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Anti-immigrant

Anti-immigrant

Anti-immigrant and anti-immigration are labels often applied to those who are opposed to having significant levels of immigration in their countries. Another term of discussion, with generally similar features, is Nativism. It is often used as a political epithet, and politicians in the Western world generally dislike using the label to describe themselves. Nevertheless, opinion polls demonstrate that many people across the developed world are uncomfortable with, if not outright opposed to, immigration.

Major anti-immigration arguments

Anti-immigration sentiments are typically justified with one or more of the following arguments:
- immigrants isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the language/culture
- immigrants gainfully acquire jobs which would have otherwise been available to native citizens
- immigrants damage a sense of community and nationality
- immigrants increase the consumption of scarce resources
- immigrants make heavy use of social welfare systems Prominent opinion leaders who oppose immigration blame it for such problems as unemployment, crime, harm to the environment, and detoriating public education.

Counter arguments

In response, others points out that:
- the isolation argument has racist undertones as the majority of members in expatriate communities around the world tend not to learn the language of the societies in which they live
- the argument that immigrants "steal jobs" always overlooks the fact that often the jobs being "taken" are menial and/or low paying positions which "natives" generally do not wish to perform
- the argument that immigrants make heavy use of social welfare systems is not true, because immigration is correlated with an improvement in economic conditions (immigration tends to drive the economy forward as money is spent on products and services); and in any event countries now tend to have lengthy restrictions or other limitations on the extent to which immigrants can access social welfare, which has the effect of reducing the economic contribution immigrants can make. Commentators also point out that the problems which are purportedly caused by immigrants exist amongst the native-born population as well, and that politicians often use immigration as a convenient scapegoat to distract the public from real social, political and economic problems.

Continental European anti-immigration movements

Current anti-immigration views in Europe seem particularly directed towards the recent influx of Muslims from Turkey and Northern Africa. Prominent European opponents of this migration include Jörg Haider, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Pim Fortuyn (deceased). Anti-immigration views are held by virtually all neo-Nazi, and ethnic and racial separatist movements in Europe and the US, although the majority of people with anti-immigration views have no connection to such groups. Popular attitudes include such examples as the majority of Spaniards who currently see immigration into their country as excessive (see [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=83&story_id=8794&name=Immigration+time%2Dbomb article mentioning El Pais survey]). Fascist parties, such as Movimiento Social Español, openly campaign using nationalist or anti-immigrant rhetoric. Everyday racial harassment of Africans is sometimes a problem - a notorious incident being the [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RZXQZ2WHLCKDRQFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/sport/2004/11/18/sfgspa18.xml November 2004 Spain-England football (soccer) friendly]. Popular media sometimes portray American Black culture and music negatively for humor, though there exists also an active following of such music in Spain as well. Portugal was long a dictatorship and had little immigration until a sudden influx in the 1970s, as ex-colonists returned. Today Lisbon has mixed native-born, African, and Middle Eastern neighborhoods. The rural areas have just recently begun to see many new new arrivals. The country has right-wing parties that support curbs in immigration quotas. (Any resident of a Portuguese-speaking country is free to live and work in Portugal, and vice-versa.) In France, the National Front opposes immigration. Major media, political parties, and a large share of the public see the possibility of anti-immigrant sentiment due to the October/November 2005 rioting. A major anti-immigrant political organization in Germany is the National Democratic Party.

Opposition to immigration in the United Kingdom

Anti-immigrant perspectives in the United Kingdom have to do with the many South Asians, particularly Pakistanis and Indians, who have moved there in recent decades. Current concerns also involve Africans, Eastern Europeans, East Asians, Middle Easterners, and numerous others have become part of the estimated 4.3 million of the UK's population that is foreign-born (see BBC piece, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4220002.stm "Analysis: Britain's Modern Face"]). Like other countries, public attention is on their perceived refusal to assimilate, sheer numbers, illegal immigration, and Islamist terrorism. Abuse of asylum policies is also a frequent discussion topic. During the 2005 election, the Conservative Party's slogan was: "It's time to put a limit on immigration", and the party's leader, Michael Howard, said: "it's not racist to talk about immigration". Critics noted that it indeed seemed racist to focus on public concern over certain groups while ignoring the numerous Canadians, New Zealanders, and Australians who arrive and work illegally, and have been involved in other criminal activities. As well, some troubled areas of the UK do not have large or even significant numbers of immigrants, suggesting that other causes than immigration are coming into play.

Immigration and economics

Another issue concerns free trade; immigrant rights advocates believe it is hypocritical and inhumane to allow goods and money to freely cross borders yet impose numerous requirements on people to do the same thing. It has been argued that this constitutes a form of class warfare against workers, who are not free to move with changing economic conditions in the same manner that businesses can move their capital. (See also capital flight.) Anti-immigrant rhetoric in the US frequently mentions that foreigners take "American jobs", yet the US Constitution does not guarantee employment for anyone, and free flow of capital means that business owners have no legal obligation to keep jobs in the country. To this end, many immigration opponents/reductionists offer protectionist solutions to economic problems, and there was considerable criticism of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) among them. Many proponents of these policies do not otherwise tend to support the modern welfare state. Politicians and commentators have contrasted the developed world's immigration controls with what they see as uncontrolled movement of people throughout the Third World. This is inaccurate; many poor countries indeed have numerous restrictions on immigration, and there has been little apparent economic gain from these policies.

Anti-immigration views in the United States

In the United States, anti-immigration views have a long history, including the American Party of the mid-19th Century (formed by members of the Know-Nothing movement) and the Immigration Reduction League of the early 20th Century. An immigration reductionism movement formed in the 1970s and continues. Prominent members of the movement deny being anti-immigration or anti-immigrant, though they acknowledge pressing for 75-95% reductions in immigration levels and support laws that target illegal immigrants. However, as most Americans are themselves descended from immigrants, many feel that it is hypocritical to criticize those who enter the country through legal means, and neither of the two major parties has proposed curtailing the number of visas given out annually. Illegal immigration, principally from across the U.S.-Mexico border, is the more pressing concern for most immigration reductionists. Authors such as Samuel Huntington (famous for the "clash of civilizations" thesis) have also seen recent Hispanic immigration as creating a national identity crises and presenting insurmountable problems for US social institutions. In the May 2005 Spanish edition of Foreign Affairs magazine, he lists the size, illegality, cultural roots, and poverty of this recent wave of migration as most problematic. The political effects of anti-immigration/immigration reductionism movements have been embodied in the US welfare reform bill of 1996 and initiatives such as Protect Arizona Now in 2004. The Minuteman Project, launched in 2005 with several hundreed volunteers patrolling the Mexican and Canadian borders to assist authorities in spotting illegal immigrants, have also been influenced by opposition to illegal immigration. Some members also support reductions in legal immigration. American Patrol, a organization run by Glenn Spencer, posts news and media articles about crimes that illegal aliens and their sympathisers have committed, such as attacking Border Patrol agents, libel and slander(of Glenn Spencer and others who want illegal aliens out of the US, such as labelling Glenn a racist.),other crimes.See American Patrol and the different news articles, news sources used in the news articles featured on this organization's website.

Anti-immigrant hate crimes

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, an increase in Islamophobia was perceived by some, directed towards individuals perceived to be either Arab and/or Muslim. An example of this behavior is the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh Indian living in Mesa, Arizona who was gunned down by native-born US citizen Frank Roque in September 2001. Roque had also shot at several other Sikhs (who were unharmed), apparently because he incorrectly associated their turbans with Islam. The Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced Roque to death in 2003.

Immigration

Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. An immigrant is someone who intends to reside permanently, and not a casual visitor or traveler. Immigration means "in-migration" into a country, and is the reverse of emigration, or "out-migration." The long term and/or permanent movement of human population in general, whether into, out of, or within countries (or before the existence of recognised countries) is regarded as migration.

Why do people immigrate?

People immigrate for the following reasons:
- professional,
- political,
- economic
- persecution and oppression, including genocide and ethnic cleansing
- retirement (e.g., better weather; lower living costs).
- sentimental (e.g., the desire to settle in a country due to personal preference; family reunification).
- personal (e.g., opinion-based; extreme dislike of present country) Much immigration occurs for economic reasons. Wage rates vary greatly among different countries; individuals of third world countries, in particular, can have far higher standards of living in developed countries than in their originating countries. The economic pressure to migrate can be so high that when legal means are restricted, people may immigrate regardless of their legal status. In general, people are considered as an immigrant if they keep staying in the new country for more than one year. See also economic migrant.

Differing perspectives on immigration

Some free-market libertarians believe that a free global labor market with no restrictions on immigration would, in the long run, boost global prosperity. Likewise, there are anarchists who believe national borders are not legitimate to begin with. Major corporate interests have been among the strongest advocates of liberalization of immigration laws since movement of personnel is essential to creation of true multinational corporations. Among those on the opposite side of the issue are nationalists who propose militarizing borders; protectionists who prefer closed labor markets or who see liberal immigration [http://www.vdare.com/misc/050127_burns_welfare.htm practices] as a form of corporate welfare where corporate interests use inexpensive or free government immigration benefits, rather than corporate resources, to compensate employees; and xenophobes who fear the presence of foreigners, though these views are not shared by all or even most immigration reductionists. Still others feel that the focus should be taken off of immigration control and placed on the importance of equal rights for immigrants to avoid what they beleive to be corporate exploitation of immigrant poverty. In practice, no country operates without basic immigration controls. Some countries, such as Japan, allow for little or no immigration. In countries that do allow immigration there is disagreement over the numbers, policies, and implementation. Those who support more restricted immigration believe that the current levels of immigration serve to depress wages and circumvent unionisation, and contribute to unsustainable levels of population growth. Others disagree, believing that overly restrictive immigration policies and practices would not address the economic demand for work emanating from wealthier countries, would not harm the security or cohesiveness of the country, and would endanger the lives of legitimate refugees from political or racial oppression. Immigration has become an increasingly controversial topic among environmental activists in recent years, especially within the Sierra Club in the United States. Some environmentalists concerned with overpopulation favor limiting immigration as a means of isolating the effects of human population growth, while others argue that overpopulation and environmental degredation are global problems that should be addressed by other methods. Events, such as the November 2005 riots in France, have led some to conclude that, although reasonable immigration numbers are welcome in most societies, large numbers can cause immigrants to form closed ethnic ghettos that lead to social confrontation and seclusion. Others, such as [http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5135795 The Economist], have noted that more important than the level of immigration are the policies of the recipient country aimed at integrating immigrants into the political, social, and especially economic environment - something that might explain the relative success of immigration in some countries, such as Canada.

External links

:See individual "Immigration to..." articles for country-specific links.
- [http://www.pstalker.com/migration/index.htm Stalker's Guide to International Migration] - Comprehensive interactive website on migration
- [http://www.eurasylum.org Eurasylum] Many relevant documents on immigration, asylum and refugee policy, and human trafficking/smuggling internationally
- [http://www.fmreview.org/ Forced Migration Review]
- [http://www.iom.int/ International Organisation for Migration]
- [http://www.unesco.org/migration UNESCO Programme on International Migration and Multicultural Policies]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/04/migration/html/migration_boom.stm BBC News Factfile: Global migration]
- [http://www.leliathomas.com/2005/06/21/not-giving-up-just-seeking-new-tactics/ Not Giving Up, Just Seeking New Tactics] - Commentary on how some immigration is beneficial to society, while other immigration is not; looks to provide a fairly equal view of things.
- [http://www.pstalker.com/migration/index.htm Stalker's Guide to International Migration] - Comprehensive interactive website on migration Category:Human migration Category:Nationality law ja:移民 simple:Immigrant

Immigration

Why do people immigrate?

Differing perspectives on immigration

External links

Crime

A crime in a broad sense is an act that violates a political or moral law of any one person or social grouping. In the narrow sense, a crime is a violation of criminal law; in many nations, there are criminal standards of bad behaviour. However, not all violations of the law are considered crimes, for example most traffic violations or breaches of contract.

Definition of crime in general

:This section describes usual criminal classifications applicable at present in Western countries. They may differ significantly with those applicable in other cultures; also, they may differ significantly with earlier practices. Most people who use this word are not "crime" specialists. Generally the word indicates a social concept of the person, where a specific social act is generally considered a deliberate and conscious choice of the choices known to be available to the user of the word. For instance, historically left-handedness, epileptic fits and emotional tantrums have been considered "crimes".

General rules

A crime can be the action of violating or breaking a law. According to Western jurisprudence, there must be a simultaneous concurrence of both actus reus ("guilty action") and mens rea ("guilty mind") for a crime to have been committed; except in crimes of strict liability. In order for prosecution, some laws require proof of causation, relating the defendant's actions to the criminal event in question. In addition, some laws require that attendant circumstances have occurred, in order for a crime to have occurred. Also, in order for a crime to be prosecuted, corpus delicti (or "proof of a crime") must be established. It may also be a crime to conspire in order to commit other crimes, or helping others to commit crimes (which makes one an accomplice); in some systems the simple association for organizing a crime is punished. The attempt to commit a crime (including attempted murder) may to be punished when the actus reus of the full crime is not completed (in California, USA e.g., the punishment can be half of that for the crime itself [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/pen/654-678.html]).

Trial

It is commonly believed that preconceived notions are dominant in all areas of presumed fact. These notions can be based on ethnicity and skin colour, sectarianism, sexual orientation, gender, apperance, occupation and education. Participants in a criminal trial may make use these biases in order to achieve their own goals. (For example, a prosecutor in a case of child murder may want to have more women with young children on the jury.) Since mistakes can be made by the courts and legal process, many appeal mechanisms are available to most legal decisions. The death penalty, which cannot be corrected after the fact if a mistake has occured, has been on the decline for the past several decades. In general, in most western systems, the definition of a crime requires the existing intention of committing it (voluntas necandi) in the author, therefore it is usually not officially "punished" when this intention is missing or when the author has not a complete mental sanity or is under a certain age. Depending on the level of psychological education of the Law Enforcement groups, some underage defendants (of varying ages around the world) can sometimes be tried "as an adult" because their character is considered adult, whatever the rationale is behind this. In another example, there generally exists an insanity defense: a assumed deviant person may not officially be penally responsible for his or her actions. A defendent who uses with the insanity defense may be judged guilty like a normal criminal. It is less common to succeed with psychiatric condemnation, and then to be "involuntarily committed" to treatment or corrections. See also Corrections.

Reasons

Crimes are viewed as offenses against society, and as such are punished by the state. They can be scholastically distinguished, depending on the passive subject of the crime (the victim), or on the offended interest, in crimes against:
- Personality of the State
- Rights of the citizen
- Public administration
- Administration of justice
- Religious sentiment and the pity for dead
- Public order
- Public faith
- Public economy, industry and commerce
- Public morality
- Person and honour
- Patrimony Or they can be distinguished depending on the related punishment (then, on the degree of offense that the forbidden behaviour caused), in delicts and violations. The definition of a crime generally reflects the current attitudes prevalent in a society. For example, possession of drugs was not always a crime, while the Prohibition Era made alcohol illegal.

Classification

Crimes can be divided into several (overlapping) categories: computer offenses[http://news.pc-news.org/2005/08/10/microsoft_to_fight_crime_with_spammers_money/], crimes against persons, crimes against property, crimes against state security, drug offenses, sexual offenses, and weapon offenses. Crimes are also be grouped by severity, some common categorical terms being: felonies, indictable offenses, misdemeanors, and summary offences. For convenience, infractions are also usually incuded in such lists, although they are not subject of the criminal law, but rather of the civil law. An inchoate offense is a planned or attempted crime, which the offender was not able to carry out prior to arrest. The following are crimes in many jurisdictions:

Aiding and abetting

It may be a crime to aid someone else in committing a crime, or induce him or her to commit one.

Study

Matters related to criminal behavior in society are studied in the field of sociology in the sub-field of criminology, and a person who studies this is called a criminologist. The mental state and acuity of criminals is assessed by psychologists, especially in cases wherein the insanity defense is being utilized. The study of crime, in general, across a number of functional diciplines is often known as crime science. This draws on statistics, environmental design, forensics, policing, sociology and other sciences to analyse the crimes, rather than the offenders, and provides ways and means to prevent, detect and solve crimes.

History

The first civilizations had codes of law, though these codes were not always recorded. The first known written codes were written by the ancient Sumerians, and it was probably their king Ur-Nammu (reigning on Ur in the 21st century BC) the first legislator of which we received a formal system in 32 articles; it has to be recalled that this is not among the eldest laws, since not all the ancient laws are penal rules. In the antiquity, in fact, codes mostly contained both civil and penal rules together. Sumerians however later issued other codes as the one known as "code of Lipit-Istar" (last king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, Isin - 20th century BC). This code contains some 50 articles and has been reconstructed by the comparison among several sources. In Babylon the code of Esnunna before, and the code of Hammurabi (one of the richest ones of ancient times) after, were used and reflected society's belief that law was derived from the will of the gods. Similarly, some codes of conduct of religious origins or reference have been included in penal codes, forbidden behaviours resulting in real crimes in the states ruled by theocracy even in more recent times. In India, the British had notified 150 tribes such as the Phase Pardhi as criminal in 1871. Though this was repealed in 1952, the criminal stigma still surrounds these groups, and are usually rounded up on suspicion of crime.

Natural law theory

An alternative view of crime is derived from the theory of natural law. In this view, crime is the violation of individual rights. Since rights are considered as natural, rather than man-made, what constitutes a crime is also natural, in contrast to laws, which are man-made. Adam Smith illustrates this view, saying a smuggler would be an excellent citizen, "had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so." Natural law theory thus distinguishes between criminality and illegality, the former being derived from human nature, the latter being derived from the interests of those in power. The two concepts are sometimes expressed with the phrases "malum in se" and "malum prohibitum". This view leads to a seeming paradox, that an act can be illegal that is no crime, while a criminal act could be perfectly legal. Many Enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith and the American Founding Fathers subscribed to this view to some extent, and it remains influential among so-called classical liberals and libertarians. A crime malum in se is argued to be inherently criminal; whereas a crime malum prohibitum is argued to be criminal only because the law has decreed it so.

Other uses of the word worldwide

In other cultures (and legal systems) the word crime is used specifically to designate a homicide (the killing of a human being by another). The use of the word crime in any other situations is perceived merely as a means to emphasise the gravity of the specific offence to the law (such as in aggravating circumstances).

External links

- [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_tot_cri Crime incidence by country] Category:Criminal law
- ja:犯罪 simple:Crime

Public education

Public education is schooling provided for the general public by the government, whether national or local, and paid for by taxes, which leads to it often being called state education. Schools provided under such a system are called public schools in many countries, but in England the term "public school" refers to an elite of privately funded independent schools which had their origins in medieval schools funded by charity to provide education for the poor. Public education often involves the following: #public funding #compulsory student attendance #state certification of teachers and curricula #testing and national standards

History

Sparta in classical Greece had a system of general public education. After that, basic education was generally by private tutors to the wealthy, or by religious organisations such as monasteries or cathedral choir "song schools" which educated the priesthood rather than the general populace. In the middle ages grammar schools were founded in many towns, and universities were founded by the church to train the clergy. Scotland led the way in implementing a system of general public education with free provision for the poor, starting in 1561 during the Protestant Reformation, with support from taxation being introduced in 1633. Reformation concepts such as the priesthood of the laity or the importance of the individual conscience and the supremacy of Scripture made widespread literacy important. In the late 18th century provision of public education emerged in other countries, as political philosophers argued that an educated citizenry was an essential component of a democratic society. While in colonial America, as in Europe, schooling was often regarded as a prerequisite for religion on the basis of the same Protestant Reformation concepts, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided that "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." In the 19th century, industrialization and the rise of democratic nation-states led to the more widespread systematization of public schools. In France, for example, the state used public schools to foster national identity and linguistic conformity at the expense of separatist movements and regional dialects. The public school system in the United States has also been credited with being an important instrument in the assimilation of large numbers of immigrants. Education, at least at a primary school level, was made compulsory in some American states in the mid 19th century, in Scotland in 1872 and in England and Wales shortly afterwards.

Overview

Public education is generally available to all. In most countries, it is compulsory for children to attend school up to a certain age, but the option of attending private school is open to many. In the case of private schooling, schools operate independently of the state and generally defray their costs (or even make a profit) by charging students tuition fees. The funding for public schools, on the other hand, is provided by tax revenues, so that even individuals who do not attend school (or whose dependents do not attend school) help to ensure that society is educated. In poverty stricken societies, authorities are often lax on compulsory school attendance because the children there are valuable laborers. It is these same children whose income-securing labor cannot be forfeited to allow for school attendance. In some countries, such as Germany, private associations or churches can operate schools according to their own principles, as long as they comply with certain state requirements. When these specific requirements are met, especially in the area of the school curriculum, the schools will qualify to receive state funding. They are then treated financially and for accreditation purposes as part of the public education system, even though they make decisions about hiring and school policy (not hiring atheists, for example), which the state might not make itself. Proponents of public education assert it to be necessary because of the need in modern society for people who are capable of reading, writing, and doing basic mathematics. However, some libertarians argue that education is best left to the private sector; in addition, advocates of alternative forms of education such as unschooling argue that these same skills can be achieved without subjecting children to state-run compulsory schooling. In most industrialized countries, these views are distinctly in the minority.

National Public School Systems

Scottish education

In 1560 the Protestant Reformation established the Church of Scotland as the official state religion in Scotland, and in the following year it set out on a programme to provide a school in every parish controlled by the local kirk-session, with education to be provided free to the poor, and the expectation that church pressure would ensure that all children took part. In 1633 the Parliament of Scotland introduced local taxation to fund this provision. Schooling was not free, but the tax support kept fees low, and the church and charity funded poorer students. This had considerable success, but by the late 18th century the physical extent of some parishes and population growth in others led to an increasing role for "adventure schools" funded from fees and for schools funded by religious charities, initially Protestant and later Roman Catholic. In 1872 education for all children aged 5 to 13 was made compulsory with "public schools" (in the Scots meaning of schools for the general public) under local school boards. The leaving age was raised to 14 in 1883, and a Leaving Certificate Examination was introduced in 1888 to set national standards for secondary education. School fees were ended in 1890. The Scottish Education Department ran the system centrally, with local authorities running the schools with considerable autonomy. In 1999, following devolution from the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the new Scottish Parliament, central organisation of education was taken over by departments of the Scottish Executive, with running the schools coming under unitary authority districts.

United States Public School

In the United States, public education has traditionally been under the control of individual states, which frequently delegate the task of day-to-day operations to school districts operating at the local level. This is different from many other countries where the public education system has been highly centralized at the national level (France, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). Local school districts, with elected school boards administer the public primary and secondary schools according to guidelines established by the state government. Recently, the expanding role of the federal government in public education has become a subject of heated debate.

History

The Land Ordinance of 1785 established a mechanism for funding public education in the United States. Until at least the 1840s, however, most schools continued to be privately owned and operated[http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html]. Coeducation and the emergence of modern high schools; the expansion of compulsory education. The growth of extracurricular activities (1890s-1950s). The principle of equalization becomes a standard to achieve. The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was a hallmark in education. It forced previously segregated schools to integrate, and led to the rise of desegregation busing across the country.

Funding

A number of issues swirl around the problems of public education but these concerns dominate conversations regarding school finance, at least in the state of California:
- private and public good of education
- Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations discusses, at length, the importance of an educated populace. Studies show comparisons of the cost of one year of school to the cost of one year of prison demonstrating that prison is far more costly. Though the links between education and prisons are debatable, evidence suggests a strong correlation between lack of education and likelihood of committing a crime and being incarcerated. States with low-dropout rates have a lower rate of incarceration.
- The public good comes into question as well when considering how school districts set their boundaries, granting and limiting access to students based on their physical and financial positions in the community. Debates over the borders of school districts frequently involve issues of race and class.
- autonomy
- Responding to criticisms of failures of management because of highly centralized structures, site-based management has come to the fore as a way to improve academic performance with localized solutions.
- fiscal federalism
- Funding is multi-layered. While it is generally the local tax base which is responsible for supporting the schools, a certain amount of funding is also passed on from the state and federal levels. Recently, as the federal government reduces support for education the schools are forced into painful fiscal adjustments as promised moneys never arrive.
- special needs funding
- efficiency
- equal opportunity (Title IX, No Child Left Behind, Brown v. Board of Education, Proposition 13)

Legality

Some do, however question the legality of public schools in the United States. Not only does the constitution make no mention of the right of the government to establish public education, the 13th Amendment abolishes involuntary servitude anywhere in the United States, and therefore they argue that tax-dollars cannot be spent on public education. Opponents of public education may also argue that a child is person being seized by the school and state and that that is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment.

School vouchers

Since 1873, Maine has financed the education of thousands of kindergarten through 12th grade students in private schools[http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1505]. This type of system is known as a school voucher program. In recent years, politicians have criticized the public education system, arguing that it has failed in some areas (particularly inner-cities). School performance is generally measured by student performance on standardized tests, typically administered by the state. One major problem facing the modern education system is how to fix schools that consistently "underperform" - have large numbers of students who score poorly on the test. One solution advocated primarily by the US Republican Party is the use of school vouchers. Students in districts with underperforming schools would be given money by the government to attend the school of their choice. Proponents argue that this would put the public schools in competition with private ones, and that competition would result in better choices for the public. Critics argue that this unnecessarily saps much-needed money out of the public school system, although the average cost of private schools is lower than that of public per-pupil spending and most voucher programs leave more per-pupil in the public school system. Another, perhaps more serious criticism is that private schools, unlike public schools, are not required to accept any student who comes through their doors. Furthermore, the use of tax-supported vouchers to support private schools amounts to a government subsidy for those schools. Because the state, unlike in the case of public schools, has far less control over the curriculum and operation (including employment policies) of these private schools, critics of the voucher scheme argue that it would violate both the principles of "no taxation without representation" (unlike a public school board, the trustees of private schools are not elected by the populace), as well as of the separation of church and state (vouchers would help pay for creationist curricula or for hiring which discriminates against remarried divorcees).

Alternative/Charter schools

Also in recent years, there has been a proliferation in alternative schools. Most prominent of these has been the movement towards charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded schools which are run independently of the local school district and tend to have less bureaucracy. Additionally, charter schools can have a "theme": some specialize in teaching mathematics and science, others in teaching students who are considered "at-risk." A recent report showed that charter school students' performance on standardized tests was below regular public schools students' scores.

Bilingual education

Bilingual education, the teaching of students in more than one language, has become a contentious topic in recent decades. See bilingual education for main article.

Proposed abolition

The Alliance for the Separation of School & State and various Libertarian groups have proposed abolishing public education. In 1963, Nathaniel Branden wrote an essay, Common Fallacies About Capitalism, which devoted a section to excoriating public education. Branden compared education to shoes, arguing that private enterprise is more efficient at providing goods and services than the government. Branden's essay was published in Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal[http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/books/rand/cui.html]. Such proposals face considerable barriers, as many state constitutions mandate public funding of education. For instance, Article VIII of the Virginia Constitution requires the legislature to "provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth"[http://legis.state.va.us/Laws/search/Constitution.htm].

References

- Heller, Frank: [http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1505 Lessons from Maine: Education Vouchers for Students since 1873], Cato Institute, Sep. 10, 2001.
- Thattai, Deeptha: [http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html A History of Public Education in the United States]. Category:Education

Racism

streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939.]] Racism is the belief that people of different races differ in value, that these differences can be measured on a ranked, hierarchical scale, and that result in the social, political, and economic advantage of one group in relation to others. The belief that the character and abilities of individuals are correlated with their race is not necessarily racism, since this can be asserted without implying an inequality in value. Racism as a term is usually applied to actions by a dominant group in a society on others. Weaker groups are unlikely to practice racism publicly on a more dominant or powerful group, as they would effectively be unable to. This highlights the difference between oppression and repression. In general, racism separates groups of people on the basis of race with the intent of viewing one race as more valuable and others as less valuable. The belief that the character and abilities of individuals are correlated with their race is not necessarily racism, since this can be asserted without implying an inequality in value, though whether or not all racialism implies racism is a matter of some dispute. But the application of this belief in dealing with members of that race, especially with little regard for variations within "races", is known as racial prejudice. Granting or withholding rights or privileges based on race or refusing to associate with persons based on race is racial discrimination. Sometimes racism refers to beliefs, practices, and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived or ascribed race. There is a growing, but somewhat controversial, opinion that racism is a system of oppression — a nexus of racist beliefs, whether explicit, tacit or unconscious; practices; organizations and institutions that combine to discriminate against and societally marginalize a class of people who share a common racial designation, based on that designation. In some countries, accusations of racism are alleged to be used by supporters of cultural relativism and political correctness to stigmatise their adversaries due to the association between racism and extreme violence in parts of the twentieth century. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, there have been few in developed nations who describe themselves as racist, so that identification of a group or person as racist is nearly always controversial. Racism is regarded by many as an affront to basic human dignity and a violation of human rights. A number of international treaties have sought to end racism. The United Nations uses a definition of racist discrimination laid out in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and adopted in 1966: :...any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. [http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_icerd.htm]

From "racial theory" to "racism"

Before considering racism, it is an important methodological point to distinguish historically when the concept of "racism" became known as such. Historians disagree largely when "race" emerged as a concept, ranging from those who believe aspects of it have always existed among humans, to those who place it as a concept separate from general distrust of "difference" (in which case it emerged either in the Age of Exploration or even as late as the 19th century). In any event, the division of people into discrete groups, usually based on external anatomical features or assumed geographic origin, and theories about how many "races" there were, and theories of how to "rank" these races against each other, existed long before they acquired any sort of distinct stigma against them. Fear of sexual relations between Colored men and White women was central to the tenets of racism. During the late-19th century, a number of thinkers emphasized that these views were morally and ethically unjust, but this was a significantly minority opinion. Even those who opposed institutions such as slavery often did so not on the basis of equality of races, but on overall equality in treatment of "mankind". In the 20th century, however, there began a growth of thought that theories of racial "superiority" and "inferiority", much of the discourse relating to racial theory of this sort came out of the United States in the years after the American Civil War, while European thinkers began to think of people in terms of linguistic "nations" more than they did "races." The term "racism", according to the Oxford English Dictionary, emerged in the early 1930s as distinct from the "theories of race" which had existed for at least a hundred years before that. A turning point in racial thinking came with the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazism, which built much of its political agenda upon the rhetoric of anti-Semitism and overt statements of racial superiority and inferiority. Full opposition to these ideas did not begin until the outbreak of World War II, and a large part of Allied propaganda efforts were in labeling Nazi Germany as a "racist" state, and distinguishing their own states from them. By the end of the war, the association of racism with the Nazis, and the genocidal policies they undertook, thoroughly established the meme that "racism" was something to be opposed. In the United States, the experience of the Civil Rights Movement further emphasized this point. Now, "racism" is seen as something entirely to be opposed by almost all mainstream voices, though there is little agreement over what is "racism". It is worth remembering this, when looking at current concepts of "racism". In hindsight, many eminent scientists, philosophers, and statesmen appear "racist" by late-20th century standards, though the recognition of the historical nature of these judgements is deemed by many to exonerate these figures or governments for their ideas or actions.

Origins of racism

One view of the origins of racism emphasizes stereotypes, which psychologists generally believe are influenced by cultural factors. People generally respond to others differently based on what they know, which may include superficial characteristics often associated with race. A "white" person walking after dark in a primarily "black" neighborhood in an American city might be anxious for a combination of reasons. The same may be said for an African-American walking in a white neighborhood. A police officer who spends most of his day in that same city encountering criminality or hostility among people of a certain ethnic background might be expected to react negatively to a member of that same ethnic group whom he meets off-duty. A law-abiding African-American man is less likely than a law-abiding white man to view that same police officer as an ally and protector, and more as a threat to his or her personal safety and well-being. In both sets of cases, theories of conditioning may apply. Debates over the origins of racism often suffer from a lack of clarity over the term. Many use the term "racism" to refer to more general phenomena, such as xenophobia and ethnocentrism. Others conflate recent forms of racism with earlier forms of ethnic and national conflict. In most cases, ethno-national conflict seems to owe to conflict over land and strategic resources. In some cases ethnicity and nationalism were harnessed to rally combatants in wars between great religious empires (for example, the Muslim Turks and the Catholic Austro-Hungarians). As Benedict Anderson has suggested in Imagined Communities, ethnic identity and ethno-nationalism became a source of conflict within such empires with the rise of print-capitalism. Notions of race and racism, however, often have played central roles in such conflicts. Historically, when an adversary is identified as "other" based on notions of race or ethnicity (particularly when "other" is construed to mean "inferior"), the means employed by the self-presumed "superior" party to appropriate territory, human chattel, or material wealth often have been more ruthless, more brutal, and less constrained by moral or ethical considerations. Indeed, based on such racist presumptions, the political or moral decision to enter into armed conflict can be made less weighty when one's potential adversaries are "other than," because their lives are perceived as having lesser importance, lesser value. In history, some examples of the brutalizing and dehumanizing effects of racism, are: the trading of smallpox-infested blankets among Native Americans as a biological weapon in order to reduce their population. In the western world, racism evolved, twinned with the doctrine of white supremacy, and helped fuel the European exploration, conquest, and colonization of much of the rest of the world -- especially after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas. Basil Davidson insists in his documentary, Africa: Different but Equal, that racism, in fact, only just recently surfaced—as late as the 1800’s, due to the need for a justification of slavery in the Americas. The idea of slavery as an "equal-opportunity employer" was denounced with the introduction of Christian theory in the West. Maintaining that Africans were "subhuman" was the only loophole in the then accepted law that "men are created equal" that would allow for the sustenance of the Triangular Trade. New peoples in the Americas, possible slaves, were encountered, fought, and ultimately subdued, but then due to western diseases, their population decreased innumerably. Through both influences, theories about "race" developed, and these helped many to justify the differences in position and treatment of people whom they categorized as belonging to different races (see Eric Wolf's Europe and the People Without History). Some people like Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda even argued that the Native Americans were natural slaves. In Asia, the Chinese and Japanese Empires were both strong colonial powers, with the Chinese making colonies and vassal states of much of mainland Asia, and the Japanese doing the same in the west Pacific. In both cases, the Asian imperial powers believed they were ethnically and racially superior to their vassals, and entitled to be their masters.

Expressions

Racism may be expressed individually and consciously, through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or socially and unconsciously, through institutions that promote inequalities among "races". Although some speakers attempt to express a semantic distinction by using the word racism rather than racialism (or vice versa), many treat the terms as synonymous (see below). Racism may be divided in three major subcategories: individual racism, structural racism, and ideological racism. Examples of individual racism include an employer not hiring a person, failing to promote or giving harsher duties or imposing harsher working conditions, or firing, someone, in whole or in part due to his race. Researchers at the University of Chicago (Marianne Bertrand) and Harvard University (Sendhil Mullainathan) found in a 2003 study that there was widespread discrimination in the workplace against job applicants whose names were merely perceived as "sounding black." These applicants were 50% less likely than candidates perceived as having "white-sounding names" to receive callbacks for interviews, no matter their level of previous experience. Results were stronger for higher quality resumes. The researchers view these results as strong evidence of unconscious biases rooted in the country's long history of discrimination. This is an example of structural racism, because it shows a widespread established belief system. Another example is apartheid in South Africa, and the system of Jim Crow laws in the United States of America. Another source is lending inequities of banks, and so-called redlining. Racism is usually directed against a minority population, but may also be directed against a majority population. Examples include racial apartheid in South Africa, wherein whites (a minority) discriminated against blacks (a majority) or contemporary United States of America wherein federal legislation has been interpreted as mandating preferential treatment for non whites; this form of racism also occurred during the former colonial rule of such countries as Vietnam (by France) and India (by the United Kingdom). This is known in United States politics as "reverse racism". "Reverse racism" is a controversial concept; it is usually applied to instances of perceived discrimination against members of a dominant (rather than minority) group, usually as a reaction to previous policies' racism by said group. In the United States, many people, mostly conservatives, criticize policies such as affirmative action as an example of reverse racism. They point out that insofar as these policies provide preference to certain racial groups and not others, they are race-based discrimination, even if their goal is to correct a previous act of discrimination. Supporters of affirmative action argue that those policies counteract a systemic and cultural racism by providing a balancing force, and that it does not qualify as racist because they are enacted by politicians (mostly part of the majority) and directed towards their own race. Increasingly significant numbers of white people (i.e. people of European ethnicity) believe that political correctness has led to a denigration of the white race, through "special attention" paid to minority races. For example, they consider the existence of Black History Month (February) but not a White History Month, Amerindian History Month, or Asian History Month to be de facto racism directed at the majority and non-black minorities. Yet again, others argue that the lack of a White History Month is due to the fact that much of the school year is devoted to teaching history from a Eurocentric perspective. Racial discrimination is and has been official government policy in many countries. In the 1970s, Uganda expelled tens of thousands of ethnic Indians. Until 2003, Malaysia enforced discriminatory policies limiting access to university education for ethnic Chinese and Indian students who are citizens by birth of Malaysia, and many other policies explicitly favoring bumiputras (Malays) remain in force. Russia launched anti-Semitic pogroms against Jews in 1905 and after. During the 1930s and 1940s, attempts were made to prevent Jews from immigrating to the Middle East. Following the creation of Israel, land-ownership in many Israeli towns was limited to Jews, and many Muslim countries expelled Jewish Arabs and continue to refuse entry to Jews. In the United States, racial profiling of minorities by law enforcement officials is a controversial subject. Some people consider this to be a form of racism. Some claim that profiling young Arab male fliers at airports will only lead to increased recruitment of older, non-Arab, and female terrorists, as well as Arab males who might be mistaken for white males. Many critics of racial profiling claim that it is an unconstitutional practice because it amounts to questioning individuals on the basis of what crimes they might commit or could possibly commit, instead of what crimes they have actually committed. See the article on racial profiling for more information on this dispute.

Racism by country

In 19th century Europe and America, some scientists developed various theories about biological differences among races, and these theories were in turn used to legitimize racist beliefs and practices. Much of this work has since been rejected by the scientific community as flawed and even as pseudoscience. Today there are some scientists who claim that "race", in the general sense in which the term is used, is a social construct: the way in which individuals are classified into racial groups varies from person to person, and from place to place, and from time to time. These scientists say that superficial characteristics which are associated with racial groupings are poor predictors of genetic variability. There can be more genetic variation within a racial grouping than between two racial groupings. They also point to the lack of well-defined boundaries to racial classifications; for example characteristics such as skin colour and facial appearance can be shown to vary as a continuum from place to place. Other scientists counter that "sex" and "species" are likewise seen by some as socially constructed. After all, humans and chimpanzees (or males and females) are far more genetically alike than different. According to this view, categories need not be absolute in order to have scientific utility.

Australia

Austria

Austria has sometimes been criticised of trying to sweep its Nazi past under the carpet, typifed by the widely pronounced myth that Austria was a victim of Nazi aggression rather than a willing participant. This has its origins as an Allied propaganda tactic. This complacency was severly tested in the 1986 presidential race when it emerged that Kurt Waldheim (a former UN secretary general) had concealed (or forgotten) certain facts about his war-time military service with the Wehrmacht. The revelations caused much controversy in Austria as well as in the outide world. Nevertheless Waldheim was elected President. Controversy again erupted in 2000 when Jörg Haider's conservative Freedom Party entered into coalition with the centre-right People's Party having gained 27% of the vote. However much progress has been made with settling the disputes and compensation for Jews and others whose property and assets were seized during the Nazi era, with a deal completed in 2001. Elections in 2002 saw a significant drop in support for the Freedom Party, with the party subsequently splitting into opposing factions. Herr Haider now leads the Bündnis Zukunft Österreich.

Canada

Canadian History

While Canada often depicts its society as being a very progressive, tolerant, diverse, and multicultural nation, Canada also has its own history of racism. Although the historical records are not very clear at the very beginnings of the country's history, one can argue that the first instance of racism in Canada occurred during the first trip of Jacques Cartier in 1534, when he brought two Iroquois more or less against their will back to France, which greatly amused the French royal court. Later, although still not very clearly recognised in the mainstream culture (where it is more seen as territorial wars), much racism occurred between the French and the First Nations people, between First Nations tribes themselves (fuelled by alliances of certain tribes with the French, and others with the English), between the English and the First Nations, and between the English and the French. Although the country's history was influenced greatly by these wars, the relationships between all those ethnicities has changed a lot since the beginning of European settlement in Canada. Moreover, there are notable records of slavery in Canada in the 1700s. More than half of all Canadian slaves were aboriginal. In 1793, Upper Canada governor John Graves Simcoe passed a bill making it illegal to bring a person into the colony for the purposes of enslavement, and slavery was fully outlawed in 1834. Starting in 1858, Chinese "coolies" were brought to Canada to work in the mines and on the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, they were denied by law the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote, and in the 1880s, "head taxes" were implemented to curtail immigration from China. In 1907, a riot in Vancouver targeted Chinese and Japanese-owned businesses. In 1923, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Exclusion Act, prohibiting further Chinese immigration except under "special circumstances". The Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, the same year in which Chinese Canadians were finally given the right to vote. Restrictions still existed on immigration from Asia. In 1967, these restrictions were repealed and Asian immigrants were given the same rights as any other group. In 1999, Adrienne Clarkson, the child of Chinese immigrants who moved to Canada in 1942 under the "special circumstances" clause, became Governor General of Canada. Japanese Canadians were also subject to anti-Asian racism, particularly during World War II when many Canadians of Japanese heritage — even those who were born in Canada — were forcibly moved to internment camps. The government of Canada officially made restitution for the treatment of Japanese Canadians in 1988. Notable organizations in Canadian history have included the Parti national social chrétien, and the Heritage Front. Other notable individuals in this context include Adrien Arcand, Ernst Zündel, Doug Christie, Wolfgang Droege and Don Andrews.

More recently in Canada

More recently, Canada has been perceived as practicing systemic, institutionalized racism by allowing employers to require Canadian-based job experience in a potential employee. This puts landed immigrants at a clear disadvantage, and can often result in highly educated people working for much lower pay than their Canadian educated counterparts, or even struggling with a minimum wage job. This unequal footing has left many new immigrants feeling disillusioned with the entire immigration process, and segregated from Canadian culture as a whole. Both as an expression of protest, and as a means of warning potential immigrants still overseas, online groups have formed to share information and stories of victimization. [http://www.canadaimmigrants.com], [http://www.notcanada.com] Such experiences have led to ongoing jokes that "Toronto has the world's highest qualified taxi drivers". However, racism in Canada has not only been connected to immigration. French Canadians, including Acadians, Québécois and Franco-ontarians, and aboriginals have purportedly also been subject to discriminatory treatment in Canada. However, having French recognised as an official language was seen as a step towards multiculturalism.

Finland

Sami people were traditionally feared for being wizards and Russians for being criminals, but the fear was more cultural. In 19th century, the ruling Swedish-speaking minority considered Finnish-speaking people to be a separate race and inferior to Germanic race. The discrimination since transformed into mainly linguistic, but there is still inferiority complex within the Finnish-speaking majority. Finns have generally been curious about different-looking people. Immigrants of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese origin have been welcomed since cultures of these immigrant groups have been sound with the mainstream culture. In the beginning of 1990s, a large Somali immigrant population came to the country. Somali immigrants had problems with high criminality and unemployment rates, notably street violence and rapes raising attention. This created racist views and discrimination towards Somalis, extending to all Somali-looking Afro-Finnish immigrants. The discrimination has since occured, especially outside Helsinki. Problems are currently under hot debate.

France

The French have a long history of ethnic and racial conflicts. Anti-Semitism, a common trend in European history is also highlighted in French history by events such as the Dreyfus affaire, and France's irresponsible treatment of its Jewish population during Nazi occupation. Likewise, the treatment of North Africans and other former colonials during the colonial era, the atrocities committed by France during the Algerian War of independence (1954-1962) are also signs of intolerance. The fact that Algerians formed the bulk of late-twentieth century immigration has raised delicate issues, which are exacerbated by the degradation of the general social situation. In the 1970s Jean Raspail wrote The Camp of the Saints which some felt implied African immigrants should be drowned or shot to prevent them from entering France. In 1998 the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made a report stating concern about racist activities in France and accused the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this. The report and other groups have expressed concern about organizations like Front National (France). In a recent Pew Survey, 47% of the French deem immigration from Eastern Europe to be a bad thing. A small minority shows signs of Anti-Semitism. Roughly 11% had an unfavorable view of Jews [http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?PageID=795] and 8% felt that US policy was most influenced by the Jews [http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?PageID=803]. In the colonial age some French also displayed negative sentiments toward black Africans. Nevertheless these judgments should be balanced by the following: Canadians had roughly the same percentage linking US policy to Jews as France did. Furthermore, France had been ruled by Jewish leaders during the twentieth century (most notably Leon Blum and Pierre Mendes-France, who were both highly popular...) Indeed, France has a long history of support for universalism dating back to the Enlightenment : the unenforced constitution of 1794 gave the right to vote to all "foreigners" (independently of any racial consideration) living in France for more than one year. The French also generally have a greater interest in African culture and aid to the region. In late October of 2005, violent riots erupted in north-east Paris, and later other cities around France, after two youths of North African origin were accidentally electrocuted after supposedly fleeing police.

Germany

The history of Germany has included many acts and policies of racism. If one includes pre-19th century acts of anti-Semitism as racism, the history stretches back to at least the 11th century, when Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor expelled Jews from Mainz in 1012. Other acts of anti-Semitism included numerous bloody attacks on Jews living in the area in the 13th and 14th centuries, most notably the massacres of Jews in the 1340s after they were blamed for spreading the Black Death. In the 19th century, Germany became one of the major centers of nationalist thought, and also a major area for development of racial theories, many of them virulently racist. Anti-semitic campaigns in this period took on a definitely "racial" valence, as definitely distinct from a purely religious one. The period after World War I led to an increased use of anti-Semitism and other racism in political discourse, which was capped by the ascent of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party in 1933. Nazi racial policy and the Nazi Nuremberg Laws represented some of the most explicit racist policies in Europe in the 20th century, and culminated in the Holocaust, a systematic murdering of millions of Jews and other "undesirables". In the post-World War II era, German reconciliation with its anti-Semitic past has been a protracted experience. Recent concerns about racism have centered around immigrants (Ausländer), who encounter prejudice when seeking jobs and apartments, or can even experience direct violent attacks by some right-wing groups. This pattern is similar to what is happening in some other European countries. The immigrants came in two waves, the first in the 1950s, the so called Gastarbeiter (Guest Workers) and their families. These people came from countries such as Turkey and Yugoslavia in West Germany, and Vietnam and Angola in East Germany. The Gastarbeiter were expected to remain on limited contracts, and then leave. Many did not. Starting from the 1980s, the second wave were the Asylsucher (Asylum Seekers) from countries such as Sri Lanka and Lebanon. This second group were considered by some locals to not be genuine cases, but so called Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge (Economic Migrants).

India

Elements of Sangh Parivar and Vishva Hindu Parishad have been accused of inciting ethnic tension. In general tensions in India are more religious than racial in nature, but there have been some reports of ethnic tension between Tamil people and the Hindi majority. Others state some in India accepted Aryan_Invasion_Theory#Racial_interpretations_of_the_Vedic_Aryans Racial interpretations of Vedic writing. Of some relevance is Asit Krishna Mukherji who was a Bengali Brahmin who openly supported Hitler and married an Esoteric Hitlerist. See also Ethnic conflict in India.

Indonesia

See Jakarta Riots of May 1998.

Ireland

Traditionally there has been very little immigration by non-whites to the Republic of Ireland due to historic poverty, though in recent times growing prosperity in the country (see: Celtic Tiger) has attracted increasing numbers of immigrants, mainly from Africa, China, and Eastern Europe. Also the absence of any colonialist baggage has meant that foreign people are not drawn to Ireland by "mother country" factors that have affected other European countries. Descendants of Irish people who emigrated in the past have also started moving to the country. Most immigrants have settled in Dublin and the other cities. Though these developments have been accepted or tolerated by most, there has been a rise in racist attitudes among some sections of society. Much of this racism takes the form of verbal and other abuses. However, in 2002, a Chinese man Zhao liu Tao (29) was murdered in Dublin in what was described as the the Republic of Ireland's first racially motivated murder.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1813880.stm] Later that year Leong Ly Min, another Chinese man who had lived in Dublin since 1979, was beaten to death by a gang who had been racially abusing him. [http://republican-news.org/archive/2002/August29/29anti.html] Several issues relating to immigration have gained widespread publicity in recent years. After 1997 and prior to 2005 any baby born in the Republic was entitled to Irish citizenship due to stipulations in the Good Friday agreement. This led to many pregnant women (overwhelmingly from Nigeria) from Africa, having discarded their identification documentation to travel directly to Ireland expressly to give birth and thus allow their child to gain Irish citizenship. This became known as citizenship tourism. Following the noted abuses of the loophole in the Irish Constitution a referendum on the issue was held. The referendum was duly carried and the loophole was closed. In 2005 Nigerian student Olukunle Elukanlo was deported after his asylum application failed, despite the fact that he had not yet completed his exams. Following an outcry by various activist groups at the decision he was allowed to return to complete his exams. The issue highlighted the growing numbers of failed asylum seekers been deported, an issue which is highly controversial to some (despite that fact that very few failed applicants are actually deported). This has been highlighted in recent television and radio programmes focused on exposing the extreme high cost to the Irish taxpayer of processing false asylum claims in addition to the cost of returning bogus asylum-seekers to their country of origin. Many Irish people are very proud of being in the European Union, but increasingly large numbers resent migrants from outside the Union coming to Ireland expressly for the purpose of claiming asylum, without having applied for asylum in other countries along their route as is required by international law. There are several "anti-racism" groups active in the Republic, as well as those seeking tighter immigration laws such as the Immigration Control Platform.

Japan

See Ethnic issues in Japan

New Zealand

Although New Zealand did not have an official policy along the lines of the White Australia Policy, it did engage in the land wars with the aboriginal Maori during the mid-19th Century, and imposed a poll tax on Chinese immigrants during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The poll tax was effectively lifted in the 1930s following the invasion of China by Japan, and was finally repealed in 1944. After World War II, immigration policy remained largely Anglocentric until the mid-1980s, although war refugees and non-Anglo-Celtic migrants, and foreign students studying under the Colombo Plan were allowed in the country in limited numbers. In the 1975 election campaign, opposition leader Robert Muldoon ran a scare campaign directed against Pacific Islands migrant workers, which was followed by a series of dawn raids on suspected overstayers. In response, a Pacific Islands group known as the Polynesian Panthers came to prominence. Indigenous land issues came to a head in the late 1970s with Maori protesters occupying the Raglan Golf Course and Bastion Point, with land claims on both being settled by the following decade. In 1986, country-of-origin rules were abolished, leading to major inflows of immigration for the first time in years, in particular large groups of skilled and business migrants. However, anti-immigration rhetoric directed mainly towards Asians from the populist Maori politician Winston Peters has since forced immigration rules to be tightened. A 2003 study by the Human Rights Commission showed 70% of New Zealanders think that Asians face significant discrimination. Many non-Polynesian ethnic minorities perceive official policy to be indifferent towards them in the context of the Maori-Pakeha bi-culturalism issue.

United Kingdom

2003 depicts an Englishman calling "BOY!" to a Chinaman to bring him a drink. The caption reads "The Call of the East".]] There were race riots across the United Kingdom in 1919: South Shields, Glasgow, London's East End, Liverpool, Cardiff, Barry, and Newport. There were further riots by immigrant and minority populations in East London during the 1930s, Notting Hill in the 1950s, and Brixton, and Blackbird Leys, Oxford in the 1980s. More recently in 2001, there have been riots in Bradford and Oldham. These riots have followed cases of perceived racism - either the public displays of racist sentiment (including crimes against members of ethnic minorities which were subsequently ignored by the authorities), or, as in the Brixton riots, racial profiling and alleged harassment by the police force. Racism in one form or another was widespread in Britain before the twentieth century, and during the 1900s particularly towards Jewish groups and immigrants from Eastern Europe. The English establishment even considered the Irish a separate and degenerate race until well into the 19th Century. Since World War I, public expressions of white supremacism have been limited to far-right political parties such as the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and the British National Front in the 1970s, whilst most mainstream politicians have publicly condemned all forms of racism. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that racism remains widespread, and some politicians and public figures have been accused of excusing or pandering to racist attitudes in the media, particularly with regard to immigration. There have be

Anti-immigrant

Major anti-immigration arguments

Counter arguments

Continental European anti-immigration movements

Opposition to immigration in the United Kingdom

Immigration and economics

Anti-immigration views in the United States

Anti-immigrant hate crimes

See also

Immigration

Why do people immigrate?

Differing perspectives on immigration

See also

General immigration topics

Australian immigration

Canadian immigration

United Kingdom immigration

United States immigration

French immigration

Legal instruments

External links

Immigration

Why do people immigrate?

Differing perspectives on immigration

See also

General immigration topics

Australian immigration

Canadian immigration

United Kingdom immigration

United States immigration

French immigration

Legal instruments

External links

Crime

Definition of crime in general

General rules

Trial

Reasons

Classification

Aiding and abetting

Study

History

Natural law theory

Other uses of the word worldwide

See also

External links

Public education

History

Overview

National Public School Systems

Scottish education

United States Public School

History

Funding

Legality

School vouchers

Alternative/Charter schools

Bilingual education

Proposed abolition

See also

References

Racism

From "racial theory" to "racism"

Origins of racism

Expressions

Racism by country

Australia

Austria

Canada

Canadian History

More recently in Canada

Finland

France

Germany

India

Indonesia

Ireland

Japan

New Zealand

United Kingdom