Three Studies on the Sources and Consequences of Social and Cultural Capital among European Adolescents

Defence date: 13 June 2011Examining Board: Prof. Dr. Jaap Dronkers, European University Institute/Univ. Maastricht (Supervisor) Prof. Dr. Joop Hartog, University of Amsterdam (External Supervisor) Prof. Dr. Sven Steinmo, European University Institute Prof. Dr. Marc Hooghe, Katholieke Universiteit LeuvenThis dissertation has two main themes. First, it studies the role of social and cultural capital in educational achievement from a comparative perspective. Second, it investigates determinants of social trust among adolescents, where the theoretical framework combines insights from both political socialization literature and social capital literature. The core of the thesis is three empirical papers. The first paper is novel in that it explores the relevance of social and cultural capital when measuring improvement in children’s educational achievement in two vastly different societies: Eastern and Western Europe shortly after communism. My explicit question is not if social and cultural capital contribute to educational outcomes, but whether this contribution is the same in different societies. In seeking the significance of the role of social and cultural capital, I used data from the Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) which surveyed 50,000 eighth-grade pupils across Europe. Educational performance is measured by pupils test scores in mathematics. The second and third papers elaborate what is the second theme of this thesis: The origins of social trust among adolescents. In order to shed more light on this issue, I distinguish between two different forms of social trust: generalized trust, which indicates how much adolescents trust other people; and political trust, which indicates the extent to which they trust government-related institutions. I conducted an empirical analysis of the data set from the 1999 Civic Education Study conducted on 14-year old students across 18 countries. As a result, the second paper of this thesis examines the origins of generalized trust among the study’s sample group, whereas the third paper of this thesis explores determinants of political trust among adolescents. Both papers examine the link between socialisation processes within the family and school and their effects on the development of generalized and political trust. In addition, they utilize institutional theories on the development of social trust, and test the proposition that the quality of governmental functioning affects development of generalized and political trust of citizens

Citizenship Acquisition indicators (CITACQ)

1 data file, 1 documentation file (ZIP compressed)EUDO Citizenship Acquisition Indicators are based on the 2008 Labour Force Survey and compare percentages of citizenship acquisition among foreign-born persons in their country of residence, as well as the number of years it takes on average to acquire citizenship. Labour Force Survey Ad Hoc Module 2008 on the labour market situation of migrants and their descendants (Eurostat)

Immigrant naturalisation, employment and occupational status in western Europe

Does citizenship facilitate access to employment and higher status jobs? Existing case studies have produced mixed results across mostly single case studies in Europe and North America. To investigate whether this heterogeneity depends on varying institutional and socio-economic conditions, in this paper we analyse the labour market outcomes of immigrants who have naturalised in 13 West European countries. Our empirical analysis draws on data from the 2014 European Labour Force Survey Ad Hoc Module on immigrants. In order to cope with the selective nature of the naturalisation process, we employ a bivariate probit model that accounts for unobserved characteristics of naturalising immigrants. Our main results show a positive relationship across these destination countries between citizenship and the probability of employment for both immigrant men and women, as well as between citizenship and occupational status for men. Liberalising the access to citizenship does not diminish the positive returns on employment from naturalisation. For immigrant men there is evidence of a trade-off between easier access to citizenship and the returns on occupational status

Access to citizenship and the role of origin countries

For foreign-born residents and their children, attaining citizenship in the host country confers membership, rights and participation opportunities, and encourages a sense of belonging (Bloemraad 2006). From a destination country perspective, naturalisation is increasingly seen as an important part of the process of integrating immigrants. In order to optimise the use of what is sometimes termed the 'citizenship premium', actors in destination countries often advocate public policies that are aimed at increasing naturalisation rates among immigrants (OECD 2011; Sumption and Flamm 2012). The acquisition of citizenship is associated with better employment probability, higher earnings and higher occupational positions (Liebig and Von Haaren 2011). Politically, in a democratic context, citizenship normally qualifies immigrants to take an active part in the electoral politics of the destination country (Pikkov 2011; De Rooij 2012)

Immigrant naturalisation, employment and occupational status in western Europe

First Published online: 16 December 2020Does citizenship facilitate access to employment and higher status jobs? Existing studies have produced mixed results across mostly single case studies in Europe and North America. To investigate whether this heterogeneity depends on varying institutional and socio-economic conditions, in this paper we analyse the labour market outcomes of immigrants who have naturalised in 13 West European countries. Our empirical analysis draws on data from the 2014 European Labour Force Survey Ad Hoc Module on immigrants. In order to cope with the selective nature of the naturalisation process, we employ a bivariate probit model that accounts for unobserved characteristics of naturalising immigrants. Our main results show a positive relationship across these destination countries between citizenship and the probability of employment, as well as between citizenship and occupational status, but only for immigrant men from developing countries. For women and for migrants from developed countries, we observe no significant differences between citizens and non-citizens. Liberalising the access to citizenship does not diminish the positive returns on employment from naturalisation. For immigrant men from developing countries there is evidence of a trade-off between easier access to citizenship and the returns on occupational status

Immigrant naturalisation, employment and occupational status in western Europe

Does citizenship facilitate access to employment and higher status jobs? Existing case studies have produced mixed results across mostly single case studies in Europe and North America. To investigate whether this heterogeneity depends on varying institutional and socio-economic conditions, in this paper we analyse the labour market outcomes of immigrants who have naturalised in 13 West European countries. Our empirical analysis draws on data from the 2014 European Labour Force Survey Ad Hoc Module on immigrants. In order to cope with the selective nature of the naturalisation process, we employ a bivariate probit model that accounts for unobserved characteristics of naturalising immigrants. Our main results show a positive relationship across these destination countries between citizenship and the probability of employment for both immigrant men and women, as well as between citizenship and occupational status for men. Liberalising the access to citizenship does not diminish the positive returns on employment from naturalisation. For immigrant men there is evidence of a trade-off between easier access to citizenship and the returns on occupational status

Immigrant naturalization in the context of institutional diversity : policy matters, but to whom ?

Article first published online: 12 June 2013.Why do some immigrants naturalize and others not? While much of the literature emphasizes the importance of country of origin features and individual characteristics, there is surprisingly little systematic research on the relation between citizenship policies in destination countries and citizenship take-up among immigrants. Most research in this field draws on data from single country cases and has limited comparative scope. In this paper we analyze citizenship take-up among first generation immigrants in 16 European countries. We apply an explicit cross-national perspective and argue that immigrant naturalization in Europe is determined not only by country of origin features and individual characteristics, but also by the opportunity structure set by the citizenship laws in the countries of origin and destination. We show that more accessible citizenship policies matter little for immigrants from highly developed countries, particularly those with fewer years of residence, but matter significantly for immigrants from less developed countries. As the composition of immigrant populations and citizenship policies across Europe vary significantly, this comparative design is ideally suited to testing the relative importance of factors related to country of origin, individual background and legal opportunity structure