This paper addresses the extraterritorial dimension of transnational corporations, focusing on the corporate accountability-deficit that characterizes the current International legal framework. The analysis looks at parent companies’ civil liability for environmental harm caused abroad. By introducing a selected number of foreign direct liability cases brought before European national courts, the paper investigates whether the binding environmental and human rights reporting obligations contained in Directive 2014/95/EU contribute to the determination of a parent company’s duty of care towards its overseas subsidiaries, and consequently establish their potential liability.
Global issues, including the current pandemic and ongoing climate change, shape voluntary and forced international migration flows in inequitable ways. Anti-immigrant discourses in the Global North seek to capitalize on public concerns about border control. Meanwhile, the greatest immigration challenges are borne by countries in the Global South. The majority of refugees who are forcibly displaced by war, political violence, poverty, and environmental disasters seek refuge in neighbouring regions where many states lack the capacity to adequately support them. Given these challenges, it is imperative for occupational scientists to work collaboratively to support equitable occupational possibilities for immigrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons. During this dialogic session we will 1) outline useful theoretical approaches for understanding how migration shapes engagement in occupations; 2) discuss specific ethical considerations and methods for studying migration and its occupational implications; and 3) share promising practices for working with people from migration backgrounds. Each topic will be introduced through a brief presentation from one of the co-authors sharing vignettes from their own research and professional experiences to ignite discussions. Following each of the three presentations, participants will be grouped strategically to build networks among those with similar interests. This may include grouping participants who share a language.>What are the gaps in occupation-based research on global migration, and how can these be collaboratively addressed?>How can occupational science contribute to discussions within migration studies?>What occupational concepts are most useful for studying different migrant populations?
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Citizens have responded to newcomers in the Netherlands with acts of solidarity and programmes to support integration, often in response to increasingly restrictive government policies. In a previously published study by the primary author, a critical discourse analysis was conducted of texts used in mandatory government integration programmes. Findings showed that texts discursively construct the “modern Us” the “unmodern Other” and a hierarchical relationship between the two, recreating in practice racialized categories reminiscent of colonial times. Considering the role citizen initiatives play in integration, it is important to also understand their discourse on integration. A critical discourse analysis using Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to Be? approach was conducted on texts used in citizen initiatives for integration in the Netherlands. Additionally, as part of a larger institutional ethnography, ethnographic data was gathered on their day-to-day work. These data were analyzed through a theoretical lens inspired by occupational science, governmentality and post/decolonial studies. Initial findings show dominant discourses found in formal integration programmes being actively reproduced in citizen initiatives. Additionally, findings display concepts of ‘successful’ integration, the “Us”, and the “Other” being discursively shaped by promoting ‘modern’ occupations as part of ‘successful’ everyday life. Occupational science is a field with particular interest in social transformation projects, projects often based in the informal sector. Understanding how dominant discourses are reproduced in informal programmes provides important perspectives on their impact on everyday life, demonstrating the importance of remaining critical of discourses in projects operating in the peripheries.
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