Homeland (Dis)Integrations: Educational Experience,Children and Return Migration to Albania

Based on empirical research conducted in Albania, this article reports that educational experience and performance, and hence, integration of the children of (returned) migrants in their parents' homeland is obstructed by structural factors linked to the educational system. A finding such as this challenges the centrality of an essentialized notion of ethnicity in models of “second generation” integration and evidences the centrality of the nation‐state, and the education system as one of its pillars, in the integration of migrants and their children. Comparative integration context theory appears to apply to the integration of children of returned migrants; yet it needs to take into account the mobile lives of migrants and their children, the transnational disjuncture between different educational systems, and the role of locality within the nation‐state. Moreover, including children in analyses of integration, in the context of education, calls for the inclusion of life‐course and scale in integration theories.     

The Turkish and Moroccan Second Generation in the Netherlands: Divergent Trends between and Polarization within the Two Groups1

This article examines the socioeconomic and sociocultural status of the second‐generation Turkish young people in the Netherlands, comparing them to their Moroccan counterparts. The comparative perspective can better highlight the characteristic features of the Turkish second generation. The educational status of both the Turkish and the Moroccan young people is still weak, especially by comparison with their ethnic Dutch peers. The obstacles that second‐generation migrants encounter in their educational careers are many and diverse, and these derive both from inside their own groups and from institutional structures and other forces in Dutch society. Among the latter has been the delay in introducing professional second‐language training, which resulted in Dutch language deficiencies and poor primary school achievements. This, in combination with early school selection mechanisms at age 12, has consigned the vast majority of second‐generation children to short, dead‐end lower vocational or secondary school tracks. Unemployment is extremely high among the second‐generation migrants with short educational tracks, and discrimination in the labor market hits this group especially hard. Despite all this, the number of second‐generation young people who have succeeded in getting a better education is growing, and they are now well equipped to seek employment. An important factor in their success has been the mutual help and support they have received from family and community networks.     

The Second Generation in Europe

The study of integration processes has now reached a crucial stage in most Western European countries with the emergence of the second generation. The oldest children born to postwar immigrants on European soil have recently entered the job market, and we can now investigate their performance in both education and employment. This opens a unique opportunity to compare the situations of second generation migrants across countries. Ostensibly the children all have the same starting position, being born in the country of settlement. The intriguing question is how differences between immigrant groups, and also differences in national contexts, work to the benefit or detriment of the second generation. We discuss the first issue briefly, confining ourselves here to Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. In addressing the issue of national contexts, we focus primarily on policies and practices rather than on broad‐reaching national integration models. We examine in detail the integration process itself in the context of vital institutional arrangements such as the education system and the mechanisms for transition to the labor market. How do such arrangements differ between countries, and how do they affect the outcomes for the second generation?     

Young migrants of the second generation in Europe: education and labour market insertion prospects

This paper compares the situation of second generation migrants in employing European nations with first generation migrants in the countries of origin. The study focuses on intergenerational changes in employment, unemployment, and further migration. High rates of failure, underachievement, and non-attendance are often found among migrant school children. Girls and boys show high occupational aspirations from age 10-14, but more realistic aspirations by their last year of school. Although vocational training interests many young foreigners, they usually do not get enough training to compete successfully in the labor market. Unemployment affects young foreigners more, and their employment is more unstable, unskilled, and without advancement. Indecision dominates their attitudes about return migration. The country of origin usually cannot provide employment, especially for women, and the longer young migrants have been in employing nations, the less likely they are to want to leave. Difficulty in migrating and the parental desire for superior schooling also limit return migration. On return, migrants 1) experience no continuity of employment or promotion, 2) often find that the skills they have acquired are not valued, 3) must use parallel labor market and cottage industry work to find employment, 4) find that, especially for women and young workers, the unstable employment experienced abroad also affects them on return, 5) find temporary employment or have difficulty in obtaining a job, 6) find both positive and negative views are held by employers concerning them, 7) find that family and connections are the primary means for finding jobs, and 8) discover return migration may not be an end since many second generation migrants will re-migrate for economic and social reasons. School performance, language mastery, social integration and access to training plague migrants and young nationals of similar socioeconomic background. They are unprepared to succeed in the new country and experience conflict of aspirations. First and second generation return migrants experience great frustration, since employment conditions are poor, and may be forced to migrate to a third country.     

Ausländer, Eingebürgerte und das Problem einer realistischen Zuwanderer-Integrationsbilanz

The use of the legal term “foreigner” in German official statistics and in sociological research on migration and integration is questioned. During the 1990s, naturalization has created a gap between the numbers of migrants and of foreigners. Legal and administrative factors cause an unobserved selectivity in the process of naturalization and increasingly blur the meaning of citizenship for social science purposes. Drawing on two German survey samples, the article reveals a considerably more favorable socio-economic placement of naturalized persons compared with foreigners of the same origin. Any stock-taking based on foreigners alone would exclude the most successful migrants in terms of education, labor market participation and income, and depict the participation of the immigrated population as overly deficient. An appropriate representation of naturalized people in official statistics is called for.     

Ethnic Segmentation in School and Labor Market — 40 Year Legacy of Austrian Guestworker Policy1

Compared to other countries in Europe, official figures in Austria, however incomplete, indicate that pessimism towards successful integration of immigrants and their children is justified. With regard to schooling and labor market, it is not only the first generation of the so‐called guest‐workers who seem to be stuck at low levels of the social hierarchy, but also the second generation. This is especially true for the descendants of Turkish immigrants. Among important factors to explain their educational position are the highly selective school system and the young age in which compulsory education ends. Relevant labor‐market features explain the low unemployment figures as well as the low permeability into some occupational positions and branches. Other important factors to explain the high share of low educational tracks among descendants of Turkish guestworkers are found in the difficult legal situation of families caused by the restrictive and highly complicated residence and work permission system of the past. It did not allow parents and their children to consider more ambitious educational and professional careers. All in all, the Austrian situation is a telling result of a 30‐year absence of concerted action in the field of immigrant integration.     

Rights or Identity? Naturalization Processes among “Labor Migrants” in Germany

The determinants of the decision to naturalize for first and second generation “labor migrants” in Germany are examined. We assume that Turkish migrants' comparatively high naturalization rate cannot be explained by the legal advantages they gain by naturalizing. We argue instead that naturalization offers an opportunity for individual upward mobility to Turkish migrants who have achieved a high level of individual assimilation. Using data from the GSOEP, we show that individual assimilation does in fact promote naturalization for Turkish migrants, but not for members of other ethnic groups, which generally have higher status within German society.     

Die Persistenz ethnischer Ungleichheit auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt

In the German labor market former labor immigrants and their descendents still occupy lower positions. In contrast to the early phase of in-migration nowadays most of the obvious structural reasons for ethnic stratification have vanished. Therefore, remaining inequalities could either be due to processes of discrimination or may result from immigrants’ permanent under-investment in human capital. In this contribution we present theoretical arguments and empirical results why the latter mechanism seems to be more important for the situation in the German labor market. Using data of the micro-census 1996 we analyze, whether labor market positions of immigrants are still lower controlling for generation and education. The findings are rather clear-cut: nearly all labor market disadvantages of the second generation can be traced back to educational differences.     

Persisting Differences or Adaptation to German Fertility Patterns? First and Second Birth Behavior of the 1.5 and Second Generation Turkish Migrants in Germany

In this study, we use data of the German Mikrozensus to explore first and second birth behavior of migrants’ descendants. Whereas prior waves of the Mikrozensus only included respondents’ citizenship, in the survey years 2005 and 2009 also parental citizenship has been surveyed. This allows us to identify respondents’ migrant backgrounds, even if they have German citizenship. We distinguish those who migrated as children (1.5 generation) from those who were born to Turkish parents in Germany (second generation migrants). We compare both migrant generations to German non-migrants. Using discrete-time hazard models, our results show that 1.5 generation migrants have the highest probability of having a first and second birth, while German non-migrants have the lowest birth probabilities. The second generation lies in-between. This pattern also persists after taking the educational attainment of respondents into consideration. However, there seems to be an adaptation of highly educated second generation Turkish migrants to non-migrant Germans: we find no significant differences in the probability of having a first birth in the two groups. For second births, we do not find this pattern which might be related to the young age structure in the sample of second generation migrants.     

“Reactive Ethnicity” or “Assimilation”? Statements,Arguments, and First Empirical Evidence for Labor Migrants in Germany

In this article, we scrutinize the often stated assumption that labor migrants in Germany turn away from integration and reaffirm their ethnicity by examining their identificational, cognitive, and social assimilation processes. Using data from the German Socio‐economic Panel, we present trend analyses of different hostland‐ and homeland‐related indicators for the past fifteen years. Results are presented separately for first‐ and second‐generation migrants from Turkey, the EU, and the former Yugoslavia. While not all assimilation‐related indicators change a great deal over time, they show at least a substantial difference between the first and the second generation. With regard to the homeland‐related indicators, the results by no means suggest that Turkish migrants try to compensate for their comparatively disadvantaged social status by revitalizing ethnic cultural habits or homeland‐oriented identifications.     

Migration Differentials in Women's Market Employment: An Empirical and Multicultural Analysis1

This paper examines the differences associated with the patterns and determinants of women's market employment by migration status and ethnic origin. Considering “ethnic employment” as an important issue in the immigrant labor market assimilation approach and migrants’ success in the labor market as a key indication of their settlement in the host country, the results of this paper provide a basis to reassess the patterns and determinants associated with the settlement of female migrants in the multiethnic and multicultural labor market of Australia as “a particularly interesting society in which to examine how immigrant women adapt to [a] new labour market” ( Evans, 1984 :1063).     

Problems faced by migrants and their family members,particularly second generation migrants,in returning to and reintegrating into their countries of origin

The growing tendency in Europe and other countries to introduce return migration as an element of migration policy has provoked a number of migration studies. Some of the problems faced by returning migrants and their families have been identified and are outlined here. First generation returning migrants face problems with social and economic assimilation: 1) returnees often practice conspicuous consumption which is resented by local people as the behavior of the new rich; those without the opportunity to migrate are particularly resentful. 2) The receiving country most often views the returnee as identical to the migrant who left years ago; problems with sociocultural reintegration are not recognized and no action is taken in that direction. 3) The homeland's economic situation and employment situation may not be strong enough to introduce social programs for returnees. 4) Returnees may have trouble finding new friends and community support. 5) Returnees are often underutilized in their home countries because the economic system is unable to absorb them. The second generation's problem in remigration may be classed into problems with social adjustment, integration into the educational system, and integration into the labor market. 1) Adolescent girls are likely to encounter difficulties because they are forced more frequently than boys to conform to traditional behavior patterns. 2) Youngsters have to learn that everyday life is heavily family-oriented, and that social control is very strong. 3) Lack of compatibility between the educational systems in the 2 countries disfavors the returnees; they may be barred from the school system because of language deficiencies or because priority is given to local students. 4) Many countries receiving youngsters have extremely high unemployment rates and cannot absorb these returnees into their labor force. 5) Although girls are generally better educated than boys, they work in lower-ranking jobs. The return movement calls for cooperation between the countries of immigration and remigration. More detailed research and observation are needed, particularly in defining differences between returnees and nonreturnees, between the sexes, and among age groups.     

Hochtechnologische Unternehmen im Spiegel des „Varieties-of-Capitalism“-Ansatzes

What role do national institutions of labor regulation as well as work and employment systems at the company level play for the development of “new economy” industries? The article is based on eleven company case studies in the Swedish, Polish and German video game industry as well as on an analysis of industry-related expert interviews and data. Power relations between hardware, publishing and development companies play a significant role in the industry. Independent development firms are the weakest link in the value chain; they have to carry the greatest risks. The results show that the lack of a financial system for the high risky software development is a decisive factor for the low international competitiveness of the industry in all three countries. They demonstrate as well that, especially in the field of labor regulation, the “Varieties of Capitalism”-approach underestimates the divergence of industries in national economies and a leeway for flexibility in institutional systems. For instance, employment flexibility of video game development firms is very high. The comparison of the “coordinated market economies” of Germany and Sweden reveals differences regarding the integration of the industry into nation-specific institutional systems, such as the establishment of adequate vocational education and interest representation by unions.     

Exploring Social and Geographical Trajectories of Latin Americans in Sweden

Close to 20 percent of the Swedish population are of immigrant origin; one in eight is foreign‐born. About 45 percent of all immigrants originate from outside Europe and most of these have entered the country as refugees or relatives of refugees. Issues connected to immigration, including the number of immigrants, settlement patterns and level of social integration of ethnic minorities, have been much discussed in Sweden in recent decades. This paper focuses on the integration of Latin American immigrants in Sweden. It compares the level of integration – measured as educational achievement, labour market participation, income and housing – experienced by first and second generation migrants. I use register information allowing me to include all 1^st and 2^nd generation Latin Americans that have lived in Sweden between 1990 and 2006 (in total 127,000 individuals). Data are longitudinal, which means that individuals can be followed over time. I make use of the longitudinal material in order to study changes in residential patterns and in attempts to explain educational and employment outcomes for second generation Latin Americans. The general conclusion of the paper is that in terms of integration, LAC immigrants have an intermediate position compared to other immigrant categories; they are often better off than people from Africa and the Middle East but clearly below the level experienced by some other migrants, especially those from Western Europe. This cannot be explained by level of education. The average level of education is high for first generation immigrants from LA countries. For many people, the level of labour market participation and income increase over time but one important result of this analysis is that second generation Latin Americans seem to do less well in Sweden compared to many other second generation migrants.     

Transnational Turkish–German community in limbo. Consequences of political tensions between migrant receiving and sending countries

A profound political tension between Turkey and Germany has gained an overall dimension on the political agenda of the intra-European migration discussion since 2016. As close trade partners, Turkey and Germany became gradually political adversaries on different issues. 2016 and the following years marked a turnover in the already worsened mutual relations. A series of political issues such as recognising the Armenian genocide in 1915, open allegations and critical views against the Turkish President and prohibition of election campaigns for Turkish government politicians in Germany had driven political relations between the two countries to nadir. This obscure situation led the Turks of Germany (The phrases “Turks of Germany” or “Turkish migrants” are persons with migration background from Turkey who still bear Turkish citizenship or formerly were Turkish citizens. This group's ethnic or confessional identity is not recognised; their legal status and country of origin are preponderant.), who have close ties to their ancestors’ homeland and consider Germany as the centre of their lives, nolens volens into a limbo situation. Within the “guest-worker program” framework in the second part of the 20th century, highly industrialised countries of Western Europe recruited migrant workers from different countries. This workforce should perform mostly blue-collar labour in the receiving countries. After six decades of Turkish presence in Germany, the grandsons and granddaughters of the former guest workers are well-represented in almost every sector of the society. However, their loyalty and integrability to the receiving country are challenged by German politics, especially by the governments of conservative chancellor Angela Merkel (2005–2021). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture (Workers from Turkey brought with them to the country of immigration their own “cultural assets”. Those are, language, religious and customary beliefs, social habits, dress, music, literature, social codes and manners, shared history, food, etc. However, migrants in the receiving country undergo a process of hybridity under the influence of the new cultural environment. (Please see: Bhabha [The location of culture, New York, NY: Routledge, 1994]) Culture within the framework of post-colonialism has also been discussed in Edward W. Said's book “Culture and Imperialism” (Said [Kültür ve Emperyalizm. Kapsamlı Bir Düşünsel ve Siyasal Sorgulama Çalışması. Hil Yayın: İstanbul, 1998]). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture, they are not recognised as integrable members of the society. Identity-based and culture-oriented policies inexorably influence the willingness of migrants to feel like equal members in the host society, and it applies even to the new generations with migration backgrounds. The question of migrant integration is the most emotionally debated issue in Germany and seems to be the greatest challenge in the political agenda. Beyond the bilateral Turkish–German issues, the growing xenophobic sentiments, islamophobia and Europe-wide political populism may cause a persistent bilateral tension in the medium term between the countries and among the transnational and native communities. Anti-Turkish rhetoric in the media alienates the Turkish community and has a value to jeopardise integration efforts more and more.     

Understanding Transnational Labour Market Trajectories of African‐European Migrants: Evidence from the MAFE Survey

Labor market trajectories of migrants are seldom explored in a longitudinal and comparative perspective. However, a longitudinal approach is crucial for a better understanding of migrants' long‐term occupational attainments, while comparative research is useful to disentangle specificities and general processes across destination and origin countries. This article explores the labor market outcomes of migrants from Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana in different European countries, using the MAFE data to compare their occupational attainments before migration, upon arrival and during the first 10 years of stay in Europe in a longitudinal perspective. Results highlight different pattern of migrants' selection across destinations, influenced by prior employment status and education, gender and colonial legacies, and which impact subsequent trajectories into the European labor markets. Our analyses also show a severe worsening of migrants' occupational status in Europe compared to their situation prior to migration, which is the resultant of a dramatic downgrading upon entry and of a slow occupational recovering during the first 10 years of stay in Europe. Results suggest that the educational–occupational mismatch of skilled workers might represent a long‐lasting “price” for migrants, unless (further) educational credentials are achieved in destination countries.     

Success on European Labor Markets: A Cross‐national Comparison of Attainment between Immigrant and Majority Populations1

Typical labor market outcomes vary considerably between majority and migrant populations. Drawing on scholarship from across the social sciences, we assess competing micro‐ and macro‐level explanations of differential occupational attainment among immigrant groups across 28 countries. The analyses of occupational attainment are run separately for first‐ and second‐generation migrants as well as children of mixed marriage and take into account their wider social and cultural background. Results from four rounds of the European Social Survey show that people with a migration background do not necessarily achieve a lower labor market success than the majority. However, human capital, social mobility, and cultural background explain these outcomes to different degrees, suggesting tailored pathways to labor market success for each group of migrants. We also find that occupational attainment varies considerably across countries, although this is hardly attributable to immigration policies. These and other findings are discussed in the light of previous studies on immigrant incorporation.     

Economic achievement of immigrants in Japan: Examining the role of country-of-origin and host-country-specific human capital in an inflexible labor market

The economic integration of immigrants is a salient social issue in Japan. Although the US immigration literature has stressed the importance of host-country-specific human capital over country-of-origin human capital for immigrants, previous studies in Japan have shown mixed results about the effects of these two types of human capital on the economic integration of immigrants. The mixed results might be because previous studies focused on only specific immigrant groups (with regard to nationalities, cities, and visa status), human capital variables, and dimensions of economic achievements in the Japanese labor market. The segmented nature of the Japanese labor market structure and immigration policies create different pathways to “economic achievements” of immigrants depending on the dimension of “economic achievements” studied. By conducting a nationally representative social survey of Japanese immigrants, we examined the association between the two types of human capital (i.e., country-of-origin and host-country-specific) and the three indicators of labor market success: employment status and firm size, occupational status, and income. Our results indicate that host-country-specific human capital in the form of higher education and language proficiency is important for all three indicators of economic achievement in Japan, while country-of-origin human capital in the form of higher education and vocational skills is transferable to some extent. Our results suggest that the significance of human capital in immigrants' economic success is determined not only by the structure of the labor market but also by immigration policies.     

France and the Unknown Second Generation: Preliminary Results on Social Mobility

The growing concern about the future of the offspring of immigrants in France has prompted the rise of a “second generation question.” Access of “new second generations” (i.e., those born from the waves of immigration of the 1950s and 1960s) to the job market and their visibility in social and cultural life have challenged the “French model of integration.” Moreover, the ebbing of social mobility in the France of the 1970s led to a process of social downgrading which may affect significantly the second generation due to their social background and the persistence of ethnic and racial discrimination. It is thus important to investigate what kind of social mobility is actually experienced by people of immigrant ancestry, and what could hinder their mobility. This article uses the data from a new survey, the Enquête Histoire Familiale (family history survey) conducted in 1999 and based on 380,000 individuals, which analyzes the positions of second generations of Turkish, Moroccan and Portuguese origin. We argue that they follow different paths: a reproduction of the positions of the first generation; a successful social mobility through education; or a mobility hindered by discrimination.     

European Migrant Professionals in Chinese Global Cities: A Diversified Labour Market Integration

Since the early 2000s, Chinese metropolises have been emerging as hubs for the national and global economy. They attract increasing numbers of foreigners with diverse socio‐economic and educational backgrounds who tend to immigrate independently of the Chinese initiatives focused on “foreign talents”. Our analysis contributes to the understanding of these migrants’ integration into the labour market. Through a Bourdieusian capital lens, this article unpacks the access to the labour market and occupational positions of Swiss and Swedish migrant professionals in mainland China. Differentiated by how they can capitalize upon their educational, occupational, social and cultural resources in this specific context, the article distinguishes between three categories: corporarate expatriates, local hires and entrepreneurs and concludes with policy recommendations to stabilize their residence conditions.