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Description
Anthropogenic land use has irrevocably transformed the natural systems on which humankind relies. Understanding where, why, and how social and economic processes drive globally-important land-use changes, from deforestation to urbanization, has advanced substantially. Illicit and clandestine activities--behavior that is intentionally secret because it breaks formal laws or violates informal norms--are poorly understood, however, despite the recognition of their significant role in land change. This dissertation fills this lacuna by studying illicit and clandestine activity and quantifying its influence on land-use patterns through examining informal urbanization in Mexico City and deforestation Central America. The first chapter introduces the topic, presenting a framework to examine illicit transactions in land systems. The second chapter uses data from interviews with actors involved with land development in Mexico City, demonstrating how economic and political payoffs explain the persistence of four types of informal urban expansion. The third chapter examines how electoral politics influence informal urban expansion and land titling in Mexico City using panel regression. Results show land title distribution increases just before elections, and more titles are extended to loyal voters of the dominant party in power. Urban expansion increases with electoral competition in local elections for borough chiefs and legislators. The fourth chapter tests and confirms the hypothesis that narcotrafficking has a causal effect on forest loss in Central America from 2001-2016 using two proxies of narcoactivity: drug seizures and events from media reports. The fifth chapter explores the spatial signature and pattern of informal urban development. It uses a typology of urban informality identified in chapter two to hypothesize and demonstrate distinct urban expansion patterns from satellite imagery. The sixth and final chapter summarizes the role of illicit and clandestine activity in shaping deforestation and urban expansion through illegal economies, electoral politics, and other informal transactions. Measures of illicit and clandestine activity should--and could--be incorporated into land change models to account for a wider range of relevant causes. This dissertation shines a new light on the previously hidden processes behind ever-easier to detect land-use patterns as earth observing satellites increase spatial and temporal resolution.
ContributorsTellman, Elizabeth (Author) / Turner II, Billie L (Thesis advisor) / Eakin, Hallie (Thesis advisor) / Janssen, Marco (Committee member) / Alba, Felipe de (Committee member) / Jain, Meha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In the United States, the past thirty years have brought with them a substantial rise in income and wealth inequality rates. Inequality in the U.S. has risen to levels not seen for nearly a century and shows no signs of decreasing in the near future. Conversely, Canada has experienced lower levels of inequality during this same period despite many similarities and ties to the U.S. Therefore, the purpose of this paper will be to examine the extent to which these two countries differ in this area and identify some of the more salient factors that have contributed to this divergence, including tax policies, unionization rates, and financial industry regulation, as well as the deeper, more fundamental elements of each nation's identity.
ContributorsPetrusek, Nicholas Anthony (Author) / Puleo, Thomas (Thesis director) / Sivak, Henry (Committee member) / Thomas, George (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. Three words describing the same group of people. Individuals seeking a better, safer life.
Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines.
Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States.
This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states.
Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived.
This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.
Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines.
Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States.
This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states.
Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived.
This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.
ContributorsTomasini, Maria Lujan (Author) / Luna, Ilana (Thesis advisor) / Vargas, Carlos (Committee member) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Short-term medical volunteer work via a nongovernmental organization is a popular tool for students in the health care field to gain experience, while further providing communities that normally lack health care options the opportunity to receive free care. One such organization, VIDA Volunteer Travel, has been successful in implementing this model in Central America. However, organizations of this form have not been evaluated for effectiveness or improvement. This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of VIDA based on six qualifying characteristics that make up a successful NGO. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 21 individuals, including VIDA staff members in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, health professionals working for VIDA, local community leaders, and volunteers participating in VIDA's programs. Summaries and quotes of these interviews were uploaded and analysed using Atlas.ti to identify common words and themes from the interviews. Informants frequently identified the organization as sustainable, both from a fiscal and ecological standpoint. The organization also successfully managed volunteers, although post-trip follow-up was lacking. Adherence to the mission statement and distribution of supplies allowed for improved organization and successful structure of the organization. Education and health promotion was also emphasized, although implementation of this education into the communities was lacking. Collaboration with the community and volunteers allowed for stringent, successful treatment to be given to patients, and ethical guidelines set up by the organization allowed for self-governance and improvement of the NGO. This study suggests future research opportunities for the organization, to evaluate its own impact and opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, suggestions are addressed that allow the organization to improve upon its well-implemented infrastructure, and allow for future organizations to use VIDA as a model for improvement.
ContributorsPearson, Presley Kyle (Author) / Yoshioka, Carlton (Thesis director) / Wang, Lili (Committee member) / Larsen, Dale (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Over the past decade, the United States and the European Union have adopted major changes to asylum policy and enforcement, specifically the increase of deterrence policies contrary to international asylum norms. The goal of this has been to reduce the pull factors towards the US and EU. Deterrence policies have largely been characterized by two main strategies: (1) deterrence at the border through stricter regulations and detention policies, and (2) deterrence through the creation of formal buffer zone countries between the asylum seekers’ countries of origin and the ultimate country of destination. These policies have been instituted in response to the spike in Central American asylum seekers at the US/Mexico border and Syrian asylum seekers at the Greece/Turkey border at the entrance of the EU. This paper compares these two separate geographic areas––the US and EU––due to their roles in the development of international law, their roles in the development and management of these crises, and the similar increase of asylum seekers in 2014-15. This paper also details the severity of the conditions in the asylee-sending areas––Central America and Syria––which are major “push factors” driving the crises. Finally, this paper explores the novel use of Mexico and Turkey as formal buffer zones by the United Staes and the European Union, respectively. The increase of deterrence policies culminating in the creation of formal buffer zones countries violates key principles of international asylum law, namely non-refoulement. These buffer zones must be redesigned proactively to better suit the realities of asylum in the 21st century.
ContributorsDooling, Maria Hana (Author) / Sivak, Henry (Thesis director) / Calleros, Charles (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This paper seeks to explore connections between the industries and sociopolitical environment in Costa Rica and human capital. Human capital for the purpose of this paper is an individual or a population’s ability to produce goods and services concerning human factors of productivity namely their health, education, or technical skillset. This question is interesting because improving human capital, in general, allows for more goods and services to be produced, and therefore higher welfare. This means recognizing conditions that improve human capital may provide a guide to enhanced prosperity. The paper identifies the characteristic industries in Costa Rica as tropical agriculture and small electronics manufacturing, provides insight as to how on the job training and externalities of these industries might affect human capital, and compares other similar nations’ data to world data provided by the world bank. The other central aim is to draw insight on how a nation having a standing military might impact human capital, which is relevant because Costa Rica abolished its military over fifty years ago.
ContributorsOttenheimer, William (Author) / Datta, Manjira (Thesis director) / Hanson, Margaret (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The relationship between proper nutrition in the first 1,000 days of an infant’s life and better health is widely recognized as being one of the most important factors in creating a strong foundation for health throughout childhood. An important aspect of proper infant nutrition is exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life (Save the Children International, 2012). In El Salvador, the percentage of children that are not growing well (i.e. who are stunted, wasted, or overweight) is higher than the regional average for Central America (UNICEF, 2019). The goal of this research is to identify barriers to mothers’ abilities to exclusively breastfeed in the departments of Santa Ana and Ahuachapan, El Salvador, and what changes in behavior are observed when they are provided with a manual breast pump and educational resources about proper infant nutrition. Ninety-two mothers of infants between 0 and 6 months of age in 12 communities throughout these two departments participated in surveys about their infant’s nutrition and breastfeeding rates. Half of the women were surveyed prior to receiving education about proper infant nutrition and a manual breast pump (control group), and the other half were surveyed between 3 weeks and 6 months after participating in the class and receiving a breast pump (small initial group and experimental group). The mothers identify three main barriers to their ability to exclusively breastfeed: difficulty latching, time away from home, and low breastmilk supply. The mothers in the small initial group and experimental group identify specific ways in which the breast pump was a solution for those exact barriers. The percentage of women that were exclusively breastfeeding without access to a breast pump was 34%, and the percentage of women that were exclusively breastfeeding after the women in the experimental and small initial group received access to a breast pump was 54%. This suggests that universal breast pump access and promotion of breast pump usage may raise the national rates of exclusive breastfeeding and consequently improve health outcomes for infants and children in El Salvador.
ContributorsHancock, Cassie (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Stotts, Rhian (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05