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Children of International Migrants in Europe: Comparative Perspectives
Abstract
This book is a comparative analysis of children of international migrants in Britain, France and Germany, using survey data from the EFFNATIS project. By analysing data on linguistic, structural, political, religious and socio-cultural behaviour, it offers exciting new evidence on sociological models of immigrant incorporation.
... Yet, the fact that their socialising personnel, the biographically significant others with whom they were domiciled in the formative early years, were themselves products of another culture substantially impacts their crucial primary socialisation experience. Consequently, as Penn and Lambert (2009) show, the immigrant's child has a foot in multiple worlds. ...
... Children of immigrants raised in diaspora draw upon multiple sources of cultural capital when engaging, usually subconsciously, in the complex and messy process of identity construction (Alba 2005;Penn and Lambert 2009;Hirsch 2018). It is useful to draw here on Geaves' tripartite conceptualisation of ethnicity, religion and nationality again. ...
This paper interfaces a specific theory of socialisation, derived from Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s influential book The Social Construction of Reality, with the empirical story of Muslim settlement in Britain. It makes a key distinction between the primary socialisation experiences of immigrants, which unfolded in their countries of origin, and that of their diaspora-born offspring whose identity is forged between an inherited ethno-religious culture and the wider British collective conscience. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the Islamic revivalist movement Tablighi Jama’at, the paper explores the cultural embodiments of religion as it evolves over generations through an examination of identity markers such as language, dress and food. The analysis triangulates Berger and Luckmann’s concepts of primary and secondary socialisation with a tripartite model of British Muslim identity developed by Ron Geaves. It further argues, in light of Kwame Gyekye’s theory of nation-building, that recent government efforts to promulgate a set of fundamental British values in schools represent an essentially Durkheimian attempt to supply the ‘social glue’ that binds citizens together. While the article acknowledges the increasing salience of religion for many British-born Muslims, it argues for the ongoing influence of ethnicity and nationality in determining their lived experience.
... The Concept of Social Integration and Its Dimensions Current concepts of the (social) integration of people with a migration background usually differentiate between factors and mechanisms on a societal and an individual level and analyze the relationship of both (e.g., Esser, 2004Esser, , 2006Nauck & Settles, 2001;Penn & Lambert, 2009). Our study focuses on the individual perspective and, following Esser (2004), conceptualizes integration as the involvement and social ability to act in different contexts of a (receiving) society without having to completely surrender ethnic and cultural references. ...
... Our study focuses on the individual perspective and, following Esser (2004), conceptualizes integration as the involvement and social ability to act in different contexts of a (receiving) society without having to completely surrender ethnic and cultural references. This follows a general understanding of multiculturalism (Penn & Lambert, 2009) or bicultural integration (Esser, 2006), which can be characterized as a process of reciprocal exchange and convergence, in contrast to purely assimilative or pluralist concepts. Esser (2006Esser ( , 2009 differentiated the complexity of the phenomenon into four dimensions of social integration in society (for VSCs, see also Adler Zwahlen et al., 2018): (a) Culturation means the acquisition of knowledge and cultural techniques that are required for meaningful actions within the society. ...
Policy makers often ascribe sports clubs an important societal role, as they can encourage the integration of people with a migration background. Questions then arise as to the extent that members with a migration background are integrated in sports clubs and what the factors are that play a role in this integration. The data for this research are drawn from a comparative study of 10 European countries. The analyses take a multidimensional approach to social integration and differentiate between the dimensions of understanding/acceptance, interaction, and identification. The results show that members with a migration background are relatively well integrated, but less so than other club members. There is a positive association between social integration and the volunteering, participation in competitions, long-term membership, and sports activities in teams.
... The key conceptual elements of social integration have been developed in the context of the analysis of migration processes (e.g. Esser, 2004Esser, , 2006Nauck & Settles, 2001;Penn & Lambert, 2009). These authors usually distinguish between relevant factors and mechanisms of integration on a societal and an individual level and analyse the interrelation between these levels. ...
... These authors usually distinguish between relevant factors and mechanisms of integration on a societal and an individual level and analyse the interrelation between these levels. Our study focuses on the individual perspective and follows a general understanding of multiculturalism (Penn & Lambert, 2009) or bicultural integration (Esser, 2006) that can be characterised as a process of reciprocal exchange and convergence, in contrast to purely assimilative or pluralist concepts. Regarding the complexity of the phenomenon, Esser (2006Esser ( , 2009 distinguishes the following four dimensions of (social) integration: culturation, interaction, placement and identification. ...
Sports clubs are often perceived as important mediums for social integration, but the empirical evidence to support this claim is limited. This article sets out to identify individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration of members and volunteers. Drawing on survey data from 13,000 members and volunteers in ten European countries, an exploratory factor analysis identified three dimensions of social integration. They match the overall conceptual distinction between socio-cultural and socio-affective integration and the sub-division of socio-affective integration into ‘interaction’ and ‘identification’. Multilevel regression analyses examined the relevance of individual-level variables (social background, club affiliation and participation as well as practiced sports activities) and organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) for the three dimensions of social integration. Empirical analyses revealed that the individual-level variables, especially affiliation and participation in the sports club (e.g. the number of years connected to the club, the frequency of sports and competition participation, the team/group size as well as volunteering), had explanatory power, while the organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) mainly showed weak correlations. With little variation at the country level and relatively consistent results across the three dimensions of social integration, the results indicate that it is mainly the same individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration in sports clubs.
... Findings form international comparative surveys 2 focusing on SO of immigrants' children from the same country of origin across different host countries (Alba & Holdaway, 2013;Crul et al., 2012;Lutz et al., 2014;Penn & Lambert, 2009;Schnell, 2014) suggest for example that age when compulsory education begins and scholastic support play a key role on increasing (or decreasing) disadvantages at school among students with migration background: entering the educational path at a younger age facilitates the learning process of the host country's language, especially for those children whose parents do not have strong linguistic skills. ...
Children of immigrants are generally disadvantaged in terms of educational outcomes in most European countries and this remains true even after controlling for their socioeconomic status. Factors affecting the long‐term educational careers among children of immigrants and natives have been broadly investigated in the literature, although limited attention has been paid so far to the role of subjective well‐being in this context. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by analyzing how subjective well‐being in the school and family context is related to objective school outcomes of immigrant and native children residing in Italy, after controlling for several relevant socio‐demographic factors. We use rich and unique data from the ‘Integration of the Second Generation’ survey carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in 2015, that has not been used to analyse this relationship so far. The national representative sample includes 68,127 students interviewed in both lower and upper secondary schools. Around 47% of them are immigrant children without Italian citizenship. Our results show that subjective well‐being is positively correlated with school performance, but well‐being at school is much more important for immigrant students’ achievements, as compared to their native peers, especially in the lower secondary school. The same result does not hold for well‐being in the family domain.
... Family reunification remains the most used regular migration tool, with 167,000 residence permits issued in 2008 and 180,000 issued in 2016. The very characteristics of family reunification are changing, unlike the '70s and '80s when the spouses and children of economic migrants were reunited, today it is second and third generations who are reuniting with distant spouses and relatives living in African countries (Penn & Lambert, 2009). On the other hand, residence permits issued for work reasons fell by 70% (from 83,000 in 2008 to 26,000 in 2016). ...
Within the yearly ISMU Italian report on Migrations (XXIV edition), the chapters presents and discusses the main trends concerning the migrants' participation to the Italian labour market. A special attention is addressed to the problem of the occupational inclusion of recent refugees and asylum seekers.
... 4 See comparable debates on categories such as 'migrants' (Dahinden, 2016;Favell 2014), 'refugees' (Crawley & Skleparis, 2017), 'integration' (Korteweg, 2017) or 'migration background' (Elrick & Schwartzman, 2015;Römhild, 2014). 5 These include, among others: The Second Generation in Early Adulthood: A Decade-Long Panel (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001); The Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York (ISGMNY) project (Kasinitz, 2008;Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, & Waters, 2002Kasinitz et al., 2008); the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA) project (see, for instance, Rumbaut, 2008aRumbaut, , 2008bZhou & Lee, 2007, Zhou, Lee, Vallejo, Tafoya-Estrada, & Xiong, 2008; The Effectiveness of National Integration Strategies Towards Second-Generation Migrant Youth in a Comparative European Perspective project (EFNATIS)carried out in eight EU countries in order to investigate 'the relationships between national policies on integration and the outcomes for the second generation' (Penn & Lambert, 2009); The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries, i.e. Germany, the Neterlands, Sweden and England (CILS4EU: http://www.cils4.eu), ...
Abstract This introduction to the special issue provides a critical state-of-the-art of the literature on second-generation migrants which has hitherto subsumed the case of the children of refugees. It highlights the theoretical and methodological orientations taken by the literature and examines the main findings on the second generation’s social, educational, economic, cultural and inter-generational lives, before turning to the few findings available on conditions and performances of children of refugees. The editorial concludes by suggesting gaps in our knowledge and areas for future research.
... Family reunification remains the most used regular migration tool, with 167,000 residence permits issued in 2008 and 180,000 issued in 2016. The very characteristics of family reunification are changing, unlike the '70s and '80s when the spouses and children of economic migrants were reunited, today it is second and third generations who are reuniting with distant spouses and relatives living in African countries (Penn & Lambert, 2009). On the other hand, residence permits issued for work reasons fell by 70% (from 83,000 in 2008 to 26,000 in 2016). ...
Over the course of 2018, immigration became one of the main issues facing the European Union and its constituent countries, a development reflected in the significant media coverage of the issue, as well as by its increasingly central role as a topic of political debate and among public opinion. migratory flows and the various phenomena associated with the new immigrant presence, starting from the observation that immigration is receiving more attention and is being exaggerated and exploited to a greater degree in a year when the number of migrants reaching Europe has fallen significantly. As well as the traditional areas of interest (demographics, legislation, labour and education), the Report examines a number of other current phenomena related between Europe, Africa and immigration; the outcome of Italy's2018 political elections; the Brexit debate; and the crisis of the European asylum system.
... Researchers have also turned their attention to the street as a site of socialization and social relationships, and despite modern day moral panics about "the stranger danger" and perceptions of risks, many children say that street play and socialization are part of their daily routine (Penn and Lambert 2009). Several factors have been identified as directly significant in relation to children's independence in cities in the Global North. ...
The thesis investigates upward social mobility among immigrants’ descendants, more precisely the presence of professional trajectories that lead to middle classes positions. The main goal is to understand whether and under which circumstances young people of foreign origin are able to move up the social ladder, considering both their individual agency and capabilities, and the effect of the integration context.Studying the social mobility pathways of “second generations” is relevant as it attempts to account for the progress of mobility processes regarding a now established group of our societies. Understanding if, and how, young people with a migratory background manage to access middle class positions and hence escape the so-called “3D” jobs (dirty, dangerous and demeaning), allows to acquire important information about social inclusion processes, as well as about the ways in which different constraints and resources act on them.The research adopts a comparative perspective, in order to increase the scope of the analysis and the results obtained. The study is therefore located in the cities of Turin and Lyon: on one hand, the main goal is to study a consolidated case in terms of foreign presence - Lyon precisely – and, on the other, to understand if and under what conditions pathways similar to the French experience are being carried out in Turin. Moreover, the thesis focuses on subjects with different origins and migratory backgrounds, since the primary intention is to investigate the presence of shared patterns in the analysed trajectories. In other words, the aim is to understand whether there are common resources and obstacles, and of what kind, in the mobility paths, leaving specific migratory chains and histories aside.The research employs a qualitative methodology, and it is based on in-depth interviews collected with a snowball sampling technique. Based on literature on both migrations and social mobility, the research considers five main analysis dimensions: family background and migration history, housing situation, networks and relationships, educational and work pathways, social status attained.To sum up, the research proves the impact of cultural capital in both context, pointing out differences and similarities in the educational paths in Turin and Lyon. It also shows the pivotal role playing by parents (and in some cases by siblings too), as well as the functioning – and influence – of various forms of social capital. The (positive) effect of institutional resources, much more present in Lyon, complete the trajectories’ analysis and explanation.
Constructions of migrant children and young people within research and policy in host societies often emphasize their (lack of) “integration” (or belonging) in host society contexts, more so than their experiences as transnational migrants with complex senses of belonging. Hegemonic assumptions of migrant children as being different and “not-belonging” in host society contexts often reproduce, and are reproduced by, public fears around difference, social conflict, and anxieties about the future. The research and data cited in this chapter were generated as part of a project exploring the experiences of children moving to, and living in, Ireland. The chapter focuses in particular on the ways in which migrant children and young people in Ireland construct different senses of belonging in and across multiple scales as part of the negotiation of their social and cultural identities as migrants and as children/young people. Migrant children and young people form attachments and detachments which often challenge assumptions that are made by others about whether or to what they should belong. As part of these arguments, the chapter explores the complexity of migrant children’s and young people’s lives through a particular focus on their consumption of global consumer culture as part of processes of belonging.
Using retrospective reporting as a source of “longitudinal” data, an analysis is presented of the varying degrees of homogamy between a homogeneous sample of engaged girls and three men with whom each had had a serious relationship. Evidence is presented which suggests that (a) there is a general tendency to become more homogamous through the mate selection period on some dimensions (e.g., education) but to become less so on other dimensions (e.g., urbanity); (b) some of the patterns more easily fit a theory based on variations in opportunities to meet different kinds of partners, others more easily fit a normative theory; (c) social changes during the selection period (geographical or social mobility) influence the level and pattern of homogamy.
In Europe, Islam became a significant form of collective behavior among migrants from the Maghreb, Turkey, Western Africa, and India during the 1970s, when that group of people decided to settle abroad and raise their children in what they considered, at the beginning, to be a lasting exile. In that way, Islam appeared as an instrument for building new identities and transnational solidarities for the purpose of negotiating with the states and societies of settlement. But that peaceful approach has been taken as an unacceptable challenge by secular societies, which are no longer used to dealing with religious values as a way of collective self-assertion. In a future open Europe that will include 5 to 6 million Muslims, it will be necessary to establish a new doctrinal framework of cultural pluralism that includes Islam.
N describing Islam in Britain, we are describing a religion whose followers are overwhelmingly first-and second-generation immigrants. The 1991 census recorded one-and-a-half million Muslims in a population of 57.8 million; thus approximately 2.5 per cent of the population was Muslim. Approximately two-thirds of these have family origins in the South Asian subcontinent, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Some have come to Britain directly from these countries; others are of South Asian origin but born in Britain, East Africa or the Caribbean. Indigenous converts to Islam are part of the remaining third of British Muslims, but the very great majority who are not of South Asian origin are from Malaysia, Cyprus, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabic world and Iran (Weller 1994: 386). Immigration requires adaptation; immigrants, as well as outsiders, are aware of this. One compromises, selecting from the old and the new. In a changed world, immigrants change. As Ballard points out, ‘however alien the lifestyles of the new minorities may seem to the indigenous population, they are nevertheless an intrinsically British phenomenon’ (Ballard 1987: 21).
The Indian marriage system has undergone major changes in the last few decades. Studies have found an expansion and intensification of dowry and increase in age at marriage. Using information from a village in Tamil Nadu, south India, this article shows that recent marriage changes in the study village (increased number of love-marriages and stagnation or slight decline in marriage age) are caused by the economic independence and personal autonomy among the younger generation which are products of major changes in the socio-economic organization of the society.