Hounsou (In America) and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) were nominated. In 2008, only Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) and Ruby Dee (American Gangster) got nods. In 2011, it was only Bardem, for Biutiful.

And with the exception of 2004’s ceremony, which aired during an era when the Oscars ratings didn’t fluctuate as wildly as they tend to now and were almost always guaranteed blockbuster numbers, total viewership over the years we surveyed was reliably lowest when the films in contention were woefully, well, “white.”

The ratings for last year’s #OscarsSoWhite fiasco were the worst since 2009, a fact that you can’t help contrast with the numbers for the year before. The ceremony in 2014—when 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, Lupita Nyong’o won Best Supporting Actress, and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Barkhad Abdi were also nominees—was the highest rated ceremony of the 12 years we surveyed.

Oh, and the lowest ratings? That was for 2008’s ceremony, a year that was almost laughably white: No Country for Old Men defeated There Will Be Blood, Juno, Atonement, and Michael Clayton for Best Picture.

Admittedly, this isn’t a perfect argument.

There are many reasons why ratings for the Oscars surge or plummet. A theory that is often floated correlates high ratings to the box office totals of the nominees. The year of Titanic remains the most-watched Oscars ever. In our surveyed range, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King help stoke big ratings in 2004, while the year that Avatar competed (but lost) also put up big numbers.

Still, there is a compelling case to be made by looking at the data that diversity in nominees and the films in contention also plays a major part in driving viewership; it should also be noted that the year Avatar competed was also one of the most diverse years in terms of nominees.

Plus, years featuring the largest percentages of black and non-white voters also had the highest Oscars ratings, suggesting that people of color play a large part in fueling bigger viewership numbers. And that happens when there are diverse nominees.

So what does all of this mean for this year, a year when the lack of diversity among the nominees isn’t just fodder for thinkpieces and social media handwringing—but actual calls for action?

This is an unprecedented situation—two consecutive years with no acting nominees of color and, this year, no Best Picture nominees either—and therefore an unprecedented case study.

Despite our argument that a lack of diversity hurts Oscars ratings, there’s a valid rebuttal that the zeitgeist-seizing controversy surrounding #OscarsSoWhite could actually lead to bigger numbers. A lot of people are desperate to know how the Academy and especially Chris Rock will address the situation, if at all, and what repercussions there will be from the grassroots Oscars boycott—again, if any.

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ICYMI: Why Cities Should Invest in Citizenship: Helping Immigrants Achieve Citizenship Yields Major Returns | Bob Annibale

2016/01/28 Leave a comment

Likely more correlation than causation, although citizenship both reflects and promotes integration:

It is widely recognized that gaining citizenship is a transformative social experience for immigrants and our nation. Naturalization ceremonies are often emotional events, and the integration of immigrants has shaped the face of America.

Less widely appreciated is the fact that citizenship is a powerful source of economic empowerment and strength both for the individuals who gain citizenship, as well as the cities in which they live.

In the past month the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) and Citi Community Development unveiled new research conducted by the Urban Institute on the economic effects of naturalization on immigrants and their local economies. “The Economic Impact of Naturalization on Immigrants and Cities” shows that naturalization may lead to an average increase in individual earnings of 8.9%, or $3,200, in the first year after becoming a U.S. citizen. If all eligible immigrants were to naturalize, employment and homeownership rates among eligible immigrants may also rise.

Cities also reap economic benefits from naturalization. If all of the eligible immigrants across the 21 U.S. cities studied were to become citizens, their increased employment rate and earnings would generate millions in new tax revenues – $2 million per year in cities with smaller immigrant populations, like Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Reading, Pennsylvania, and up to $152 million per year in Chicago, $364 million in Los Angeles, and a whopping $789 million in New York City.

Source: Why Cities Should Invest in Citizenship: Helping Immigrants Achieve Citizenship Yields Major Returns — and It’s the Right Thing to Do | Bob Annibale

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Christine Taubira, justice minister at odds with French government, resigns

2016/01/28 Leave a comment

A further reflection of the divisions within the Hollande government and party members and supporters over the proposed citizenship revocation measures:

French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a left-winger often considered at odds with her government on matters of law and order enforcement, resigned on Wednesday, President Francois Hollande’s office said in a statement.

The announcement came as parliament prepared to examine a controversial constitutional reform that would allow for people convicted of terrorism to be stripped of their citizenship in certain circumstances.

Taubira, who expressed reservations about the plan, said on her Twitter account: “Sometimes you remain in place to resist. Sometimes resisting means you go.”

The statement from Hollande’s office said Taubira would be replaced by Jean-Jacques Urvoas, widely regarded as more supportive of Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Hollande.

Taubira, born in French Guiana, was perhaps best known for shepherding legislation through parliament to legalize same-sex weddings in France. While her active role on that major social policy change was widely recognised, she was often accused of advocating a softer touch on law and order than others in her government.

That stance has looked even more problematic in the wake of the Nov. 13 Islamist militant attacks on Paris and the security clampdown they sparked, and as countries across Europe take a harder line on policing.

Source: Christine Taubira, justice minister at odds with French government, resigns – World – CBC News

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Le français, non merci – Language of Immigrants in Quebec

2016/01/28 Leave a comment

Interesting study on the degree to which Quebec immigrants integrate to French or English-speaking environments (the vast majority of immigrants settle in Montreal where this is an option).

Not totally surprisingly, Latin American and Arab immigrants tend to integrate into francophone environnement, those from China, South Asia and the Philippines remain more anglophone in orientation:

Plus de 200 000 Néo-Québécois, soit 20 % de la population immigrée au Québec, ne parlent pas français. La plupart de ces immigrants, soit 160 000, parlent anglais. En dépit de la sélection prioritaire de candidats connaissant le français — 60 % du total —, l’immigration continue de contribuer au déclin du français, surtout dans la région de Montréal.

C’est ce que signale un portrait des efforts du Québec en matière de francisation et d’intégration intitulé Le Québec rate sa cible. Commandité par la CSN, le Mouvement national des Québécois, la Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal et le Mouvement Québec français, le document exhaustif de 130 pages, rédigé par le chercheur Jean Ferretti de l’Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine (IREC), s’appuie sur des données du ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI) et de Statistique Canada ainsi que sur diverses études de chercheurs comme Marc Termotte, Paul Béland, Michel Pagé, Brahim Boudarbat, Gilles Grenier, Patrick Sabourin et Guillaume Marois.

« On dirait que par négligence, le gouvernement du Québec refuse de voir l’impact de l’immigration sur le français à Montréal », a affirmé Jean Ferretti au Devoir.

« La politique migratoire menée depuis 1991 ne permet pas d’atteindre l’objectif du [ministère] de pérenniser le français. Les efforts de sélection ont permis de hausser la part d’immigrants connaissant le français, mais ne sont pas suffisants pour endiguer le déclin du français », écrit Jean Ferretti.

Concurrence linguistique

Le Québec est dans une situation particulière par rapport à d’autres sociétés, note-t-il. « L’adoption de la langue de la majorité par les immigrants ne va pas de soi. À Montréal, la possibilité de vivre dans la langue de son choix et la forte présence des anglophones du Québec créent une situation de concurrence linguistique qui limite les transferts linguistiques vers le français. »

Jean Ferretti cite Paul Béland, qui a démontré que les immigrants de langue maternelle latine ou originaires de la Francophonie, quelle que soit leur langue maternelle, sont enclins à adopter le français, alors que c’est l’inverse pour les immigrants de langue maternelle non latine. Depuis 1971, la proportion des immigrants de langue latine qui adoptent le français a augmenté à 87 %, tandis que le transfert vers le français des immigrants de langue non latine est resté le même en 30 ans, à 15 %.

Ainsi 88 % des Latino-Américains et 90 % des Arabes installés au Québec connaissent le français, alors que plus de 40 % des Chinois et des Sud-Asiatiques ne connaissent pas le français. Dans le cas des Philippins, 58 % d’entre eux ne parlent pas français.

Pour préserver le caractère français du Québec, il importe non seulement de recruter une forte proportion d’immigrants qui connaissent le français, mais il faut choisir parmi les immigrants qui ne connaissent pas le français ceux qui sont les plus aptes à adopter la langue commune, estime l’auteur.

Si le gouvernement du Québec poursuit la même politique en matière d’immigration qu’à l’heure actuelle, le poids démographique des francophones continuera de diminuer. Reprenant les projections des démographes Guillaume Marois et Marc Termotte, les francophones ne représenteraient plus que 75 % de la population du Québec dans 40 ans, contre 82 % en 2006. Si le seuil d’immigration de 50 000 à l’heure actuelle était porté à 65 000 — Philippe Couillard a déjà indiqué son intention d’augmenter le nombre d’immigrants reçus au Québec —, le poids des francophones s’élèverait à 73 %.

De son côté, Marc Termotte évalue qu’avec un seuil de 60 000 immigrants par an, la proportion de francophones sur l’île de Montréal passerait de 52,4 % [donnée de 2011] à 42,3 % en 2056. Ces projections, qui montrent un accroissement de la présence des allophones (de 23 % à 34 %) ne tiennent pas compte des transferts linguistiques au terme de la deuxième génération d’immigrants.

Source: Le français, non merci | Le Devoir

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Angela Merkel opens Holocaust art show with warning on antisemitism

2016/01/27 Leave a comment

Making the lessons of the past relevant to today:

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has opened a major exhibition in Berlin featuring works by Jewish concentration camp prisoners, as she pledged to combat a feared rise in antisemitism in Germany linked to a record influx of refugees.

The show, Art from the Holocaust, brings together 100 works on loan from Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial. They were created in secret by 50 artists between 1939 and 1945 while they were confined to the camps or ghettos.

Twenty-four of the artists did not survive the second world war.

The drawings and paintings on display at the German Historical Museum depict the suffering, drudgery and terror endured by the detainees.

But about a third of the collection shows artists’ attempts to escape their plight with their imaginations, putting to paper treasured memories and dreams of freedom beyond the barbed wire.

Merkel, looking ahead to Wednesday’s commemorations of the 71st anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation in her weekly video podcast, said such exhibitions served as a crucial tool for educating younger generations.

She cited in particular the fears of German Jewish leaders that the need to impart the lessons of the Holocaust has grown more urgent with the influx of a record 1.1 million asylum seekers to Germany in 2015, many from the Middle East.

“We must focus our efforts particularly among young people from countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is widespread,” she said.

The head of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev, called the works on loan irreplaceable “treasures”, many of which were hidden by their creators and only discovered after the war.

They are “the expression of human beings under these unique circumstances to try and prevail … above the atrocities and deaths”, he told reporters at a press preview of the exhibition.

“After thinking and rethinking, we thought it might be the right time, the right place, to bring this collection to Germany.”

Merkel noted later at the opening that the collection had been sent to Berlin in two shipments “in case something happened, so that they would not all be damaged”.

Source: Angela Merkel opens Holocaust art show with warning on antisemitism | World news | The Guardian

Filed under Antisemitism, Holocaust, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Quebec: Les cours de français boudés par les immigrants

2016/01/27 Leave a comment

Not a good development but the article offers few reasons to explain the drop from 60 to 40 percent of those taking language training. I have not seen any articles or studies on comparative take-up rates in English Canada (readers please correct or advise):

Environ 60 % des immigrants adultes qui ne connaissent pas le français en arrivant au Québec refusent de suivre les cours de français qui leur sont offerts gratuitement par l’État, une proportion en nette progression ces dernières années.

Selon le rapport annuel de gestion 2014-2015 du ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI), des 13 455 immigrants reçus qui déclaraient ne pas connaître le français en 2012, seulement 3689 s’étaient inscrits à un cours de français dans les deux ans qui ont suivi, soit un pourcentage de 27,4 %. Mais comme les cours offerts par le MIDI ne représentent que les deux tiers des cours de français offerts aux nouveaux arrivants, a-t-on précisé au ministère — l’autre tiers est le fait du ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MTESS) —, il s’agit d’un peu plus de 40 % des immigrants anglophones ou allophones qui jugent bon d’apprendre formellement le français dans les deux ans qui suivent leur arrivée.

Or en 2008, la proportion était inversée : 60 % des nouveaux arrivants ne connaissant pas le français assistaient aux cours offerts par l’État, évaluait-on au ministère. On s’inquiétait toutefois du fait que 40 % d’entre eux choisissaient de bouder les cours.

Délais et budgets en baisse

On montrait du doigt les longs délais que les immigrants devaient subir avant de pouvoir participer à un cours de français. Ces délais n’ont plus cours aujourd’hui. « En matière de francisation, le Ministère répond à la demande et les budgets sont ajustés en conséquence », a soutenu dans un courriel la porte-parole du MIDI, Karine Baribeau.

Et les budgets sont revus à la baisse : réduction de 1,45 million en 2012-2013, de 809 000 $ en 2013-2014 et de 3,4 millions en 2014-2015, pour un total de 5,7 millions, soit près de 10 % du budget consacré à la francisation des immigrants par le MIDI. Selon la porte-parole, la diminution de l’an dernier est due à une baisse de fréquentation des cours à temps complet alors que le nombre d’immigrants qui suivent des cours à temps partiel s’est maintenu. Près de 10 800 immigrants se sont inscrits au cours à temps complet, soit 15 % de moins qu’il y a deux ans, contre 15 350 à des cours à temps partiel et 3000 à des cours en ligne, pour un total d’un peu plus de 29 000 étudiants de tous les niveaux de connaissance du français.

Source: Les cours de français boudés par les immigrants | Le Devoir

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Les Iraniens les plus nombreux à avoir choisi le Québec

2016/01/27 Leave a comment

Good illustration of how immigrants adapt to revised regulations (changing federal skills preferences leading those rejected to apply to Quebec):

Quel pays a fourni le plus d’immigrants au Québec en 2014, dernière année complète pour laquelle on a la statistique? La France? La Chine? Le Maroc? Haïti? Vous avez tout faux.

La bonne réponse est l’Iran, révèle le plus récent bilan démographique du Québec. Un résultat étonnant puisque ce pays n’apparaît habituellement pas au sommet de ceux de provenance des nouveaux arrivants.

Hormis le cas de la Chine, les immigrants qui entrent au Québec proviennent habituellement de pays francophones, latins à la limite. Or, même si le français a eu un certain rayonnement en Iran, notamment à l’époque du shah, chassé du pouvoir au moment de la révolution islamique de 1979, la place du français au sein des élites s’est amenuisée depuis.

Cette donnée a pris de court les experts en immigration du Centre Urbanisation Culture Société de l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) et de l’Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).

«J’ai été surprise, reconnaît Chantal Girard, démographe de l’ISQ. On a fait des vérifications auprès de l’Immigration et il y aurait comme un effet de concentration», dit-elle, en nous invitant à communiquer directement avec Immigration Québec pour les détails.

Changements à Ottawa

Il semble que les Iraniens qui se font refuser l’entrée au Canada aient décidé de passer par le Québec, quitte à déménager au Canada anglais par la suite.

«Cette variation pourrait être due à des changements apportés par le gouvernement fédéral en 2009», explique Karine Baribeau, porte-parole du ministère de l’Immigration. En effet, c’est à ce moment-là que le Ministère a modifié les domaines de formation recherchés, ce qui a causé le refus de nombreux candidats iraniens, qui n’avaient plus les diplômes privilégiés par le gouvernement fédéral. À ce moment, de nombreux candidats iraniens se seraient tournés vers le Québec et auraient présenté une demande.

«Nous avons donc reçu un nombre élevé de demandes de candidats iraniens de 2009 à 2013. En 2014, on a remarqué que le nombre de demandes reçues revenait tranquillement à la normale. Comme il s’écoule un certain délai entre la sélection par le Québec et l’admission, ça concorderait avec les fluctuations remarquées dans les admissions.»

Près de 6000 Iraniens sont entrés au Québec en 2014, comparativement à environ 3500 Français et 3500 Algériens. Après neuf mois en 2015, le Québec avait accueilli 3084 Iraniens, au deuxième rang des pays de provenance derrière la France.

Source: Les Iraniens les plus nombreux à avoir choisi le Québec | André Dubuc | National

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Action Canada Report: Barriers to Belonging – Paving a Smoother Path to Immigrant Inclusion

2016/01/27 Leave a comment

For those interested in Ottawa, presentation of a report February 5 by a group of young Canadian leaders on immigrant integration (Barriers to Belonging session – disclosure I was one of the people interviewed for the report):

Fellows Presentation Invite EN (Feb '16)There are currently 1.6 million permanent residents in Canada. These newcomers are central to the economic, social and political fabric of the country. Yet these recent immigrants continue to face considerable challenges to participating in the full spectrum of Canadian life.

Join us for the release of our report: Barriers to Belonging – Paving a Smoother Path to Immigrant Inclusion, and participate in a public dialogue around recommendations concerning the design of smarter services, building bridges to employment and strengthening the political engagement of recent immigrants.

What:              Action Canada Presentation of Final Report

When:             Friday February 5, 2016

Time:              8:45am – 9:45am (light refreshments and welcome beginning at 8:00am)

Where:           Sheraton Ottawa Hotel, Rideau Room, 150 Albert Street 

 

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What Does It Mean If An Attack Is ‘ISIS-Inspired’? : NPR

2016/01/27 Leave a comment

Good contrast between the centralized control of Al-Qaida and the lack of centralized control by ISIS, and greater number of lone-wolf or small group terrorist activity:

Today’s violent jihadist threat is very different from those associated with al-Qaida in the past. ISIS followers appear more troubled and more confused about their intentions and motivations than their al-Qaida predecessors.

Al-Qaida’s operatives typically went to Pakistan or Yemen to train. They usually had email connections and phone conversations with known terrorist actors as they prepared to attack. And Ayman al-Zawahiri, now the leader of al-Qaida, kept a tight rein on the group’s terrorist operations. He was keen to approve each and every attack and he loathed freelancers. He worried, among other things, that unsanctioned attacks could dilute the al-Qaida brand.

The ISIS model couldn’t be more different. The attacks dubbed as ISIS-inspired in this country have tended to be the work of what law enforcement officials call “classic injustice collectors.”

These are people who have been nursing various resentments for years, who, in the heat of the moment, appear to reinvent themselves as ISIS followers. Doing so, officials say, not only gives them a greater sense of purpose, but it also seems to guarantee a great deal of publicity.

McCants says it would make sense to determine if a suspect actually had some sort of sustained interest in a particular group before deciding an attack was inspired. “If you have individuals who have no sustained interest in the group and have no organizational ties,” he said, “it seems like their interest in ISIS is much more opportunistic than it is ideological.”

Clint Watts, a Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, has been tracking the city’s police shooting case. He says it is very possible that the saturation coverage of ISIS, rather than the ideology of the group itself, motivated Archer to claim he’d opened fire on Officer Jesse Hartnett for the Islamic State.

“I think it was mostly what would be described as a headline-inspired terrorist attack,” said Watts.

Archer’s mother told police he had mental problems and recently had been hearing voices. Archer has a long criminal history. Those kinds of facts shouldn’t be lightly dismissed — they might actually provide an explanation.

“Someone who has deep psychological issues, some sort of problems in their local environment, picks up a weapon, and conducts an attack and then attributes it to a group like ISIS and before that al-Qaida,” says Watts. “The connections to the actual terrorist group are nonexistent, so that’s why, so far in this case, I’d say it is more inspired by current events than a particular ideology.”

Source: What Does It Mean If An Attack Is ‘ISIS-Inspired’? : NPR

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