Renee Reichl Luthra

The Position of the Turkish and Moroccan Second Generation in Amsterdam and Rotterdam

are by definition rough estimates based on apprehensions at the border, national censuses and municipal registries, information collected in previous amnesties and other incomplete sources. None of these sources is complete or comparable with the others. Moreover, irregular migration to the Maghreb and the EU is a highly dynamic phenomenon, to the point that data from the year 2000 are already outdated and inaccurate. De Haas’ efforts to bring together fragmented, approximate and sometimes unreliable data (limitations that are addressed in the book) yield a remarkable piece of research, equally relevant for researchers and policy-makers. Despite the shortcomings of the book’s empirical foundation, the author manages to put undocumented migration from West Africa to the Maghreb and the EU in perspective. While the limitations imposed by a lack of reliable numerical data are understandable, the author’s reluctance to make full use of available qualitative research is regrettable. Some such work is cited in the references, but it is not used in the text to the extent that it deserves. Another significant shortcoming of this book is its partiality to countries and governments of transit and destination. The experience of migrants throughout their journey is granted just a few lines of the text, and the impact of this migration on the countries of origin receives no attention whatsoever. In summary, the main achievement of this book is to provide a foundation for further research and policy. De Haas makes an important effort to synthesise scarce and fragmented evidence on irregular migration to North Africa and Southern Europe, identifying important gaps to be addressed by further research and challenging some false assumptions that have recently shaped the migration debate in receiving countries. However, there are obvious tensions between the book’s ambitious goals, its length and its empirical foundations. In addition, its almost exclusive use of quantitative research creates a distance between the researcher and the object of study that some readers may find excessive.

Into the Mainstream? Labor Market Outcomes of Mexican-Origin Workers

We evaluate recent revisions of assimilation theory by comparing the labor market performance of Mexican immigrants and their descendents to those of native white and black Americans. Using the Current Population Survey Contingent Worker Series, we examine public and non-standard employment and fringe benefits in addition to earnings. We find little evidence that Mexican Americans cluster in non-standard work, noting instead intergenerational improvement in benefits and pay. However, all Mexican-origin workers are disadvantaged relative to native whites in terms of benefits. It is only within the public sector that the labor market outcomes of Mexican-origin workers converge with native whites.

From Parent to Child? Transmission of Educational Attainment Within Immigrant Families: Methodological Considerations

One in five U.S. residents under the age of 18 has at least one foreign-born parent. Given the large proportion of immigrants with very low levels of schooling, the strength of the intergenerational transmission of education between immigrant parent and child has important repercussions for the future of social stratification in the United States. We find that the educational transmission process between parent and child is much weaker in immigrant families than in native families and, among immigrants, differs significantly across national origins. We demonstrate how this variation causes a substantial overestimation of the importance of parental education in immigrant families in studies that use aggregate data. We also show that the common practice of “controlling” for family human capital using parental years of schooling is problematic when comparing families from different origin countries and especially when comparing native and immigrant families. We link these findings to analytical and empirical distinctions between group- and individual-level processes in intergenerational transmission.

Temporary Immigrants in a High-Skilled Labour Market: A Study of H-1Bs

High-skilled immigration to the United States is a growing area in immigration, labour and policy research. Research on this subject focuses on the labour market impact of the largest skilled immigrant group: H-1Bs, temporary visa-holders with at least a baccalaureate degree. Many studies have demonstrated that these workers are paid the prevailing wage, yet they continue to be recruited despite unemployment and wage stagnation in H-1B sectors. In this paper I argue that, to understand the attractiveness of H-1Bs, we must look beyond their effects on wages and unemployment, and frame the flow of skilled migrants to the US in terms of the broader advantages they provide: flexible labour, the most up-to-date skills, and the lower expectations of immigrants regarding working conditions and benefits. I broaden the debate on skilled immigrants by examining the relationship between recently arrived immigrant status and two crucial labour market dimensions: contingent employment and eligibility for employer-subsidised health-care and retirement benefits. In addition, wage differentials are reassessed with contingent status, years since immigration, and high-tech industry controlled. My findings support the conclusions of prior studies that H-1Bs are not ‘cheap labour’; rather, this study shows they are utilised as flexible labour.

Elite or middling? International students and migrant diversification

Student migrants from former sending regions now form a substantial share of non-European Union migration flows to Europe. These flows represent the convergence of extensive internationalisation of higher education with increasing restrictions on family and labour migration. This article provides the first examination of student migrants’ early socio-cultural and structural integration by following recently arrived Pakistani students in London over an 18-month period. We use latent class analysis to identify both elite and two ‘middling’ types – middle class and network-driven – within our student sample. We then ask whether these types experience early socio-cultural and structural integration trajectories that differ in the ways that the elite and middling transnational literatures would suggest. We find differences in structural, but less in socio-cultural outcomes. We conclude that to understand the implications of expanding third country student migration across the European Union, it is important to recognize both the distinctiveness of this flow and its heterogeneity.

Reconceptualizing Context: A Multilevel Model of the Context of Reception and Second-Generation Educational Attainment

This paper seeks to return scholarly attention to a core intellectual divide between segmented and conventional (or neo‐)assimilation approaches, doing so through a theoretical and empirical reconsideration of contextual effects on second‐generation outcomes. We evaluate multiple approaches to measuring receiving country contextual effects and measuring their impact on the educational attainment of the children of immigrants. We demonstrate that our proposed measures better predict second‐generation educational attainment than prevailing approaches, enabling a multilevel modeling strategy that accounts for the structure of immigrant families nested within different receiving contexts.

Types of Migration: The Motivations, Composition, and Early Integration Patterns of “New Migrants” in Europe

Applying latent class analysis to a unique data source of 3,500 Polish migrants in Western Europe, we develop a new typology of Polish migrants under “free movement” following the 2004 expansion of the European Union. We characterize these diverse migrant types in terms of their premigration characteristics and link them to varied early social and economic integration outcomes. We show that alongside traditional circular and temporary labor migration, European Union expansion has given rise to new migrant types who are driven by experiential concerns, resulting in a more complex relationship between their economic and social integration in destination countries.

Analyzing Data in RDS

This chapter reviews how to analyze data gathered using RDS. We begin by reviewing why RDS data cannot be analyzed with general statistical software, and suggest several alternative software options designed for RDS data analysis. We briefly review the different estimators currently in use, and the estimation of variance in RDS analysis. We discuss potential sources of bias in RDS data, including seed dependence, homophily, differential recruitment, and bottlenecks, describing how to diagnose these problems during analysis. In addition, we describe the common practice of exporting weights for multivariate analysis using RDS data. Finally, we discuss the responsible reporting of results from RDS data analysis and provide examples of the use of RDS data to impact policy.