To whom is contact use beneficial? The impacts of self-selected contact use on gender income differentials in the transitional economy of urban China

In this study, we examined the effect of contact use on the gender earnings gap in urban China, by taking into account the existence of self-selection effect. We theorised two sources of individuals' self-selected job obtainment behaviour; namely, the structuralised gender-segregated employment environment and one's internalisation of the structural constraints. Based on data collected from the highly marketized Chinese city Xiamen, our estimations from the Endogenous Switching Regression model show that there is indeed a significant tendency, in which women with marketable qualifications use social contacts to find jobs, even though their obtained income would have increased significantly had they chosen not to rely on contacts to find jobs. Men enjoyed premiums from their job search strategies, whether they relied on contact use or not

It's the Economy! Perceptions of Host-Countries' Institutions and Individual Life Satisfaction of Intra-European Migrants

By drawing data from the European Social Survey (ESS) (2008–2016), this study explores how immigrants' assessments of economy, democracy, and quality of public goods (such as health and education systems) in the receiving societies contribute to their life satisfaction. Results indicate that satisfaction with the economy is the strongest correlate of individual life satisfaction among European immigrants, and this association is particularly pronounced among immigrants from Turkey, Eastern and Southern Europe. Assuming that immigrants compare institutions of their host and home countries when assessing institutional features of the host countries, relative gains in satisfaction with the performance of host-country economy are shown to be associated with particularly higher levels of overall life satisfaction among immigrants from Turkey, Eastern and Southern European countries than the rest of Europe. We conclude that, in relative terms, migrants from countries with less well-functioning economies to countries with more favorable economic conditions display higher levels of perceived satisfaction with the host country economies, which contributes considerably to their overall life satisfaction

Police discrimination and police distrust among ethnic minority adolescents in Germany

In light of ongoing debates about racially motivated police violence, this paper examines two separate but interrelated phenomena: instances of police discrimination and mistrust in police and the judicial system among ethnic minorities in Germany. Analyses are carried out based on waves 1, 3, and 5 of the CILS4EU-DE data collected among 14 to 20 year-old respondents in Germany. The focus of the paper lies on young men from the Middle East, as well as Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, who - as our study demonstrates - tend to disproportionally more often report discrimination experiences and particularly low levels of trust in police and courts compared to other ethnic minorities and the majority populations in Germany, and partially also in comparison to their female counterparts. We also show that more frequent experiences of police discrimination are associated with greater distrust of the police and partially also with courts among young men from the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Female adolescents from similar backgrounds are also more distrustful of the police, but this is not explained by their own experiences of police discrimination. - Supplementary Material: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1231774/full#SM

Non-native Accents among School Beginners and Teacher Expectations for Future Student Achievements

Based on sociological, economic, and social-psychological theories of discrimination and bias, this study addresses non-native accents among ethnic minority students as they begin school and explores effects of such accents on their teachers’ achievement expectations. Using a unique data set of first graders in Germany, the analysis reveals that a non-native accent is relevant to teachers’ expectations net of student skills, abilities, and other background variables. Associations are stronger in the language domain than in mathematics, indicating that teachers perceive accent-free speech as a language-learning requirement. However, residual influences of non-native accents on teacher expectations also exist in the math domain and persist even after prolonged periods of teacher-student interaction. Mechanisms of statistical discrimination and stereotype-based discrimination can partially explain these effects. However, the overall pattern of results suggests a stigmatization of non-native accents, potentially resulting from the activation of negative associations related to foreignness and disfluency.Peer Reviewe

COVID-19–associated discrimination in Germany

This study examines whether ethnic minorities in general and Asian minorities in particular have perceived an increase in discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenon known as COVID-19–associated discrimination (CAD). Drawing on the CILS4COVID data, which were collected among 3,517 individuals in the initial phase of the pandemic (mainly between April and June 2020), we demonstrate that especially Asian minorities (n = 80) report instances of CAD. Furthermore, CAD is reported more by Asian respondents residing in administrative districts that have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., that had high seven-day COVID-19 incidence rates. Higher levels of perceived CAD are also reported by respondents originating from the Americas (n = 61) and the former Soviet Union (n = 197), but only in administrative districts with high incidence rates. We conclude that CAD reported by these groups is likely due to these groups being perceived to pose a higher threat of infection transmission. CAD reported by Asian-origin respondents is not entirely due to the actual threat posed by COVID-19, but rather to a mix of perceived threat, overt discrimination and the attribution of various negative experiences suffered since the outbreak of the pandemic to CAD

To Whom Is Contact Use Beneficial? The Impacts of Self-Selected Contact Use on Gender Income Differentials in the Transitional Economy of Urban China

In this study, we examined the effect of contact use on the gender earnings gap in urban China, by taking into account the existence of self-selection effect. We theorised two sources of individuals’ self-selected job obtainment behaviour; namely, the structuralised gender-segregated employment environment and one’s internalisation of the structural constraints. Based on data collected from the highly marketized Chinese city Xiamen, our estimations from the Endogenous Switching Regression model show that there is indeed a significant tendency, in which women with marketable qualifications use social contacts to find jobs, even though their obtained income would have increased significantly had they chosen not to rely on contacts to find jobs. Men enjoyed premiums from their job search strategies, whether they relied on contact use or not