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This article explores the continuing preference for sons in the context of low fertility in Vietnam. Although the total fertility rate for Vietnam declined from 6.0 children per woman of reproductive age in 1979 to 2.2 children in 1998, demographic evidence shows that son preference remains strong and influences contraceptive and fertility behavior. This study examines the underlying factors for son preference in a rural village in North Vietnam. The methodology includes focus-group discussions, an in-depth study of 25 families, and ethnographic observation. Results indicate that sons are highly desired for their social, symbolic, and economic value. In spite of four decades of socialist policies aimed at reducing gender-based inequalities and at weakening the patriarchal kinship system, the desire for sons continues to drive the family-building process. The article also indicates a gap between discourse and social practice with respect to roles assigned to children on the basis of their sex.

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This special issue explores the analytical significance of immobility for understanding the inequalities that animate-and co-exist in tandem with-growing global mobility and migration. With a particular focus on the literature on migrant care workers, the collection examines how the socio-spatial mobility of these workers is blocked, stuck, and constrained, and how these immobilities are integral to their migration experiences. Extending Doreen Massey's idea of 'power geometries' to migration studies, we offer the concept of an 'im/mobility turn'-wherein the back slash highlights the connections between immobility and mobility -to emphasise how particular forms of movement are shaped by the regulations, inequalities, and disciplinary pressures that delimit that movement. In the current global context where antiimmigration and xenophobia are on the rise, and where temporary migrant labour regimes of all kinds are increasingly common, we argue that attention to the many forms of immobility that are evident in care work migration may offer clues for grasping how immobilities function in relation to contemporary migration politics more generally.

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Summary:We report a series of 37 consecutive patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who received an allograft between 1990 and 2000 at our institution. Median age was 47 years, and nearly 70% of patients were Durie-Salmon stage III. A median of five cycles of chemotherapy were given before transplant, with a median interval between diagnosis and transplant of 9.3 months. We report a nonrelapse mortality rate of 22% with a median followup period of 40 months, whereas complete remission (CR) rate at 12 months is estimated at 57%. Treatment failure rate and overall survival at 40 months are estimated at 52% and 32%, respectively. The number of chemotherapy cycles prior to allotransplantation achieved borderline statistical significance as a poor prognosis factor for overall survival (P ‫؍‬ 0.05), while the presence of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) was significantly correlated with CR achievement (P ‫؍‬ 0.036). Our study confirms that early allografting in MM can yield toxicity rates significantly lower than those associated with historical cohorts, and supports the hypothesis that cumulative chemotoxicity has a negative influence on mortality and survival rates. More importantly, our study clearly demonstrates an association between cGVHD and CR and brings further evidence in favor of a graft-versus-myeloma effect. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2001) 28, 841-848.