By Michael K. Dzordzormenyoh

This study examines the determinants of public attitudes towards immigrants in Africa, using the contact hypothesis as its framework. This study evaluated how neighbourhood violence affects the acceptance of immigrants using three distinct sample groups: a full sample, a group with no foreign exposure and a group with foreign exposure. This study draws on data from 28 African countries, encompassing 28,685 respondents. Binary logistic regression analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between the independent variables and public acceptance of immigrants. The results indicate that concerns about neighbourhood violence significantly predicted negative attitudes towards immigrants in both the full sample and the group without foreign exposure but not in the sample with foreign exposure. Higher levels of education, especially post-secondary education, were found to be strong predictors of more favourable attitudes towards immigrants across all samples. Notable regional variations were observed, with the western, southern, and northern areas generally exhibiting more negative attitudes. The nation's current economic state negatively influenced attitudes in the full and no-foreign-exposure groups, whereas individual financial circumstances had a positive impact. Border control consistently emerged as a negative predictor across the samples, whereas immigration enforcement demonstrated a positive relationship in certain models. These findings offer crucial insights into the multifaceted elements that shape the public opinion of immigrants in African nations and have substantial theoretical and practical implications. This study contributes to the broader literature on public attitudes towards immigrants and the contact hypothesis from an African perspective

International Migration, Volume63, Issue 4, 

August 2025

By Chris van der Borgh and Wim Savenije

This paper analyses a government-facilitated truce, begun in 2012, between El Salvador’s three principal street gangs. Using field theory and securitisation theory, it maps the evolution of the truce, distinguishing between the three related processes of making the deal, keeping the truce, and resisting it. It analyses the complex and intriguing political processes in which various actors, such as gang leaders, government officials and international organisations, interacted with each other and made deals about the use and visibility of violence and ways of diminishing, preventing or hiding it.  

  Journal of Latin American Studies (2019), 51, 905–928 doi:1

By Vinícius Venancio

Inspired by Lélia Gonzalez’s essay “Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture”, this working paper turns to another post-colonial nation, Cape Verde, and analyzes two case studies that shed light upon how the intersection between race and gender produces specific forms of violence in the bodies and souls of men and women from continental Africa living in the capital, Praia. The first case examines personal stories of young women who are exploited for their domestic labor; while their relationship with their employer is presented using the discourse of kinship, their situation is more akin to slavery. The second case looks at attacks on and murder of Bissau-Guinean men; the brutality of the violence and the lack of public attention demonstrate how some lives are considered more valuable than others. Both cases illustrate the degree to which race and gender continue to operate as social markers of domination in the lives of immigrant populations who are seen as blacker than the locals in Cape Verde.

Working Papers v. 213 (2024): 1-24.

Edited by  Maria Pohn-Lauggas, Steve Tonah, Arne Worm

Experiences, processes and constellations of exile, flight, and persecution have deeply shaped global history and are still widespread aspects of human existence today. People are persecuted, incarcerated, tortured or deported on the basis of their political beliefs, gender, ethnic or ethno-national belonging, religious affiliation, and other socio-political categories. People flee or are displaced in the context of collective violence such as wars, rebellions, coups, environmental disasters or armed conflicts. After migrating, but not exclusively in this context, people find themselves suddenly isolated, cut off from their networks of belonging, their biographical projects and their collective histories. The articles in this volume are concerned with the challenges of navigating through multiple paradoxes and contradictions when it comes to grasping these phenomena sociologically, on the levels of self-reflection, theorizing, and especially doing empirical research.

Göttingen : Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2023. 267p.

Edited by Sabine Bauer-Amin, Leonardo Schiocchet, Maria Six-Hohenbalken

Multiple refugee regimes govern the lives of forced migrants simultaneously but in an often conflicting way. As a mechanism of inclusion/exclusion, they tend to engender the violence they sought to dissipate. Protection and control channel agency through mechanisms of either tutelage and victimisation or criminalisation. This book contrasts multiple groups of refugees and refugee regimes, revealing the inherent coercive violence of refugee regimes, from displacement and expulsion, to stereotypification and exclusion in host countries, and academic knowledge essentialisation. This violence is international, national, society-based, internalised, and embodied - and it urgently needs due scholarly attention.

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2022. 289p.

By Sarah A. Jolie, Ogechi Cynthia Onyeka, Stephanie Torres, Cara DiClemente, Maryse Richards, and Catherine DeCarlo Santiago 

Latinx immigrant families are greatly impacted by US policies and practices that limit immigrant families’ and children’s rights. This article reviews the effects of such policies and the growing literature examining migration experiences. Latinx immigrant youth and parents may encounter multiple stressors across the stages of migration, including physical and structural violence, fear, poverty, and discrimination, which contribute to higher rates of mental health problems in this population. Despite significant trauma exposure, immigrants demonstrate incredible resilience within themselves, their families, and their communities and through movements and policies aimed at protecting their rights. Numerous culturally relevant universal, targeted, and intensive interventions were developed to magnify these protective factors to promote healing, advance immigration reform, and provide trauma-informed training and psychoeducation. Psychologists play a crucial role in implementing, evaluating, and advocating for accessible and collaborative approaches to care so that Latinx immigrant families have the resources to combat the harmful sequelae of immigration stress. 

Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2021. 17:127–51 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Between 1889 and 1918, 3,224 people were lynched in the U.S., with 78.2% being African Americans. The South had the highest number of lynchings, with Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas leading.While lynchings decreased over the 30-year period, the South saw a slower decline compared to the North and West. Despite appeals from leaders like President Wilson, lynchings continued, and mob members were rarely convicted.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People National Ofce 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. APRIL, 1919. 102p.

By Shreya Bhat and Hui Yin Chuah

Mixed migration from Myanmar to countries in South and Southeast Asia has become a common phenomenon driven by various factors, including violence, insecurity, conflict, deprivation of rights, and economic reasons. This report underscores the integral role of smugglers in facilitating migration from Myanmar to Malaysia and Thailand, influenced by a complex interplay of factors that result in considerable variation in the dynamics of smuggling among different population groups and on different routes. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing targeted interventions aimed at addressing the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by refugees and migrants in the region.

Geneva, SWIT: : Mixed Migration Centre. 2024, 17pg