Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies

Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies
Author: Alexandre Marc
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2009-11-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821380842

Over the last two decades the world has witnessed an important transformation of the concept of citizenship and social integration, increasingly recognizing that cultural and ethnic diversity need to be considered when designing and implementing social policies. The increasing cultural diversity of societies, along with the important role culture plays in forming identities in these societies, creates major challenges for national and local governments in ensuring social cohesion and social inclusion. 'Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies' reviews recent approaches to recognizing cultural diversity when delivering basic services. It first discusses how supporting cultural diversity can help achieve social inclusion and social cohesion. It then considers the debate over multiculturalism from various perspectives and discusses the risks and benefits of policies that support cultural diversity. Also examined are policies and programs that support cultural diversity in the delivery of basic services, such as education, health care, customary law, traditional governance systems, and cultural services. For each of these services the author reviews main challenges and describes best practices. Finally, the book offers a synthesis of what has been learned about taking cultural diversity into account in service delivery.

Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies

Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies
Author: Matthias Koenig
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780754670308

Published in association with UNESCO, this volume examines the political governance of cultural diversity. Interdisciplinary to comparative social sciences, it assesses public-policy responses to ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, and addresses the conditions, forms, and consequences of democratic and human-rights-based governance of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-faith societies.

Library Services for Multicultural Patrons

Library Services for Multicultural Patrons
Author: Carol Smallwood
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0810887223

Increasingly, libraries are struggling to deal with a growing diversity in the cultural background of their patrons. Problems arising from this cultural diversity afflict all library types--school, public and academic. Library Services for Multicultural Patrons is by and for all libraries that are striving to provide multicultural services to match the growing diversity in the cultural background of patrons. The book is designed to offer helpful tips and practical advice to academic, public, and school librarians who want to better serve the multicultural groups in their communities. The contributors to the book are themselves practicing librarians and they share creative ideas for welcoming multicultural patrons into libraries and strategies for serving them more effectively. Librarians will find in these chapters tried and true tips and techniques for marketing and promotion, improving reference services for speakers of English as a second language, and enhancing programming that they can easily implement in their own libraries and communities. The chapters are divided into the following categories for ease of access: 1) Getting Organized and Finding Partners, 2) Reaching Students, 3) Community Connections, 4) Applying Technology, 6) Outreach Initiatives, 6) Programming and Events, and 7) Reference Services. Librarians of all types will be pleased to discover easy-to-implement suggestions for collaborative efforts, many rich and diverse programming ideas, strategies for improving reference services and library instruction to speakers of English as a second language, marketing and promotional tips designed to welcome multicultural patrons into the library, and much more.

The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies

The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies
Author: Will Kymlicka
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2008
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199233802

Most countries around the world exhibit a long history of exclusion and discrimination directed against ethnic, racial, national, religious, or ideological groups. The underlying justifications for these forms of exclusion have been increasingly discredited by the post-war human rights revolution, decolonization, and by contemporary norms of liberal-democratic constitutionalism, with their commitment to equal rights and non-discrimination. However, even as these older practices and ideologies of exclusion are discredited and repudiated, they continue to have enduring effects. The legacies of exclusion can still be seen in a wide range of social attitudes, cultural practices, economic and demographic patterns, and institutional rules that obstruct efforts to build genuinely inclusive societies of equal citizens. Finding ways to overcome this problem is a major challenge facing virtually every society around the world. The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies focuses on two parallel intellectual and political movements that have arisen to address this challenge: the 'politics of reconciliation', with its focus on reparations, truth-telling and healing amongst former adversaries, and the 'politics of difference', with its focus on the recognition and empowerment of minorities in multicultural societies. Both the politics of reconciliation and the politics of difference are having a profound impact on the theory and practice of democracy around the world, but remarkably little has been written about the relationship between them. This book aims to fill that gap. Drawing on both theoretical analysis and case studies from around the world, the authors explore how the politics of reconciliation and the politics of difference often interact in mutually supportive ways, as reconciliation leads to more multicultural conceptions of citizenship. But there are also important ways in which the two may compete in their aims and methods. The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies is the first attempt to systematically explore these areas of potential convergence and divergence.

Culture and Disability

Culture and Disability
Author: John H. Stone
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2004-08-07
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1452266964

Culture and Disabilty is a groundbreaking work on persons with disabilities from diverse immigrant backgrounds. It is a pioneering and practical volume dealing with topics that have been too long ignored. Using a ‘cultural broker’ model and written by individuals who have emigrated to the U.S. from countries such as China, Korea, Jamaica, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, Providing Cultural Competent Disability Services contains concrete examples, case studies, and recommendations that will help rehabilitation practitioners in their day-to-day activities. Providing Cultural Competent Disability Service also serves as an excellent supplemental text for undergraduate and graduate programs in rehabilitation and related disciplines. —Paul Leung, Ph.D., CRC, University of North Texas One in ten persons living in the United States was born in another country, and in many areas this percentage is much higher. Minority groups are currently underrepresented in the rehabilitation professions; consequently many persons with disabilities are served by professionals from a culture that may be very different than their own. Culture and Disabilty provides information about views of disability in other cultures and ways in which rehabilitation professionals may improve services for persons from other cultures, especially recent immigrants. Culture and Disabilty includes chapters with descriptions of the interaction of culture and disability. A model on "Culture Brokering" provides a framework for addressing conflicts that often arise between service providers and clients from differing cultures. Seven chapters discuss the cultural perspectives of China, Jamaica, Korea, Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam, focusing on how disability is understood in these cultures. Each of these chapters includes a discussion of the history of immigration to the United States, the role of the family and the community in rehabilitation, as well as recommendations for service providers on working with persons from each culture. Culture and Disabilty is a unique and timely text for students and instructors in disability-related programs. It is also a vital resource for service providers who work in cross-cultural environments.

Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration

Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration
Author: Migration Policy Institute
Publisher: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2012-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3867934754

Greater mobility and migration have brought about unprecedented levels of diversity that are transforming communities across the Atlantic in fundamental ways, sparking uncertainty over who the "we" is in a society. As publics fear loss of their national identity and values, the need is greater than ever to reinforce the bonds that tie communities together. Yet, while a consensus may be emerging as to what has not worked well, little thought has been given to developing a new organizing principle for community cohesion. Such a vision needs to smooth divisions between immigration's "winners and losers," blunt extremism, and respond smartly to changing community and national identities. This volume will examine the lessons that can be drawn from various approaches to immigrant integration and managing diversity in North America and Europe. The book delivers recommendations on what policymakers must do to build and reinforce inclusiveness given the realities on each side of the Atlantic. It offers insights into the next generation of policies that can (re)build inclusive societies and bring immigrants and natives together in pursuit of shared futures.

Oil Sparks in the Amazon

Oil Sparks in the Amazon
Author: Patricia I. Vasquez
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2014
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0820345628

"For decades, studies of oil-related conflicts focused on the causes and effects of natural resources mismanagement, commonly known as the "resource curse"-the paradoxical connection between oil wealth and economic busts (as in Venezuela) or, in a later twist, the link between the predatory behavior of armed rebel organizations and the abundant natural resources that funded their existence. Patricia Vasquez notes that oil busts and civil wars associated with the resource curse were quite different from the now-predominant local hydrocarbons disputes that are multiplying rapidly in Latin America. These more recent, localized disputes-over land, population displacement, water contamination, oil jobs that are promised but never materialize, etc.-primarily involve Indigenous groups with a different social and cultural identity from the rest of the population. Vasquez spent fifteen years making regular field visits to the oil-producing regions of Latin America and conducting hundreds of interviews with the various stakeholders in these local conflicts. Her book, based on this field research, analyzes the dynamics that characterize each of fifty-five social and environmental conflicts related to oil and gas extraction in the Andean countries (Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia). She is interested not in promulgating a new theory of conflict but in examining the triggers of local hydrocarbons disputes and providing policy recommendations to resolve or prevent them"--

Race and Ethnicity in a Welfare Society

Race and Ethnicity in a Welfare Society
Author: Charlotte Williams
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0335225306

The book aims to: -Review debates, issues and concepts associated with the notion of a multicultural-welfare state in the context of contemporary Britain -Draw on examples from across 'need' groups (children, mental health, older people, women etc) explore the ways in which black and ethnic minorities engage in the production of welfare -Consider major transformations in the delivery and practices of welfare their implications for the engagement, access and participation of ethnic minorities -Consider issues of race and ethnicity within the context of a variety of welfare policy arenas. -Suggest ways that welfare practices could be transformed to incorporate the ideas such as 'cosmopolitan citizenship' within a welfare society. The book will appeal to undergradute and postgraduate students of social work, social policy and sociology taking modules in Race and Ethnicity, Social Care and Welfare, Community Studies, Social Exclusion and Citizenship. It will also appeal to practitioners with an interest in welfare policy and practice generally and those with a specific interest in welfare delivery issues and racial and ethnic diversity.

Cultural Competence In Assessment And Intervention With Ethnic Minorities: Some Perspectives From Psychology, Social Work and Education

Cultural Competence In Assessment And Intervention With Ethnic Minorities: Some Perspectives From Psychology, Social Work and Education
Author: Robert G. Malgady
Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2011
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1608051307

Without a thorough understanding of culture and its nuances on part of the mental health service providers, alienation, stigma, and culturally based impediments rule. While concerns for diversity have been raised on numerous occasions, with increasing frequency over the past four decades, little progress has been made in implementing such concerns in clinical practice. Over two-thirds of Americans receive treatment for depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and related disorders. Comorbidity is rarely diagnosed. These trends are greatly exacerbated among members of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic minority groups. the authors contributing to this volume share their clinical acumen and experiences, rooted in their evidence-based research. Their purpose is to bring issues attending assessment and treatment of ethnic minority clientele closer to the fore. Some of the leading authors on the topic, in psychology and social work, present their well earned clinical and research experiences in this volume. Case studies are presented which are instructive and intriguing, bringing together the richness of a multidisciplinary approach to the topic.