The power of the strong state: A comparative analysis of the diaspora engagement strategies of India and Ethiopia

Migrant-sending countries are increasingly exploring schemes where human capital of expatriates can be used for the benefit of the home country's socioeconomic development. This paper focuses on the mechanisms of emigration management and problematizes the government involvement in diaspora engagement. By exploring the two cases of diaspora engagement policies, namely, that of India and Ethiopia, the paper questions the success of government mechanisms, establishing the conditions under which these mechanisms lead to political and economic benefit from the diaspora. Although countries differ immensely in various aspects, Ethiopia modeled its diaspora policy after the case of India, which provides us with a good case for establishing the necessary conditions. Both countries see diaspora as a key resource in economic development of respective countries and have therefore invested significant resources into developing institutions and policies to engage diaspora. Nevertheless, there are some major differences between the countries, in terms of the countries' resources and capacities to design and implement diaspora engagement policies and also in the composition of migrant communities. While Indian migration has always had an economic component, the Ethiopian Diaspora is primarily characterized by refugee flows. Moreover, India has a long history of migration and one of the largest migrant communities in the world. The paper argues that government resources and capacities to design and implement policies and the composition of migrant communities play a key role in determining the approach governments adopt with their diasporas.diaspora, migration, diaspora engagement policy, diaspora engagement, institutions, India, Ethiopia

Promoting return and circular migration of the highly skilled

Migration of skilled workers from developing countries has increased substantially in recent years. Traditionally, such patterns raised fears on the ground of the associated 'brain drain' as human capital formation is considered to be of central importance to the development and reduction of poverty levels. Therefore, any loss of skilled workers through migration was considered harmful to the achievement of development goals. In contrast, the new body of literature emphasizes the positive incentive and feedback effects which skilled migration has on sending countries' development as well as on other stakeholders. While most papers on the impacts of migration on development focus on remittances and low-skilled migration, we emphasize the effects of skilled return migrants which bring about the transfer of knowledge and skills. This paper examines five levels of policy concerning the mobility of skilled workers. Because of their differing positions, we examine the position of sending and receiving countries with regard to skilled migration separately. We look at receiving country policies, sending country policies, bilateral approaches, regional approaches and global approaches. This paper first explores what options are theoretically discussed at the five levels of analysis. Secondly, we observe what kinds of policies are actually used in practice and which policies show some evidence of success. We also systematically discuss the advantages and disadvantages (or limitations) of each policy option.return migration, highly skilled, migration, immigration, skilled migration, developing countries, human capital, skills

Europe as unlikely immigrant destination: location choice for internationally mobile students in India

This paper examines how country-specific factors in receiving countries influence a highly skilled migrant’s choice between several possible locations. While continental European countries recognize that attracting migrants is a key component of their economic strategies, it is unclear to what extent these immigration policies result in European countries performing better in the global competition for the skilled. Surveys of prospective migrants in India show that while European countries appear to be relatively attractive for educational purposes, European countries are not perceived as favourably for long-term stays. Relative to migrants selecting traditional immigration countries, migrants selecting Europe as a destination typically have more skills and increased access to resources, such as existing networks abroad, higher educational level or better language skills. With fewer long-term migration initiatives to Europe, immigration policies and destination country-specific factors, opportunities to obtain citizenship and amenities of local environment become less relevant. European governments put considerable effort in integrating student migration as a part of a wider immigration strategy; however, this strategy is likely to prove ineffective if ‘probationary migrants’ do not view European countries as realistic work destinations after graduation

Philosophie für Kinder als Zuhören. Vermeidung von Fallstricken der Instrumentalisierung

Since its inception in the seventies, philosophy for children (P4C) curricula have been under attack from various sides. As Maughn Gregory points out in his paper dealing with various criticisms, P4C attracted “overlapping and conflicting criticism” from religious and social conservatives to educational psychologists, philosophers, and critical theorists (Gregory 2011, 199). Conservative criticism of P4C often goes against the grain of philosophy and liberal education in general and can probably be seen as an age-old dispute constantly resurfacing against the effort of philosophers, while psychologists’ arguments that philosophical thinking is beyond children of certain age are today easily refuted by the work of Kieran Egan (2002) and Alison Gopnik (2009). Critical theorists’ critique, however, seems to go deeper than all other criticisms by raising intellectually pertinent problem of philosophy education: that instead of fulfilling its promise of liberating subjects it in fact interpellates them into free market ideology. As Gert Biesta (2011) tries to show, P4C curricula “are supposed to develop a range of skills, including cognitive and thinking skills, moral and social skills, and democratic skills” (Ibid. 310) and thereby instrumentalize philosophy in order to achieve a certain goal, a dubious and alarming undertaking that “can be characterized as ideological” (Ibid. 309). In order for P4C to tackle this problem of instrumentalization of philosophy (raised also in Vansieleghem (2005)) the present paper suggests that P4C curricula should be seen (and in certain cases reformed) as promoting a Socratic dialogue with children, whereby the emphasis lies on listening to a child and giving her a voice, and not on “teaching skills”. This paper thus argues that it is precisely through philosophical dialogue that a child can be heard as a child, since such a dialogue intrinsically presupposes recognition of the conversational partner as an equal interlocutor. P4C curricula can thus be regarded as an important part of emerging field of “Pedagogy of Listening” (cf. Rinaldi 2001).Od zasnivanja u 70-im godinama 20. stoljeća, kurikulum filozofije za djecu bio je napadnut s raznih strana. Kao što Maughn Gregory ističe u njegovom članku o tim kritikama, filozofija za djecu privukla je »preklapajuće i proturječne kritike« od religijskih i društvenih konzervativaca do edukacijskih psihologa, filozofa i kritičkih teoretičara (Gregory 2011, 199). Konzervativna kritika filozofije za djecu često ide protiv struje filozofije i liberalnog obrazovanja općenito te se može promatrati kao stari spor koji se konstantno pojavljuje unatoč naporu filozofa, dok se argumenti psihologa da filozofijsko mišljenje nije moguće kod djece određene dobi danas lako pobijaju istraživanjima Kierana Egana (2002) i Alison Gopnik (2009). S druge strane, čini se da kritika kritičkih teoretičara seže dublje nego druge jer razmatra intelektualno relevantan problem filozofskog obrazovanja: umjesto da ispuni svoje obećanje da će osloboditi subjekte, ustvari ih interpelira u ideologiju slobodnog tržišta. Kao što Gert Biesta nastoji pokazati, kurikuli filozofije za djecu »trebaju razviti spektar vještina, uključujući kognitivne vještine i vještine mišljenja, moralne i društvene vještine te demokratske vještine« (Biesta 2011, 310) te na taj način instrumentaliziraju filozofiju da bi postigli određeni cilj, što je dvojben i alarmantan pothvat koji se »može okarakterizirati kao ideološki« (ibid., 309). Da bi se uhvatilo u koštac s problemom instrumentalizacije filozofije (o čemu raspravlja i Vansieleghem (2005)), ovaj rad sugerira da kurikuli filozofije za djecu trebaju promovirati sokratski dijalog s djecom (te u nekim slučajevima biti reformirani u tom smjeru), gdje se naglasak stavlja na slušanje djeteta te davanje glasa, a ne na »nastavne vještine«. Ovaj rad stoga tvrdi da upravo kroz filozofski dijalog dijete može biti saslušano kao dijete, jer takav dijalog intrinzično pretpostavlja prepoznavanje partnera u razgovoru kao ravnopravnog sugovornika. Tako se kurikuli filozofije za djecu mogu smatrati važnim dijelom rastućeg polja »pedagogije slušanja« (v. Rinaldi 2001).Depuis sa création dans les années 70, le programme éducatif de philosophie a été attaqué de divers côtés. Comme le souligne Maughn Gregory dans son article consacré à ces critiques, la philosophie pour les enfants a attiré des « critiques qui s’imbriquent et se contredisent », partant des conservateurs religieux et sociaux et allant jusqu’aux psychologues de l’éducation, philosophes et théoriciens critiques (Gregory 2011, 199). La critique conservatrice de la philosophie pour les enfants va souvent à l’encontre du courant de la philosophie et de l’éducation libérale en général et peut être vue comme un vieux conflit qui réapparait constamment malgré l’effort des philosophes, bien que les arguments du psychologue, selon lesquelles une pensée philosophique chez les enfants d’un certain âge n’est pas possible, aient été facilement réfutés par les recherches de Kieran Egan (2002) et Alison Gopnik (2009). Toutefois, il semblerait que la critique des théoriciens critiques va plus loin que les autres car elle met en avant un problème intellectuellement pertinent pour l’éducation philosophique : au lieu de tenir sa promesse en vue de la libération des sujets, elle interpelle à vrai dire ces mêmes sujets au sein d’une idéologie de marché libre. À la manière dont Gert Berta tente de le montrer, les programmes éducatifs de philosophie pour les enfants «sont supposés mettre en oeuvre un éventail de compétences, comportant des compétences cognitives et des compétences de la pensée, des compétences morales et sociales, et des compétences démocratiques » (Biesta 2011, 310). Ainsi, ces programmes instrumentalisent la philosophie pour arriver à leurs fins, entreprise douteuse et alarmante « qui peut être caractérisée d’idéologique » (Ibid, 309). Afin de s’attaquer au coeur du problème de l’instrumentalisation de la philosophie (problème également abordé par Vansieleghem (2005)), ce travail suggère que les programmes de philosophie pour les enfants promeuvent les dialogues socratiques avec les enfants (et, dans certains cas, soient réformés en vue de cette voie), dialogues où l’accent est mis sur l’écoute de l’enfant et sur le fait de lui donner la parole, et non sur les « compétences de l’enseignement ». Par là, ce travail stipule que c’est précisément à travers un dialogue philosophique que l’enfant peut être entendu en tant qu’enfant car un dialogue de la sorte suppose de manière intrinsèque la reconnaissance du partenaire dans la conversation comme interlocuteur égal. Ainsi, les programmes éducatifs peuvent être perçus comme une partie importante du domaine émergeant de « la pédagogie de l’écoute » (v. Rinaldi 2001).Seit ihrer Einführung in den Siebzigerjahren waren die Curricula der Philosophie für Kinder (PfK) von verschiedenen Seiten her den Angriffen ausgesetzt. Wie Maughn Gregory in seinem Artikel über die unterschiedlichen Kritiken darauf hinweist, zog die PfK „eine sich überlappende und widersprüchliche Kritik“ auf sich, von Religions- und Sozialkonservativen bis zu pädagogischen Psychologen, Philosophen und kritischen Theoretikern (Gregory 2011, 199). Die konservative Kritik an der PfK schwimmt oftmals gegen den Strom der Philosophie und der liberalen Erziehung im Allgemeinen und kann vermutlich als ein uralter Disput angesehen werden, der trotz der Bemühungen der Philosophen andauernd auftaucht, während die Argumente der Psychologen, das philosophische Denken sei für Kinder im bestimmten Alter unbegreiflich, heutzutage leicht durch das Werk von Kieran Egan (2002) und Alison Gopnik (2009) widerlegt werden. Die Kritik der kritischen Theoretiker scheint andererseits tiefer zu reichen als alle anderen Kritiken, indem sie ein intellektuell relevantes Problem der Philosophieerziehung anschneidet: dass sie, statt ihr Versprechen der Befreiung der Subjekte einzuhalten, sie in der Tat in die Ideologie des freien Markts einfügt. Wie Gert Biesta (2011) zu zeigen versucht, „sollen“ die Curricula der PfK „eine Reihe von Fertigkeiten entwickeln, einschließlich der kognitiven und Denkfertigkeiten, der moralischen und sozialen Fertigkeiten sowie der demokratischen Fertigkeiten“ (ebd., 310), und instrumentalisieren dadurch die Philosophie, um ein bestimmtes Ziel zu erreichen, was ein fragwürdiges und alarmierendes Unternehmen ist, das „sich als ideologisch charakterisieren lässt“ (ebd., 309). Damit die PfK dieses Problem der Instrumentalisierung der Philosophie in Angriff nimmt (erörtert auch von Vansieleghem (2005)), schlägt der vorliegende Artikel vor, die Curricula der PfK (in bestimmten Fällen in dieser Richtung reformiert) sollten den sokratischen Dialog mit Kindern fördern, wobei der Schwerpunkt darin liege, dem Kind zuzuhören und die Stimme zu geben, und nicht in den „Lehrfertigkeiten“. Aufgrund dessen argumentiert diese Arbeit, gerade durch den philosophischen Dialog könne ein Kind als Kind gehört werden, da ein solcher Dialog intrinsisch die Anerkennung des Gesprächspartners als eines gleichberechtigten Gesprächsteilnehmers voraussetze. Die Curricula der PfK können demnach als ein wichtiger Teil des aufstrebenden Felds der „Pädagogik des Zuhörens“ betrachtet werden (vgl. Rinaldi 2001)

Risk Management in Air Protection in the Republic of Croatia

In the Republic of Croatia, according to the Air Protection Act, air pollution assessment is obligatory on the whole State territory. For individual regions and populated areas in the State a network has been established for permanent air quality monitoring. The State network consists of stations for measuring background pollution, regional and cross-border remote transfer and measurements as part of international government liabilities, then stations for measuring air quality in areas of cultural and natural heritage, and stations for measuring air pollution in towns and industrial zones. The exceeding of alert and information threshold levels of air pollutants are related to emissions from industrial plants, and accidents. Each excess represents a threat to human health in case of short-time exposure. Monitoring of alert and information threshold levels is carried out at stations from the state and local networks for permanent air quality monitoring according to the Air Quality Measurement Program in the State network for permanent monitoring of air quality and air quality measurement programs in local networks for permanent air quality monitoring. The State network for permanent air quality monitoring has a developed automatic system for reporting on alert and information threshold levels, whereas many local networks under the competence of regional and local self-governments still lack any fully installed systems of this type. In case of accidents, prompt action at all responsibility levels is necessary in order to prevent crisis and this requires developed and coordinated competent units of State Administration as well as self-government units. It is also necessary to be continuously active in improving the implementation of legislative regulations in the field of crises related to critical and alert levels of air pollutants, especially at local levels

Database design of phone talks for society Kuličkové šrouby a.s.

Bakalářská práce se zabývá návrhem datové struktury databáze telefonních hovorů ze služebních mobilních telefonů společnosti Kuličkové šrouby Kuřim a. s. na základě konkrétních požadavků dané firmy z hlediska jejich potřeb. Obsahuje vlastní návrh databáze i její vytvoření v systému Microsoft SQL Server.The work deal with proposal data structure database of phone talks from service mobile phones. It based of concrete needs in the conpany Kuličkové šrouby, Inc. Includes respective structure database and their creation in Microsoft SQL Server.