Compensation or competition: Bias in immigrants' access to active labour market measures

Whether participation in active labour market programmes (ALMPs) pushes individuals back into employment depends on the programme's characteristics. On the basis of encompassing registry data that allow us to control for usually unobserved employability, we find evidence of a systematic access bias whereby jobcentre caseworkers in Switzerland assign unemployed persons to activation measures based on a competition logic that is mainly driven by an economic rationale and the jobcentre's performance evaluation. This practice seems problematic because it results in an overrepresentation of immigrants in measures with little efficacy rather than in measures that could compensate for employability disadvantages. Conversely, Swiss citizens are more likely to enter beneficial human-capital-intensive measures. It is plausible that this discrepancy in programme participation amplifies the general labour market disadvantages of immigrants.     

100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

The use of thermal manikin to evaluate interface pressure distribution

The use of a thermal buttocks manikin was explored as a tool to standardize the evaluation of seat comfort. Thermal manikin buttocks were developed and calibrated thermally and anatomically to simulate the sensible heat transfer of a seated person and used to evaluate interface pressure distribution. In essence, the pressure maps of manikin buttocks with and without heating were compared to those of a seated person. The results of average pressure demonstrated that the thermal manikins have a better response in interface pressure measurement than manikins without heating.     

When Precaution Creates Misunderstandings: The Unintended Effects of Precautionary Information on Perceived Risks,the EMF Case

In the past decade, growing public concern about novel technologies with uncertain potential long‐term impacts on the environment and human health has moved risk policies toward a more precautionary approach. Focusing on mobile telephony, the effects of precautionary information on risk perception were analyzed. A pooled multinational experimental study based on a 5 × 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted in nine countries. The first factor refers to whether or not information on different types of precautionary measures was present, the second factor to the framing of the precautionary information, and the third factor to the order in which cell phones and base stations were rated by the study participants. The data analysis on the country level indicates different effects. The main hypothesis that informing about precautionary measures results in increased risk perceptions found only partial support in the data. The effects are weaker, both in terms of the effect size and the frequency of significant effects, across the various precautionary information formats used in the experiment. Nevertheless, our findings do not support the assumption that informing people about implemented precautionary measures will decrease public concerns.     

Children's trust in social workers: Scale development and relations to Children's engagement with social workers

This research aimed to develop the children's trust in general social workers (CTGSW) scale. Psychometric properties, structural validity, construct, and concurrent validity of the scale were evaluated. Both linear and quadratic patterns between children's trust beliefs in social workers and their engagement with social workers were examined. A sample of 112 Italian vulnerable children (M = 11.4 years, SD = 1 month) were administered the Italian‐Children's Generalized Trust Beliefs scale, the CTGSW scale, and a measure of engagement with social workers. The CTGSW scale demonstrated the expected (a) structure validity; (b) acceptable psychometric properties; (c) construct validity by correlations with trust in significant others; and (d) concurrent validity by associations with children's engagement with social workers. Reliability and honesty bases of trust in social workers were associated with engagement with social workers. In comparison to the middle range, children who held very low trust in social workers demonstrated very low quality of relation with social workers. The pattern was asymmetrical. Children who held high trust beliefs in social workers demonstrated a modest decrease in quality of relation with social workers. The findings demonstrated validity and utility of the CTGSW and yielded support for the basis, domain, and target framework.     

Is Social Innovation Fostering Satisfaction and Well-Being at Work? Insights from Employment in Social Enterprises Providing Long-Term Eldercare Services

Considering insights from socio-economics, work psychology, and occupational health, this study focuses on the job satisfaction and well-being of employees working in nonprofit social enterprises (SE). We question the idea suggested by the recent literature that working for a SE brings employees a high level of job satisfaction and well-being. We also investigate whether being involved in social innovation is associated with even higher job satisfaction and well-being. Indeed, understood as a manifestation of positive social change, social innovation is expected to improve outcomes such as the quality of life at work. However, because social innovation is an umbrella concept, it embraces different innovation-related concepts. Here we explore the distinction between service innovation and workplace innovation. This article applies a multivariate analysis to an original dataset covering 1134 employees working in the field of elder homecare in Wallonia. Its implications for social entrepreneurs and scholars are also examined.     

A Recast Framework for Welfare Deservingness Perceptions

Social Indicators Research - Many important societal debates revolve around questions of deservingness, especially when it comes to debates related to inequality and social protection. It is...     

Informal Caregiving and Women's Work Choices: Lessons from the Netherlands

This paper focuses on the effects of Dutch long‐term care and labour market policies on women's labour market participation and informal caregiving decisions. Labour market participation and informal caregiving are estimated jointly through a multivariate dynamic binary probit on European Community Household Panel data. Under Dutch policy, informal care decisions appear to be independent of household non‐labour income and no significant impediment seems to hinder the contemporaneous practice of work activities and care. However, past informal care provision still slightly reduces the probability of currently working and vice versa, leaving room for policy improvements to enhance labour market participation.     

Why do immigrants have longer periods of unemployment? Swiss evidence

Immigrant groups, especially those originating from non‐European countries, tend to experience disadvantages in the labour market and to be overrepresented among the recipients of welfare benefits in many European countries. In the public debate, this outcome is sometimes explained with reference to migration‐related factors such as weaker work values than natives (i.e., acceptability of remaining on benefits), smaller and lower quality of informal networks and lower levels of psychological well‐being. Indeed, we find that these factors significantly influence unemployment duration in the expected direction. However, they explain only a small share of the overall disadvantage that some immigrant groups experience. We conclude that at least some of the large differences we observed in unemployment durations are likely to be due to other factors including discrimination by employers.     

The Impact of Female Emigration on Families and the Welfare State in Countries of Origin: The Case of Romania

The heavy reliance on foreign labour in the care sector by Western countries (particularly those in southern Europe) is fuelling a growing feminization of migration in many emigration countries. This migration has a new impact on the countries of origin: it adds the problem of “care drain” to the better known “skill drain” problem ‐‐ which has already been extensively examined in the literature. In this article, we investigate how this phenomenon is taking place in Romania. In particular, the article explores the compensatory strategies put in place by Romanian families and local welfare states to limit the impact of care drain. Furthermore, it considers the persistence of a “care shortage” problem, which constrains both individuals and local institutions in Romania and requires the establishment of new social and cooperation policies. The research is based on the results of qualitative interviews conducted between the winter and spring of 2006 with 30 Romanian female care‐workers living in Turin and Rome, and with 40 family members of female care‐workers (often belonging to the same family units as the women interviewed in Italy) in Romania. With a view to gaining a more comprehensive overview of the phenomenon, more than 35 privileged observers were also interviewed in both countries in which the field work was carried out.