Raffaele Guetto

An Empirical Study of Status Exchange through Migrant/Native Marriages in Italy

The growth of migrant/native marriages documented in many developed countries is often regarded as an indicator of immigrants’ assimilation into host societies. We argue that a close examination of assortative mating patterns in migrant/native marriages is critical for a proper assessment of the link between immigrants’ assimilation and intermarriage. Specifically, we test the relevance of the status exchange hypothesis to accounting for mixed marriages in Italy, a context characterised by a sharp increase in intermarriages and a particularly poor socio-economic integration of immigrants. We provide supportive evidence on status exchange by documenting significant deviations from the ‘standard’ patterns of positive assortative mating among migrant/native marriages. Exploiting Italian Labour Force Survey and Italian Register of Marriage micro-data, we find that migrant/native marriages are more likely when less-educated older native men marry better educated younger immigrant women, especially when the latter originate from non-Western countries. Immigrant women are also more likely to marry an Italian man if they are not employed at the moment of marriage. Patterns of assortative mating converge with those prevailing among native couples when immigrant women possess Italian citizenship at the moment of marriage, confirming the greater importance of status exchange when immigrants’ integration is low.

Educational expansion without equalization: a reappraisal of the ‘Effectively Maintained Inequality’ hypothesis in children’s choice of the upper secondary track

ABSTRACT Previous studies of trends in social inequalities in upper secondary track choices in Italy found evidence that, in the period of highest educational expansion, horizontal inequalities increased, consistently with the Effectively Maintained Inequality thesis (EMI). Our paper, focusing on the youngest birth cohorts (1958–1989), documents that enrolments at upper secondary schools have become almost universal and have been followed by a huge expansion of the academic track. Although the latter has also involved children from the lowest social strata, our evidence suggests that their relative disadvantage to attend the academic track, compared to the most privileged social groups, has diminished only slightly. When distinguishing between different curricula within the academic track, we found evidence supporting the EMI hypothesis also among recent cohorts: the expansion of the academic track has gone hand-in-hand with increasing social inequalities in the chances to attend more prestigious curricula. Finally, social class inequalities in the chances of enrolling at the academic track are stronger at high levels of parental education, while they are largely muted among low-educated parents. We suggest the latter as a possible mechanism to explain why educational expansion may not produce a decline in the association between social origins and educational attainment.

Cultural capital and gender differences in health behaviours: a study on eating, smoking and drinking patterns

ABSTRACT It is widely acknowledged that people with higher socioeconomic positions and women smoke less, avoid alcohol abuse, and eat more healthily. Yet far less is known about the interaction of socioeconomic status with gender, especially in the Italian context. Here we address this issue by employing Abel’s adaptation of Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and Courtenay’s theory of gender construction and health. Using 2012 data from the Multipurpose survey on Daily Life, we first show that cultural capital is better than social class in predicting an adult’s compliance with health recommendations, although this does not hold true for alcohol intake. We then look at the interaction of gender with cultural capital measures in order to determine how gendered forms of consumption change with increasing levels of cultural capital. The results show that the gender gap diminishes at higher levels of cultural capital following a twofold pattern: most often men’s marginal benefit increases at a higher rate than that of women; however, we also find evidence that the gap diminishes because women start adopting unhealthy behaviours as their level of cultural resources increases. Overall, these findings indicate that cultural capital plays an important role in reconstructing gender role models.

La crescita delle unioni miste in Italia: un indicatore di accresciuta integrazione degli immigrati e maggiore apertura della società?

Gli autori esaminano i matrimoni misti tra italiani e straniere provenienti da paesi ad alta pressione migratoria, in particolare dall’Europa dell’Est. Coerentemente con la teoria dello scambio, tali unioni deviano dallo standard di assortative mating: le donne sono sistematicamente piu istruite e piu giovani dei loro partner italiani. La considerazione della prospettiva della partner straniera mette in luce la salienza dei fattori socio-economici e delle condizioni legali dei migranti in Italia. L’analisi della prospettiva del partner italiano pone invece all’attenzione il progressivo spiazzamento degli uomini poco istruiti sul mercato matrimoniale. A cio si aggiunge una spiegazione culturale, legata alla maggiore conformita delle donne straniere ai valori tradizionali di genere degli uomini italiani. Nel complesso, i risultati smentiscono una semplicistica lettura della crescita delle unioni miste come indicatore di accresciuta integrazione degli immigrati e apertura della societa.

A "U-shaped" pattern of immigrants’ occupational careers? A comparative analysis of Italy, Spain and France

The international literature hypothesized a “U-shaped” pattern of immigrants’ occupational trajectories from origin to destination countries due to the imperfect transferability of human capital. However, empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is available only in single-country studies and for “old,” Anglo-Saxon migration countries with deregulated labor markets. This article compares Italy, Spain, and France, providing evidence that the more segmented the labor market, the higher immigrants’ occupational downgrade on arrival, independently from skills transferability and other individual characteristics. Paradoxically, the more segmented the labor market, the more important the acquisition of host-country specific human capital for subsequent upward mobility.