IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/crm/wpaper/2113.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social origins and social mobility: the educational and labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Carolina Zuccotti

    (CONICET-UdeSA)

  • Lucinda Platt

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

Despite lower social class origins, children of immigrants in the UK are now attaining high levels of education. However, they experience poorer labour market outcomes, often attributed in part to disadvantaged origins. This paper engages with this paradox. We posit two potential mechanisms for second-generation educational success—social class misallocation and immigrant advantage—and discuss how far these sources of advantage might be replicated in labour market outcomes. We substantiate our discussion with empirical analyses. Drawing on a unique longitudinal study of England and Wales spanning 40 years and encompassing one percent of the population, we present new evidence on the educational and occupational social mobility of men and women from four immigrant-origin groups and the white British majority. We demonstrate that ethnic minorities’ educational advantage is only partially reflected in the labour market. We reflect on the implications of our findings for research on ‘ethnic penalties’ and social mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolina Zuccotti & Lucinda Platt, 2021. "Social origins and social mobility: the educational and labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in the UK," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2113, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:2113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_13_21.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Ethnic Capital And Intergenerational Mobility," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 6, pages 107-134, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Carolina V. Zuccotti & Harry B. G. Ganzeboom & Ayse Guveli, 2017. "Has Migration Been Beneficial for Migrants and Their Children?," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 97-126, March.
    3. P. A. Riach & J. Rich, 2002. "Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(483), pages 480-518, November.
    4. repec:bri:cmpowp:13/333 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Simon Burgess & Ellen Greaves, 2013. "Test Scores, Subjective Assessment, and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 535-576.
    6. Edward C. Norton & Hua Wang & Chunrong Ai, 2004. "Computing interaction effects and standard errors in logit and probit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(2), pages 154-167, June.
    7. Simon Burgess, 2014. "Understanding the success of London’s schools," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/333, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    8. Steve Bradley & Jim Taylor, 2004. "Ethnicity, educational attainment and the transition from school," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(3), pages 317-346, June.
    9. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    10. Kristen, Cornelia & Granato, Nadia, 2007. "The educational attainment of the second generation in Germany : social origins and ethnic inequality," IAB-Discussion Paper 200704, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Song, Steve, 2011. "Second-generation Turkish youth in Europe: Explaining the academic disadvantage in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 938-949, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bert Provan, 2022. "CASE Annual Report 2021," CASE Reports casereport142, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    2. Nico Ochmann, 2024. "Wages of UK immigrant men across generations: who catches up?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 395-411.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    2. Berthold, Norbert & Gründler, Klaus, 2014. "On the empirics of social mobility: A macroeconomic approach," Discussion Paper Series 128, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    3. Cattan, Sarah & Salvanes, Kjell G. & Tominey, Emma, 2022. "First Generation Elite: The Role of School Networks," IZA Discussion Papers 15560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. He Zhu & Tsunehiro OTSUKI, 2018. "Can Two Consecutive Generations’ Data Predict Longterm Intergenerational Transition? Evidence from China with three generations," OSIPP Discussion Paper 18E004, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    5. Florencia Torche & Alejandro Corvalan, 2018. "Estimating Intergenerational Mobility With Grouped Data," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 47(4), pages 787-811, November.
    6. Anja Koebrich Leon, 2013. "Does Cultural Heritage affect Employment decisions – Empirical Evidence for Second Generation Immigrants in Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 270, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    7. Timm Bönke & Guido Neidhöfer, 2018. "Parental Background Matters: Intergenerational Mobility and Assimilation of Italian Immigrants in Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, February.
    8. Melike Kökkizil, 2022. "Parental Religiosity and Missing School-Girls in Turkey," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS91, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    9. Zuccotti, Carolina V. & Platt, Lucinda, 2023. "The paradoxical role of social class background in the educational and labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119647, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Jens Ruhose, 2015. "Microeconometric Analyses on Economic Consequences of Selective Migration," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 61.
    11. José Lobo & Charlotta Mellander, 2020. "Let’s stick together: Labor market effects from immigrant neighborhood clustering," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 953-980, August.
    12. Güell, Maia & Rodríguez Mora, José V & Solon, Gary, 2018. "New Directions in Measuring Intergenerational Mobility," CEPR Discussion Papers 12959, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Haichao Fan & Zheng Fang & Bihong Huang & Mohan Zhou, 2022. "Prevalence of SOEs and intergenerational income persistence: Evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 276-291, January.
    14. Lieselotte Blommaert & Marcel Coenders & Frank Tubergen, 2014. "Ethnic Discrimination in Recruitment and Decision Makers’ Features: Evidence from Laboratory Experiment and Survey Data using a Student Sample," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 731-754, May.
    15. Anja Köbrich León, 2013. "Does Cultural Heritage Affect Employment Decisions: Empirical Evidence for First- and Second Generation Immigrants in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 553, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Marie Connolly & Catherine Haeck & Anne Mei Le Bourdais-Coffey, 2023. "Age at Immigration and the Intergenerational Income Mobility of the 1.5 Generation," Working Papers 23-03, Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    17. Nathan Deutscher, 2020. "What Drives Second Generation Success? The Roles Of Education, Culture, And Context," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1707-1730, October.
    18. Gary Solon, 2018. "What Do We Know So Far about Multigenerational Mobility?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 340-352, July.
    19. Marta De Philippis & Federico Rossi, 2021. "Parents, Schools and Human Capital Differences Across Countries," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1364-1406.
    20. Yu Hao, 2017. "Converging Mainlander and Native Taiwanese, 1949–2012," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 84-107, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:2113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CReAM Administrator or Matthew Nibloe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmucluk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.