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Although Christian migrant groups make up a sizeable part of the immigrant population in Europe, little is known about their religiosity. This paper studies patterns of intergenerational change and proposes and tests hypotheses that specify when and why changes across generations are stronger. Using data from the European Social Survey (2002–2018) on 33 European countries, it is found that there is a strong pattern of intergenerational decline in the level of religiosity among Christian migrant groups in Europe. This process of religious decline is by no means universal. Results show that children from two foreign-born parents are much more religious than children from intermarried (foreign-born and native) couples. We also observe that intergenerational decline is much less pronounced in European countries that are more religious. Finally, when Christian migrant groups belong to a religious minority group, this is associated with higher levels of religiosity in both the first and second generation. It is argued that these insights can explain the 'puzzling' strong intergenerational religious transmission among Muslim migrant groups in Western European societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing field of inquiry that investigates migrants' subjective well-being by analysing the role of income, relative to two reference groups: natives and other migrants. Using data collected by the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2018, we constructed two measures of economic distance to compare each migrant's economic situation with that of natives and other migrants with similar characteristics. Our results indicate that when the disadvantage between the migrant and the reference groups becomes smaller, eventually becoming an advantage, the migrant's life satisfaction increases. Such relationship is stronger when migrants' income is examined relative to natives than when compared with migrants'. This suggests that upward comparison is more important than downward comparison for migrants' subjective well-being. We also show that the relationship between relative income and subjective well-being is stronger for second-generation migrants and for those with more formal education. Finally, we show that subjective measures both at the individual (feelings about one's own economic condition) and societal (feelings about the national socio-economic-institutional condition) levels moderate the relationship between relative income and subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholarly interest in family migration is increasing, along with attention to the role of women and children in migration processes, this aspect of mobility continues to be poorly understood, particularly in the European context. Research on migration has tended to focus on primary migrants and to pay less attention to whether migrants arrive with families, resulting in a restricted picture of the impact of migration. This paper examines the presence and participation of families and children in the process of migration. It does so within the specific context of intra-European labour migration. Based on a qualitative study of migration and the integration of Polish families and children in Scotland, the paper explores changes in family structures and migration patterns that result in diverse new household migration behaviours. It argues that the locations of migrants within the European Community have become more fluid, with families being increasingly likely to inhabit more than one residence. It also argues that the uniqueness of the European setting requires a coherent theoretical focus and conceptual framework for understanding the implications of family migration. It suggests that transnational lenses generate useful empirical approaches concerning migration movements within the European Community. The paper explores transnational migration theory in relation to Polish post-enlargement migration and examines the multiple ways in which families may change through migration. It analyses the role of gender (women and men) and generations (grandparents, parents and children) in migration and settlement in the new country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most cross-country studies on educational systems aim at identifying the net effects of single institutional aspects on students’ outcomes. In this paper, I argue that educational systems are best conceived as configurations of interconnected elements. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic assessment of how selected features of the educational system and of the immigration context combine in countries where second-generation immigrants severely underperform their native peers, net of socio-economic differentials. Using PISA data from 2006 and 2009, I compare the relative mathematics achievement of students with and without an immigrant background in 17 Western-European educational systems. The empirical results, based on fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, point to the existence of functional equivalents and institutional complementarities. Equally severe disadvantages can be found in the rigidly tracking systems of German-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, but also in the highly comprehensive Scandinavian systems, where a delayed entry in the educational system is coupled with a wide distance from the language of instruction. Moreover, even in the absence of tracking, second-generation immigrants critically lag behind their native peers if they are overrepresented in schools with a poor learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past research suggests that majority evaluations of welfare deservingness are structured along ethnic dividing lines. The fact that poverty and immigrant status are highly associated across Europe's increasingly ethnically diverse societies may thus lead majorities to withdraw support from welfare programs that transfer money to people who are different from themselves. Utilizing measures of general welfarism, most prior studies have not addressed the interplay between attitudes toward immigrants and support for specific welfare types that rely on different notions of entitlement and attract varying levels of take-up among natives and immigrants. Addressing this gap in the literature and focusing on the example of Germany, this paper asks to what extent anti-immigrant sentiment relates to native-born Germans’ attitudes toward the government's responsibility to care for three recipient groups: the unemployed, the old, and the sick. Anti-immigrant attitudes expressed as ethnic prejudice are associated with lowered support for government intervention to assist the unemployed, while support for old-age and sickness assistance does not appear to be related to levels of negative out-group sentiment. The results suggest that those who harbor ethnic prejudice are more likely to oppose aid that is predominantly means-tested, rather than universal or contribution-based, and that does benefit a large number of non-natives. The negative association between prejudice and support for unemployment assistance is independent of concerns with the economic viability of the welfare system in the face of immigration. This points to the relevance of negative affect beyond subjectively rational motives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT: The enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the subsequent global economic recession has drawn attention to individual-level attitudes towards immigrants across Europe. In this context, using the European Social Survey (ESS), we compared Irish attitudes towards immigrants with those in 12 other European countries at 3 critical moments in time – prior to large immigration flows in 2002; at the height of the economic boom in 2006; and after the global financial crash in 2008. Our descriptive analysis examines whether significant changes in attitudes towards immigrants has occurred in the EU as a whole and within individual countries over time. We predicted that fluctuations in economic condition such as the rise in unemployment would affect attitudes towards immigrants. This relationship receives some support from our findings. In Ireland, positive attitudes to immigrants between 2006 and 2010 decreased and negative attitudes increased, on all attitudinal measures, more sharply than in any of the other European countries. Taking the 12 countries as a whole, attitudes have tended to polarise particularly with regard to allowing access to immigrants and their impact on the economy. This research reveals worrying trends in attitudes to immigrants in European countries, particularly in light of the importance of immigrants to the European labour market, both currently and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious identity and practice has been associated with attitudes to immigration in Europe, but it is not known how this relationship varies between different cultural and economic contexts. Analysing data from seven waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2014 we examine the association cross-nationally and over time, in what was a financially unstable period for many European countries and households. We have two main findings. Firstly, it is not religion per se, but rather conformity to national rates of religiosity which is associated with concern about the economic and cultural consequences of immigration. Secondly, the association between religion and anti-immigration is strengthened in contexts of economic uncertainty. These findings suggest that while religion does not predict immigration attitudes uniformly across countries, when religion reflects cultural conformity, it could become an expression national or ethnic group identity in times of economic insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines the confidence of immigrants in public institutions? Using pooled data from the European Social Survey of 26 countries, the study examines whether processes of social exclusion and discrimination can account for migrants' confidence in public institutions. Specifically, it examines the role of the quality of public institutions and of the migrant integration policies of the host country and how they interact with migrant status and proxies for experienced or potential discrimination in shaping institutional trust. Results show that the performance of public institutions matters less for the confidence of immigrants than that of natives, in particular for those who see themselves as an ethnic minority or members of a group that has faced discrimination. Second-generation migrants exhibit less trust than first-generation migrants. However, discriminatory processes appear to be of less importance than the expectations carried from the home country or acculturation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a dramatic inflow of immigrants into Ireland in recent years. Yet recent European Social Surveys indicate that Irish attitudes towards immigrants are among the most liberal in Europe. We test the association between a number of economic and cultural measures and attitudes to immigrants at the aggregate national level. Although Ireland fits the expected association and in the predicted direction the most notable feature of our results is the lack of a clear pattern between these measures and attitudes to immigrants across the European countries in the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]