Immigrant–Native Wage Gaps at Work: How the Public and Private Sectors Shape Relational Inequality Processes

We investigate how the institutional context of the public and private sectors regulates the association of workplace diversity policies and relational status positions with first- and second-generation immigrants’ wages. Using unique linked employer–employee data combining administrative and survey information of 6,139 employees in 120 German workplaces, we estimate workplace fixed-effects regressions. Workplace processes are institutionally contingent: diversity policies such as mixed teams reduce inequalities in the public sector, and diversity policies such as language courses reinforce existing inequalities in the private sector. In public sector workplaces where natives hold higher relational positions, immigrants’ wages are lower. This group-related dynamic is not detectable in the private sector.

(Not) being granted the right to belong—Amateur football clubs in Germany

Empirical studies show that first- and second-generation immigrants are less likely to be members of sports clubs than their non-immigrant peers. Common explanations are cultural differences and socioeconomic disadvantages. However, lower participation rates in amateur sport could be at least partly due to ethnic discrimination. Are minority ethnic groups granted the same right to belong as their non-immigrant peers? To answer this question, this paper uses publicly available data from a field experiment in which mock applications were sent out to over 1,600 football clubs in Germany. Having a foreign-sounding name significantly reduces the likelihood of being invited to participate. The paper concludes that amateur football clubs are not as permeable as they are often perceived to be. It claims that traditional explanations for lower participation rates of immigrants need to be revisited.

L’inventario della spezieria di Giovanni Zavanti al Cairo (1732)

The inventory of the apothecary Giovanni Zavanti, a Venetian pharmacist who worked in Cairo in the 1730s, was drawn up by the Egyptian city’s British Consulate in 1732. Since this institution ensured formal juridical protection to the English shopkeepers of the Levant Company, but devoted little attention to their need for health care, this historical source can be considered a rare testimony of European medical-pharmaceutical activity in the Levant. The inventory’s importance is also connected with the specific political and socio-cultural context of Egypt, the most economically important province of the Ottoman Empire. Substantial groups of English, French and Dutch merchants lived in the Muslim society of Cairo and were officially represented by their respective nations in the eighteenth century. The Venetian, also active in Cairo, could not count on the protection of their State institutions during the Turco-Venetian conflicts (1645–1718). In this complex context, Zavanti tried to take advantage of his professional activity and built up different socio-cultural relations to defend his properties and commercial interests. He was in contact with fellow countrymen, Arabic Christians of Egypt, Jews, Turkish officials and the Franciscan confraternity Custodia Terrae Santae. As second-generation immigrants from Venice, the Zavantis experienced a difficult process of cultural integration in Egypt.

Conduct Disorder in Immigrant Children and Adolescents: A Nationwide Cohort Study in Sweden

Introduction. Conduct disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by repetitive and persistent norm-breaking behavior. This study aimed to compare the risk of conduct disorder between first- and second-generation immigrant children and adolescents and their native controls. Methods. In this nationwide, open-cohort study from Sweden, participants were born 1987–2010, aged 4–16 years at baseline, and were living in the country for at least one year during the follow-up period between 2001 and 2015. The sample included 1,902,526 and 805,450 children-adolescents with native and immigrant backgrounds, respectively. Data on the conduct disorder diagnoses were retrieved through the National Patient Register. We estimated the incidence of conduct disorder and calculated adjusted Hazard Ratios. Results. Overall, the adjusted risk of conduct disorder was lower among first-generation immigrants and most second-generation immigrant groups compared with natives (both males and females). However, second-generation immigrants with a Swedish-born mother and a foreign-born father had a higher risk of conduct disorder than natives. Similar results were found for sub-diagnoses of conduct disorder. Conclusions. The higher risk of conduct disorder among second-generation immigrants with a Swedish-born mother and the lower risk among most of the other immigrant groups warrants special attention and an investigation of potential underlying mechanisms.

Affections and Afflictions With You

This poem is about the underlying discrimination that East Asian people encounter in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the pandemic struck, I started to analyze my thoughts and feelings on subtle and covert racism, especially during quarantine, which manifested into this piece. My poem explores firsthand experiences of the kind of microaggressions that second generation immigrants from Asia are regularly subject to, as well as the realities of xenophobia, cultural confusion, and identity disjuncture we often endure. Through the poetic form, I expose how everyday interactions are laden with histories of anti-Asian racism and, more specifically, how the coronavirus has further revealed these concealed racist beliefs. The piece opens up the deep-rooted feelings of displacement I have long experienced and ponders if the recent rise in hate crimes against Asians are mere infestations of a hatred that has been growing for generations.

“Dando las Gracias a Mis Papás”: Analyzing the Enactment of Callings across Generations of Latinx Immigrants

Callings, a prominent way in which communication scholars have spoken about meaningful work, are often used to describe individual pulls towards an occupation. Calling research has also been criticized for lacking participants with diverse backgrounds and occupations. This study addressed these gaps by investigating how Latinx immigrants across two generations made sense of their work as callings. By interviewing Latinx immigrants (N = 36) this study revealed that first- and second-generation immigrants co-constructed integrated callings. Unlike individual callings, integrated callings are tied to a common understanding of how various journeys are connected. Within immigrant families, there was an understanding about the relationship between first-generation immigrants’ migration journeys and second-generation immigrants’ occupational journeys. Across the two generations, work was tied to educational, occupational, and non-occupational outcomes that served to improve the lives of immigrants. The proposed framework, integrated callings, is one that accounts for non-occupational outcomes and the experiences of diverse workers.

Educational Assimilation of First-Generation and Second-Generation Immigrants in Germany

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for 1984–2018, we analyze the intergenerational education mobility of immigrants in Germany by identifying the determinants of differences in educational stocks for first- and second-generation immigrants in comparison to individuals without a migration background. Our results show that on average, first-generation immigrants have fewer years of schooling than native-born Germans and have a disproportionate share of lower educational qualifications. This gap is strongly driven by age at immigration, with immigration age and education revealing a nonlinear relationship. While the gap is relatively small among individuals who migrate at a young age, integrating in the school system at secondary school age leads to large disadvantages. Examining the educational mobility of immigrants in Germany, we identify an inter-generational catch-up in education. The gap in education between immigrants and natives is reduced for the second generation. Finally, we find that country of origin differences can account for much of the education gap. While immigrants with an ethnic background closer to the German language and culture show the best education outcomes, immigrants from Turkey, Italy, and other southern European countries and especially the group of war refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other MENA countries, have the lowest educational attainment.

Heritage Language Use, Maintenance and Transmission by Second-Generation Immigrants in Cyprus

There are both culturalist and structuralist approaches to the integration of the second-generation immigrants into mainstream society. These approaches focus on cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic assimilation. Successful societal membership is associated with psychosocial adaptation, hybrid identity, selective acculturation or biculturalism, which is an individual’s adjustment to new psychological and social conditions. Individual identity is related to the sense of belonging, integration and engagement in the current space. Self-identity is fluid and flexible; it comprises individual and collective identity, habitus or unconscious identity, agency and reflexivity, which is re-evaluated and adjusted throughout the life trajectory of a migrant and connected to citizenship and solidarity. This study investigated heritage language use, maintenance and transmission, as well as language and cultural identity and social inclusion of second-generation immigrants in Cyprus with various L1 backgrounds. The analysis of the data (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, observations) showed that second-generation immigrants have a hybrid language and cultural identity, as well as multifarious perceptions regarding citizenship, inclusion and belonging. These immigrants try to assimilate to the target society, but at the same time they have a strong link with the community of residence, their L1 country and their heritage or home language. The participants also use mixed/multiple languages at home and elsewhere.

Changes in Religiosity during Adolescence among European Children of Immigrants: Towards or Away from the Mainstream

Immigration theorists argue that religion in Europe is a source of social cleavage, a “bright boundary” separating Muslim immigrants from non-Muslims (Alba 2005; Zolberg and Woon 1999). This dynamic can lead to salient religious identities and subsequent heightened religiosity. I use latent growth analysis to model changes in religiosity in early adolescence using the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey of Four European Countries. Even as they secularize, I find that Christian children of immigrants assign more importance to religion compared to natives, a difference that does not decrease over time. Muslim children of immigrants are not only more attached to religion but participate more in religious communities over time, diverging from other second-generation immigrants. However, Muslim religiosity does not impede engagement with the mainstream, but may instead foster the development of a Muslim European pan-ethnic identity.