Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth

Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g. with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g. with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth’ national identity on identification with Europe. We used multi-level regression analyses based on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, collected from 14-year old students (n?=?71,282) from 22 European countries. Results showed strong positive effects of national identity at the individual, and classroom-level on European identity. However, main effects of national identity at the individual level were qualified by a number of interactions with contextual-level moderators. The relationship between national and European identity was weaker for adolescents attending classrooms or living in countries with lower average levels of trust in EU institutions. Living in countries with higher gender and income inequalities, less friendly immigration policies, and a communist past lessened the association between national and European identity. Results point to the powerful effects of context in shaping the relationship between national and European identity.     

The determinants of religiosity among immigrants and the native born in Europe

This paper examines differences in religious behaviors of the native born and immigrants in European countries, measured by self-reported religiosity, frequency of praying, and frequency of church attendance. Using the European Social Survey, we first show that, on average, the religiosity of immigrants is greater than that of the native born and is greater than that of the stayers in the European origins, even among those who report they have no religious affiliation. Hypotheses are tested that can explain these observations. Differences in individual characteristics, such as age, education, income, marital status, and notably religious denominations, partly account for the overall differences. Religiosity of migrants declines with duration in the destination, approaching the levels of both the native born in destination countries and of the stayers in European origin countries. Both origin and destination country characteristics affect religiosity, such as economic development, religious pluralism, religious freedom, and societal attitudes towards religion, suggesting that both economic and culture persistence and adaptation take place.     

Multidimensional indices of deprivation: the introduction of reference groups weights

The use of a multidimensional approach to deprivation has known an increasing interest in the literature. This paper builds on this literature by proposing a deprivation index that weighs different dimensions according to their perceived importance by members of alternative reference groups. We first characterize a deprivation index following this line of thought. We then apply this method to European data and show that preferences over dimensions are differentiated by reference groups. This differentiation affects the value of deprivation for each country, group and the ranking of each.     

Social class variation in risk: a comparative analysis of the dynamics of economic vulnerability1

A joint concern with multidimensionality and dynamics is a defining feature of the pervasive use of the terminology of social exclusion in the European Union. The notion of social exclusion focuses attention on economic vulnerability in the sense of exposure to risk and uncertainty. Sociological concern with these issues has been associated with the thesis that risk and uncertainty have become more pervasive and extend substantially beyond the working class. This paper combines features of recent approaches to statistical modelling of poverty dynamics and multidimensional deprivation in order to develop our understanding of the dynamics of economic vulnerability. An analysis involving nine countries and covering the first five waves of the European Community Household Panel shows that, across nations and time, it is possible to identify an economically vulnerable class. This class is characterized by heightened risk of falling below a critical resource level, exposure to material deprivation and experience of subjective economic stress. Cross‐national differentials in persistence of vulnerability are wider than in the case of income poverty and less affected by measurement error. Economic vulnerability profiles vary across welfare regimes in a manner broadly consistent with our expectations. Variation in the impact of social class within and across countries provides no support for the argument that its role in structuring such risk has become much less important. Our findings suggest that it is possible to accept the importance of the emergence of new forms of social risk and acknowledge the significance of efforts to develop welfare states policies involving a shift of opportunities and decision making on to individuals without accepting the ‘death of social class’ thesis.     

Nationality Policies in the Books and in Practice: Comparing Immigrant Naturalisation across Europe

This article explores whether differences in the implementation of nationality laws explain gaps between nationality laws and nationality acquisition across Europe. Previous research confirms that nationality acquisition among the foreign-born in Western European countries is largely determined by the inclusiveness of nationality policies and the characteristics of the immigrant population. Drawing on recent data on nationality procedures across Europe, this article argues that, regardless of the nationality laws in place, nationality procedures create major obstacles for different types of immigrants. This article uses data from the European Social Survey to conduct multi-level analysis of nationality acquisition in 17 European countries among long-settled foreign-born adult arrivals, controlling for their individual, origin and destination country characteristics. The analysis finds that nationality procedures are as important as nationality laws for nationality acquisition among most immigrants living in Europe today, especially for immigrants who are most likely to benefit and apply: immigrants from developing countries.     

Religious involvement, religious context, and self-assessed health in Europe

In the present study, the authors examine the extent to which effects of individual religious involvement on self-assessed health are influenced by the religious context (i.e., religious involvement at the country level). The authors test their expectations using individual level data (N = 127,257) on 28 countries from the European Social Surveys (2002-2008). Results of multilevel analyses show that individual religious attendance is positively related to self-assessed health in Europe. Protestants appear to feel healthier than Catholics. Moreover, modeling cross-level interactions demonstrates that religious denominations at the national level are influential: The health advantage of Protestants as compared to Catholics is greater as the percentage of Protestants in a country is higher, yet smaller as countries have a higher percentage of Catholics. The association between religious attendance and self-assessed health does not depend on the national level of religious attendance.     

Welfare resources and social risks in times of social and economic change: a multilevel study of material deprivation in European countries

This paper studies the association between collective welfare resources, levels of and inequalities in, material deprivation among ‘new’ as well as ‘old’ social risk groups four years into the global crisis. The data are based on the cross-sectional survey EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) 2012. The multilevel analysis includes 27 European countries and 294,803 individuals between 18 and 64 years of age. The results demonstrate that the risk of material deprivation decreased in absolute terms with increasing welfare generosity among all three risk groups studied: individuals facing limiting long-standing illness, the non-employed and the low educated. In some instances the modifying effect of welfare generosity was stronger among the advantaged group than among the disadvantaged groups. The low educated benefitted the most in terms of a substantially lower risk of material deprivation. Results also show that both the absolute inequalities and levels of material deprivation were consistently lower in generous welfare states. The findings support the view that directing undue weight on risks, risk assessment and risk management in the context of social work practices should not reduce the importance of collective welfare resources to alleviate welfare problems among disadvantaged groups.     

EMU and the dynamics of regional per capita income inequality in Europe

This paper analyzes the evolution of per capita income inequality among 197 European regions between 1977 and 2003, and seeks evidence of the relationship between the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and interregional income inequality. The conclusion is that overall interregional income inequality has decreased since 1977, owing to a decrease in between-country inequality. The panel analysis conducted in this paper suggests that the adoption of the common currency has, thus far, exacerbated regional inequality in poorer EU countries, while it has not significantly affected regional inequality within richer countries. Inequality in less advanced countries has also increased with the establishment of the convergence criteria and with the implementation of the Single Market.     

From Poverty Reduction to Mutual Interests? The Debate on Differentiation in EU Development Policy

Aid to middle‐income countries has become one of the most discussed issues among development researchers and in the current modernisation of the development policy of the European Union. This article argues that the question needs to be dealt with in the context of two interlinked challenges: (i) the need to reconceptualise dominant approaches to global poverty reduction beyond national income, and (ii) the growing range of global challenges and the strategically important role of middle‐income countries. For EU development policy, the implications are twofold: (i) a better‐co‐ordinated cross‐country division of labour, and (ii) a diversification of objectives towards a global rationale of development policy involving closer co‐ordination with other EU external policies.     

DONOR PREFERENCES AND RECIPIENT FISCAL BEHAVIOR: A SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN AID

We theoretically develop and empirically estimate a preference model determining foreign aid donor behavior. Aid access and levels are separately determined by endogenous budgetary allocations, the international economic environment, the distribution of income between countries, basic human needs, the small country effect, and regional bias. We find fungibility of aid in recipient budgets is due to donor and recipient preferences. Despite the importance of other economic influences, we find a significant pro-poor country bias in aid allocations, although little aggregate influence of basic human needs or regional bias. The small country effect is significant for two (of six) donors. (JEL F35, O19, H 77)     

Top incomes and human well-being: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll

The share of income held by the top 1 percent in many countries around the world has been rising persistently over the last 30 years. But we continue to know little about the relationship between the rising top income shares and human wellbeing. Using data from 24 countries and years ranging from 2005 to 2013 in the Gallup World Poll and the World Income Database, this study examines the relationship between top income share and different dimensions of subjective wellbeing. The results are mixed, with the negative relationship between top income shares and average life ladder being driven largely by the European sub-sample. For the European countries, we also document evidence that top income is statistically significantly associated with lower average enjoyment and being well-rested yesterday, and higher average stress and sadness yesterday. Overall, our findings suggest that, at least for individuals in Europe, an economic policy that increases national incomes may have significant crowding-out effect on aggregate evaluative wellbeing if it only increases the share of income at the very top of income distribution. More generally, our results highlight the complex relationships between income inequality and subjective wellbeing across different countries.     

Migrant remittances in Greece and Portugal: distribution by country of provenance and the role of the banking presence

The article examines migrant remittances per country of origin of remittances for two emigration countries, Greece and Portugal. It also examines the relationship between remittances and the number of banks of the emigration country in the host country.
From the analysis it appears that remittances are concentrated in a small number of host countries – the US and Germany for the Greek case; France (mainly) and the US, Germany and Switzerland for the Portuguese case.
Remittances followed similar trends, characterized by especially high growth during the 1970s and also during the second half of the 1980s. For both countries similar trends are observed regarding the relationship between remittances and remittances per migrant with the presence of banks of the home country at the important countries of origin of remittances.
The growth of the banking presence in host countries had a significant impact on the growth of migrant remittances. However, remittances and migrant population are neither the unique nor main reason for banking expansion abroad. The common European financial and banking market is expected to play a major role in the banking presence abroad, particularly in European Union countries.     

Patterns of income allocation among poor Gecekondu households in Turkey: overt mechanisms and women's secret kitties

This article examines the extent to which patterns of income allocation within the household influence poverty. The study proposes a new conceptual distinction between overt and covert mechanisms. It makes use of established concepts of financial management and control to explain the overt mechanisms, but questions the significance of existing management typologies in understanding poverty. The data draws on interviews conducted separately with both spouses in low-income households carefully selected from a gecekondu settlement in Ankara. Contrary to the dominant view, the research demonstrates a general tendency for both spouses to care for the 'collective good' in their income allocation decisions; thereby minimising further deprivation of the overall household and its individual members. It is also demonstrated that how total income is distributed in practice may be of greater relevance in understanding overall household deprivation than systems of financial management and control. Finally, secret kitties are shown to operate as a covert mechanism whereby women claim enhanced financial agency and indirectly challenge men's authority without causing increased deprivation for the overall household or the children.     

Comparing children's experiences of schools-based bullying across countries

We make use of a newly-available international data set from a survey of children aged 8 to 12 years old across 16 diverse countries to explore variations in rates of schools-based bullying of children and the associations between experiences of being bullied and child subjective well-being, both within and between countries. The analysis is consistent with previous international studies in showing very substantial variation in rates of bullying at the country level. There are also between-country variations in the rates of different types of bullying. In terms of individual variations, we find significant variations in the likelihood of being bullied according to age, gender and deprivation, although the influence of these factors varies by country. There was no apparent link at a country-level between rates of bullying and mean life satisfaction scores. On the other hand, in almost all countries, children who had been bullied had significantly lower subjective well-being than children who had not. However there were substantial differences in the strength of association across countries. We find some tentative evidence to suggest that being bullied may make a greater contribution to explaining variations in child subjective well-being in rich countries than in poor countries. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Three perspectives on the mismatch between measures of material poverty

The two most prominent measures of material poverty within contemporary European poverty analysis are low income and material deprivation. However, it is by now well‐known that these measures identify substantially different people as being poor. In this research note, I seek to demonstrate that there are at least three ways to understand the mismatch between low income and material deprivation, relating to three different forms of identification: identifying poor households, identifying groups at risk of poverty and identifying trends in material poverty over time. Drawing on data from the British Household Panel Survey, I show that while low income and material deprivation identify very different households as being poor, and display distinct trends over time, in many cases they identify the same groups at being at risk of material poverty.     

Source country culture and labor market assimilation of immigrant women in Sweden: evidence from longitudinal data

This paper analyzes the role of source country culture on gender roles for labor market assimilation of immigrant women in Sweden. Sweden ranks as one of the world’s most gender-equal countries and at the same time a recipient of many immigrants from countries with more traditional views on gender roles and gender equality. I find that the labor force participation of immigrant women in Sweden is related to their source country culture, in the sense that women from countries where women’s labor market participation is low (high) also have low (high) participation in the Swedish labor market. However, all immigrant women assimilate towards, but do not reach parity with, the participation rate of native women, and the difference between women from high- and low-participation countries diminishes with length of residence in Sweden. This indicates that source country culture on gender roles does not have a persistent effect on immigrant women’s labor market participation in Sweden. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of taking into account unobservable time-constant individual and source country factors when estimating the relationship between source country culture and immigrants’ labor market outcomes. Neglecting to control for these factors could lead researchers to misrepresent the rate of assimilation and overstate the effect of source country culture.     

Gender Equality and Restless Sleep Among Partnered Europeans

Sleep is situated in the work–family nexus and can be shaped by national norms promoting gender equality. The authors tested this proposition using individual data from the European Social Survey matched to a country‐level measure of gender equality. In individual‐level models, women's sleep was more troubled by the presence of children in the home and partners' unemployment, whereas men's restless sleep was associated with their own unemployment and worries about household finances. In country‐level models, the authors find that in nations that empower women and elevate their status, men and women alike report sounder sleep, and the gender gap in restless sleep is significantly reduced among those living in gender‐equal countries. This study adds to the understanding of gender differences in sleep quality and provides new evidence on the importance of the national context in shaping the pattern of gender inequality in the domestic sphere.     

Public Support for International Human Rights Institutions: A Cross‐National and Multilevel Analysis

The expansion of international human rights institutions has drawn much attention. Bringing together theories from sociology, political science, and international law, this article examines what factors promote public support for international human rights institutions, using the recent wave of the World Values Survey data (2005–2008). The level of public support displays both cross‐national and cross‐individual variations, so I conceptualize it as a two‐level process and employ the multilevel modeling. At the individual level, it is found that men, younger people, and individuals with more education and income show a higher level of support. At the country level, national affluence, political change (de‐democratization), and linkage to the world society are associated with more support. I further integrate individual‐level characteristics and country‐level social contexts, and pay special attention to education. Education is the institutional link between macro‐level social influences and micro‐level individual attitudes. I find that the support‐promoting effect of education is contingent on social contexts. It is more salient in wealthy countries and countries with strong ties to the world society.     

Immigrants’ Attitudes toward Homosexuality: Socialization,Religion, and Acculturation in European Host Societies

With increasing diversity of migrants in Europe, questions around cultural integration are gaining importance. This study focuses on attitudes towards homosexuality amongst first and second generation immigrants from 186 origin countries to examine the role of religion, origin country socialization and acculturation. There is clear evidence for intra‐ and intergenerational acculturation of attitudes with declining importance of origin country context. While individual characteristics of migrants and origin country context can explain a substantial part of religious group differences particularly amongst the first generation, Muslims and to a lesser extent other non‐Christian and Eastern Orthodox migrants hold overall more negative attitudes.