Mathias Lerch

Naturalisation and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Youth of Immigrant Descent in Switzerland

Many studies on the generational social mobility of immigrant populations have taken into account the socio-economic characteristics of the immigrant groups on the one hand, and the historical and economic conditions of the receiving society, including the legal framework, on the other. However, little attention has so far been paid to the juridical status of immigrant groups. This paper explores the variation in education and employment performance of young people from different immigrant origins (Italians, Portuguese, Turks, Croats, Kosovars and Serbs) and of different citizenship statuses—naturalised, non-naturalised, and Swiss-by-birth. Inter-ethnic group variations become much more muted when social origin and length of stay are controlled for; however, they do not disappear altogether. Naturalised immigrant youth perform best; indeed in many cases, where they are Swiss-born, they out-perform native Swiss. This performance, however, is overlooked by Swiss society because the acquisition of Swiss citizenship makes it statistically invisible.

Internal and International Migration Across the Urban Hierarchy in Albania

The interactions between the processes of urbanization and international migration in less developed and transition countries have important repercussions for socioeconomic development, but are not well understood. Based on the retrospective data from the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey 2008, we first assess the geography of migration in terms of the rural–urban continuum, the urban hierarchy and the outside world since 1990. We then investigate the spatio-temporal diffusion of rural-to-urban and international movements using survival models. Results reveal an immediate onset of large-scale rural exodus, despite the post-communist crisis. Internal migrants mainly moved to the capital, bypassing secondary cities, and were predominantly female. Initially, international migrants were primarily men who tended to originate from the main urban agglomerations. The diffusion of opportunities to emigrate down the urban hierarchy and across the sexes then redirected the rural exodus abroad, despite domestic economic development. This evolution in population mobility is related to the gendered patterns and interlinkages of the two flows, as well as to rising inequalities within the urban hierarchy.

Fertility and union formation during crisis and societal consolidation in the Western Balkans

Fertility decline in central and eastern Europe (CEE) since the fall of the communist regimes has been driven by both stopping and postponement of childbearing: two processes that have been related to crisis and economic development, respectively. In the Western Balkans these economic and political contexts followed each other in the form of a biphasic transition. I examine whether this sequence triggered fertility responses like those observed elsewhere. Relying on three independent data sources, I cross-validate the levels of, and describe the trends in, union formation and fertility (by birth order) between 1980 and 2010. Results do not reveal widespread declines in fertility to lowest-low levels during the most acute period of crisis. The subsequent postponement of marriage and first birth was also limited, and the two-child family remains the norm. This relative resilience of childbearing patterns compared with other CEE countries is discussed with reference to the institutional context.

On the plausibility of socioeconomic mortality estimates derived from linked data: a demographic approach

* Correspondence: lerch@demogr.mpg.de Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Demographic Research Centre, Vytautas Magnus University, Rostock, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Fig. 3 Linkage rates of deaths above age a according to sex and educational attainment, Lithuania, 2001–2011. Source: Census-linked mortality data Lithuania, 2001–2011. Note: educational attainment as based on censuses