Thousands of stories are coming out of the country’s ethnic-language media — and only pockets of Canadians know anything about them.
More than 800 ethnic media outlets reach a range of distinct communities across this country, publishing and broadcasting in more than 30 major languages — including Mandarin, Punjabi, Farsi and Ukrainian.
It’s only rarely that the so-called mainstream English- and French-language media learns what issues are hot at such media outlets, given the barrier of language. But buried within the country’s proliferating ethnic-language media are potentially high-impact stories.
Since I write about diversity and migration, sources have helped me find other stories enclosed in Metro Vancouver’s ethnic-language media outlets, of which there are more than 100 in B.C. Some stories revealed, for instance, how local South Asians are in an uproar about a recent surge in foreign students, about how B.C.-based Iranians fear spies from their theocratic homeland and about how Canadian politicians frequently give speeches inside Chinese-language churches and Sikh gurdwaras.
Two well-placed Canadians, Andres Machalski, a veteran media monitoring specialist, Andrew Griffith, a former Immigration Department director, are doing the country a service by trying to make ethnic-media journalism more transparent to the public, bringing it out of its language silos.
They’ve just created the online tool, Diversityvotes.ca, to monitor and translate stories from Canada’s ethnic media, which Machalski says may be more pervasive in this country than almost anywhere. Diversityvotes.ca emphasizes articles with political implications, since politicians of every stripe already use ethnic media outlets to try to grab the precious votes of minority members and immigrants.
The electoral stakes are high. Canada has 41 federal ridings in which more than half the population is made up of people of colour. Metro Vancouver alone has four ridings in which more than 70 per cent of the population are people of colour, plus five more in which the proportion is above 50 per cent. They’re concentrated in Richmond, Vancouver, Surrey and Burnaby.
Winning as many high-immigrant ridings as possible in Metro Vancouver and Greater Toronto is key to national success for any federal party. And so far Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are doing the best at wooing such minorities, with a recent poll suggesting they’re primed to take 39 per cent of the votes of immigrants, compared to the Conservatives’ 29 per cent, NDP’s 14 per cent and Green’s nine.
Monitoring the ethnic-language media will be informative for all, regardless of ethnicity or place of birth, since Machalski is convinced most Canadians have no clue about the sway of the ethnic-language media. Keeping informed can also help expose when politicians speak out of both sides of their mouths, telling one ethnic group one thing and the general population something else.
That’s in part what happened this year when the mainstream media learned the Liberal candidate in the riding of Burnaby South, Karen Wang, was posting in Chinese-language social media that she was the “only” Chinese candidate, while her opponent, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, was “of Indian descent.” Wang resigned and apologized.
Ethnic diversity has been formally celebrated in Canada for more than three decades, since former prime minister Pierre Trudeau promoted it through the official multiculturalism policy, said Machalski, president of Mirems, which created the online tool that each day translates many ethnic-media headlines and some specific articles. But the situation is increasingly, he said, becoming polarized.
“Is the ethnic media strong? Is it influential? In a country that’s bringing in 300,000 newcomers a year, what do you think? Just look at the demographics and make up your own opinion,” Machalski, an immigrant from Argentina whose ethnic background is Anglo-Polish, said from Toronto.
The Italian-language media in Canada, which has more than 25 different outlets, is full of stories about Trudeau promising to apologize for detaining 700 Italian-Canadians during the Second World War, Machalski said. It’s a huge issue for some Italian-Canadians, but off the radar of most others Canadians, he said, acknowledging an apology could be loaded for the families of thousands of Canadian loved ones who died or were wounded fighting Italian fascism.
Vancouver-based Blythe Irwin, who directs media monitoring for Diversityvotes.ca, said the feedback she gets is most Canadians have no idea that ethnic media has grown so pervasive across Canada, with 110 Punjabi-language alone media outlets alone. There are also more than 100 various Chinese-language outlets, 62 in Spanish, 31 in Farsi, 29 in Arabic, 24 in Russian, 16 in Hindi, 12 in Greek, 12 in Polish and three in German.
The more that all Canadians can learn about what’s being prioritized in ethnic-language media, the more they will understand the diverse political forces at play in this fast-changing country. Machalski is onto something when he says, “We have to vaccinate the public against political gullibility.” Canadians in general, he said, are wet behind the ears in the way that they think: “If I can’t read it, it doesn’t exist.”
“It’s 2019 and we are in the middle of a renaissance in black artistic production. And you are telling me the best people to evaluate that are the same ones who basically ignored black artists for decades?” the art critic Antwaun Sargent tweeted in May.
He was referring to reviews of this year’s Whitney Biennial, which will close in late September. But he could have been writing about reviews of film, theater, dance, even hip-hop.
The curators were a black woman and a white woman, and a majority of the artists they featured were people of color. Half were women; many were young.
But in major media outlets, white critics wrote the reviews that defined the conversation about the country’s pre-eminent contemporary art show. But not without resistance.
Ironic but perhaps not surprising that criticism of China’s repression of the Chinese Muslims is not from Muslim countries but more from the West. Hard to take the OIC and Muslim countries seriously when they complain about anti-Muslim discrimination in the West when they are largely silent on the Uighurs:
Turkey — which bills itself as a leader of the Islamic world — is the latest country to retreat into silence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out against China’s oppression of the Uighurs on numerous past occasions, but this week he gave his implicit support to China’s policies in Xinjiang during a state visit to the country.
“It is a fact that the people of all ethnicities in Xinjiang are leading a happy life amid China’s development and prosperity,” Erdogan said on Tuesday, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported, paraphrasing the Turkish president.
He added that some people were seeking to “abuse” the Xinjiang crisis to jeopardize Turkey and China’s economic relationship, saying according to Agence France-Presse.
“This abuse is having a negative impact on Turkish-Chinese relations. It is necessary that we do not give opportunity to such abuse.”
China has installed a modern surveillance state in Xinjiang. Uighurs in the region are forced to download malware that sweeps their phones for content unsavory to the Chinese regime, and authorities have detained up to 1.5 million of them in prison-like camps where people are reportedly tortured.
Though major Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia have also been silent about China’s Uighur crisis, Turkey’s apparent capitulation is perhaps most threatening to Uighurs.
Until now, Turkey had been the only Islamic country that dared speak up for the Uighurs.
It has also offered a safe haven to the community. Many members of the Uighur diaspora have moved there in recent decades, enticed by the similarities between the Turkish and Uighur languages and cultures.
Turkey is currently home to some 35,000 Uighurs, Reuters reported this March, citing the Istanbul-based East Turkestan National Center.
That number includes many former detainees in China’s prison-like camps, where guards reportedly force Uighur inmates to sing patriotic hymns in order to get food, and subject them to physical and mental torture.
Many Uighurs in Turkey still have relatives living in Xinjiang, and regularly stage large-scale protests calling for the release of their loved ones.
Erdogan himself has previously been a prominent voice for the Uighurs. Here’s his record:
In 2009, then-Prime Minister Erdogan described ethnic violence in Xinjiang as “a kind of genocide.”
In 2015, President Erdogan’s government openly offered to offer shelter to Uighur refugees.
In February 2019, Turkey’s foreign ministry condemned China’s “reintroduction of internment camps in the 21st century.” It went on to describe China’s “policy of systematic assimilation against the Uighur Turks” as “a great shame for humanity.”
February’s statement came in response to widespread protests in Turkey over the reported death of Abdurehim Heyit, a Chinese Uighur poet and musician well known among Turks.
Beijing also temporarily closed a consulate in Izmir, western Turkey, with Chinese ambassador to Turkey Deng Li telling Reuters: “Criticizing your friend publicly … will be reflected in commercial and economic relations.”
Ankara has been trying to join President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to link China to dozens of countries through infrastructure. The project has seen Chinese investment flow into developing countries, and critics have described the initiative as “debt-trap diplomacy.”
Erdogan heaped praise on the Belt and Road during his China visit, with both Turkish and Chinese media reporting his eagerness to work alongside China on new projects in the region.
Turkey may also want to become closer to China militarily, having bristled with the US over its arms programs and foreign policy.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation — a 57-country consortium that calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world” — followed a similar pattern of speaking up, then rowing back their comments about Xinjiang.
Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher into the Xinjiang surveillance state, tweeted after Erdogan’s visit to Beijing: “I guess the Muslim world’s actual care for their spiritual brothers is essentially zero.”
Uighurs in Turkey left in limbo
Many Uighurs in Turkey either had their Chinese passports revoked on their way out, or are unable to renew them at Beijing’s embassy in Turkey, Deutsche Welle and Reuters reported earlier this year.
Without those Chinese passports, they cannot file for work permits or legal residency in Turkey. This effectively renders them stateless, which precludes them from finding work, both outlets reported.
For this reason many Uighurs in the country are unemployed. Those who find jobs are forced to take informal, cash-based work, Deutsche Welle noted.
Erdogan’s conspicuous silence in Beijing is making Uighurs even more uncertain about their future.
Alip Erkin, an activist who runs the Uyghur Bulletin network, told Business Insider: “Wary of growing Chinese economic influence in Turkey and its increasingly cozy relations with China, Uighurs fear for even more restrictions on political activities and media coverage of what is going on in East Turkestan.”
Many Uighurs refer to Xinjiang as East Turkestan. Uyghur is an alternative spelling.
“Lasting uncertainty of legal status is forcing them to seek permanent resettlement elsewhere through various official and unofficial means,” Erkin said.
‘A delicate balancing act’
The fate of Uighurs in Turkey remains unclear, but they haven’t lost all hope yet.
Ankara has sent mixed messages to the Uighur diaspora in recent weeks, with the government granting over 146,000 residence permits to Uighurs from China, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in a gesture of support just five weeks ago.
“You don’t need to worry,” Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu told an audience on the day, referring to Uighurs, according to Hurriyet Daily News. He went on to say that the country will do all it can to ensure Uighurs “reach tomorrow as citizens of the Republic of Turkey.”
Erkin called this “a reassuring message to Uighurs living” in Turkey. He added that the contrast between Soylu’s support and Erdogan’s apparent kowtowing to Beijing is “a delicate balancing act on the part of Turkey.”
Business Insider has contacted Turkey’s foreign ministry for comment on whether Turkey would change its policies toward Uighurs’ path to Turkish citizenship.
Good piece. Ukrainian Canadians also played a significant role in including s27 in the Charter – This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians:
I watched Canada’s long history of diaspora politics reach some sort of apex on Wednesday morning, when the Foreign Affairs Minister stood before an audience at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel and delivered a 10-minute speech in effortless Ukrainian, before switching to equally fluent French and English. She then introduced the newly elected President of Ukraine, who attempted to win over the audience with a detailed speech in what audience members told me was a slightly more hesitant Ukrainian.
That Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian born in Peace River, Alta., speaks the language of Ukraine better than the country’s President – and that both felt it important to begin his term of office with a week in Canada, including multiple meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – is a double accident of history.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is, like almost a third of Ukrainian citizens, a Russian speaker, and he built his career in TV comedy by mastering Ukrainian as a second language. He speaks it very well, I’m told, but without the confidence of a native. That does not mean he is ethnically Russian or inclined to back Moscow over Brussels in the battle for Ukraine’s allegiances – in Ukraine, language does not correlate with politics.
But it does mean that he felt it important to make a strong case for his authenticity and his pro-Western views to the 1.4 million Canadians who are of Ukrainian ancestry. Those Ukrainian-Canadians are crucial to the fate of both Ukrainian leaders and, often, of Canadian political parties.
During Ukraine’s election this spring, Ukrainian-Canadian figures backed incumbent Petro Poroshenko, an outspoken nationalist with corruption problems who could only govern with the support of some extremist parties, but who had won the confidence of Western governments during Ukraine’s war against its invasion by Russia. Mr. Zelensky is an unknown commodity, especially to a Canadian diaspora that tends to be even more nationalist and anti-Russian in its sentiments than citizens of Ukraine.
Ms. Freeland’s Ukrainian ethnicity and linguistic fluency make her a standout figure in the long history of Ukrainian-Canadian relations. And Mr. Trudeau, as we know, goes out of his way to gain visibility in the homelands of electorally important ethnic groups.
But this government’s eagerness to embrace the latest Ukrainian leader, and the tens of millions it has poured into election support and military-training aid to Ukraine, are far from unique or excessive. The politics of ethnic homelands are not some new addition to Canadian life; they have been central to Canadian politics almost from the beginning.
And it all began with the Ukrainians.
A century before the country of Ukraine came into existence, in the early 1890s, Ukrainians became Canada’s first really major non-Western immigrant group. They did not share a language, a culture or a religion with existing populations; they were also the first immigrants who overwhelmingly stayed in Canada rather than moving south of the border.
Almost from the beginning, Canadian leaders realized that they needed to make the Ukrainians’ interests, and their relationship to their homeland, part of the Canadian political vocabulary.
After a second wave of Ukrainians arrived in the 1930s, fleeing Stalin’s horrors, Canadian leaders began to speak of their role using a new language of pluralism. In 1936, governor-general Lord Tweedsmuir – also known as Scottish novelist John Buchan – gave a landmark speech to a crowd of Ukrainian-Canadians in Fraserwood, Man., promoting his notion of British Empire multiculturalism: “You will all be better Canadians for being also good Ukrainians … the strongest nations are those that are made up of different racial elements.”
In other words, more than a decade before Canadian citizenship came into existence, officials were inspired by the Ukrainian experience to promote a hyphenated form of Canadianism.
This would be embraced by political leaders of both parties, in part for electoral reasons. It was Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker, a prairie man with a keen sense of retail politics, who most aggressively used this to electoral ends, playing to Ukrainians’ desire for an independent homeland. It didn’t hurt that their fiercely anti-Moscow views lined up neatly with the government’s Cold War perspective.
In 1991, prime minister Brian Mulroney’s decision to become the first Western leader to recognize Ukraine’s claim of national sovereignty, against the advice of other countries, was driven in good part by his attention to this crucial constituency. And it immediately became mandatory for every Prime Minister to be seen shaking hands with whoever happened to be leading Ukraine – no matter how unsavoury the figure, or corrupt the regime.
Given the Ukrainians’ founding role in this most Canadian form of politics, it was inevitable that at some point Canada would manage to out-Ukrainian the Ukrainians themselves. And this week, it happened.
The Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, suggests invoking the doctrine of “pious obligation” as well as blend principles of behavioural economics with spiritual norm to tackle tax evasion and wilful defaults.
Bringing in a sense of novelty into the Economic Survey, that provides a detailed picture of the economy in 2018-19 and the way ahead, tenets of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity have been cited extensively to tackle debt woes and tax evasion.
Such suggestions find a place the chapter titled ‘Policy for Homo Sapiens, Not 02 Homo Economicus: Leveraging the Behavioural Economics of “Nudge”‘.
The Economic Survey said that decisions made by real people often deviate from the impractical robots theorised in classical economics.
Drawing on the psychology of human behaviour, it said that behavioural economics provides insights to nudge people towards desirable behaviour.
The “doctrine of pious obligations” could be invoked to encourage people to clear their debts and also pay taxes, the survey, prepared by a team led by Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian said.
“Given the importance of religion in Indian culture, the principles of behavioural economics need to be combined with this spiritual / religious norm to reduce tax evasion and wilful default in the country,” it noted.
In Hinduism, non-payment of debts is a sin and also a crime. The scriptures ordain that if a person’s debts are not paid and he dies in a state of indebtedness, his soul may have to face evil consequences, according to the survey.
Therefore, it is the duty of his children to save him from such evil consequences. This duty or obligation of a child to repay the debts of the deceased parent is rested upon a special doctrine, known as the doctrine of pious obligation, it said.
In Islam, Prophet Muhammad advocated, “Allaahummainnia’oodhibika min al-ma’thamwa’lmaghram (O Allaah, I seek refuge with you from sin and heavy debt)”. A person cannot enter paradise unless his/her debt was paid off, as per the survey.
All of his/her wealth could be used to pay the debt and if it is insufficient then one or more heirs of the deceased could voluntarily pay for him, it stated.
Quoting Bible, the survey said, “Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another – Romans 13:8” and “The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives – Psalm 37:21”.
The Economic Survey notes that in India, where social and religious norms play such a dominant role in influencing behaviour, behavioural economics can therefore provide a valuable instrument for change.
“So, beneficial social norms can be furthered by drawing attention to positive influencers, especially friends/neighbours that represent role models with which people can identify,” it said.
Also, as people are given to tremendous inertia when making a choice, they prefer sticking to the default option. By the nearly costless act of changing the default to overcome this inertia, desired behaviour can be encouraged without affecting people’s choices.
Further, as people find it difficult to sustain good habits, repeated reinforcements and reminders of successful past actions can help sustain changed behaviour, the survey said.
According to the survey, insights from behavioural economics can be strategically utilised to create an aspirational agenda for social change — from BBBP (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao) to BADLAV (Beti Aapki Dhan Lakshmi Aur Vijay Lakshmi); from Swachh Bharat to Sundar Bharat; from “Give It Up” for the LPG subsidy to “Think about the Subsidy” and from tax evasion to tax compliance.
The survey has used ‘MARD‘ as an acronym for ‘Men Against Rape and Discrimination’ and suggested a campaign underlining the sacrifice of the male ego in a patriarchal society for the larger good of gender equality.
Larger-scale international comparison that shows the same pattern of bias and discrimination in hiring that Canadian studies have shown, but interesting that Canadian numbers worse than countries such as Germany (whose overall representation of minorities is poor).
Blind-cvs may be more effective that longer qualification lists:
Canadian visible minorities are more likely to face discrimination in hiring than their American counterparts, according to a new survey of nine countries that found Canada is near the top for prejudice in hiring.
But the researchers behind the study have a theory that one way to address the problem may be as simple as requiring employers to request more detailed information from applicants at the start of the process.
In a study published in Sociological Science this week, Northwestern University sociologist Lincoln Quillian and colleagues analyzed the results of 97 “field experiments” in hiring, in which fictional job applicants were created to track how they fared in the job interview process.
In all, the researchers looked at more than 200,000 job applications, and broke down the results by race, to see whether minority candidates with similar qualifications to white ones got as many call-backs.
To no one’s surprise, they didn’t. The data “shows nearly ubiquitous discrimination against racial and ethnic minority groups,” the researchers concluded in a paper published Monday ― but there are notable differences between results in the nine countries surveyed.
France and Sweden were found to have the highest likelihood of discrimination. A job applicant from a visible minority group in France is 43 per cent more likely to be discriminated against than a similar applicant in the United States. In Sweden, they are 30 per cent more likely to encounter prejudice in hiring.
Canada and the U.K. tied for third place, with minorities there 11 per cent more likely to face discrimination in hiring.
It found that people of African, Asian and Middle Eastern descent all experience similar levels of discrimination.
”For white immigrants, by contrast, discrimination is lower and is often not statistically significant,” the study stated, adding that “there is no evidence of ‘reverse’ discrimination against white natives” in hiring.
Quillian points to “certain laws and institutional practices” to help explain why some countries experience far higher levels of discrimination. For instance, the U.S.’s laws on racial bias in the workplace likely contributed to its relatively positive score.
“No other countries require monitoring of the racial and ethnic makeup of ranks of employees as is required for large employers in the U.S.,” Quillian said in a statement. “For instance, large employers in the U.S. are required to report race and ethnicity of employees at different ranks to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
Meanwhile, in France, where discrimination is most common, employers aren’t allowed to inquire about the race of applicants. “The French do not measure race or ethnicity in any official ― or most unofficial ― capacities, which makes knowledge of racial and ethnic inequality in France very limited and makes it difficult to monitor hiring or promotion for discrimination,” Quillian said.
More detailed job applications?
And Quillian suggests that one solution to the problem may be to emulate how hiring is done in Germany, the country with the lowest incidence of discrimination. There, job applicants are typically required to provide very detailed job applications that often include high school grades.
The idea is that having a very detailed picture of an applicant leaves less room for hiring managers to “fill in the blanks” with their own pre-conceptions about that person, which may include racial prejudices.
“We suspect that this is why we find low discrimination in Germany ― that having a lot of information at first application reduces the tendency to view minority applicants as less good or unqualified,” Quillian said.
As the Australian population continues to grow, the Red Cross estimates the need for blood and blood products will rise 100 per cent over the next 10 years.
One in three people need blood, but only one in 30 donate each year. And in a multicultural society, the need for blood donors from different ethnic backgrounds is growing too.
Roughly one-third of our population were born overseas, but they account for just one in five blood donors.
Which means for people with rare blood types who need blood transfusions, the blood pool is pretty small.
Although I don’t need blood transfusions, I do have a rare blood type. And I don’t know whether I might need specially matched blood in the future because of that.
Where’s your blood from?
Just like you have your mother’s eyes or your father’s hair, your blood type is inherited from your parents.
In Australia, the most common blood types are O positive and A positive. The least common are AB positive and AB negative.
There are eight main blood types, organised through two combined systems. These systems are ABO (blood types A, B, AB or O) and Rh type or group (the group that gives you the “positive” or “negative” in your blood).
Your blood type is a combination of these two systems. On top of that, there are about 300 other variants that act as markers in red blood cells, known as antigens. If you’re confused (and it’s definitely easy to be), have a read of this explainer and then jump back in.
This table shows which blood types can be received by others.
Red Cross Blood Service
Because I have a rare blood type, my blood isn’t needed as much as O and A positive, for example. So instead, my plasma is used to create a bunch of other blood products.
I also have an inherited blood disorder because of my Middle-Eastern background, only making my blood even more different to the majority.
Associate Professor Tanya Davison is the Red Cross Blood Service’s National Donor Research Manager.
She told Hack the blood donor pool needs to reflect the changing face of Australia.
“Australia is an incredibly diverse country with so many people of mixed ethnicities that may have uncommon combinations of blood types.”
Why do blood types matter?
For someone who needs blood transfusions, having a blood donor that closely matches their own blood is really important, Professor Davison explains.
The more diverse the patient’s blood is, the more need for a diverse pool of donors.
“This is because there are some cases where it’s important to have a close match between donors and patients, otherwise patients risk reacting against their transfusion. When this happens, their immune system attacks their transfused cells, which can be dangerous for the patient,” she said.
“Because there are over 300 different blood group variants, that differ depending on where people come from, it’s important that we have donors who match the patients in need.”
Little Zainab needs regular blood transfusions as part of her cancer treatment. Her blood is extremely rare as it’s missing a common antigen most people have in their red blood cells, called “Indian B”.
After an international call-out for a match, over 200 Australian donors were screened and a match was found in Sydney.
The blood service is seeking people to be donors for Zainab as she continues her treatment, and are researching ways for ethnic communities to become regular blood donors in Australia.
Professor Davison says they don’t yet know why ethnic communities don’t make up a significant number of donors, but there could be a few reasons.
“Research from other countries suggests there are many reasons that could be important, like cultural and religious differences, language barriers, or even frequent travel to countries that may result in a donor being temporarily deferred,” she said.
“Many countries don’t have a history of volunteering blood to save the lives of strangers, and people from these countries may not be aware of how important it is to donate blood in Australia.
“We would encourage people from all ethnic backgrounds to donate blood. Our researchers are currently learning how we can ensure that we meet the needs of all our donors.”
Of note, particularly the limits of data (useful reminder to me!):
In the latest edition of Confessions, where we exchange anonymity for candor, an agency exec at a multicultural agency reveals the challenges of working with clients, the real intention of multicultural campaigns and how far some clients will go with racist comments.
Edited highlights below.
Why do certain clients choose to work with a multicultural agency as opposed to a general-market agency?
I would say that the biggest reason is because of the makeup of those agencies. If you look at multicultural ad agencies, marketing agencies or PR firms, they tend to be made up of those people you’re seeking guidance and help from. It wouldn’t make any sense to me if you had a multicultural agency where everyone was one race, one ethnicity or all white. It’s something you actually encounter a lot of in that industry. As someone who came from PR, I jumped around a bit agency to agency and I would only ever have one or two Hispanic people working with me maybe one black person. It was a predominantly white-washed industry. So a lot of the time these people have a hard time marketing their product to people who are multicultural. They don’t know how to reach them or tap into their interests or likes. You really have to come from that world in order to understand it a bit and I think that’s what makes multicultural agencies important is that it’s a hodgepodge of all of these types of people to understand different groups. That’s probably why general-market agencies tap into multicultural agencies for help because they don’t really have the skillset or the knowledge of that audience group to provide what they need to the client as far results go.
How diverse is your agency?
It’s changed. It was overwhelmingly African American at one point, which in that respect, I think isn’t necessarily beneficial. I think it’s good to have lots of different people working in one place. But I think our agency over the last year has become more diverse. We have a lot more Hispanic and Latinx people working there, a lot more white people. It’s a very interesting, diverse group of people now, whereas before I actually thought it wasn’t as diverse, which is strange.
What are the challenges you’ve encountered when working with clients who have never worked with a multicultural agency before?
From my experience, the one thing I tend to notice the most is that a lot of companies or clients who work with general-market tend to be very number and data-driven: more quantitative than qualitative data, and I think one of the most important things in understanding minority groups is having a sense of the qualitative that exists on these people. You can’t define a group of people by data.
When they are asking for specific numbers, what data do you provide them with?
They tend to want to know the types of people who are attending certain events we’re sponsoring: heavily branded events where we participate in the speaking and providing remarks and doing awards presentations, so we have a presence throughout the events. Specifically what they look for in our after-action or reporting, is who was there? What’s the age group? And they want the breakdown: How many people were African American? How many people were Hispanic? How many people were Asian? Why is it important that we’re reaching these groups? What is the value of reaching these groups? It’s kind of justification for why they’re putting money into this specific effort. Sometimes they tend to find more value in general-market events.
Do you have a specific example of when the client’s need for those hard numbers have gotten in the way of your work?
With events, for example, you may have only had 50 African American people at a multicultural event. If there’s a specific demographic they’re trying to reach, our client would typically be like “Why weren’t there 500 people at this event? Or 100 people?” And you have to understand the impact you’re having on that 50 versus concerning yourself with the impact on the masses. That’s the biggest roadblock for us. We’re on the verge of losing this client because of numbers. They have found justification for this through numbers versus the impact that these engagements have with the demographic they’re trying to target.
While working with your clients, have you experienced racism?
Recently, I attended an event with my client; it’s a predominantly African American event as far as attendees and audience. The event vendor invited us out to celebrate the event culmination party. I could tell [my client] was extremely uncomfortable. He was anxious to leave and head back to the hotel. When the vendor recommended a bar in town, the client vehemently shook his head, and said we would absolutely not go there as it was out of his “comfort zone.” He persuaded the events staff, to come back to our hotel instead. I realized that evening that he was extremely uncomfortable being at a predominantly black event.
Switzerland is one the many countries facing difficult choices in dealing with their citizens linked to the Islamic State. These are some of the options on the table, and the challenges involved.
US-backed Kurdish-led forces are currently holding tens of thousands of people linked to Islamic State in northern Syria after capturing the last IS stronghold in March. Rights groups are concerned about due process and prison conditions for IS detainees both in Syria and in neighbouring Iraq.
The detainees are mostly Syrians and Iraqis but also include some 2,000 foreigners from more than 70 countries, as well as women and children being held in a separate camp that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described as “deeply sub-standard”. There are currently a dozen adults with links to Switzerland in northern Syria, and the United Nations this week called for fair trials for Islamic State captives and for countries to take responsibility for their nationals.
“Accountability, with fair trials, protects societies from future radicalisation and violence,” Bachelet saidexternal link on Monday. “Betrayals of justice, following flawed trials – which may include unlawful and inhumane detention, and capital punishment – can only serve the narrative of grievance and revenge.”
In northeast Syria, Swiss public television (RTS) interviewed a Swiss jihadist who has been detained by the Kurds since January 2018.
How can justice be served?
One possibility is to have IS members tried by the local justice system set up by the Kurdish self-administration in northeast Syria, says Marco Sassoli external link, director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
Another possibility is that the foreign fighters are sent back to their home countries.
The third possibility is to establish a kind of international tribunal, Sassoli told swissinfo.ch.
They could also be transferred to Iraq and judged there, which has already happened in some cases.
The Geneva Academy recently co-organised a conference on the issue with the NGO Fight for Humanity, which produced a report and recommendationsexternal link. But none of the options are simple.
Could foreign fighters be repatriated?
With the notable exception of countries such as the US and Russia, most Western governments – and their electorates – are not keen on the idea of repatriating these “combatants”. Some countries, including Britain, have stripped former IS members of their nationality.
Switzerland has said it will not actively repatriate its nationals, and Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has said she would prefer to see them tried where they are in Syria or Iraq, for security reasons.
Sassoli thinks the security fear is irrational.
“They are more dangerous in Syria than in a Swiss prison,” he says, because in Switzerland it is harder to escape and the political situation is stable, whereas the Kurdish area is a potential target for Syria and Turkey. He thinks repatriating nationals could be a good option if Western countries want to do “something special for their nationals”, but this option would have the disadvantage of being much further from the witnesses and the evidence.
“Active repatriation may only be examined for minors,” Swiss Foreign Ministry Spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told swissinfo.ch. “In this regard, the best interest of the child is decisive.”
The Swiss government has rejected calls to actively repatriate Islamic militants with Swiss nationality from Syria or Iraq.
What about an international tribunal?
The Swiss government has raised the possibility of helping to set up an international tribunal and says it supports creating such a court. It participated in a preliminary meeting on this in Stockholm earlier this month with eleven European Union countries, but Eltschinger said that “no decisions were taken”.
“Such a court would have to provide for the guarantees inherent to the rule of law, be appropriately organised, impartial and enjoy broad international support among Switzerland’s partners,” the foreign ministry spokesman said via e-mail.
He also cited disadvantages to support for such a court, including its complexity and the fact that such an operation is very expensive. In addition, he said, evidence may be difficult to access because it depends on cooperation with multiple states.
“Depending on the court’s location, there is a risk of a lack of independence and political influence,” Eltschinger said.
Could it be a UN tribunal? And where would the court be based?
Sassoli says a UN court is not going to happen, and a tribunal in a European country is also unlikely because of security concerns. He thinks another possibility for a treaty-based international or mixed tribunal would be in Iraq, because Iraq would agree to it, unlike Syria.
A Syria-based court “would be quite revolutionary,” says Sassoli, “because it would mean establishing a tribunal on the territory of a state which does not consent”.
Iraq is already holding trials of IS members, including some foreign ones. But there are concerns, particularly regarding the death penalty which exists in Iraq (and not on Kurdish territory). For example, 11 French nationalsexternal link have been sentenced to death in Iraq for belonging to IS. But it is likely that Iraq would agree to a mixed tribunal according to international standards and no death penalty in exchange for significant Western help with expertise and infrastructure.
What crimes would the suspects be tried for?
Another issue is what kind of statute an international tribunal would have. For Switzerland and other European countries, simply belonging to IS is a crime, but Sassoli says that for credibility an international court should try suspects for war crimes. And in terms of international standards, it should also try everyone involved in the conflict on an equal basis, i.e. not just foreign fighters and not just IS.
“Everyone – the Syrians, the Iraqis, the foreigners – has the same right to judicial guarantees and if they committed war crimes they must be prosecuted.”
Who has a right to try IS suspects?
The Kurdish authorities are appealing for international support to conduct trials under their own justice system and have repeatedly stressed that they lack the resources to secure and care for such a high number of dangerous detainees. Kurdish representative Khaled Issa, who participated in the Geneva conference, told Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA that the Kurds’ self-administration had a right to try IS suspects because “they were arrested on our territory, they committed their crimes on our territory and the victims are our families and infrastructure”.
But helping the Kurdish authorities to improve their justice system and prisons would constitute a kind of recognition for them, which is delicate.
“From the point of view of Syria, but especially of Turkey, these are terrorists and rebels,” says Sassoli. “Establishing a criminal tribunal is not like establishing a health clinic. In the public’s perception, this is something done by states.”
The large gap in birth rates between non-Orthodox and Orthodox/ultra Orthodox means increasing fundamentalist Jewish populations over time, with a range of implications in Israel and elsewhere:
Israel should prepare for a potential mass wave of immigration to the country amid increased antisemitism, according to the “2019 Annual Assessment of the Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People Today.”
The report, prepared by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and presented by the institute’s leaders to the cabinet on Sunday, warned of the spread of antisemitism around the world. They said that if not enough is done to strengthen the security of Jewish communities, they could experience “significant harm.”
“Some Jews are considering immigration to Israel or elsewhere, while others may give up their Jewish identity,” according to the report. The report warned the government that as antisemitic incidents proliferate, “the Israeli government must prepare appropriately for potential immigration, especially from European countries.”
According to the report, the main barriers that cause prospective olim to reconsider aliyah to Israel have to do with employment, children’s education and housing. As such, JPPI recommended that the employment barrier could be addressed by providing career guidance and degree recognition even before olim have left their home countries as well as through job placement programs.
“The relevant immigrant populations are, for the most part, highly educated and economically strong,” said JPPI in its report. “There can be no doubt that such investment would be profitable and feasible for the Israeli economy.”
In addition, JPPI’s president Avinoam Bar-Yosef called on the government to set up a coordinating body to confront growing antisemitism that could monitor trends, assess threats and risks, and initiate action with governments.
Specifically, this body could “formulate an overall policy; set operational initiatives in motion vis-à-vis governments, Jewish communities, and other relevant parties; coordinate implementation between the various relevant bodies; and monitor effectiveness,” the report said.
“The entity will launch initiatives in the spheres of education, legislation/law, diplomacy, hasbara [publicity/informational activity], the new media, security in the communities and more.”
The report rehashed earlier data, which demonstrates that antisemitism is rising by every metric. The number of antisemitic incidents has risen around the world, including in the United States, where the FBI reported that Jews are the most targeted religion-based group by hate crimes.
Bar-Yosef likewise highlighted changing demographics in the US, citing growth among the Orthodox communities, where this population among the younger age cohorts is already roughly 30% in some communities.
“We can expect significant implications from the growth of the Orthodox population in the long run,” he said. While the average birth rate among non-Orthodox Jewish women is 1.4 children, the average rate among Modern Orthodox women is more than three children, and is more than five for haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women.
For non-Orthodox Jews, JPPI found that intermarriage with non-Jews is the norm today. Among non-ultra-Orthodox Jews in America (aged 25-54), 58% of those married are married to non-Jews and only about half of the offspring of such couples are raised as Jews.
JPPI recommended that in addition to strengthening relations with the Reform and Conservative denominations, Israel should “encourage and support increased involvement of the Orthodox in the leadership of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora, American society and politics, in order to preserve Jewish influence in the general public.”
If not, according to the institute, “the new demographic may erode the influence of the Jewish community in America.”
