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The chapter discusses the different country experiences of the crisis and the issues it poses with respect to the quality of work and social integration. It outlines a number of contrasting expectations about the potential changes that might have resulted from the crisis, but also arguments about the potential stability of patterns that could arise from strong patterns of institutionalization of employment relations. It considers the empirical similarities and differences between countries on a number of relevant institutional dimensions. Finally it introduces the data used in the research programme and outlines the issues dealt with in the substantive chapters.

The chapter provides an overview of the findings of the research presented in the individual chapters. It considers first the general effects of the economic crisis for the quality of work in Europe and then examines variations in experiences between the different regions. Finally it considers the usefulness of the major theories of institutional variation within capitalism in accounting for these differences.

Globally, studies on migrant teachers have tended to focus on Africa and Asia, while the topic of teacher migration in the Middle East in general, and in the Gulf in particular, has not been examined before. This study examines the status of Arab migrant teachers through both an educational and institutional lens. The research employs a mixed-methods comparative approach to investigate contractual agreements, employment experiences, and social integration of Arab teachers in Qatar and the UAE. The results of the study are consistent with literature on the economic motivation behind migration. Arab migrant teachers come to the Gulf largely in order to make money and, in turn, to be able to provide for their families. In addition to examining the motivations for migration, the study also found that the majority of Arab migrant teachers come to the Gulf with the intention of living and working for significant periods of time. Examining issues such as how the uncertain employment conditions for expatriate Arab teachers manifest in their commitment to teaching, the chapter concludes by providing policy recommendations for improving the conditions and output of Arab migrant teachers in the UAE and Qatar.

While much research has documented the major demographic changes which have been taking place in our society and in societies around us, little research has examined the effects of these changes on people’s well-being. A major focus of the present study was to examine the effects of 1) family status, i.e., being single, married or cohabiting, and 2) having children, on people’s well-being. Well-being is a broad and multi-faceted construct and therefore we included a number of measures of well-being in order to optimise reliability and validity. These included a multi-item measure of social integration vs. social isolation, measures of loneliness, positive life experiences, self-assessed physical and mental health, life satisfaction, and perceived standard of living, etc. Chapter 10 shows how married, cohabiting and single people differ on these measures of well-being. Gender differences are explored, as well as socio-economic status and other demographic variables. The results are compared to previous results obtained in Ireland and internationally.

This chapter argues that NDiaye’s first five novels chart the disintegration of essentially orphaned subjects who are desperate to find acceptance. Uncertain of the solidity of either parental or societal support, the early protagonists are unable to relax, so preoccupied are they with the rigours of integration as a reward for the display of outward perfection. These are all tales of a radical falling apart as the result of an over-zealous attempt at fitting in. But the manner in which this falling apart plays out over the five novels shifts dramatically. The novels stage, in increasingly bizarre manners, their own disintegration as texts. The instability at the heart of already anxious texts shifts, we might say, from neurotic to psychotic. The third, fourth and fifth novels begin to offer a subtly politicized context for the problem of disintegration. Never actually naming ‘race’ as a factor in the heroes’ falling apart, NDiaye’s texts between 1990 and 1994 start to practise what we might, following Thelma Golden (2001), describe as ‘post-black’ art, evoking a state of abusive racialization but, rather than blankly repeating the linguistic and ideological codes of that racialization, attempting – ironically, via the practice of a kind of blankness – to undo them.