The paradoxical role of social class background in the educational and labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in the UK

Despite predominantly lower social class origins, the second generation of established immigrant groups in the UK are now attaining high levels of education. However, they continue to experience poorer labour market outcomes than the majority population. These worse outcomes are often attributed in part to their disadvantaged origins, which do not, by contrast, appear to constrain their educational success. This paper engages with this paradox. We discuss potential mechanisms for second-generation educational success and how far we might expect these to be replicated in labour market outcomes. We substantiate our discussion with new empirical analysis. Drawing on a unique longitudinal study of England and Wales spanning 40 years and encompassing one per cent of the population, we present evidence on the educational and labour market outcomes of the second generation of four groups of immigrants and the white British majority, controlling for multiple measures of social origins. We demonstrate that second-generation men and women's educational advantage is only partially reflected in the labour market. We reflect on the implications of our findings for future research.

Students' educational drive and ethnic capital

Class has been central to European sociology and especially to sociology of education. Class origins (through one's parents) do indeed largely determine one's educational attainments and through them, with further support from one's class origins, determine one's class destination. And the cycle continues in one's own children. However, class does not affect all ethnic groups in the same manner, given that different groups bring different resources to any given situation, in this case, education, through their ethnic capital. Ethnic capital is the social capital that may be distinctive to a particular ethnic group and so can vary across groups. It can motivate, support and channel the behaviour of members of a group. This article focuses on the ethnic capital of one set of parents and the wider community. It is based on qualitative research undertaken with a small group of British Kashmiris who have been educationally successful. The investigation explored the contribution of their parents and the wider community to their education: how the parents and the wider family communicated their expectations on education and the support and encouragement they provided to the young people. The findings showed that in a socioeconomically disadvantaged context the ethnic capital of the parents and the community can be a driving factor in their children's education.

Is Migration a Way Out from Ascription? The Status Attainment Process of Romanians in Western Europe

This article assesses the role of social origin for Romanian migrants in Western Europe, compared to stayers in their origin country. We propose a novel theoretical model of status attainment to account for the migration process, including the self-selection to migration on the basis of individual characteristics and the effect of the area/context on social mobility. Our sample (elaborated from the EUCROSS 2012 survey) includes 1772 working-age Romanian citizens who completed their education in Romania. Our results show that self-selection played a role in not only the Romanians’ decision to migrate but also the choice of destination (either Southern Europe or Central-Northern Europe), being migrants in Southern Europe negatively self-selected with respect to both social origin (men) and education (both men and, especially, women). We also found that the disadvantage of Romanian migrants (measured through the International Socio-Economic Index), compared to stayers, was reinforced by a higher influence of social origin for women, who, in addition, got even lower returns to education abroad. Contrary to the expectations of both academic scholars and the institutions supporting EU free movement, migration to Western Europe (at least in the case of Romanians) was not a way out, but rather reinforced ascription.

The gender division of paid work over family formation: Variation by couples' migration background

Although the gender gap in labour force participation has narrowed considerably in many European countries, life course scholars have shown that the transition to parenthood exacerbates gender inequality in couples' division of paid work. Hitherto, variation by migration background has received limited attention in research on the effect of parenthood on couples' gender division of paid work. This is remarkable given that such heterogeneity is theoretically informative on differential interconnectedness of life course events, but may also inform policy makers on the life course transitions that induce migrant-native differentials in women's labour force participation. This study adopts a life course perspective and uses longitudinal microdata from Belgian social security registers to examine variation in couples' gender division of paid work around family formation by migration background. Taking into account couples' migration background - by considering the origin group and migrant generation of both partners - we identify four patterns of gender dynamics around family formation in couples where at least one partner is of migrant origin. These four patterns emerge from (dis)similarities with native couples with respect to their pre-birth division of paid work on the one hand and their changes in this division around family formation on the other hand. These results highlight that combining an account of couples' division of paid work prior to the birth of a first child with a perspective focussing on how the division of paid work changes around family formation is necessary for a thorough understanding of variation by migration background.

Has Migration Been Beneficial for Migrants and Their Children?

The study compares the social mobility and status attainment of first-and second-generation Turks in nine Western European countries with those of Western European natives and with those of Turks in Turkey. It shows that the children of low-class migrants are more likely to acquire a higher education than their counterparts in Turkey, making them more educationally mobile. Moreover, they successfully convert this education in the Western European labor market, and are upwardly mobile relative to the first generation. When comparing labor market outcomes of second generations relative to Turks in Turkey, however, the results show that the same level of education leads to a higher occupation in Turkey. The implications of these findings are discussed.