Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

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NEW MIGRATIONS, NEW CHALLENGES 

TRINITY IMMIGRATION INITIATIVE 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: 30 JUNE - 3 JULY 2010 

TRINITY 

IMMIGRATION 

INITIATIVE

welcome 

Welcome to the ‘New Migrations, New Challenges’ Conference! 

Migration has been long been a key research topic for the social sciences. 

Yet recent years have seen new migrations emerge. Most obviously, 

countries such as Ireland became immigrant countries. Today with 

economic recession, Ireland has again become a country of net emigration, 

but this hardly means a simple return to the past. Migration is no longer 

simply the permanent movement from one country to another: it can be 

circular, it can mean travelling through a sequence of countries, it can 

even mean living in several countries at the same time. Especially because 

of improved physical transport and enhanced electronic communications, the very meaning of migration is 

changing. These changes pose new challenges to researchers and also to public policy. 

This conference is organised by the Trinity Immigration Initiative (TII) – a consortium of researchers in 

Trinity College Dublin. We came together over three years ago in response to what was then Ireland’s 

unprecedented levels of in-migration. We aimed to develop scholarly research on migration in the university 

while at the same time engaging with public policy makers, the wider society and immigrant organisations 

themselves. A generous donation from Allied Irish Banks enabled us to launch a research programme with 

six separate research projects. You will find in your conference bag our Report which summarises our work 

to date. 

The conference has brought together researchers from across Europe and further afield. We particularly 

welcome our eight distinguished invited speakers who will address the two plenary sessions and the opening 

sessions of each of the six conference strands. We hope all our guests will find the conference stimulating 

and enjoyable. Indeed, since much new migration combines work and pleasure, we hope you will also find 

time to be tourists and enjoy the city of Dublin. 

James Wickham 

Conference Chair 

Trinity Immigration Initiative 

01

table of contents 

welcome 1 

table of contents 2 

reviewers 3 

plenary speakers 4 

keynote speakers 5 

general conference information 8 

conference programme 10 

plenary keynote sessions 11 

parallel sessions at a glance 15 

parallel sessions 16 

abstracts by stream and session 33 

conference delegates 102 

02

eviewers 

We would like to thank the reviewers who volunteered 

their time to help out with our review process: 

Philip Curry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Carla De Tona, The University of Manchester, UK 

Claudia Diehl, Georg August Universität Göttingen, Germany 

Umut Erel, The Open University, UK 

Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Robbie Gilligan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Ravi Kohli, University of Bedfordshire, UK 

Torben Krings, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Ronit Lentin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Constant Leung, King’s College London, UK 

David Little, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Zach Lyons, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Leslie McCartney, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Elaine Moriarty, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Peter Mühlau, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Ian O’Donnell, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Eoin O’Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Ettore Recchi, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy 

Antje Roeder, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

James Wickham, Trinity College Dublin 

Nessa Winston, University College Dublin, Ireland 

03

plenary speakers 

Anna Triandafyllidou 

Anna Triandafyllidou is Professor (part time) at the European University Institute, Robert 

Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, in Florence, and Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic 

Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in Athens. She teaches as Visiting 

Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges since 2002. She has published widely on migration, 

migration policy and nationalism issues. Her recent books include: Migration in 21st Century 

Greece (with T. Maroukis, 2010, Kritiki, in Greek), Muslims in 21st Century Europe (2010, Routledge), Irregular Migration in Europe: 

Myths and Realities (2010, Ashgate). For more details on her work please visit: www.annatriandafyllidou.com. 

Adrian Favell 

Adrian Favell is Professor of European and International Studies at Aarhus University. He is the 

author of Philosophies of Integration: Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in France and 

Britain (1998/2001), and Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating 

Europe (2008a), and has been an associate editor of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 

since 2001. Recently, he edited a special edition of this journal on The New Face of East-West 

Migration in Europe (2008), as well as a chapter on migration and European identity in Jeffrey Checkel and Peter Katzenstein, 

European Identity (2009). For more information, please see his website: www.adrianfavell.com. 

04

keynote speakers 

Umut Erel 

Umut Erel, RCUK Academic Fellow, Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, Open 

University, UK. Umut’s research interests are in migration, ethnicity, gender and class, culture 

and representation empirically and theoretically. Her recent book ‘Migrant Women Transforming 

Citizenship’ uses the life-stories of skilled migrant women from Turkey in Britain and Germany 

to argue that the agency of migrant women can give new impulses for theorizing and doing 

citizenship critically. The book focuses on migrant women's practices of belonging and participation and the ways in which they 

reconceptualise these in the context of education, family life, work and activism. She is currently researching migrant women's 

mothering practices as citizenship practices in their own right and with respect to shaping their children's social positioning. 

Publications include Migrant Women Transforming Citizenship, Aldershot: Ashgate 2009; 'Migrating Cultural Capital. Bourdieu in 

Migration Studies' Sociology 44 (4) 2010; 'Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women' 

Sociological Research Online, 12 (4) 2007. 

Ettore Recchi 

Ettore Recchi is a full professor of political sociology in the University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. 

He holds a PhD (with distinction) in Social and Political Sciences from the European University 

Institute. From 2005 to 2009, he was co-director of the Euro-Mediterranean School on Migration 

and Development held annually at the European University Institute. He has taught and 

researched at the University of Florence, the EUI, the University of Michigan, Gonzaga University, 

UCLA, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology. 

Ettore Recchi is the author of more than fifty publications in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, including monographs, 

book chapters, and journal articles. Among his recent publications: E Recchi and A Favell (eds), Pioneers of European Integration: 

Citizenship and Mobility in the EU, Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009; M Braun and E Recchi, Free-Moving Western Europeans: An 

Empirically Based Portrait, in H Fassmann, M Haller and D Lane (eds), Migration and Mobility in Europe: Trends, Patterns 

and Control, Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009, 85-101; E Recchi, Cross-State Mobility in the EU: Trends, Puzzles and Consequences, 

“European Societies”, 10, 2, 2008, 197-224; Keine Grenzen, mehr Opportunitäten? Migration und soziale Mobilität innerhalb der 

EU, in P A.Berger, A Weiss (eds), Transnationalisierung sozialer Ungleichheit, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 

2008, pp. 161-183 (with Michael Braun). 

His main research foci are migration and mobility (in its different forms), social stratification, elites, and European integration. 

05


Robert J Sampson 

Robert J Sampson is Chair of the Department of Sociology and the Henry Ford II Professor of the 

Social Sciences at Harvard University. He also serves as Senior Advisor in the Social Sciences at 

the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Before being appointed at Harvard in 2003 he taught 

for twelve years in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago and seven years 

in his first faculty post at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Sampson's other prior 

appointments include Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation and Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in 

the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, 

Ernest Burgess Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2006, and a member of the National Academy of 

Sciences in 2006. Professor Sampson has published widely in the areas of crime and deviance, the life course, neighborhood effects, 

community, immigration, and the social organization of cities. Much of his work on neighborhood effects stems from the Project on 

Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, for which Sampson serves as Scientific Director. With John Laub he carried out a 

long-term study from birth to death of 1,000 disadvantaged men born in Boston during the Great Depression era. Two books from 

this project—Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life (Harvard, 1993) and Shared Beginnings, Divergent 

Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 (Harvard, 2003) —have received multiple scholarly awards. 

Rubén G Rumbaut 

Rubén G Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. An 

internationally known scholar of immigration and refugee movements, and a leading expert 

on immigration in the United States who has testified before the US Congress on immigration 

reform, he is the founding chair of the Section on International Migration of the American 

Sociological Association, and a former member of the Committee on Population of the National 

Academy of Sciences, and the Committee on International Migration of the Social Science Research Council. A native of Havana, 

Cuba, Dr Rumbaut directs (with Alejandro Portes) the landmark Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, begun in 1991; and 

serves as P.I. of the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles study. He is the author of more than 

150 scientific articles and chapters in scholarly volumes on immigration issues. Among his books (with Portes) are the critically 

acclaimed Immigrant America: A Portrait; and two books based on CILS: Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America; and 

Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, which won the American Sociological Association’s top awards for 

Distinguished Scholarship and for best book in the immigration field. With a panel of the National Academy of Sciences he worked 

on two recent volumes on the Hispanic population of the United States: Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies; and Hispanics and the 

Future of America. His other books include Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspectives; Origins and 

Destinies: Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in America; and California’s Immigrant Children: Theory, Research, and Implications 

for Educational Policy. He also edits (with Steve Gold) a research-oriented book series, The New Americans: Recent Immigration 

and American Society; under their editorship more than sixty titles have been published since 2002 on a wide range of immigration 

topics. www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4999 

06


Constant Leung 

Constant Leung is Professor of Educational Linguistics at King’s College London, University 

of London. He is Programme Chair of the MA in English Language Teaching and Applied 

Linguistics, and Director of the MA Assessment in Education in the Department of Education and 

Professional Studies. He also serves as Deputy Head of Department. Before taking up teaching 

positions in higher education he taught in schools and worked as advisory teacher. His research 

interests include language education in ethnically and linguistically diverse societies, second/additional language curriculum 

development, language assessment, language policy and teacher professional development. He has written and published widely 

on issues related to ethnic minority education, additional/second language curriculum, and language assessment nationally and 

internationally. Currently he is engaged in two research (and development) projects: modeling academic language and literacy in 

ethnolinguistically diverse classrooms in school and university (ESRC-funded), and designing curriculum material for ‘inclusive 

academic language teaching’ for teacher education (EU-based). 

Frank van Tubergen 

Frank van Tubergen is professor at the Department of Sociology and the Department of 

Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. He is affiliated with the research schools ICS and ERCOMER. 

His main research interests are: ethnic inequality in schooling and the labour market, 

immigrant language acquisition, religion, and interethnic contacts. 

Deborah Reed-Danahay 

Deborah Reed-Danahay is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at 

Buffalo. She is a specialist in the anthropology of France and has been elected President of 

the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (2010-2012). Her most recent research concerns 

transatlantic perspectives on the Vietnamese diaspora (US and France). She has previously done 

extensive research on topics related to rural studies in France. Her books include Education 

and Identity in Rural France: The Politics of Identity (1996), Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social (1997), Locating 

Bourdieu (2005), and (with co-editor Caroline Brettell) Citizenship, Political Engagement, and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe 

and the United States (2008). Her website is: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/Faculty/ReedDanahay.htm 

07

general conference information 

Conference Start 

See Map 

The Conference officially begins at 16:00 hrs on Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 

with a Welcome and Opening Plenary Session in the Synge Theatre 

on Level 2 of the Arts Building. 

Conference Reception Desk 

We have a dedicated Conference Reception Desk located on the 

Upper Concourse of the Arts Building (Level 2). 

It will be open at the following times: 

Wednesday, 30 June 13:00 to 18:00 hrs 

Thursday, 1 July 09:00 to 17:30 hrs 

Friday, 2 July 09:00 to 17:30 hrs 

Saturday, 3 July 09:00 to 13:00 hrs 

Messages may be left here for delegates. 

Completion of Registration 

All registration fees and other charges must be paid in full in order to 

complete your Registration. At this time, you will receive your Conference 

Programme & Book of Abstracts, as well as a Conference Badge. Please 

wear your badge at all times during the Conference, as only delegates 

with official Conference ID will be allowed into any of the Conference 

Sessions and functions. 

Conference Location 

The Conference will be 

held in the Arts Building. 

The best entrance to use 

would be the Nassau Street 

entrance (at the top of 

Dawson Street) as this leads 

directly into Level 2 of the 

Arts Building. All the rooms 

we are using are on Levels 

1, 2 and 6. 

Level 2 

Conference Reception Desk 

Emmet Theatre 

Synge Theatre 

Swift Theatre 

Ui Chadhain Theatre 

Level 1 

Beckett 1 

Beckett 2 

Level 6 

A6.009 Irish-Scottish 

Seminar Room 

C6.002 IIIS Seminar Room 

There are Conference 

Assistants to help guide 

you to the specific rooms on 

every level. 

08

general conference information 

Parallel Sessions 

Dress Code 

All presenters may upload their presentations in either MS PowerPoint or 

pdf format. They are responsible for ensuring that that their presentations 

are uploaded onto the computer in the room in advance of the start of 

their Session. A Conference Assistant will be available to assist in the 

process – please note that the rooms are only available for the last 15 

minutes of the break prior to the start of the Session. For example, upload 

anytime between 11:00 and 11:30 hrs for a Parallel Session 1 presentation. 

Presentations may of course be uploaded during any breaks prior to 

the allocated session, however only on the same day that they will be 

presented. 

During the Parallel Sessions, each presenting Author will make a 15-20 

minute presentation on their paper (depending on the number of papers in 

the Session). The Session Chair is responsible for directing any Q&A and for 

ensuring that the Session ends on time. Any time left at the end of the each 

Session will be devoted to general Q&A on all papers presented during the 

Session. Presenting Authors are therefore asked to remain in their rooms 

until the end of the Session. 

Papers 

Full papers are only available directly from the Authors. Email addresses of 

all delegates are available at the end of the Conference Programme. 

Photocopying 

There are no photocopying facilities available to us in the Arts Building, but 

there are a few retail outlets on Nassau Street which can provide you with 

this service. 

Catering 

Tea, coffee and water will be served during the breaks, as indicated in the 

Conference Programme, on the Upper Concourse (next to the Conference 

Reception Desk area). 

Delegates are reminded that they should make their own arrangements 

for lunch. On-campus, there is the Buttery Restaurant (beneath the Dining 

Hall), for those who prefer the economical option. Off-campus, there are 

many coffee shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants just beyond the Nassau 

Street entrance. 

The dress code for the 

entire Conference, including 

the Conference Gala Dinner, 

is smart casual. 

Car Parking 

There is no car parking 

available on campus. 

Social Events 

On Wednesday evening, 

after the Opening Plenary 

Session, you are invited to 

join us in the Java Vaults 

Café, below the Dining Hall 

here on-campus, for a Wine 

Reception. 

The Conference Gala Dinner 

will be held in the Dining 

Hall on Thursday evening, 

1 July 2010, at 19:30 hrs. 

Registered delegates who 

have paid the full academic 

registration rate do not 

have to pay any additional 

charges to attend this 

event – it is included in the 

registration fee – however, 

if you did not indicate on 

your registration form that 

you would attend this event, 

please double check with 

the Conference Reception 

Desk no later than 12:00 hrs 

on Thursday, 1 July 2010, 

as spaces are now 

very limited. 

09

programme 

wednesday 30 june 

WHEN? WHAT? WHERE? 

13:00 - 18:00 Registration Upper 

desk open 

Concourse, 

Level 2 

14:00 - 15:30 Pre-Conference Swift, Level 2 

Special Session 

“Vietnamese Migrants” 

Chair: Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin 

Deborah Reed-Danahay, SUNY Buffalo 

Mark Maguire, NUI Maynooth 

Vera Sheridan, Dublin City University 

16:00 - 16:30 Welcome Synge, Level 2 

John Hegarty, Provost 

James Wickham, Conference Chair 

friday 02 july 


09:00-17:30 Registration Upper 

Desk Open 

Concourse 

09:30-11:00 Parallel Sessions 4 

11:00-11:30 Tea & Coffee Upper 

Concourse 


13:00-14:00 Lunch (delegates’ own arrangements) 



Concourse 

16:00-17:30 Plenary Session Synge, Level 2 

Adrian Favell, Aarhus University 

16:30 - 18:00 Open Plenary Session Synge, Level 2 

Chair: Ronit Lentin, Trinity College Dublin 

Anna Triandafyllidou, 

European University Institute 

18:00 - 19:30 Wine Reception The Java Vaults 

below the 

Dining Hall 

thursday 01 july 



Desk Open 

Concourse 

09:30-11:00 Special Keynote Sessions 

(see page 11) 


Concourse 


13:00-14:00 Lunch (delegates’ own arrangements) 



Concourse 


19:30 Conference The 

Gala Dinner 

Dining Hall 

saturday 03 july 



Desk Open 

Concourse 



Concourse 


11:30-13:00 Community Forum Emmet, 

Level 2 

"Migrant Women Access to Education 

and Training” in association with AkiDwA, 

the African and Migrant Women’s Network 

10

plenary and keynote sessions 

wednesday 30 june 16:30-18:00 OPENING PLENARY SESSION 

Anna Triandafyllidou, European University Institute, Italy Synge, Level 2 

What is new in ‘new’ migrations? And how can we distinguish between ‘old’ and ‘new’ migrations? Anna 

proposes to distinguish between four periods in the last 60 years of European migration: the immediate post- 

World War II phase until 1974: the time of labour migrations across Europe; the reduced migration period 

between 1974 and 1989 – the period of family reunification and family formation; the post-1989 period – the 

‘re-connection’ of Europe; and the post-2004 period – the united Europe, globalization and securitization 

period. The presentation discusses the features that define each of these periods and explain their 

continuities and differences in relation to the overall geopolitical and economic context. In the second part 

of the lecture, Anna will also consider seven different migration pathways, notably labour migrations; family 

reunification/formation; co-ethnic (settler)migration; circular, temporary and seasonal migration (including 

intra-EU mobility); irregular migration; and asylum. She will examine how each pathway has changed across 

the four phases and in particular how it has been shaped and by which factors during the last years (the 4th 

and newest phase in European migrations). The presentation will conclude with highlighting the conceptual 

and policy-related issues arising in this new phase of migration in Europe and points to the need for forwardlooking 

research and policy. 

thursday 1 july 09:30-11:00 SPECIAL KEYNOTE SESSIONS 

“Longing and Belonging—Migrant Women’s Activism” Emmet, Level 2 

Umut Erel, The Open University, UK 

Migrant women are laying claim to citizenship practices. Though marginalized from the nation as legal or 

cultural outsiders, they create new meanings of belonging. Through the life-stories of migrant women in 

Britain and Germany, the presentation explores how these emerging subjects create new, counter-hegemonic 

citizenship practices across boundaries of class, gender, ethnicity and nation. Just consider the following 

examples: Birgul, a Turkish medical doctor in Germany successfully takes legal action to be allowed to open 

a surgery. She argues that the law foresees provision of medical services to the ‘population’ that is inclusive 

of Turkish-speaking women, rather than the nationally bounded citizens. Pinar, a single mother carefully 

builds a cross-ethnic family of choice. While she wants her daughter to learn the Turkish language and 

cultural practices, cultural pluralism is the core value she wants to transmit to her daughter. Selin challenges 

community leaders’ lack of democratic accountability. She incisively critiques that the British multicultural 

system’s reliance on community organizations reproduces intra-community power relations of gender, class 

and ethnicity. These women’s lives, both through their actions and as life-stories, help us to understand and 

theorise the active dimension of migrant women’s citizenship in terms of their social and political activism. 

Umut’s paper explores this through the lens of a politics of belonging, emphasising that belonging is actively 

negotiated. For many of the migrant women in her research, their social activism is an important instantiation 

of claiming belonging, because or despite not being recognized as legitimate participants shaping the 

societies they live in. 

11


“EU Enlargement and the Regionalization of Labour Migration in Europe” Synge, Level 2 

Ettore Recchi, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy 

After the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, intra-EU movements have become prominent in the labour migration 

landscape of Europe. These movements take place in the framework of EU free movement rights - a quite 

unique regime, which can still be qualified as /international/ migration, though it operates under the 

conditions of “internal” migration. In his address, drawing on Eurostat and EU Labour Force Survey data, 

Ettore will outline the overall pattern of intra-EU mobility between new and old member states. This outline 

will form the basis for a discussion of the relationship between citizenship and migration, the impact of the 

economic crisis, and future prospects for East-West mobility within the EU, claiming that enlargements have 

created a global region of (almost) self-feeding population movements. 

“Paradoxes of Immigration: Rethinking Crime, Disorder, and Societal Change” Ui Chadhain, Level 2 

Robert J Sampson, Harvard University, USA 

This session will explore the debate over crime and immigration that has created much acrimony, especially 

in the United States and Europe. Key facts about immigration, crime, and social cohesion will be discussed, 

with a focus on broad societal changes over the last 20 years. Special attention will be paid to how 

mismatched perceptions of “disorder” and immigrant groups shape the reproduction of community-level 

inequality. Drawing on results from a long-term study in Chicago, the presentation will also discuss competing 

social mechanisms for why immigration seems to make most communities safer rather than more violent. 

Implications for criminal justice and urban community policies will be highlighted. 

“Children, Youth, and Immigration’s Lasting Legacies; Coming of Age in Transition” Beckett 1, Level 1 

Rubén G Rumbaut, University of California, Irvine, USA 

Drawing on the premise that immigration, after all, is the province of the young and its lasting legacies tend to 

become manifest in the 2nd generation – Rubén’s talk is based on his research over the past three decades, 

including (though by no means limited to) our "Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study" and on transitions 

from adolescence to adulthood, as well as other important studies just recently completed. In the US there 

has been an ongoing theoretical debate between "second generation decline" and "second generation 

advantage" scenarios, and between conventional and "segmented assimilation" formulations; Rubén will aim 

to focus on actual empirical patterns while summarizing the status of present theoretical debates and their 

applicability in European as well as North American contexts. 

“Language Education for Ethnolinguistic Minorities responding to shifting diversities” Beckett 2, Level 1 

Constant Leung, King's College London, UK 

The provision of language education for ethnolinguistic minority students is a hotly debated issue across 

Europe. The main contention of this talk is that policy and practice in this area of education have to be tuned 

to the fast changing nature of contemporary ethnolinguistic diversities. In this talk, Constant will draw on the 

developments in English-speaking countries in the past thirty years or so to examine some of the main issues. 

The provision of English as an Additional/Second Language (EAL) for linguistic minority school students 

has been conceptualised very differently in different English-speaking school systems. In some education 

systems it is regarded as a distinct curriculum subject, in others it is seen as an issue of social integration 

12


and participation to be addressed by inclusive classroom practices. Constant will first explore a sample of 

different EAL conceptualisations in terms of their policy context and ideological underpinnings. In the second 

part, he will present a set of questions that can assist a critical analysis and evaluation of Additional Language 

Education policy and practice. His observations and arguments will draw on research in the fields of applied 

linguistics, language education and policy studies as well as practitioner views and experiences. 

“The Religiosity of Immigrants in Europe: Theories and Findings” IIIS Seminar Room, Level 6 

Frank van Tubergen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 

This session focuses on the religiosity of immigrants in Europe. Immigration flows increased dramatically 

in European countries after the 1960s, thereby changing the religious profiles of these countries. The study 

of immigrant religiosity provides an interesting testing ground for the theories in the sociology of religion. 

Whereas the sociology of religion has focused mainly on Christian groups in Western nations, immigrants 

originate from all over the world, including both highly religious and more secular nations, poor and rich, 

Christian and non-Christian. Are the well-known theories in the sociology of religion empirically supported 

when applied to the new immigrant population? This presentation discusses the main theories and 

hypotheses on immigrant religiosity, and it reviews the empirical findings from several recently conducted 

studies. 

“Social Space, Cultural Citizenship and Immigrant Incorporation” Swift, Level 2 

Deborah Reed-Danahay, SUNY Buffalo, USA 

The concept of immigrant “incorporation” is tied to ideas about merging into a social whole - literally, a social 

body (corpus). There is an implicit assumption that a “whole” exists, which is generally the unit of the nation, 

and that immigrants are faced with possibilities and barriers to joining this social body. Underlying ideas about 

immigrant incorporation are ideas about the nature of nation-states: homogeneous or diverse in their cultural 

make-up; seamless and coherent wholes or more loosely aligned states. Theories of cultural citizenship 

have addressed the ways in which “belonging” to the polity can occur without total cultural assimilation, and 

suggest ways of thinking about the nation that belie many official discourses of nationalism. This talk adopts 

Pierre Bourdieu’s observation that a group’s position in the society is connected to their position in geographic 

space in concrete places, and applies this to the study of immigrants and their presence and location in the 

places where they settle. Bourdieu also argued that to exist and be recognized as a group, the group must 

have a place in the social space. Social space is therefore about both positions in geographic space and in the 

more abstract arena of social positioning. By looking at immigrants through this lens of social space, we can 

consider the social agency of immigrants as they seek forms of emplacement and belonging in their new host 

societies and practice forms of cultural citizenship. I will draw upon some examples from my own research on 

Vietnamese in the US and France to illustrate these points. 

13


friday 2 july 16:00-17:30 PLENARY SESSION 

“Immigration, migration and free movement in the making of Europe: Synge, Level 2 

Reflections on the Conference” 

Adrian Favell, Aarhus University, Denmark 

Adrian’s presentation will reflect upon the contributions to this conference and how they illustrate the “new 

European migration system” that he has sketched in recent published work on East-West migration in Europe 

and European identity. In this, he argues for a more precise analytical distinction between three types of 

migration in Europe that are changing our conventional nation-centred models of immigration, integration 

and citizenship: older style immigration from outside Europe, high skilled intra-European and global 

migrations, and an intermediate category of new East-West and other migrations, originating in the EU’s 

recent new members and bordering states, that share features of both other types. One consequence is that 

as borders have opened to the East, they are closing to the South and further afield, a logic which may confirm 

a more racialised conception of Europe, albeit one with a distinctly regionalised concentric geography. 

14

parallel sessions at a glance 

Parallel 

Sessions 1 

Parallel 

Sessions 2 

Parallel 

Sessions 3 

Parallel 

Sessions 4 

Parallel 

Sessions 5 

Parallel 

Sessions 6 

Parallel 

Sessions 7 

Parallel 

Sessions 8 

thu, 1 july 

11:30-13:00 

thu, 1 july 

14:00-15:30 

thu, 1 july 

16:00-17:30 

fri, 2 july 

09:30-11:00 

fri, 2 july 

11:30-13:00 

fri, 2 july 

14:00-15:30 

sat, 3 july 

09:30-11:00 

sat, 3 july 

11:30-13:00 

a Post 2001 

Challenges: 

The UK 

Experience 

b 

c 

d 

Migration, 

Institutions and 

the Regulation 

of the Labour 

Market 

Migration, 

Mobility and 

Careers 

Migration 

Policy in 

Europe: 

Legal and 

Administrative 

Responses 

Migrant 

Networks and 

the State 

Migrant-led networks and their role in migrant integration 

. 

Migrant 

Networks from 

Formal to 

Informal 

Polish 

Migrant 

Networks 

Migrant 

Networks, 

Integration, 

Social 

Cohesion 

Religious 

Migrant 

Networks 

Networks, 

Media and 

Social Issues 

Migration, employment and the regulation of the labour market: 

the experience of new immigration countries in europe 

. 

High Skilled 

Migration 

The Labour 

Market 

Performance 

of Old 

and New 

Immigrants 

The Labour 

Market, Social 

Welfare and 

Demographics 

Migration, 

Gender and 

Employment 

Migration, 

Social 

Protection 

and 

Employment 

Rights 

The 

Constitution 

of Labour 

Market Needs 

From National 

Migration to 

European 

Mobility? 

No Session 

Migration, 

Integration 

and the 

Labour 

Market 

Migration, 

Employment 

and Social 

Stratification 

New Forms 

of Labour 

Mobility in 

Europe 

No Session 

Policy implications for state institutions with particular reference 

to criminal justice system and housing policies 

. 

Managing 

Migration in 

Ireland 

Managing 

Migration: 

Local, Regional 

and National 

Responses 

Push and 

Pull, Bricks 

and Mortar: 

Migration, 

Housing and 

Construction 

Eastern 

European 

Migrant 

Networks 

EU Enlargement 

and the Free 

Movement of 

Labour 

No Session 

No Session No Session No Session No Session 

Children, youth and immigration 

. 

e 

Identity and 

Immigrant 

Youth 

Large Scale 

Perspectives 

on Immigrant 

Youth 

Second 

Generation 

Immigrant 

Youth 

The Children 

and Families 

of Polish 

and Russian 

Immigrants 

Immigration 

and the Life of 

the School 

Young 

Asylum 

Seekers and 

Refugees 

No Session 

No Session 

f 

Education 

Policy 

Teaching the language of education to immigrant pupils and students 

. 

English as 

a Second 

Language in 

Irish Primary 

Schools 

English as 

a Second 

Language in 

Irish Second 

and Third Level 

Education 

Home 

Language 

The Role of 

Migrants’ 

Home 

Language at 

School 

The TII’s 

English 

Language 

Support 

Programme 

Methodological Issues In Large Scale Migration Research 

. 

The TII’s 

English 

Language 

Support 

Programme 

Future Research 

Directions 

g Method 1 Method 2 Method 3 Method 4 Method 5 Method 6 Method 7 Method 8 

Integration: policies, practices and challenges 

. 

h 

East European 

and Return 

Migration 

New 

Immigration 

Societies & 

the Impact of 

Education and 

Democracy on 

Immigration 

No Session 

Health, 

Humour and 

Integration 

No Session Identity The Impact of 

Education and 

Democracy on 

Immigration 

Focus on Ireland 

15

*Where there are multiple authors, an asterisk indicates the presenting author. 

parallel sessions 

thursday 1 july 11:30-13:00 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 

MIGRANT NETWORKS 

SESSION 1a Post 2001 Challenges: The UK Experience 

Chair: Ronit Lentin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Part of the British Mainstream? Islamic Student Associations and Assertions of “Belonging” 

Miri Song, University of Kent, UK 

The Afghan Migration Project after 2001: destination UK 

M Assunta Nicolini, City University London, UK 

MIGRATION, EMPLOYMENT & REGULATION 

SESSION 1b Migrations, Institutions and the Regulation of the Labour Market 

Chair: Franca van Hooren, European University Institute, Italy 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 

A flood of cheap labour? Mass immigration and the re-regulation of the Irish labour market 

*James Wickham, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


Alicja Bobek, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


Justyna Salamonska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The transnationalisation of a national labour market, is it policy or market driven? 

Claudia Hartmann-Hirsch, CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg 

Trade unions and non citizens in Western European countries 

Andrew Richards, Juan March Institute, Spain 

*Anastasia Gorodzeisky, Juan March Institute, Spain 

c 

Swift, 

Level 2 


SESSION 1c Migration, Mobility and Careers 

Chair: Jutta Hoehne, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin 

(Social Science Research Center), Germany 

Liquid migration and labour market careers 

*Godfried Engbersen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

Snel Erik, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

International Middle Class Migration and Mobility: French Nationals Working in the UK 

Rueyling Tzeng, Academia Sinica, Taiwan 

Drain, gain, waste and circulation: highly skilled immigrants in Portugal 

*Pedro Gois, University of Porto, Portugal 

José Marques, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria – INDEA, Portugal 

16


POLICY IMPLICATIONS 

SESSION 1d Migration Policy in Europe: Legal and Administrative Responses 

Chair: Eoin Healy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

d 

Ui Chadhain, 

Level 2 

Legal and procedural change as instruments in immigration policy transformation: the case of administrative 

law in France. 

Nora El Qadim, Sciences Po, France 

The Legal Framework for Integration in the European Union: Detaching Integration from the 

Constraints of the Nation State? 

Cliodhna Murphy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Direct Provision and Dispersal: A Push Factor? 

Saoirse Brady, Free Legal Advice Centre, Ireland 

CHILDREN, YOUTH AND IMMIGRATION 

SESSION 1e Identity and Immigrant Youth 

Chair: Robbie Gilligan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 

Proud to be Hmong? The Construction of Ethnic Identity among Second Generation Hmong in the U.S. 

Grit Grigoleit, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany 

Placing identities and coping with diversity: strategies of South Asian children and youth in Switzerland 

Pascale Herzig, Universität Fribourg, Switzerland 

Returning to the country they never left. Young luso-descendants from France that choose Portugal to live 

*Margarida Carvalho, Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE – IUL), Portugal 

Vera Henriques, CIES – ISCTE – IUL, Portugal 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 1f Education Policy 

Chair: Zach Lyons, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

“Multicultural Britishness”: Balancing the Nation, Europe and Migration in 

Curriculum and Policy Discourses in England 


The Includ-ed project 

*John Lalor, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Carmel Mulcahy, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Charlotte Holland, Dublin City University, Ireland 

17


METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES 

SESSION 1g 

Chair: Antje Roeder, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 

Displacement and income effects of Central and Eastern European labour migrants in the Netherlands 

*Ernest Berkhout, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Siemen van der Werff, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Arjan Heyma, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Job mobility of Polish migrants in Ireland 


In and out from employment and unemployment. An Analysis of migrants' penalisation in Employment 

Trajectories in Italy 

*Emilio Reyneri, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy 

Giovanna Fullin, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy 

h 

Irish-Scottish 

Seminar Room, 

Level 6 

INTEGRATION 

Session 1h East European and Return Migration 

Chair: Marianna Prontera, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The state, media, and racialisation of Hungarian and Romanian migration to the UK 

*Jon Fox, University of Bristol, UK 

Laura Morosanu, University of Bristol, UK 

Eszter Szilassy, University of Bristol, UK 

Difficult come backs. Some re-adaptation problems of Polish migrants. 

Monika Banas, Jagiellonian University, Poland 

Determinants of Return Migration: Evidence from Migrants living in South Africa 

Daniel Makina, University of South Africa, South Africa 

thursday 1 july 14:00-15:30 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 


SESSION 2a Migrant Networks and the State 

Chair: Erica Dobbs, MIT Massachussetts Institute of Technology, USA 

Does state support strengthen immigrant organisations? A theoretical framework 

and some evidence from Spain 

Guillermo Toral, University of Oxford, UK 

Integration from below: A historical analysis of migrant-led organisations in Ireland 


Overcoming Isolation and Exclusion: (New) Migrant Political Entrepreneurs’ Strategies and Practices 

Fidele Mutwarasibo, University College Dublin, Immigrant Council of Ireland & Africa Centre, Ireland 

18



SESSION 2b High Skilled Migration 

Chair: Elaine Moriarty, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 

Women on the move? The integration of highly-skilled women migrants into Germany's technology sector 


What is good for highly-skilled immigrants and what are highly-skilled immigrants good for? 

The case of Lithuania. 

Liutauras Labanauskas, Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania 

The Experiences of Skilled Immigrants in the Irish Labour Market 

Eithne Heffernan, University of Limerick, Ireland 


SESSION 2c The Labour Market Performance of Old and New Immigrants 

Chair: Justyna Salamonska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

c 

Swift, 

Level 2 

Evidence from Denmark - Job-to-Skill Match among Highly-Educated Immigrant Women 

Helle Bendix Lauritzen, AKF Danish Institute of Governmental Research, Denmark 

Entrepreneurial efforts by immigrants: A longitudinal study for Portugal 

*Miguel Amaral, Instituto Superior Técnico -Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal 

Joana Mendonça, Instituto Superior Técnico -Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal 

Host-country cultural capital and labour market trajectories of migrants in Germany. The impact of hostcountry 

orientation and migrant-specific human and social capital on labour market transitions 

*Jutta Hoehne, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 

Ruud Koopmans, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 


SESSION 2d Managing Migration in Ireland 

Chair: Eoin O’Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

d 

Ui Chadhain, 

Level 2 

Policy Paradoxes: The State and the Causes of Trafficking for Forced Labour in Ireland 

*Gillian Wylie, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Deirdre Coughlan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Governmentality of Immigration 

Jennifer Dagg, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 

Minority Ethnic Communities’ Access to Housing—Good Practice for Local Authorities 

Vanda Clayton, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland 

*Conor Farrell, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland 

19



SESSION 2e Large Scale Perspectives on Immigrant Youth 

Chair: Philip Curry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 

The effect of host country institutions and social stratification on educational achievement of immigrants 

*Janna Teltemann, University of Bremen, Germany 

Michel Windzio, University of Bremen, Germany 

Academic sphere and immigrant children in Ireland 

Merike Darmody, ESRI Economic and Social Research Institute, Ireland 

Integration and Identity: Evidence from Governments, Schools and Youth in Europe 


f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 2 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 2f English as a Second Language in Irish Primary Schools 

Chair: Constant Leung, King’s College London, UK 

Research in an Irish Primary School: Some insights gained into teaching and learning ESL 

Déirdre Kirwan, Scoil Bhríde Girls' National School, Blanchardstown, Dublin, Ireland 

Teaching English as a Second Language to Immigrant Pupils in Irish Primary Schools 

Joanna Kosmalska, University of Łódź, Poland 

The education system's response to the linguistic challenges of immigration 

Bronagh Catibušic, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


SESSION 2g 

Chair: Peter Mühlau, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 

Ethnic Competition Theory in a Dynamic Perspective: What Economic Shocks Teach 

us about Inter-Group Attitudes 

*Bram Lancee, European University Institute & University of Amsterdam, Italy & The Netherlands 

Sergi Pardos-Prado, European University Institute, Italy 

The Apple Does Fall Far from the Tree: The Welfare State and the Social Capital of Immigrants 

and their Children. 

*Rocio Calvo, Harvard University, USA 

Natalia Sarkisian, Boston College, USA 

Mary C Waters, Harvard University, USA 

Terje A Eikemo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway 

Welfare state provisions and immigration policies in Belgium and Ireland. 

Gerlinde Verbist, University of Antwerp, Belgium 

20


h 


Seminar Room, 

Level 6 

INTEGRATION 

Session 2h New Immigration Societies & the Impact of Education 

and Democracy on Immigration 

Chair: Judith Brown, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Integration of immigrants and new immigration countries: The case of Croatia 

Jadranka Cacic-Kumpes, University of Zadar, Croatia 

*Drago Župaric-Iljic, Institute for Migration and Ethnnic Studies, Croatia 

The Influence of Education on Individual Mobility: Considering East-West Migration in Germany 

Silvia Melzer, Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

From Democracies to Dictatorships: Political Determinants of the Direction of Migration Flows 

Atisha Kumar, Yale University & University of Cambridge, USA & UK 

thursday 1 july 16:00 - 17:30 


SESSION 3a Migrant Networks from Formal to Informal 

Chair: Umut Erel, The Open University, UK 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 

The role of migrant networks in Spain: From vulnerability to the recognition of diversity 

Elisa Brey, Universidad Complutense de Madrid & Université de Liège, Spain & Belgium 

Interethnic Friendships in Germany 

*Diana Schacht, Georg August Universität Göttingen, Germany 

Cornelia Kristen, Georg August Universität Göttingen, Germany 

Ingrid Tucci, DIW German Institute for Economic Research, Germany 

Networking sisterhood: the case of AkiDwA, the African and Migrant Women's Network, Ireland 


b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 3b The Labour Market, Social Welfare and Demographics 

Chair: Kieran Walsh, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 

Labour market concerns versus family needs: How welfare state institutions affect immigration policies for 

migrant care workers 

Franca van Hooren, European University Institute, Italy 

Population trends, human capital and the role of migrant workers in ageing societies 

Alessio Cangiano, University of Oxford, UK 

Labour market inclusion and labour market exclusion among youths - 

What role does immigrant background play? 

*Jonas Månsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden 

Lennart Delander, Linnaeus University, Sweden 

21



SESSION 3c Migration, Gender and Employment 

Chair: Sally Daly, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland 

c 

Swift, 

Level 2 

Migrant women, employment and local development 

*Manuela Samek Lodovici, IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, Italy 

Renata Semenza, Università degli studi di Milano, Italy 

Flavio Scantimburgo, Università degli studi di Milano, Italy 

Daniela Loi, IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, Italy 

Self-employment of non EU immigrant women in Switzerland 

*Philipp Meier, University of Bern, Switzerland 

Raphaela Hettlage, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland 


SESSION 3d Managing Migration: Local, Regional and National Responses 

Chair: Caroline O’Nolan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

d 

Ui Chadhain, 

Level 2 

Managing Migration in a Multi-National State: Regional vs. National Government Immigration Policy in Spain 

Erica Dobbs, MIT Massachussetts Institute of Technology, USA 

Changing Dynamics of Migration within the Americas 

Jacqueline Mazza, Inter-American Development Bank, USA 

*Eleanor Sohnen, Inter-American Development Bank, USA 

Transformations of migration patterns and European migration policy: administrative and policy reactions in a 

neighbouring country - the case of Morocco. 



SESSION 3e Second Generation Immigrant Youth / Masculinities and Migrant Boys 

Chair: TBC 

e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 

Generating intercultural integration or reproducing the Others? An anthropological study of Ecuadorian and 

Moroccan immigrants’ children in the secondary schools in a district of Seville. 

Simone Castellani, University of Seville, Spain 

The Influence of the Body in Migrant and Indigenous Boys’ Interactions within the Masculine 

Hierarchy of the School 

Lindsey Garratt, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 3f English as a Second Language in Irish Second and Third Level Education 

Chair: Zach Lyons, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Inclusion or invasion? How post-primary teachers view newcomer students in the mainstream classroom 

Fiona Kearney, Special Education Support Service, Ireland 

The linguistic challenges of immigration: the higher education sector’s response 

Brid Ní Chonaill, Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Ireland 

22



SESSION 3g 


g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 

Occupational Incorporation of Immigrants in Western European Countries 


Moshe Semyonov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

Residential Segregation and Spatial Assimilation among Immigrants in European Societies 

Anya Glikman, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

*Moshe Semyonov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

The socio-economic integration of second-generation minority ethnic groups in Great Britain 

and the USA (1990-2000) 

Yaojun Li, The University of Manchester, UK 

A cross-national investigation of secularization among the children of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants 

*Ruud Koopmans, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 

Evelyn Ersanilli, University of Oxford, UK 

h 

INTEGRATION 

Session 3h No Session 

friday 2 july 09:30 - 11:00 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 


SESSION 4a Polish Migrant Networks 

Chair: Justyna Salamonska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

How and why people use transnational migration networks in small-town Poland 

Anne White, University of Bath, UK 

“Living the life in movement”: Migration, mobility and social networks of recent Polish migrants in England 

Agnieszka Ignatowicz, Aston University, UK 

The myth of “weak ties” and the informal networks of Polish migrants in the UK and Germany 

Malgorzata Irek, University of Oxford, UK 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 4b Migration, Social Protection and Employment Rights 

Chair: Torben Krings, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

A Question of Equality: Some Aspects of the Temporary Restrictions in Access to the EU-15 Labour Market in 

the Czech Republic 

Selma Muhic Dizdarevic, Charles University, Czech Republic 

Wilful negligence: The lack of employment protection for migrant workers under New Labour. 

Mick Wilkinson, University of Hull, UK 

What rights for migrant workers? The economics and politics of migrant rights 

Martin Ruhs, University of Oxford, UK 

23



SESSION 4c The Constitution of Labour Market Needs 

Chair: Zinovijus Ciupijus, University of Leeds, UK 

c 

Swift, 

Level 2 

A “season” of change: intensification, mobility and agency on “local” sites of production. 

Sally Daly, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland 

The constitution of labour market needs in Western Europe 

Camilla Devitt, European University Institute, Italy 

Recruitment Processes and Immigration Regulations: The Disjointed Pathways 

to Employing Migrant Carers in Ageing Societies 

*Kieran Walsh, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 


d 

Ui Chadhain, 

Level 2 


SESSION 4d Push and Pull, Bricks and Mortar: Migration, Housing and Construction 

Chair: Alana Smith, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Public Housing Magnets: the Impact of Public Housing on Immigrants’ Location in France 

Gregory Verdugo, Banque de France, France 

State, Union and Unauthorized Migrants in the Swedish Construction Sector - 

a Case Study in the Policy of Deportation 

Denis Frank, Lund University, Sweden 

e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 


SESSION 4e The Children and Families of Polish and Russian Immigrants 

Chair: Sheila Greene, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Polish migrants and their children in London: encountering schools 

*Louise Ryan, Middlesex University, UK 

Alessio D'Angelo, Middlesex University, UK 

Magdalena Lopez- Rodriguez, Middlesex University, UK 

Children of Emigration: an exploratory study of the acculturation experience of Polish adolescents in Ireland 

Beata Sokolowska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

“My nationality is Capricorn” - narratives of Russian-speaking adolescents and their parents on migration and 

its influence on family practices, parental aspirations and adolescents position at school 

Svetlana Eriksson, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

24 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 4f Home Language 

Chair: Piet Van Avermaet, Ghent University, Belgium 

How do Turkish and German children acquire early mathematical abilities? 

Nicole Biedinger, University of Mannheim, Germany 

Bilingualism and educational achievement: Does L1 matter? 

*Joerg Dollmann, University of Mannheim, Germany 


Mapping The Diversity of home Language Resources. Two case studies of Turkish and Chinese language 

maintenance in Sydney, Australia. 

Liam Morgan, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia


g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 


SESSION 4g 


Using cognitive interviewing techniques to improve surveys of the remittance sending practices of immigrants 

Audrey Lenoel, University of Bristol, UK 

Who is in, who is out? Some Methodological and Conceptual Challenges for Survey-Based Research into 

Changing Migration-Labour Market Constellations 

Kenneth Horvath, University of Vienna, Austria 

*Sanna Markkanen, University of Cambridge, UK 

Linguistic Diversity Management: a Large-scale Longitudinal Approach on Multilingualism 

*Joana Duarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Thorsten Klinger, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Patrick Grommes, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Ingrid Gogolin, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Jens Siemon, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

h 


Seminar 

Room, Level 6 

INTEGRATION 

Session 4h Health, Humour and Integration 

Chair: Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The Funny Side of Integration: Linking humour and cross-cultural adaptation 

Maria Ramirez de Arellano, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Behind closed doors: Understanding the politics of migrant health conditions in Modern Ireland - 

The case of Sickle Cell Disease 

Esther Owuta-Pepple Onolememen, University College Dublin, Ireland 

friday 2 july 11:30 - 13:00 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 


SESSION 5a Migrant Networks, Integration, Social Cohesion 

Chair: Alessia Passarelli, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Community Cohesion Policies and Civil Society Organizations 

Pamela Castro, Nottingham University, UK 

Chinese Earthquake Appeal Network in Ireland 

Ying Yun Wang, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 5b From National Migration to European Mobility? 

From National Migration to European Mobility? Lessons of the Polish-Irish Experience 

James Wickham, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

James Wickham's paper will be followed by a roundtable discussion. Speakers to be announced. 

c 


SESSION 5c No Session 

25


d 


SESSION 5d No Session 

e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 


SESSION 5e Immigration and the Life of the School 

Chair: TBC 

Inter-ethnic relations inside the child’s social space: What adults don’t see or hear 

*Philip Curry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


Intergenerational transmission of interethnic social contacts 

*Sarah Carol, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 


Daily encounters between “non-immigrant” and “immigrant” youth in schools’ ethnic 

identity processes and boundary making 

*Kerstin Duemmler, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

Janine Dahinden, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

Joëlle Moret, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 5f The Role of Migrants’ Home Language at School 

Chair: David Little, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

How to deal with plurilingual repertoires in multilingual classrooms? 

*Piet Van Avermaet, Ghent University, Belgium 

Sven Sierens, Ghent University, Belgium 

Piet Van Avermaet’s paper will be followed by a roundtable discussion. 

Members of the roundtable: 

Joana Duarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany 


Deirdre Kirwan, Principal, Scoil Bhríde Girls' National School, Blanchardstown, Ireland 

Breda Naughton, Department of Education and Skills, Office of the Minister of State for Integration, Ireland 

g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 


SESSION 5g 


The economic returns of bonding and bridging social capital for immigrant men in Germany 

Bram Lancee, European University Institute & University of Amsterdam, Italy & The Netherlands 

Different networks, different social resources? The ethnic (in)equality in the access to social capital in Belgium 

*Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe, Ghent University, Belgium 

Bart Van de Putte, Ghent University, Belgium 

Leisure behaviour of Eastern European immigrants 

Julia Sevtsenko, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

26 

Core networks of Polish migrants in Ireland - Polonia in Dublin 2009 study 

*Monika Kaliszewska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Peter Mühlau, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland


h 

INTEGRATION 


friday 2 july 14:00 - 15:30 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 


SESSION 6a Religious Migrant Networks 

Chair: Ronit Lentin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Islam in Ireland: establishing organisational frameworks for a migrant religion in Europe 

Oliver Scharbrodt, University College Cork, Ireland 

Migration and Integration. The responses of the Church of Ireland 

Alessia Passarelli, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Religion and Social Integration: A Case Study of Polish Catholics in Ireland 

Kerry Gallagher, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 6b Migration, Integration and the Labour Market 

Chair: Alicja Bobek, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Invisible Visible Minority: Chinese in Serbia 

Maja Korac, University of East London, UK 

Waves of Migration: Social and Economic dimensions of Brazilian immigrants in Portugal 

*José Marques, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria – INDEA, Portugal 

Pedro Gois, University of Porto, Portugal 

Mass Immigration in the US: Who Gains and Who Loses? 

*Lynn Duggan, Indiana University of Bloomington, USA 

Barbara Bergmann, American University, USA 

c 

Swift, 

Level 2 


SESSION 6c Migration, Employment and Social Stratification 

Chair: Camilla Devitt, European University Institute, Italy 

New EU citizens and migrant workers in Britain: analysing social experiences of Central Eastern Europeans in 

the local labour market 

Zinovijus Ciupijus, University of Leeds, UK 

The new stratifications of migrant labour in the hospitality industry in London: everyday experiences at work 

and mobility strategies 

Gabriella Alberti, Cardiff University, UK 

New and Old Immigrants in Portugal: Impacts on Employment 

Sonia Pereira, University of Lisbon, Portugal 

27


d 



e 

Beckett 1, 

Level 1 


SESSION 6e Young Asylum Seekers and Refugees 

Chair: TBC 

Refugee and Asylum Seeking Children: Emerging Paradigms in Research and Practice 

Charles Watters, Rutgers University, USA 

The Pre-departure Lives of Unaccompanied Minors: the “Ordinary” Amidst the “Extraordinary” 

Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Supporting social inclusion for refugee youth 

*Karen Block, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Elisha Riggs, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Lisa Gibbs, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Deborah Warr, University of Melbourne, Australia 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 6f The TII’s English Language Support Programme I 


Teaching English to Immigrant Students in Irish Post-Primary Schools: the Irish School System, Students' 

Identities & Access to Education 

Rachael Fionda, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The academic language demands of the Irish post-primary curriculum and English language support for 

immigrant students 

Stergiani Kostopoulou, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 


SESSION 6g 


The Educational Achievement of Immigrant Children: Does Parents' Relative Education Play a Role? 

*Ozge Bilgili, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands 

Frank Van Tubergen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 

Marcel Coenders, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 

Immigrant Integration and Transnational Activities. Longitudinal Evidence from Germany 

Reinhard Schunck, University of Bielefeld, Germany 

Investigating policy effects, mission impossible? A modest attempt at investigating the effects of integration 

policies on the socio-cultural integration of immigrants. 


Immigrants’ Confidence in Criminal Justice Institutions 


*Antje Roeder, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

28


h 


Seminar Room, 

Level 6 

INTEGRATION 

Session 6h Identity 

Chair: Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Sexing Up Migration Studies : Homosexual Identity and Stigma Management in Contemporary Migration Flows 

to Belgium 

Wim Peumans, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium 

Transnational migrant identity and networks: the case of migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal 

Demyan Belyaev, Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies, Portugal 

Belonging’s uncertainty: Latin Americans in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland 

Fina Carpena-Mendez, Oregon State University, USA 

saturday 3 july 09:30 - 11:00 

a 

Emmet, 

Level 2 


SESSION 7a Networks, Media and Social Issues 

Chair: Carla De Tona, The University of Manchester, UK 

Migrant Led Networks, Social Capital and Immigrant Associationism. Observations on the Case of the Latin 

Americans in Seville 

Francisco José Cuberos Gallardo, University of Seville, Spain 

Immigrant’s Media and Integration: Case study of Metro Éireann and African Bulletin newspapers 

*Yemi Obalanlege, University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Hilde van den Bulck, University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Migrant-led networks to connect or disconnect?: The perspective of the visually impaired migrant in Ireland. 

Esther Murphy, Dublin City University, Ireland 

b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 7b New Forms of Labour Mobility in Europe 

Chair: James Wickham, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

New forms of labour mobility? Polish migrants in Ireland after European Union Enlargement, 2004 


New migration patterns and experiences of Latvian labour migrants 

Zaiga Krisjane, University of Latvia, Latvia 

*Elina Apsite, University of Latvia, Latvia 

The impact of the recent wave of emigration on the Polish labour market and its 

social implications in the public debates 

Mariusz Dzieglewski, Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN, Poland 

c 



d 



29


e 


SESSION 7e No Session 

f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 7f The TII’s English Language Support Programme II 


Assessing the impact of ELSP materials in post-primary language support and mainstream subject classrooms 


g 

IIIS Seminar 

Room, Level 6 


SESSION 7g 

Chair: TBC 

Muslim women in the German labour market: A large scale assessment of their 

economical activity and occupational success 

*Stephanie Muessig, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees 

Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany 

Anja Stichs, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Germany 

Gender gap? The divergent gender role attitudes of immigrant men and women 


h 

INTEGRATION 


saturday 3 july 11:30-13:00 

a 

Swift, 

Level 2 

(Note Room 

Change) 


SESSION 8a Eastern European Migrant Networks 

Chair: Elena Moreo, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Interacting Networks of Migrant Entrepreneurs from the Former Soviet Union to Israel: An Exploratory Study 

Sibylle Heilbrunn, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel 

From the “Uprooted” to the “Rootless”? Transnational Social Ties of Romanian Migrants in London 


Migrant-led networks and their development and role in migrants' trajectories - the case of Polish postaccession 

migrants 

Justyna Samolyk, Queen’s University Belfast, UK 

30


b 

Synge, 

Level 2 


SESSION 8b EU Enlargement and the Free Movement of Labour 

Chair: Martin Ruhs, University of Oxford, UK 

The macroeconomic consequences of migration diversion: evidence for Germany and the UK 

*Timo Baas, IAB Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

Herbert Bruecker, IAB Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

Occupational attainments of New Member States migrants in the Irish labour market 


Free access to the common market? The dynamics of intra-European migrants’ employment and mobility 

within the European market. The case of Spain and Italy in comparative perspective 

Roxana Barbulescu, European University Institute, Italy 

c 



d 



e 


SESSION 8e No Session 

EDUCATION 

SESSION 8f Presentation and Roundtable Discussion: Future Research Directions 


Future research perspectives: implications of the LiMA project 


f 

Beckett 2, 

Level 1 

The research cluster “Linguistic Diversity Management in Urban Areas – LiMA” aims to address questions 

of multilingual development in the context of urbanisation and migration. LiMA brings together linguistic, 

educational and sociological expertise. The cluster builds on five sub-projects, so-called interdisciplinary 

networks (iNets). Within one of these iNets we examine “Language Development in Educational Settings”. This 

iNet focuses on 14 to 18-year-old students, i.e. the final two years of general education in Germany and the 

transition to upper secondary education or into the vocational training system. This age group at this particular 

transition point is of huge interest for a number of reasons. First of all, it has been widely neglected both in 

research on (bi- and multilingual) language development as well as from an educational perspective. Secondly, 

competence in the majority language, and more specifically academic language competence, plays a critical role 

in accessing knowledge and building up opportunities to successfully enter the labour market. The development 

of this competence against a multilingual background, including transfer effects between the various languages, 

needs to be understood. We also want explore the potential of multilingual (academic) language competence 

as a resource for learning. We shall therefore assess the linguistic competencies of the students over this 

developmental period, document multilingual language use and interactional patterns in the classroom. In 

addition we plan to explore opportunities for pedagogical interventions in LiMA Laboratory Schools. 

Patrick Grommes‘ paper will be followed by a roundtable discussion. 



Constant Leung, King’s College London, UK 

Piet Van Avermaet, Ghent University, Belgium 


31



SESSION 8g 

Chair: TBC 

g 

Ui Chadhain, 

Level 2 

(Note Room 

Change) 

Politics and indicators of immigrant integration in Romania 

Astrid Hamberger, University of Bucharest, Romania 

Foreign-born in Europe and their attitudes towards immigration: evidence from the 

European Values Survey 2008 

*Aigul Alieva, CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg 

Marie Valentova, CEPS/INSTEAD and KU Leuven, Luxembourg 

Short-Term Training Programs for Immigrants: Do Effects Differ from Natives and Why? 

Alisher Aldashev, Kazakh-British Technical University of Almaty, Kazakhstan 

Stephan L Thomsen, University of Magdeburg, Germany 

*Thomas Walter, ZEW Centre for European Economic Research, Germany 

h 


Seminar 

Room, Level 6 

INTEGRATION 

Session 8h Focus on Ireland 

Chair: Wale Mogaji, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Nothing to do with me: Observation without interaction – The Irish professional social class and those they 

categorise as ‘immigrants’ 

Martina Byrne, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

European migrants in Ireland: the challenge of integration 

*Bettina Migge, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Mary Gilmartin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland 

Leitkultur Debates in Northwest Europe: Convergence or divergence? 


*Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

32

abstracts by stream and session 

migrant networks 

SESSION 1a Post 2001 Challenges: The UK Experience 

Part of the British Mainstream? Islamic Student Associations and Assertions of “Belonging” 

Miri Song, University of Kent, UK 

In recent years, and especially in the post 9/11 and 7/7 world, much of the attention on British Muslims has focused upon their alleged 

extremism and the ways in which their beliefs and practices are said to be fundamentally at odds with ‘mainstream’ British society. 

What I wish to explore in this paper is the way in which British born second generation Muslims are attempting to assert their identities 

as Muslims, while also claiming to belong to the British mainstream. Most British Muslims, not surprisingly, are keenly aware of 

their problematic representation in the wider society, and there is growing evidence that they reject crude, dualistic notions of either 

integration vs. segregation. 

In particular, this paper will examine British Muslim students’ involvement in Islamic Student Associations (ISOCs) in several British 

universities in the Southeast. These ISOCs comprise well organized networks for British Muslims in higher education to mobilize around 

their concerns as British Muslims students on university campuses, and they also provide opportunities for British Muslim students to 

challenge problematic representations of themselves as occupying the fringes of mainstream British society. In what ways do students in 

these organizations make assertions about being both Muslim and British, and what kinds of activities and mobilizations are undertaken 

by ISOCs on behalf of Muslim students? How does their agenda and activities underline assertions about ‘belonging’ while also 

demonstrating their ‘public ethnicity’? Is there a pan-Asian Muslim identity emerging among second generation Muslims in Britain (which 

differs from the more ethnically specific affiliations of their parents, and which is also more politicized)? Furthermore, can we discern a 

clear difference between British Muslim students who belong to ISOCs and those who do not (in terms of their beliefs and practices)? 

This research is drawn from one part of a comparative, European study funded by NORFACE, which focuses upon second generation 

Muslims in Belgium, German, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Britain. Focus groups with ISOC members and non-members were carried 

out in 3 different universities in the Southeast. 

The Afghan Migration Project after 2001: destination UK 

M Assunta Nicolini, City University London, UK 

This paper presents early findings of my study among Afghans arrived in the UK and in particular in London after 2001. 

Although Afghans have a long history of migration, forced or otherwise, especially towards the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran, 

after the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001 new dynamics characterised the migration of such population. 

Migration for Afghans is a coping strategies that allowed them to survive decades of war and environmental calamities. For many 

however to migrate means also to look for better living opportunities. After 2001, those who came to Europe had to deal with increasingly 

restricted immigration policies which in many cases left Afghans few possibilities to settles in The UK. 

The case of London is aimed to explore the migration project of young male Afghans arrived in the capital and to understand which are 

the main strategies employed in order to realize such project. From a theoretical perspective I engage with debates around the validity 

of a distinction between migration and forced migration demonstrating how rigid categorizations between categories such as those of 

migrants and refugees can be erroneous. From a methodological perspective the study is based mainly on qualitative interviewing, both 

individual and focus groups, among young Afghans living in London. However, in order to maximize the validity of the study several set of 

quantitative data have been analysed. 

SESSION 2a Migrant Networks and the State 

Does state support strengthen immigrant organisations? A theoretical framework and some evidence from Spain 

Guillermo Toral, University of Oxford, UK 

Immigrant organisations are increasingly subjected to the analysis of the social sciences, especially because of their relevance to the 

integration of aliens and to the democratic governance of diverse societies. Some of the most enriching contributions have explored 

the role that the state plays in shaping the field of immigrant organizations, as well as the process through which these organizations 

promote the development of social capital. Furthermore, some authors have showed how state intervention can strengthen immigrant 

movements and organisations. Nevertheless, previous research has failed to empirically assess the potential of public intervention within 

the field of immigrant organisations for hindering the development of an immigrant civil society. 

33


I focus on the case of Spanish immigrant organisations to build a comprehensive analytical framework that can help us to understand 

the interplay between state intervention, ecological dynamics amongst organisations and the development of social capital among 

immigrants themselves. In doing so, I draw on several sources, especially a set of elite interviews with leaders of immigrant 

organisations, as well as on the contributions of the literature on social movements, on ethnic mobilisation and on social capital. It is 

shown that, in the Spanish case, the relationships between immigrant organisations and public powers are not balanced by a dense interorganisational 

network, nor are they harmonised by an active participation of their members, to the detriment of a true civil society in this 

domain. All this has negative implications for the associations’ capacity to act as creators of social capital and to integrate immigrants, 

which eventually questions the adequacy of strong public support of immigrant organisations. 

Integration from below: A historical analysis of migrant-led organisations in Ireland 


This paper discusses migrants’ responses to settlement and integration policies in their new Irish destination. One response has been 

the creation of migrant-led organisations and networks, the subject of the Trinity Immigration Initiative Migrant Networks Project (www. 

tcd.ie/immigration/networks/). The paper critically evaluates the short history of migrant-led networks in the Irish context by examining 

several such organisations theoretically and empirically. 

Following the three-pronged trajectory used to analyse migrant women’s networks (Dr Tona and Lentin, forthcoming), this paper 

historicises the development of migrant-led organisations in Ireland along three developmental stages, paralleling the transformation of 

Ireland’s migration regime. It suggests that while the first stage in the development of migrant-led associations denoted the spontaneous 

establishment of networks and organisations in response to the vagaries of migration, the second stage was one of cooptation and 

inclusion, in which the state and the NGO sector united in supporting, but also appropriating migrants’ independent voices. 

After a theoretical discussion of migrant-led organisations, representation and resistance, building on Fanon’s notion of ‘lived experience’ 

as the basis for antiracism, the paper looks at the history of migrant-led organisations in Ireland, using four examples of migrant-led 

organisations and campaigns, ARASI – the Association of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Ireland, the Irish Association of Minority Ethnic 

Women (IAMEW), AkiDwA – the African and Migrant Women’s Network, and the Coalition against Deportation of Irish Children (CADIC). 

With the recession, the third stage in the development of migrant-led organisations in Ireland – competing for scarce funding with Irish 

NGOs – illustrates, as Kensika Monshengwo expressed it, that Irish migrant support NGOs are reverting to a colonial charity model of 

‘I know better than you what you want’ resulting in the demise of a migrant-led antiracism movement. However, based on interview 

data with leaders of migrant-led organisations operating in contemporary Ireland, this paper concludes by arguing that a new model of 

integration from below is developing, as migrants are actively working towards their own integration on their own terms. 

Overcoming Isolation and Exclusion: (New) Migrant Political Entrepreneurs’ Strategies and Practices 

Fidele Mutwarasibo, University College Dublin, Immigrant Council of Ireland & Africa Centre, Ireland 

Immigration is, without doubt, one of the most salient social transformations in Ireland in the last decade. A paradox of isolation 

and inclusion has been the hallmark of officials’ response to immigration. Many policies developed by officials in response to the 

unprecedented immigration experience resulted, in effect, in the exclusion and isolation of migrants. Asylum seekers’ dispersal and direct 

provision policies and the introduction of habitual residence condition in 2004 are some of the examples of exclusion of the migrants. The 

2004 citizenship referendum, initiated to ‘combat citizenship tourism’, in many ways, reified the non-‘Irish’ national category ascribed to 

migrants. In terms of inclusion, there were a number of initiatives including: Know-Racism, the National Action Plan Against Racism and 

the establishment of the Office of the Minister for Integration in 2007. Migrant political entrepreneurs have been developing responses to 

the paradox of inclusion and isolation. The visible forms of activism evolved from asylum seekers’ networks to home country associations; 

the third phase involved running for political office and campaigns for structural change. Based on biographical research, involving eight 

information rich case studies, undertaken between October 2005 and December 2008, this paper explores values underpinning changes 

in migrant political entrepreneurs’ strategies. Unlike traditional ethnopolitical entrepreneurs who engage in ethnic politics, (new) migrant 

political entrepreneurs are involved a continuum of conventional and infra-political activities aimed at promoting holistic inclusion. 

Humanness is at the heart of the philosophy of creative resistance that underpins their strategies and actions. 

SESSION 3a Migrant Networks from Formal to Informal 

The role of migrant networks in Spain: From vulnerability to the recognition of diversity 

Elisa Brey, Universidad Complutense de Madrid & Université de Liège, Spain & Belgium 

While the migration balance of Spain was positive until the middle of the eighties, nowadays immigration from other countries is one of 

the main factors of social change. Moreover, the number of migrants increased in a very short period of time, and the diversity of origins 

is relatively important due to globalization. Immigration brought new challenges to the Spanish society and its institutions, so migrants 

arrived in a new environment which was not necessarily prepared to face their demands, although it sometimes benefited from the 

experience of other European countries with a longer immigration history. 

34


In this context, networks, and especially the ones led by migrants themselves, can play an important role. On the one hand, they can 

bring helpful information and resources to the individuals in their new environment. On the other hand, they can establish bridges with 

the receiving society and its institutions. Along with the more formal networks, recognized by the institution, migrants also organize 

themselves through informal networks, which develop around ethnic shops or worship places. 

This paper will investigate the role played by formal and informal networks, led by migrants from Morocco, Romania, Latin America and 

Sub-Saharan Africa, in the metropolitan area of Madrid. Seventy qualitative interviews were conducted to migrants themselves, migrants 

and non-migrants organizations, and some civil servants in the local institutions. Although immigration is a relatively new phenomenon 

in Spain, the study will show that migrants already demonstrated the capacity to organize themselves, and to help the newcomers. But it 

will also highlight that migrant networks are vulnerable, especially since the crisis is still affecting the Spanish economy. At least, it will 

include some comments on the profile of migrant leaders, through the analysis of their trajectory. 

Interethnic Friendships in Germany 

*Diana Schacht, Georg August Universität Göttingen, Germany 


Ingrid Tucci, DIW German Institute for Economic Research, Germany 

Friendships between immigrants and members of the majority population are essential to immigrants’ socio-cultural integration. By 

using longitudinal micro-data from Germany and controlling for relevant time-constant and time-varying characteristics we analyze the 

conditions which influence the establishment of inter-ethnic friendships. We focus on differences across immigrant groups and across 

generations. 

In contrast to previous research on interethnic friendships, the paper addresses this topic not only in terms of a combination of 

preferences for interactions with similar others (McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook, 2001) and opportunities (Blau, 1977; Feld, 1981; 

Huckfeldt, 1983), but also as a result of social distances (Fishbein/Ajzen, 1980; Gordon, 1964; Park 1924): 

First, individuals may prefer interactions with similar others. They anticipate that friends with a shared cultural and socio-economic 

background show more empathy and support and are therefore more attractive as friends compared to individuals of different origins. 

Second, it is only possible to establish inter-ethnic contacts if there are opportunities for meeting natives. The opportunity structure 

depends on the size of the group and the degree of segregation (Blau/Schwartz, 1984). Members of large immigrant groups are more 

likely to meet members of their own group, especially if individuals are embedded in environments in which individuals of their own group 

concentrate. Apart from the chances of meeting individuals from the majority population, another important precondition for establishing 

inter-ethnic friendships pertains to the ability to speak and write the language of the host society. 

Third, different immigrant groups within the same host society may face different conditions for establishing contacts to members of the 

majority population due to varying degrees of social distances. Accordingly, the strength of discrimination and/or prejudices may affect 

the chances for inter-ethnic contacts. 

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we start the empirical study with a description of differences in friendship 

patterns across groups (Turks, Ex-Yugoslavs, EU, Eastern Europe, Other Western, Other Non-Western) and across generations. The 

analyses reveal that the networks of the second generation are more ethnically mixed than those of the first generation and also that 

the immigrant groups substantially differ in the extent to which they establish contacts to members of the majority population. Turks, for 

example, display a considerably smaller share of inter-ethnic friendships than all other groups. In the multivariate longitudinal account, 

we analyze the impact of socio-economic background, opportunities, and social distances. The results confirm that all of these conditions 

affect the likelihood of establishing inter-ethnic contacts. They account for variation across groups and generations. 

Networking sisterhood: the case of AkiDwA, the African and Migrant Women's Network, Ireland 


This paper discusses the practices of connectivity and exchange of migrant women in Ireland, taking as a case study AkiDwA – the African 

and Migrant Women’s Network. Started as an informal network of support in 2001 by seven African migrant women, AkiDwA has become 

one of Ireland’s leading migrant organisations, networking at the local, national and international level. It has provided direct support for 

over 5,500 migrant women and has encouraged the formation of other networks and associations. 

Defining ‘networking’ as a process of agency and transformation, this paper discusses its heuristic potential in unpacking the gendered 

experiences of migration. The case of AkiDwA shows how, during Ireland’s 1990s history of in-migration, migrant women have been 

addressing discrimination, isolation, exclusion, violence and racism, through promoting gendered and culturally sensitive services and 

policies. This paper outlines three phases in AkiDwA’s development, from the informal to the global, situating it as the hub of overlapping 

national and global networks of migrant women, spanning Ireland, Europe, and beyond. 

This analysis shows how migrant women organisations like AkiDwA are ultimately embedded in local/global realities, aspirations and 

projects and play a crucial role in making space for change, forging new gender roles and bringing together the different - and often 

disparate - spaces migrant women inhabit. 

35


SESSION 4a Polish Migrant Networks 

How and why people use transnational migration networks in small-town Poland 

Anne White, University of Bath, UK 

Based on 115 interviews with Polish mothers in 2006-9, 82 in Poland and 33 in the UK, my British Academy-funded project explored 

the reasons why so many Polish families, with children, have come to live in Britain since 2004. However, family migration from Poland 

can only be understood in the general context of why people living in particular locations in Poland choose to leave, and my conference 

paper will discuss the role of transnational migration networks in Grajewo and Sanok, two small towns with high levels of migration. In 

particular, I shall explore (a) changing local migration cultures – conventions about how and why networks should be used – and (b) who 

migrates and who stays at home, and the extent to which the people who migrate are also those who have the ‘best’ networks. 

Part I of the paper explores facets of the local migration culture in Grajewo and Sanok. Localities with a history of migration acquire 

widespread norms and beliefs concerning why, how and where people should migrate. This culture is complex and in some respects 

contradictory. It is also evolving, as new foreign labour markets open up and as younger generations reject some assumptions of their 

elders. 

Despite the fact that so many people migrate from towns like Sanok and Grajewo, there is a belief that migration is caused by crisis: 

‘because the situation forces you’. The apparent paradox derives from the fact that local livelihoods are often precarious. Coexisting 

with the discourse of ‘being forced’ is the belief that – just because life is seen as precarious in Poland - potential migrants should 

take advantage of opportunities to go abroad, if these present themselves. People who are unexpectedly offered the chance to migrate 

often decide to take it up. Employers connive at this situation by awarding unpaid leave, minimising the risks of experimental migration. 

More importantly, Sanok and Grajewo are linked by thousands of transnational migration networks to foreign countries and usually the 

opportunity to migrate is an invitation from a friend or relative abroad. There are various conventions surrounding such invitations and 

they are described using a particular terminology. The friend or relative may persuade or ‘tempt’ the potential migrant, or the latter 

may fish for an invitation. In either case the language used emphasises the role of the person abroad in ‘pulling’ or ‘taking’ the potential 

migrant out of Poland. 

It is often said that ‘you have to go abroad to somebody’ (do kogos). The corollary of this culture of being ‘taken abroad’ by a friend or 

relative is that, if no one invites you, you do not go. The opposite of going ‘to somebody’ is ‘going into the unknown’ (literally, ‘the dark) 

(w ciemno). The migration culture, for many middle-aged residents of Grajewo and Sanok, is that using recruitment agencies or casual 

acquaintances to migrate counts as going into the unknown. There is a prevalent belief that people who use agencies or depend on mere 

acquaintances will be let down and cheated, and this often seems to happen. However, the culture of going ‘to somebody’, with its origins 

in illegal migration to the USA and pre-2004 Western Europe, is beginning to break down, as younger people adopt a more casual attitude. 

One might suppose that networks promote the spread of detailed information about countries where migrants work and that potential 

migrants feel that being well-informed about what to expect is an additional reason to follow the beaten track. In fact, people migrate 

often having only hazy impressions about their destination. Snippets of actual information are backed up by popular images of certain 

locations. 

Part 2 considers individual migration potential: the characteristics of individual migrants and non-migrants, focusing especially on why 

certain people feel confident to migrate and how this links to access to transnational migration networks. Rather than making a rigid 

distinction between the two groups, it is important to bear in mind that everyone is a potential migrant. Some people do not migrate, but 

to some extent this is simply a question of chance. Coexisting with all the actual migrations from places like Grajewo and Sanok are many 

unsuccessful attempts to migrate and missed opportunities to do so. 

Although migrants include a range of different types of personality, nonetheless most migrants must possess a basic level of confidence 

in order to migrate. Migration confidence partly derives from language skills and/or previous migration experience, but neither of these 

is essential, and some ex-migrants are so put off migration that they are unlikely to migrate for a second time. More important than 

language or experience are a conviction that migration is the ‘right’ strategy (in families, that it is the best thing for one’s children); a 

feeling of security that one can safely leave home behind (migration is not too much of a risk); and the emotional security of going abroad 

to be with relatives and friends. 

People are more likely to migrate if their most important ties are to people abroad. However, people considering migrating are likely to 

be emotionally pulled in both directions, so there is a kind of tug of war: for example, for a woman, between her husband abroad and 

her parents and siblings in Poland. Within a single household, different members will have different ties to different people outside the 

household. When migration plans are formulated, households have to decide whose and which ties are most important, and this involves 

persuasion and negotiation. 

If potential ‘pioneers’ or lone migrants do not have ties to friends and family abroad, they will be forced to use other channels. At this 

stage, some would-be migrants give up, believing that either you migrate ‘to somebody’ or not at all. However, other would-be migrants 

do go ahead with their project, responding to job advertisements, using recruitment agencies, or simply going abroad speculatively and 

hoping to find something on the spot. Although my UK-based sample included few people who had gone abroad other than to friends 

or relatives, my impression is that pioneers/lone migrants from low-migration areas are readier to migrate without knowing anyone 

36


in advance, because they are not inhibited by the convention that ‘you must go to somebody’. In fact, stories of successful migrations 

‘into the unknown’ indicate that it is not a completely irrational strategy. There are so many Poles abroad that it is very possible to 

make new Polish acquaintances on the journey to Poland, or immediately after arrival, and to use these new contacts to find jobs and 

accommodation. Of course, there are also failures, as indicated by stories of return told in Poland and by the presence of homeless Poles 

in London and other British cities. 

Note: The paper will be based on two chapters from my forthcoming book (which I hope will be published in late 2010 as Polish Families 

and Migration since EU Accession). The main Polish fieldwork sites were Sanok and Grajewo; in 2007 I also conducted 18 pilot interviews 

in several small towns in Wielkopolska and north-east Poland. The British locations were Bristol, Bath and two neighbouring small 

towns. For more information about the project, see Anne White and Louise Ryan, 'Polish “Temporary” Migration: The Formation and 

Significance of Social Networks', Europe-Asia Studies, 60:9, 1467 — 1502 (2008). 

“Living the life in movement”: Migration, mobility and social networks of recent Polish migrants in England 

Agnieszka Ignatowicz, Aston University, UK 

The development of a transnational framework for understanding migration has refined the ways of scholarly understanding of 

contemporary forms of mobility. The increased interest in migrants’ travel, transportation and the importance of social networks for 

instance, has become emblematic of this current “turn to mobilities” in social sciences research (Sheller and Urry 2006; Urry, 2004, 2007; 

Ryan et al., 2008). Much of this research suggests that although neither migrant mobility nor the process of network building and its 

understandings are new, the intensity and rate at which migrants and information are now able to circulate across borders are new. While 

recognising that social networks are often crucial to understanding of the complexities of patterns of migration and settlement (Castles 

and Miller, 2003, Ryan et al., 2008), this paper reflects the interest in migrants’ mobility and the relationship between social networks and 

migration. Contributing to the growing literature on contemporary forms of international mobility, it examines recent Polish migrants’ 

transnational practices by looking at constructions of travelling and the role of social networks in assisting this mobility. The Enlargement 

of the European Union in 2004 has facilitated the expansion of commuter transport and new opportunities to travel for those who have 

gone to work and live in Britain. Today, the use of low-cost airlines has become the dominant mode of travel that enabled Eastern 

European migrants to increase their frequency of travel to and from Poland. Many of the transnational networks are being mediated 

and shaped through the use of low-cost travel, suggesting that movement is a dominant form of social life for “new” Eastern European 

migrants (Urry, 2000; Bauman, 2000). Through the use of interview data with recent Polish migrants, this paper addresses the questions 

of how is travel and travelling experienced, how is mobility and movement narrated and to what extent do individuals draw upon and 

maintain their social networks? 

The myth of “weak ties” and the informal networks of Polish migrants in the UK and Germany 

Malgorzata Irek, University of Oxford, UK 

The cases of Polish migrants in the UK and Germany seem to be classic examples of the ‘strength of weak ties’. The vast majority of 

Polish migrants have a very low opinion of their own group solidarity in these countries and claim that ties between Poles abroad are 

almost non-existent, as opposed to the strong ties established by such ‘others’ as Jews and Italians. This opinion is reflected in interviews 

and surveys conducted by sociologists, who see these ‘weak ties’ as an explanation for the rapid integration of Poles into the receiving 

societies, as well as their upward mobility. Based on the author’s longitudinal anthropological fieldwork in both countries, conducted 

between 1988 and the present, on work by others and on Polish history, the paper challenges the notion of weak ties among Poles, as 

well as the usefulness of sociological methods and of the very concepts developed in the assimilation versus multiculturalism debate for 

the analysis of raw human agency, such as informal networks. 

Being informal, these networks defy any formality, which is a major methodological problem in their research, ruling out such methods 

as formal interviews or questionnaires. But once researched through anthropological fieldwork, the informal networks reveal how 

individuals negotiate the system. In the cases discussed here, it appeared that, although the new generation of Polish migrants (as 

opposed to the WWII generation) do not have a vertically constructed sense of community, they do have very effective informal links that 

are instrumental in satisfying a wide range of needs, from the economic to the emotional. The ways in which Polish migrants manage 

their everyday lives through informal ethnic networks will be listed and anecdotal examples provided to prove that the notion of ‘weak 

ties’ among Poles does not reflect reality but is a negative auto-stereotype, born of the frustration arising from the culture clash between 

(post-)socialist East European life-styles and those of Western capitalism. It is due to these cultural differences and not their supposedly 

‘weak ties’ that Polish migrants are able to integrate into their host societies and achieve upward mobility. In contrast to the classic 

migrant situation described since Thomas and Znaniecki’s early work on Polish migrants in the USA, the migrants from the former 

socialist countries have significant cultural capital, including good education, modern skills and a sense of social justice. Unlike the 

domestic population, they do not have a concept of class that would obstruct their aspirations. 

These cases allow us to question the validity of categories and notions used in migration research that were developed at the beginning of 

the previous century but are not necessarily adequate for analysing modern migration in times of increased mobility, the IT revolution and 

cheap communications. Moreover, despite globalization, the same categories cannot always be used for different societies and forms of 

social organization: what is true of the Americas does not necessarily apply to Europe, and what adequately describes formal structures 

is by definition unsuitable for the description of informal social spaces. 

37


SESSION 5a Migrant Networks, Integration, Social Cohesion 

Community Cohesion Policies and Civil Society Organizations 

Pamela Castro, Nottingham University, UK 

During the last decade Britain has experienced important transformations in the field of Migration. Since the mid 1990s, Britain 

started to experience the arrival of a new wave of immigrants, very different from the already existing “ethnic communities” formed 

as a consequence of previous migration flows. One of the main features of the new comers is their extreme diversity in many different 

areas like: country of origin, languages, Religion, gender and their migration channels and immigration statuses (Vertovec, 2007). The 

settlement of these new migrants within British society and the response from Government made migration one the most controversial 

and complex fields of policy making in recent years. This was mainly due to the transformations and new directions that migration policy 

took under the Labour Government, characterized by more complex and tougher legislation around entry to the country and a strong shift 

in the in-house integration policies from multiculturalism and race relations toward Community Cohesion. 

This shift in the integration policies has been at the centre of relevant debates around integration, social justice and equality toward 

migrants and existing ethnic minorities. Community cohesion policies appeared as a result of the Cantle report after the disturbances in 

northern towns in 2001 (Cantle, 2001) putting an end to multicultural policies characterized by the promotion of tolerance and a respect 

for collective identities implemented toward ethnic minorities for nearly five decades. Until the late 1990s the multicultural race relations 

defined the policy framework for migrant settlement and incorporation. The new policies emphasised shared values, common aims and 

greater sense of citizenship. At the same time than encouraging greater interactions between members of different communities. 

Supporters of community cohesion policies argue that this shift is response to a changing world were multiculturalism doesn’t have 

a place any longer. It is response to the need of communities to stop their “parallel lives” (Cantle, 2001) and start having meaningful 

relationships at the same time as promoting “inclusive notions of citizenship, identity and belonging” (Home office 2004). On the other 

hand critical approaches to community cohesion policies have pointed out aspects of its assimilationist nature and how it represents 

a “backlash against diversity” (Grillo, 2006); Lack of acknowledgment of structural inequalities and institutionalised racism and how it 

represents a step back in terms of civic rights advancements for immigrants and ethnic minorities. 

The British Government had chosen the concept of “social capital” to explain the process of creating community cohesion, especially 

through the different types of social capital described by Putnam in his work with voluntary associations in United States: bonding, 

bridging and linking (Putnam, 2003). Research in this area has spread widely in the last few years but is still in its infancy due in part to 

what Bertossi said in 2007 “community cohesion is a turning point in the history of the policy of citizenship in Britain and it’s not possible 

yet assess the consequences of this change of agenda” (Bertossi, 2007). 

Civil society involvement 

Historically civil society organizations have been recognized for playing a vital role in the integration and settlement process of ethnic 

minorities and migrants in general. England has a long history of migration from countries with colonial links and with a well established 

multicultural policy toward integration and already has a set of community based organizations, NGOs and other civil society actors 

supporting immigrant communities. However, with the arrival of these new waves of migrants and the steady changes in the migration 

policies civil society faced massive changes and challenges. These transformations lead to the appearance of many new community 

based organisations, some of them based on ethnic-national identities formed by the new migrants, others related to the economic 

activity they are involved in. The body of national, regional and local NGOs working and supporting these groups delivering different type of 

services has grown and diversified. 

Thus the focus of the paper is the role of civil society organizations and their perspective on the current integration policies implemented 

by the British government in the last decade under the name of ‘community cohesion’. The civil society organizations I am focusing on 

are those that promote and work for the rights and welfare of migrants. From an ethnographic approach inspired by the anthropology of 

policy (Wright & Shore, 1997), and using a bottom up people-centred perspective the main aim of the paper is to examine and produce an 

in-depth understanding of how these organizations perceive and experience the delivery of these policies, introducing a grounded review 

of social cohesion policies from the perspective of these organizations and their views about multiculturalism and integration processes. 

This will be based in ethnographic data collected through two case studies, one of which is a civil society organization working at a 

national level advocating for migrants rights and trying to influence policy at the level of formation and delivery and another, migrant led, 

which works delivering services at the grass roots level. This will be complemented with data from semi structured interviews conducted 

with leaders of civil society organizations in the West Midlands Region, some of them led by migrants themselves. 

Chinese Earthquake Appeal Network in Ireland 

Ying Yun Wang, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The May 12th Sichuan Earthquake, which happened in the People’s Republic of China in 2008, led to the largest public demonstration 

of Chinese presence in Ireland. Utilising ethnographic research, this paper is a result of my membership in the Irish Chinese Sichuan 

Earthquake Appeal Committee and from six semi-structured interviews with participants who represent different Chinese led 

organisations. The appeal committee was the largest collective action between Chinese–led organisations and Chinese individuals. 

38


The Chinese led organisations have emerged since 2002 due to the concurrent increase in the population of Chinese migrants into 

Ireland. The various organizations represent different constituencies and have different objectives. 

This paper describes and theorises the process of networking with the participant organisations. As both a metaphor and an analytic 

tool, post migration networks are open and fluid structures, although multi-functional and multi-source. The Chinese earthquake 

appeal network had not only a fundraising role but was also the driving force in creating unity and consolidation of Chinese migrant 

organisations. As an unintended consequence, the network served as a showcase for the general Irish public, projecting a positive image 

of Chinese migrants. The appeal network provided the platform for Chinese-led organisations in Ireland to work together and enable 

individual Chinese migrants to get together, signaling the beginning of networking between diverse groups of migrant-led Chinese. 

SESSION 6a Religious Migrant Networks 

Islam in Ireland: establishing organisational frameworks for a migrant religion in Europe 

Oliver Scharbrodt, University College Cork, Ireland 

Despite the publication of various studies and the emergence of research projects on Muslims living in Europe, only a few attempts to 

deal with the Muslim community in Ireland have been undertaken in serious academic scholarship. The Muslim population of Ireland has 

increased significantly in the last twenty years reaching a number of almost 33,000, according to the 2006 national census, while unofficial 

estimates suggest a number of around 40,000. Despite the rising numbers and an increased public profile, not much attention has been 

given to the Irish Muslim community in studies on European Islam. Given that hardly any research has been undertaken on Muslims in 

Ireland, this paper constitutes highly original research. 

Two elements of the Muslim experience in Ireland distinguish it from other European countries; one is the very recent nature of Muslim 

migration to Ireland which began in the 1950s but has only gained major momentum in the last 20 years. Hence, the vast majority of 

Muslims has only recently settled in Ireland. In addition, Ireland has not established historical or colonial links with particular countries 

or regions in the Muslim world. Therefore, Muslim immigration to Ireland has been extremely diverse and has not been dominated by 

Muslims from a particular ethnic or cultural background. While the first wave of Muslim migration to Ireland was constituted of Muslim 

students from South Africa and the Middle East, a recent rise of South Asian communities can be observed as well as an influx of 

refugees from the countries of former Yugoslavia and various Sub-Saharan African countries. Hence, the Muslim community in Ireland is 

not only one of the youngest but also one of the most diverse in Europe. 

Apart from providing a brief profile of the Muslim community in Ireland, this paper focuses on the development of institutional 

frameworks among Irish Muslims, by looking at various organisations that have been established in Ireland. Reasons for the 

establishment of these organisations are explored as well as their particular nature, composition and place within the Irish Muslim 

community. This article also places the dynamics of organising Islam in Ireland in the context of similar processes among Muslim 

communities across Europe, considering the particularities and specific challenges of the Irish context and its repercussions on a fairly 

young migrant religion in Ireland. 

Migration and Integration. The responses of the Church of Ireland 


This paper tackles the case study of the Church of Ireland dealing with demographic and cultural changes linked to migration, especially 

from Africa. How does the presence of migrants affect the parish life? What measures are taken in order to facilitate integration and 

cultural exchange within the community? The Church of Ireland has put into place a project called 'Discovery' to address the increased 

cultural diversity within its community. An Anglican pastor from Nigeria has been appointed to support the international communities in 

the Dublin area. Being part of a mainline Church, a well established institution, can be a way for migrants to build up a reputation, to find 

a job and to feel part of a community and foster the creation of a network of relationships in the receiving country. 

Nevertheless, the presence of migrants within the church often presents a challenge for its structure and its way of conceiving itself in the 

country and in the territory. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation the paper looks at the following questions: 

What is the understanding of integration by a mainline protestant church such as the Church of Ireland? And, on the other side, what is 

the migrants' understanding of this same concept? What policies and practices are put into place to foster integration? 

Religion and Social Integration: A Case Study of Polish Catholics in Ireland 

Kerry Gallagher, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland 

Integration as a concept has developed in both the areas of policy and academia. Given Ireland's recent immigration boom, defining 

and refining the concept of ‘integration’, is of the utmost importance. First, it is vital in policy and legislation in order to establish the 

best way forward for the Irish government and institutions to facilitate migrant’s adaptation to society. Second, researchers need to fully 

comprehend the concept of ‘integration’ before embarking on research regarding migrants, their migratory event and integration into 

Irish society. This term has been loosely utilized, which is not surprising, given the need for this term to encompass both political and 

social cohesion. Therefore, I will present the findings of my research regarding the lived experience of integration from the perspective of 

those most affected by the repercussions of this concept. I will also discuss the religious and social integration of the Polish community in 

Dublin. 

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The Celtic Tiger boom coupled with the expansion of the European Union Ireland witnessed unprecedented growth in migration figures. 

There is a lack of research regarding the actual integration process of the ethnic minority groups into Irish society. As shown by Levitt 

(2003) transnational religious identities are crucial to diaspora communities in the process of immigration. The role of religion in this 

process of ‘assimilation’ (Portes & Rambaut 2001) or integration could, to a convincing degree, highlight the successful integration 

process from the initial entry of an individual into Ireland to their establishment in society. 

With the absence of strong state activity in Ireland regarding migrant integration focus falls on the religious institutions to guide and 

help new ethnic groups. Given the current climate surrounding immigrants in Ireland I will address the extent of the role that the 

Catholic Church plays in the integration of Polish immigrants into Irish society. Immigrant’s religion and social integration is a significant 

approach in which to get a deep understanding of what ‘integration’ actually means for an immigrant and what ‘successful integration’ 

actually entails. An understanding of the term ‘integration’ is needed, especially within Ireland as one of the relatively new immigrant 

receiving countries, and I feel that this can be achieved through analysing the different ‘integration’ paths (social and religious) taken by 

immigrants. 

SESSION 7a Networks, Media and Social Issues 

Migrant Led Networks, Social Capital and Immigrant Associationism. Observations on the Case of the Latin Americans in Seville 

Francisco José Cuberos Gallardo, University of Seville, Spain 

Our paper aims to investigate the relation among the migratory networks and the immigrant associationism. Thus we analyze the cases 

of different Latin-American resident groups in Seville. All these groups are increasingly participating in formal associations during the 

last years. These associations are supposed to be nourished of migratory preexisting networks and to translate into political capital the 

social capital accumulated by the above mentioned networks. Nevertheless the forms, functions and meanings of these associations 

do not answer exclusively to the strategies of such networks. The Public Service, the NGOs and the private companies play a role 

increasingly relevant as financial and interlocutors of the Latin-American associations. At the same time, they are influencing the 

practices and speeches of that associations. The aim of the text is to explore up to what point the immigrants' associations are capable of 

absorbing the social capital accumulated by the migratory networks and transforming it into political capital. 

Immigrant’s Media and Integration: Case study of Metro Éireann and African Bulletin newspapers 

*Yemi Obalanlege, University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Hilde van den Bulck, University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Using two diaspora newspapers as a case in point, this study sets out to analyse the role of diasporic media in the lives of their audience, 

particularly with regards to issue of integration and multiculturalism. 

In recent years there has been an increase in publications on African diasporic media and their success in Western Europe as an 

alternative platform for a distinct, ethnic and niche audience in a diaspora context. Yet relatively little is known about the way in which 

both the media practitioners (journalists, owners) and audiences perceive the role of these diasporic media in the articulation and 

rearticulation of collective identities and particularly with regards to their significance as agents of integration. Academic assertions 

in this regard remain by and large theoretical and at a surface level. Very few studies empirically investigate the perceptions of the 

journalists, owners and audiences of these diasporic media in this regard. 

A number of issues have thus remained under explored. For one, there are indications that several diasporic media have embraced 

multiculturalism. For example, BEN-TV in United Kingdom asserts itself as “largest provider of wholesome infotainment content to the 

black and ethnic audience across Europe; its appeal reaches across the cross-cultural audience from younger generation, through to 

the more mature, professional and affluent consumer” (www.bentelevision.com). Studies into the views of journalists and owners can 

help to identify motivations behind this move. Is it to be interpreted within a context of integration or rather a move to boost the size and 

composition of their audiences to become more interesting to advertisers and media planners? Indeed, with the size of ethnic minority 

groups expanding and their disposable income increasing, they become of interest to advertisers. At the same time, relatively little is 

known about (the views of) the audiences of these diasporic media. What is their composition? What are their preferences and motivations 

to turn to these media? 

Using Metro Éireann newspaper (circulating in Ireland and UK) and African Bulleting (circulating in Belgium and Netherlands) as cases 

in point, this study aims to identify and examine these issues, comparing views of the newspapers’ owners and journalists, how they are 

translated into actual newspaper content and how the content and goals of these newspapers are perceived by the audiences. To this 

end, the study has a multi-methodological design. For each newspaper, a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of an extensive 

diachronic sample is combined with in-depth interviews with owners and journalists as well as survey and focus group interview with 

audience members. This will ensure comparative analysis of the views of content producers, the translation hereof in actual content and 

the interpretation hereof by audiences. It will also allow for international and cross-community comparisons. 

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Migrant-led networks to connect or disconnect?: The perspective of the visually impaired migrant in Ireland. 

Esther Murphy, Dublin City University, Ireland 

This research paper investigates the case of the visually impaired migrant in Ireland. The specific focus is on how migrant-led networks 

support the visually impaired migrant integration into Irish society. Disability is a socially constructed concept that depending on the 

cultural background may be perceived distinctly. This paper discusses the emergent data from semi -structured qualitative interviews 

with visually impaired migrants and those working with them. This data gives evidence to suggest that a migrant with a perceived 

stigmatised identity may not receive support through established migrant led networks and investigates the implications of this for the 

migrant. This paper will present findings from progress in an overall PhD intercultural research project on the experiences of the visually 

impaired migrant in Ireland. 

SESSION 8a Eastern European Migrant Networks 

Interacting Networks of Migrant Entrepreneurs from the Former Soviet Union to Israel: An Exploratory Study 

Sibylle Heilbrunn, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel 

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship among immigrant groups has a growing significance in assessing local economic development 

process and social change. It is a route of economic advancement and mobility for immigrants. Immigrant entrepreneurship adds to the 

economic development potential of local communities and results in sustainable economic development. 

Following data of the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, from 1989 to 2005 more than 1 million Jews immigrated to Israel, some 

85% from the areas of the former Soviet Union (hereinafter referred to as FSU) and some 5% from Ethiopia, increasing Israel’s population 

and labor force by an extraordinary amount (an addition to the Israel population of 1989 of some 20%). In Israel self-employment of 

immigrants is a viable alternative employment solution. While many initially would have preferred to find work and are hesitant about the 

unknowns of starting their own business, when the option is unemployment, they opt for the former. 

In the literature immigrant entrepreneurship is often described as ethnic entrepreneurship and is perceived by immigrants as a means 

to avoid ethnic discrimination and unemployment. Ethnic dealing involves mobilization of resources, personal contacts and informal 

arrangements often within an ethnic enclave, segregated in terms of ethnic or immigrant background and geographical area. 

The enclave economy is part of the social structure of families, neighbors, friends and acquaintances with ethnicity as encompassing 

clusters of relationships that embed members in a particular culture. Location is a means to find ‘co-ethnics’ – thus ethnic businesses 

are best located where they can take advantage of a large co-ethnic population in order to become self-employed. These locations often 

signalize “ethnic facilitation”, which entrepreneurs can exploit when relying on networks. 

The present study investigates the intersection of business, social and personal networks of entrepreneurs from the FSU in the city of 

Hadera. Analyzing these intersections will add to the understanding of the meaning of ethnic enclaves and estimate the role of networks 

in migrants' integration. I selected the city of Hadera because it is of manageable size (about 77,000 inhabitants) of which nearly 30% are 

immigrants. The Department of Business Registration of the municipality provided a list of 126 registered immigrant business owners of 

whom 89 were willing to answer to a comprehensive questionnaire for a former research. I chose 15 of these business owners in order to 

conduct the exploratory network analysis for the here presented study. 

Data on the businesses (including size, type, scope of investment, employees, suppliers, customers, business ties etc) and demographic 

data on the entrepreneurs (age, education, family status, year of immigration, motivation to start the business, etc.) have been collected 

using a comprehensive questionnaire submitted to the entrepreneurs in 2008. Via semi-structured interviews five dimensions with 

specific sets of questions were investigated, focusing upon emotional, economic, and instrumental support, counseling and social 

activities. Social activities included all members of the entrepreneur's family whereas the other dimensions were investigated for the 

business owner her/himself only. I conducted the interviews in 2009 together with a Russian-speaking research assistant. 

The data reveal evidence of interacting business, social and personal networks leading to an enclave effect with members of the 

FSU migrant community in Hadera living in physical, social and emotional proximity and thereby providing opportunities for enclave 

businesses. These networks promote personal contacts and informal arrangements and play a vital role in mobilizing resources for the 

ethnic businesses. At the same time the proximity amounts to a socially and culturally segregated migrant community, with interacting 

business, social and personal networks being nearly exclusively in-group focused. The results of my study imply that networks of FSU 

immigrant entrepreneurs in Israel do not necessarily facilitate their integration into the Israeli society. 

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From the “Uprooted” to the “Rootless”? Transnational Social Ties of Romanian Migrants in London 


Criticising the assimilationist view that sees migrants as being ‘uprooted’ from their old societies when they ‘settle’ into new ones, 

transnationalists have sought to show that migrants remain connected to the ‘home’ environment by ‘keeping their feet in both worlds’ 

(Levitt 2001). ‘Simultaneity’ has become a key feature of transnational lives, of capturing the way in which migrants’ daily activities, 

routines, or institutions straddle two (or more) countries (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004). Nevertheless, against the proliferation of 

research that celebrates the idea of simultaneous engagement across borders, much aided by technological advances, scholars like 

Vered Amit (2002) have more cautiously warned that, in their enthusiasm over these trans-border ties and forms of incorporation, 

transnationalists often forget the breaks and disjunctures entailed by migration. This darker side of migration has been eclipsed by 

predominantly positive accounts of transnationalism (though see Smith 2006, on transnational gangs and family separation). 

This paper addresses this problem by looking at the social relations of Romanian migrants in London. Based on 39 in-depth, qualitative 

interviews, the research explores the ‘here-there’ gap experienced by the migrants in three main areas: social support, communication, 

and socialisation. Rather than simultaneous engagement, participants’ experiences reflect more of growing asymmetries, 

incompatibilities, and gaps in their social relations with those back home. Whilst it is true that for many migrants, family and friends 

from home continue to embody an ideal of closeness, trust, and friendship, the migrants’ actual ties with home often proved to have 

evolved towards a loss of social capital. This is the consequence of changes at both ends of the networks, brought about by a variety of 

factors, such as emerging differences in family status, living circumstances, lifestyles, values, expectations, or resources. Moreover, 

migrants do not usually manage to build comparable networks at their destinations, and frequently end up developing a bitter ‘outsider’ 

consciousness. The complexities and paradoxes emerging from Romanians’ ambivalent ties with those from home show that instead of 

easily juggling with, or expanding, their social networks across borders - as traditional transnational theorists would predict - migrants 

may become socially rootless, torn between their ‘ideal’ ties, the simultaneous awareness of altered ties with home, and the difficulty of 

establishing meaningful relations at destination. 

Migrant-led networks and their development and role in migrants' trajectories - the case of Polish post-accession migrants 

Justyna Samolyk, Queen’s University Belfast, UK 

Prior to May 2004, when Poland joined the European Union, there were very few Polish immigrants living in Northern Ireland (there were 

only 10 Polish people attending a meeting with the Polish Ambassador in Belfast in 2000), and therefore, the first wave of Polish migrants 

coming to Northern Ireland had no ties to draw upon. Owing to the fact that the Polish post-accession inflow to Northern Ireland was a 

typical example of chain migration with a very high proportion of family reunions, migrants’ social networks were partly transplanted from 

Poland to Northern Ireland. 

The development of those networks, their re-shaping and the role they played throughout the first years of settlement in Northern Ireland 

are some of the main concerns of my doctoral research. In my work I look at networks from a broad perspective, taking into account 

Polish migrants’ newly established ties in Northern Ireland, connections maintained in Poland and those transplanted to Northern Ireland 

through the moving of groups already connected in Poland. 

In my study, through my adaptation of the method of biographical interviewing, I am investigating Polish immigrants’ stories of migration 

with a particular focus on their interpersonal relations throughout their stay in Northern Ireland. Due to the fact there was a discreet 

starting point in this particular migratory flow, it became possible to tackle the stories of migration narrated by Polish people who moved 

to Northern Ireland concurrently, thereby facilitating the comparison of the different factors that shaped these individual stories. 

The conception for this study emerged from my exploratory research conducted as part of an undergraduate dissertation in 2007/2008 

within the Polish community in Belfast. Throughout interviews, Polish migrants repeatedly expressed their eageness to avoid having 

Polish supervisors at work, to seek accommodation in neighbourhoods where no other Polish people live, they argued that other Poles 

should not be trusted, and claimed that Poles behave shamefully in public places. However, the most striking finding of the study that I 

conducted in 2007-2008 was the level of breakage in Polish immigrants’ networks, even those formed by family members. It appeared as 

there was almost a regular pattern of the loosening of ties between newly arrived migrants and those they came to, normally 3-5 months 

after coming to Belfast. In several cases, the connections became so weak that respondents could not even tell if the people from their 

former network were still in Northern Ireland. 

Through collecting the stories of migration in my present study, I am trying to follow the development of immigrants’ networks and study 

Polish immigrants’ perception of their interpersonal ties. As one of my interview tools, I use a network chart formed of concentric circles 

in which the respondents write names of friends and family members (living in Poland, Northern Ireland or anywhere else) that are close 

to them. After this exercise I ask the respondents to talk about the people they put into the chart, to describe their relationships and say 

what role those people play in their everyday lives. Such an approach allows to extract many examples of migrants’ integration viewed on 

the individual level. 

The aim of the proposed paper is to elaborate on the above mentioned aspects of migrant-led networks formed by Polish people in 

Northern Ireland, focusing on the formation and various functions of the ties seen by the immigrants. In other words, I will present the 

perceptions and individual meaning-making processes from my respondents’ perspectives. 

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migration, employment & regulation 

SESSION 1b Migrations, Institutions and the Regulation of the Labour Market 

A flood of cheap labour? Mass immigration and the re-regulation of the Irish labour market 

*James Wickham, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 





Most studies of immigration study migrants themselves. In this paper however we study the impact of migration on the host society, 

taking the example of the short period at the start of this century when Ireland experienced mass immigration. Our interest is specifically 

in the impact of this immigration on the regulation of the labour market. As such the paper contributes to the debate in sociology and 

political economy over the role of national institutional systems. In particular, the ‘varieties of capitalism’ research tradition has stressed 

the continuation and path dependency of institutional arrangements, but has been criticised for its functionalism and its apparent inability 

to explain change. Through a focus on the workplace and the regulation of employment in two key sectors of the Irish economy, we 

contribute to that debate. 

The first part of the paper explores the different possible ways mass immigration can change the receiving society. There is some 

research on the impact of immigration on social cohesion, on wage differentials and occupational polarisation. We suggest however 

that is important to also consider the impact of migration on the institutional structure of society, in particular the institutions of labour 

market regulation. These institutions are themselves not immutable, but are potentially changed by the participants. We thus adopt an 

actor-centred approach. Furthermore, while most discussion of employment regulation focuses on national systems, we suggest that 

employment conditions are crucially shaped both by international institutions and, even more importantly, by the meso-level of sectoral 

institutions. We thus see the workplace as regulated by sectoral, national and EU level institutions; this multi-level governance enables 

actors to influence the workplace by playing off different levels of political action. Following in particular the work of Bosch et al (2009), 

we the workplace as located within the interaction of sector, national and EU level institutional systems. 

We explore this argument with data from an ongoing study of the employment of Polish migrants in Ireland. After a brief account of 

our research, subsequent sections of the paper examine the very different experience of migrants in the hospitality industry and the 

construction industry in Ireland. 

Far from developing a ‘high road’ strategy of quality service and improved employment, Irish employers in hospitality casualised their 

labour force by utilising national and EU policies which ensured the sudden availability of a plentiful supply of labour. This appears to 

have been completely compatible with a growing stress on ‘aesthetic’ labour and qualifications, since many immigrants were in these 

terms better ‘qualified’ than the traditional workforce. This process involved an erosion of pre-existing institutions. Previously extensive 

state training for entrants to the industry was allowed to wither, to be replaced by ad hoc short-term training for ordinary workers (‘meet 

and greet’), by management training, and by importing limited categories of already trained skilled labour (crucially chefs). Trade union 

membership plummeted. A longstanding state-backed system of wage regulation (Joint Labour Committees) became marginalised and is 

now under legal challenge. 

We contrast this situation with that in the construction sector. Here also employers made great use of the new migrant labour pool. 

Initially changes were similar to those in the construction industry: a growth of (relatively) low waged jobs, erosion of existing training 

provision, weakening of wage regulatory institutions. In addition there was extensive sub-contracting, as well as direct contracts being 

won by foreign firms importing their own low-paid labour. However, in this sector a process of re-regulation appeared to take place. An 

aggressive trade union recruitment campaign increased union membership. Mobilising public concern, trade unions were able to force 

the state to enhance its enforcement of safety standards and employment rights through the creation of a new National Employment 

Rights Agency. Migrant workers in the sector acquired a greater awareness of their rights – and to be more prepared to insist on them. 

However, despite the crucial role of the unions in creating this climate, the immediate recourse seems to have been to the legal system 

rather than union representation. 

The final empirical section of the paper briefly assesses the impact of the current economic crisis. Employment in the hospitality sector 

and (especially) the construction sector grew faster than overall national employment during the Irish boom. Conversely, job losses in 

both sectors are dramatic today. We consider the extent to which the apparent re-regulation of employment in construction has been 

eroded by widespread employment insecurity. Will the slump simply mean that both sectors return to the situation before the boom? We 

conclude with theoretical reflections on the mutability or otherwise of sectoral and national institutions of labour market regulation. 

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The transnationalisation of a national labour market, is it policy or market driven? 

Claudia Hartmann-Hirsch, CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg 

Among EU and OECD countries, Luxembourg is a small nation state with the highest rate of immigrants in the resident population (45%), 

the highest rate of foreigners (cross border commuters and immigrants)in the labour market (66%) and more so within the competitive 

sector (73%). Luxembourg’s proactive immigration policy aimed at an overall European and catholic immigration (contract with Portugal, 

1970) and produced an important inflow during the 1970’s and 1980’s of a non-EU economic immigration with poor qualifications. In the 

1990's, a proactive immigration policy was launched, aiming at a highly qualified non-EU immigration - like elsewhere; implementation 

was only run on the level of the administrative practice up to a legal reform in 2008 which then defined this policy legally. 

Given the EU legislation, cross border commuters and other EU economic immigrants enter without any legal obstacle into the EU nation 

states and labour markets, whilst non-EU less qualified immigrants are heaviliy filtered and highly qualified non-EU immigrants award an 

easier access. On top of this, the recent objective of a common EU immigration and asylum policy provides also non-EU immigration with 

a supranational policy. Thus nation-states transfer incrementally competences to the supranational level. This is common to all EU MS. 

However, specific trends can be observed in Luxembourg. Over the last two decades, the proportion of Luxembourgers in the labour force 

diminished in favour of an increase of cross border commuters and a more or less stable proportion of immigrants with a currently higher 

proportion of highly qualified immigrants than equivalent nationals. Furthermore, Luxembourg’s corporatist labour market is on top of 

OECD scale in terms of a strong regulation and protection framework. This seems to be contradictory to the very open labour market in 

terms of diversity of nationalities. Our main question is whether the current extreme openness of a foreign labour market is an effect of 

policies or of the market? And how can nation states handle the aformentionned contradiction between a national corporatist legal 

framework and supranational immigration policies? 

We will demonstrate Luxembourg’s diminishing national competences first in terms of supranational regulations concerning the EU and 

non-EU immigration, and second in terms of access to transnational companies. Concerning the first point, the result of a national policy 

favouring European immigration produced a predominantly EU foreign labour force (95%). Thus, Luxembourg’s sovereignety was even 

more influenced by supranational frameworks than that of other MS with an important non-EU immigration, limited to the last 5% of 

economic non-EU immigrants. But even for a quite important share of these non-EU immigrants a national and supranational 

immigration policy foresees an easier access to the nation state and the labour market (Blue card, recent law). National policies loose out 

incrementally. Secondly, the companies' recruitment strategies tend to look for a more homogenous labour force within this extremely 

diversified competitive sector. The labour force becomes more and more transnational with a permanently diminishing share of nationals, 

being minority. National policies and willingness loos out; the composition of the highly regulated labour market is mainly market driven. 

Trade unions and non citizens in Western European countries 

Andrew Richards, Juan March Institute, Spain 


Research literature on the trade unions in Western European countries has long suggested that the degree of unionization of foreign 

migrant workers is lower than local workers. However, throughout the last two decades no systematic cross national examination of the 

current rate of migrant workers´ unionization has been made, despite the fact that less systematic evidence suggests that this varies 

across countries. This neglect is surprising and somewhat unfortunate since the question of migrant workers’ unionization has become 

even more important, yet at the same time even more complicated, in the light of overall unionization decline in Western economies in 

recent decades. 

Unions, in theory, should have every incentive to organize migrant workers and affiliate them into their ranks. The decline of organized 

labour in the advanced capitalist democracies in the course of the last quarter of a century now forms the focus for a huge body of 

literature. In general, unionization rates and the absolute number of union members have tended to fall everywhere. At the same time, 

migrant workers represent an increasing proportion of national workforces across the advanced economies. Indeed, in most countries, 

immigration has contributed significantly to the expansion of the working population and to increasing rates of labour market 

participation. Yet as a good deal of research has emphasized, migrant workers tend invariably to occupy the most precarious, unstable, 

and marginalized sectors of the labour market. As such, they are, ostensibly, in greatest need of union representation and protection at 

the same time as forming a potentially critical and expanding constituency for a union movement desperate for new recruits after a long 

period of membership decline. We would expect, therefore, unionization rates amongst migrant workers to be at least at the same levels 

as those for native workers. In fact, unionization rates for migrant workers across the advanced economies lag consistently behind those 

for native workers, though the extent to which they do so varies considerably cross-nationally. These two phenomena merit explanation. 

This paper attempts to provide the explanation. In its initial stage, we examine the rate of migrants’ unionization in comparison to the rate 

of citizens’ unionization in Western European countries, including new immigration countries (such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal) and 

old immigration countries (such as France, Germany, UK and others). In further analyses we attempt to answer the following questions. 

First, to what extent can the relatively low rate of foreign workers’ unionization be attributed to occupational (in term of industries) 

segregation between foreigners and locals, as suggested by the industrial relations literature? Second, to what extent can the institutional 

position of trade unions in a given society be viewed as a possible determinant of the differences in the relative rate of migrants’ 

unionization across countries? By doing so, we aim to contribute not only to the literature on trade union development but also to the 

44


literature on migrants’ incorporation into host societies. Since union membership is a potential means for migrant workers to exercise an 

important range of social rights, such as protection of working conditions, safety, and income, we argue that it should be viewed as one of 

the most important indicators of migrant workers’ incorporation into host societies. To answer the question of whether the relatively low 

rate of foreign workers’ unionization can be attributed to socio-demographic characteristics and occupational (in term of industries) 

segregation between foreigners and locals we have carried out an initial quantitative analysis of the available survey data. The data for the 

analysis are obtained from the four rounds (2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008) of the European Social Survey [ESS]. Since in our sample 

individuals are nested in countries and since we assume that the effect of migrants’ status on the relative odds of being a union member 

may vary across countries we use HLM procedure (hierarchical models). Then, in an exploratory way, we examine patterns in trade 

unions’ institutional positions that may explain the variation in the differences between citizens’ and non citizens’ unionization rates 

across new- and old- immigration countries in Europe. 

SESSION 1c Migration, Mobility and Careers 

Liquid migration and labour market careers 

*Godfried Engbersen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

Snel Erik, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

Free movement of labor, introduced in Europe by lifting up restrictions in the access to the majority of the EU labor markets in both 2004, 

2006 and 2007 have enhanced people’s mobility, especially those from the Central and Eastern Europe and have encouraged them to be 

constantly on the move, to ‘circulate’ between places of origin and diverse destinations. This new migration patterns differ from seasonal 

migration. They are longer-term, more with being ‘there’ (destination) than ‘here’ (origin) but also with no rooting, and flexibility in taking 

and changing jobs and places. 

The paper is going to argue that after EU enlargements temporary migration has been extended into ‘long-lasting temporariness’ which 

will be classified called ‘liquid migration’. It is a ‘post-accession phenomenon’ that is made possible by open borders. Liquidity of 

post-accession migration has been initially recognized as a specific pattern generated mostly by free movement of labor, but also by 

changing demographic patterns especially those connected to the life cycle and people’s life attitudes translated to more single and 

individualistic life approaches, loosened connections to family and family tradition and to a household. 

The concept of liquid migration is inspired by Zygmunt Bauman’s work on liquid modernity (Engbersen et al. 2010). Central to the notion 

of liquidity is the idea that ‘thick’ and stable social institutions (class, family, labour, community, neighbourhood and nation state) are 

fading away and replaced by flexible, ‘thin’ institutions. Migration has always been strongly embedded in patterns of family, community, 

local labour markets, and the nation state. The transformation of these institutions, together with ever more advanced communication 

technologies and the disappearance of internal borders following EU enlargement, has changed migration patterns in post-industrial 

societies and has made migration less predictable. 

The fluid nature of East-West migration emphasizes the contrasts between the so-called guest worker migration of the 1960s-1970s and 

contemporary migrant workers from the CEE countries, who do not settle down permanently in the receiving countries where they work 

but, at least until now, often tend to return to their home countries. Large group of workers go home when the job is finished and they 

return when necessary or are available on demand when certain work is to be done (for instance in building industries). A crucial 

difference between both episodes of international migration is the institutional context. The earlier migrant workers, the so-called guest 

workers, arrived in a period when national borders were still very real and significant. The current labour migration from East to Western 

Europe takes place in a different institutional constellation, that is in a context in which national borders – at least within the EU – have 

lost their significance. East-West migration is strongly labor-motivated – like the guest workers migration in the 1960s and 1970s - but 

nowadays workers can come and go as they choose. However, the other factors continue to be of relevance. 

In this paper we will operationalize this ‘liquid pattern’ as a new pattern of temporary, circular migration. Among variables to be 

discussed in this paper are: type of settlement, type of migration, migration status, labour market position and career, diverse destination 

countries, family responsibilities and migration habitus. We will base our analysis on the findings of an explanatory Dutch study of 750 

CEE migrants (mainly from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania) and on the first finding of a recent large scale study of Polish, Bulgarian and 

Romanian labor migrants in seven municipalities in the Netherlands (N=600), including big cities like Rotterdam and The Hague and 

small agricultural municipalities. The aim of our paper is to discuss the nature of liquid migration (including labor careers) and the 

consequences it has for local communities The temporary stay of many new labor groups requires a flexible urban structure (in terms of 

housing, health care, education and integration) that can deal effectively with this new migration patterns. At present in many Dutch 

cities, improvised solutions are devised to accommodate CEE labor migrants. 

International Middle Class Migration and Mobility: French Nationals Working in the UK 

Rueyling Tzeng, Academia Sinica, Taiwan 

Studies on international migration have generally focused on either high-level managers and specialists transferred by multinational 

corporations, or laborers/blue collar workers who move from developing to developed countries. However, international migration 

patterns are clearly more diverse in composition and structure. One under-researched group consists of middle class job seekers. This 

paper looks at the estimated 500,000 French men and women, mostly under the age of 35, who are currently living and working in the 

United Kingdom. London is now home to an estimated 250,000-300,000 French citizens, making it the world’s fourth largest French city 

after Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles. 

45


The goal of this research is to use both macro (national and international political, economic, and social structures) and micro (individual) 

approaches to determine why so many middle class French are moving to and searching for employment in the UK, especially in the 

world city of London. I will examine the mechanisms that are facilitating the significant migration of French middle class workers to the 

UK, what kinds of jobs they perform, and how their migration fits in with their long-term employment plans. Data sources will include 

in-depth interviews with French nationals and the heads of French social organizations in London, plus secondary data from sources such 

as the UK Labor Force Survey. 

My motivations are to add to the literature on middling transnationalism, and to challenge the claims of world city researchers that world 

cities only attract migrants from the highest and lowest socioeconomic extremes. Another goal is to determine why intra-EU migration is 

more accessible in some places than in others. 

Drain, gain, waste and circulation: highly skilled immigrants in Portugal 

*Pedro Gois, University of Porto, Portugal 

José Marques, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria – INDEA, Portugal 

Like other southern European countries, immigration in Portugal only became an academically and politically relevant subject during the 

80’s. The attention had since than focused mainly on poorly or unqualified labour migrants that made off the most important part of the 

immigrants living in Portugal. The study of the labour market integration and of the professional mobility of highly qualified immigrants 

had been generally neglected notwithstanding their positive evolution since the 80’s which followed the development of the Portuguese 

economy, the internationalization process of national enterprises, and the increasing opening of the enterprises to foreign capital. 

This paper intends to unveil the main characteristics of the different types of brain mobility and their determinants that led to the 

presence of highly qualified immigrants in Portugal. The main interest is to present the mobility of brains to Portugal as an outcome of a 

complex processes in which citizens of diverse national groups are differently incorporated in the labour market even though they share 

the characteristic of being ‘highly qualified’. To illustrate this differential incorporation of highly qualified immigrants our analysis will 

focus on specific types of brain migration, labour market incorporation and the brain drain, brain waste or brain gain consequences. We 

will discuss in our analysis qualitative and quantitative data resulted from various research projects in recent years. First, a particular 

attention will be dedicated to a specific type of movement which albeit initially not intended to assume a labour nature turns to be highly 

relevant for specific segments of the national labour market: students that came to Portugal to take their university graduation or to 

make a specialization and that after completion of their degrees didn’t return to their countries of origin. Second, we will focus on the 

group of qualified immigrants that irrespectively of their academic qualification are economically incorporated in the 3D jobs of the labour 

market (dirty, dangerous and demanding jobs). Third we will concentrate on the causes, consequences and dynamics of the brain 

circulation in the internal labour market of some national or multinational companies. 

SESSION 2b High Skilled Migration 

Women on the move? The integration of highly-skilled women migrants into Germany's technology sector 


For many years immigration into Germany was viewed as being of a temporary nature; consequently, a formal integration policy was 

never developed. Not until recently did the German government begin to think of its country as a place to immigrate to. Several 

developments during the past several years have contributed to this paradigm shift. The demographic change associated with an aging 

population lead to smaller cohorts of youth entering the labor force and the subsequent shortage of skilled labor – especially in the 

technology sector. Based on this skilled labor shortage, the German government attempted to open the German labor market for 

migrants. Specific recruitment programs, such as the Green-Card-Initiative in the information and communications technology sector, 

were instituted by the German government as a first step. Additionally, the new immigration act of 2005 allowed for highly skilled 

personnel easier access to the German labor market. Besides these changes in policy, agenda, and legislation, transformation processes 

in several Eastern European countries during the 1990s as well as the EU eastward expansion, fuels expectations a further inflow of 

people with degrees in technology, engineering, or natural sciences. 

However, as research indicates, the current situation is marked by a low employment rate of highly-skilled migrants, who maintain a 

position that meets their qualifications. Even though numerous companies complain about the shortage of skilled labor and fear for a 

competitive disadvantage over other countries, the number of international migrants in Germany remains comparatively low. Especially 

highly-skilled, women migrants, who aim to work for companies within the fields of computer sciences, natural sciences, and 

engineering, face severe obstacles since these fields are traditionally highly gender-segregated. In many cases, they do not gain access to 

the German labor market at all or are forced into positions that do not match their skills and qualifications. Barriers to advancement still 

exist and limit the possibilities especially for hiring citizens of new EU member states. Highly-skilled, women migrants do not seem to be 

a focus group of German Federal employment programs despite the globalization of labor markets. The integration of highly-skilled, 

women migrants has also been insufficiently considered within the realm of academic research both in the field of gender equality and in 

migration studies. Consequently, no proven findings can be detected as to their integration into the German labor market or their current 

situation. This paper, which is part of a joint research project, empirically explores the integration of highly-skilled, women migrants into 

Germany’s technology sector. In doing so, several questions present themselves. To what extent are highly-skilled, women migrants 

recruited by German companies? How do these workers gain access to the German employment system in general and to business 

companies, in particular? How does migration affect their employment and career perspectives? How do migrant women from Eastern 

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Europe, who experienced a less gender-segregated labor market in their home countries, react to norms, values, and attitudes in the 

German labor market regarding gender and professional identity? What mechanisms of allocation of migrant women into the German 

labor market contribute to the reproduction of gender and ethnic inequality? 

Based on narrative oriented interviews with women migrants, and other qualitative research methods, professional careers of women are 

reconstructed and mechanisms of (dis)integration are analyzed. This reconstruction and analysis of highly-skilled, women migrants on 

the German labor market provides new data on how to better integrate highly-skilled, women workers into Germany’s technology sector. 

What is good for highly-skilled immigrants and what are highly-skilled immigrants good for? The case of Lithuania. 

Liutauras Labanauskas, Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania 

Highly-skilled migration has been an object of much policy discussion in the global context for many years; however, in Lithuania, 

compared with other research topics, it has a very short history. Still in 20 years of independent statehood, there can be seen a subtle 

shift from “brain drain” and emigration discourse, (which began as early as 1996 with a publication of a study “Mobility of scientists in 

Lithuania: internal and external brain drain”) to immigration and development discourse. 

This paper argues whether this new interest in immigration and development is more balanced and more concrete and whether the quest 

for the formulation of selective immigrant admission policies designed to attract and retain highly skilled non-EU researchers is relevant 

to political, economic and social transformations within Lithuanian labour market. 

The paper is based on the study (commissioned by The Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science and carried out by the Lithuanian 

Social Research Centre in 2009), which focused on the immigration policies and practices relevant to non-EU researchers and highlyskilled 

employees in Lithuania. The main aim of this research was to prepare recommendations on the implementation of the EU 

Directive 2005/71/EC aimed at facilitating non-EU researchers’ participation in EU science. 

The following issues were looked at: whether skilled immigration can stimulate economic growth of the country and whether highlyskilled 

immigration brings added value to Lithuanian science. Based on in-depth interviews with non-EU researchers in Lithuania the 

possible typology of skilled immigrants was developed to assist policymakers in strategically matching human resources to labour market 

conditions. 

The Experiences of Skilled Immigrants in the Irish Labour Market 

Eithne Heffernan, University of Limerick, Ireland 

The current paper was an examination of the experiences of skilled immigrants in the Irish labour market. Firstly, the impact of talent 

waste, or the tendency of skilled immigrants to become underemployed or unemployed in their host country, was examined (Yoshida & 

Smith, 2005). Secondly, the actions immigrants take in response to the experience of talent waste were assessed. In order to examine 

these issues, a series of semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted with ten skilled immigrants, who were working, or looking 

for work, in Ireland. They varied in terms of qualifications, occupations, gender, race, nationality and age. It was found that the majority of 

interviewees became underemployed or unemployed when they first arrived in Ireland. This had a profound and largely negative effect on 

their lives, particularly their sense of identity and their wellbeing. Immigrants took numerous actions in order to overcome these adverse 

experiences, including a return to education, entrepreneurship, voluntary work, the adoption of a domestic role and the utilisation of their 

immigrant identity to carve niche roles in the labour market. The majority of interviewees subsequently secured skilled employment, 

which had a restorative effect on their sense of identity and their wellbeing. However, it should be noted that some immigrants chose to 

remain underemployed rather than attempt to seek skilled employment. This finding is relatively unexpected, as past research has 

demonstrated that underemployment can harm one’s psychological and physical health (Friedland & Price, 2003; Winefield, 2002). It is 

recommended that future research examine in greater depth the factors which influence this choice. 

SESSION 2c The Labour Market Performance of Old and New Immigrants 

Evidence from Denmark - Job-to-Skill Match among Highly-Educated Immigrant Women 

Helle Bendix Lauritzen, AKF Danish Institute of Governmental Research, Denmark 

Acquiring a job with a good job-to-skill match is often difficult for immigrants. This paper addresses the difficulties met by highlyeducated 

immigrant women in Denmark, who try to obtain a job that corresponds to their skill level. The main question in the analysis is 

whether or not a suitable job-to-skil match occurs during their first five years in Denmark. The results presented come from a study on 

highly-educated immigrant women who immigrated to Denmark during the period 1990-2001. 

The question is investigated using sequence analysis on a large dataset obtained through administrative records. In total 8.435 immigrant 

women are included in the analysis and each is followed during the first five years of her stay in Denmark. By applying sequence analysis 

we are able to identify groupings of immigrant women expressing the same characteristics regarding labour market entry. In the analysis 

we distinguish between arrival-cohorts and arrival-age-cohorts. 

The results show that among highly-educated immigrant women, holding a position outside the labour market is very common – in fact it 

is the dominant position. However, among recent cohorts the share of highly-educated women taking up this position is slightly reduced. 

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Parallel to this development, we find an increase in the share of women gaining access to especially the medium and lower levels of the 

labour market. 

Furthermore, the analysis focus on which factors that contribute to the occurrence of different types of labour market entry and labour 

market attachment in general. The results show that similar dividing-lines are found among women sharing the same type of labour 

market attachment. The dividing-lines which stand out the most have to do with ethnicity and with the type of network (by virtue of 

spouse) accessible to the woman. Women who gain access to positions with a good job-to-skill match are characterized by originating 

from another EU-country or Northern America and furthermore married to a highly skilled (Danish) man. 

Generally speaking the results suggest that labour market entry and attachment is characterized by poor job-to-skill match among 

highly-educated immigrant women, and that access to higher levels of the labour market, is restricted to a small group of women with 

certain (to a Danish labour market) “recognizable” characteristics 

Entrepreneurial efforts by immigrants: A longitudinal study for Portugal 

*Miguel Amaral, Instituto Superior Técnico -Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal 

Joana Mendonça, Instituto Superior Técnico -Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal 

A variety of recent studies examine the determinants of entrepreneurial efforts among immigrants (Borjas, 1986; Fairlie and Meyer, 1996; 

Lofstrom 2002). In general, studies point out that migrant status and ethnicity affect the individual propensity to start a new business 

(Levie, 2006) and that self-employment rates among immigrants are higher than those of natives (Yuengert, 1995). However, research 

also show that the survival probabilities in entrepreneurship are lower for immigrants than for non-immigrants (see, e.g., Georgarakos 

and Tatsiramos, 2007 – for Mexican and Hispanic immigrants in the US; Vinogradov and Isaksen, 2007 – for immigrants in Norway). 

Additionally, firm closures among minority owners are observed to be disproportionately unsuccessful closures (Bates, 2005). 

The literature shows that skills are important in the process of shaping the economic performance of immigrants both in the immediate 

post-migration period and over the long-run (Borjas, 1999). In fact, higher levels of human capital are observed to increase 

entrepreneurship rates (Light and Rosenstein, 1995) and are positively related to business longevity and profits (Bates, 1994) among all 

ethnic and racial groups and categories. 

We use a human capital theoretical framework (Becker, 1975) to assess the importance of entrepreneurs’ education and different types 

of previous occupational experience (e.g., in paid-employment, non-employment, business-ownership, same industry, same location) 

in explaining entry and survival in entrepreneurship among immigrants. Therefore, our goals are threefold: First, to understand if – in 

line with the literature – immigrants in Portugal exhibit higher start-up rates and lower survival rates than those of Portuguese-born 

entrepreneurs. Second, to test if businesses owned by immigrants with higher human capital are more likely to entry the market and 

survive, than those whose immigrant owners have lower human capital. Third, to study the impact of human capital upon start-up and 

survival of firms owned by immigrants, when compared with firms owned by native-born entrepreneurs in Portugal. 

Method 

We employ panel data for entrepreneurs and firms from the Portuguese economy for the period 1995-2003. The data source is the 

“Quadros de Pessoal” (QP) Micro Data set, a unique database gathered from mandatory information submitted yearly by Portuguese firms 

to the Ministry if Social Security and Labour. It contains more than 100,000 observations. The longitudinal matched employed-employee 

data include extensive information on the mobility of firms and business owners. QP includes yearly data from all private establishments 

with at least one wage-earner in the Portuguese economy. Data relative to business owners for each firm include age, gender, tenure, 

and schooling. Moreover, records of entrepreneurial experience can be collected for employers and employees alike. We first provide 

estimates from a logistic regression on the determinants of starting up a business among various immigrant groups and native-born 

Portuguese entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we investigate survival of two groups of entrepreneurs: immigrants (group of interest) and 

native-born (counterfactual group) in a multivariate setting by estimating a discrete time hazard function in our econometric work 

(Narendranathan and Stewart, 1993; Jenkins, 1995). 

Implications 

The entrepreneur’s human capital and venture’s start-up characteristics are expected to shed new light on the differences between 

entry and survival rates of businesses established by immigrants and natives. Therefore, this research has important implications for 

practitioners and policy makers. Practitioners should be aware of the important role played by their stock of human capital and how it 

can translate into better business performance and better occupational prospects in the labor market. Policy makers might be interested 

in a further understanding of the observed differences between native and minority groups in the population, so that the design of public 

policies may foster entrepreneurship as an inclusive socioeconomic phenomenon. Moreover, despite immigrant entrepreneurship spans 

over many years and involves several businesses, research using detailed and longitudinal matched employer-employee data bases, such 

as QP, is scarce. Therefore, this investigation has a potential contribution to the literature by documenting immigrants’ entrepreneurial 

behavior across a reasonably long period and testing associated theories and hypotheses. 

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Host-country cultural capital and labour market trajectories of migrants in Germany. The impact of host-country orientation and 

migrant-specific human and social capital on labour market transitions 

*Jutta Hoehne, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 

Ruud Koopmans, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 

The paper investigates effects of host-country orientation and cultural difference of migrants on their socio-economic integration in 

Germany, analyzing unemployment and employment durations of male and female migrants, as well as transitions from domestic 

work to employment for female migrants from Turkey, Ex-Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain and Italy. Given the large gap in unemployment and 

employment rates not only between natives and migrants, but also between groups of migrants, we look at several economic, human 

capital and cultural factors in order to test whether migrant-specific characteristics can help to explain ethnic group differences in labour 

market outcomes. The migrant-specific cultural variables we investigate include host-country language proficiency, interethnic contacts, 

host-country media consumption, and religiosity. In the case of married female migrants, the analyses will moreover account for selected 

relevant characteristics of their non-native husbands, which have not been taken into account in earlier studies. 

The German Socio-Economic Panel provides reliable longitudinal data, allowing us to conduct analyses over a period of nearly 20 years 

(1988-2006). A longitudinal approach is crucial for addressing this research question, since the relationship between socio-cultural 

factors such as host-country language proficiency and interethnic contacts and labour market integration is likely to be recursive. Our 

samples cover not only persons born outside Germany, but also their 2nd generation offspring. The appropriate method for our analyses 

is a Cox regression with a random frailty term to account for unobserved heterogeneity. 

The results indicate that although labour market transitions of migrants strongly depend on the labour market context, host-country 

orientation and religiosity also have some impact on the labour market integration of individual migrants, especially on transitions into 

employment of male migrants and married migrant housewives. However, while for most of our cultural variables we find significant 

effects on the individual level, these factors do not help to clarify the differences among the different migrant groups, which persist at a 

similar level even after controlling for labour market, general human capital, as well as cultural variables. 

SESSION 3b The Labour Market, Social Welfare and Demographics 

Labour market concerns versus family needs: How welfare state institutions affect immigration policies for migrant care workers 

Franca van Hooren, European University Institute, Italy 

In many European countries immigrants increasingly work as care assistants. Sometimes they are directly employed by families, as is the 

case in Italy, while in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, migrants are more often employed by care providing agencies. This 

paper examines how immigration policies have addressed the employment of migrant workers in the elderly care sector. Immigration 

policies applying to care workers in Italy and the United Kingdom are compared. While Italy has enacted very expansive policies for 

migrant care workers both from Romania and Bulgaria and from outside the European Union, the United Kingdom recently restricted the 

options for entrance for migrant care workers. Explaining this contrast is the object of this paper. 

Migrant care work is a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. Throughout the continent, migrant workers are employed in response to 

growing demands for elderly care services. We know very little about this phenomenon and even less about the policy responses to it. This 

paper shows how the employment of migrant workers by families has increased massively in recent years. In reaction to this 

phenomenon, subsequent Italian governments introduced large immigration quotas and regularisations targeted specifically at the group 

of domestic and care workers, while Romanians and Bulgarians obtained free access to domestic and care work. In the United Kingdom 

providers in the social care sector have become increasingly reliant on migrant labour. Some migrant workers come from countries that 

recently entered the European Union, but more from outside of the EU, especially from African common wealth countries and the 

Philippines. For the latter group as well as for citizens from Romania and Bulgaria, eligibility criteria for work permits have been 

tightened. These tightened eligibility criteria effectively ended the issuing of work permits to migrant care workers. 

Based on interviews with involved policy makers and interest group representatives and through the analysis of policy documents and 

newspaper coverage, this paper attempts to understand the processes leading to these different choices in migration policy. The impact 

of political parties, interest organisations, and policy venues are assessed, but none of these can explain the different choices made in 

immigration policy. Instead, the paper argues that policy outcomes are strongly influenced by the organisation of the care system. The 

concept of ‘defamilialisation’ is taken from welfare state research. In Italy, where elderly care is largely confined to the family, policy 

makers frame migrant care work mostly as a family issue. Concerns related to the labour market are not taken into consideration. In the 

United Kingdom, where elderly care is more defamilialised, a large formal care sector has emerged. As a consequence, policy makers 

frame care work as a normal labour market issue. As a result of the focus on family needs in Italy, expansive migration policies were 

justifiable, even in times of economic downturn when other policies became more restrictive. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, 

care workers were considered to be a normal group of employees, for whom no exceptions could be made 

Population trends, human capital and the role of migrant workers in ageing societies 


Population dynamics and characteristics shape both labour supply and demand and can potentially contribute to mismatches in local 

labour markets, thereby favouring or hindering the need for migrant labour. The size of the young cohorts entering the labour market can 

have implications for educational opportunities, the level of unemployment and earnings. An ageing population, along with increasing 

female labour participation, is likely to require a larger workforce in health and social care. An ageing workforce can affect the 

49


occupational structure, relative wages and labour mobility. Rising levels of education can reduce the local supply of lesser skill labour. 

Internal and outmigration trends can affect the workforce supply at local level, especially in rural areas. 

Although all these processes may have significant consequences for the demand for migrant labour - and indeed are often mentioned by 

migration scholars as contextual and contributing factors to social and economic change underlying migration movement - there is a lack 

of a systematic understanding of their impact and their relationships with other social, economic and political factors driving migration. 

This leaves researchers and policy makers with a knowledge gap which is urgent to fill especially in relation to future population trends, 

indicating that labour shortages of demographic nature are likely to play a bigger role than in the past. Eurostat's demographic 

projections indicate that over the next two decades the working age population of the EU-27 will begin to shrink - an unprecedented trend 

for centuries. Although this decrease will be initially slow and its impact on the labour supply may be more than offset by increasing 

labour participation, it will be significant for the young cohorts entering the labour market, particularly in EU countries with the lowest 

fertility, and even assuming the continuation of large inflows of international migrants. In parallel, the European population is expected to 

continue to age significantly over the next decades: older people (aged 65 and over) currently account for 1 in 6 residents of the EU-27, 

and this proportion is expected to rise to 1 in 5 by 2019 and to 1 in 4 by 2033. Around 2037, the EU population will have twice as many 

'older old' (aged 80 and over) as today. 

This paper reviews the ways in which population dynamics and structures in Europe shape a need for imported labour. It argues that 

European population trends, affecting both supply and demand of domestic labour, will be key players in shaping the demand for migrant 

labour. On the supply side, this is mainly because of the future contraction of the young working age population, i.e. a major source of 

flexible labour supply available to take up - at least temporarily - lesser skilled, low paid, 'dead-end' jobs. The continuing improvement of 

educational attainments is also likely to exacerbate skill mismatches in the labour market. It is difficult to assess the extent to which 

economic restructuring may reduce demand for lesser skilled workers in European economies by increasing capital and technology and 

outsourcing the production of goods and services to the newly industrialised economies – a trend which has characterised many 

industries over the last decades such as textile, manufacturing and the call centres. However, much demand for migrant workers come 

from sectors that cannot be outsourced: construction, retail, hospitality, domestic work and health and social care. If the EU Common 

Agricultural Policy will continue to subsidise local producers, reliance of the sector on migrant workers is also likely to continue - should 

that not be the case the production would probably be outsourced because the sector would not be able to compete on the global market. 

On the labour demand side, the magnitude and pace of population ageing raise concern for the provision of care for older people. The 

health and social care workforce, already suffering from staff shortages and significantly relying on migrant carers in several European 

countries, will need to expand considerably in order to meet the future care needs. The extent to which the increasing demand for care 

will imply the need to expand the workforce caring for older adults will depend on a various factors, mainly the prevalence of disabilities 

and long-term health conditions and the amount of informal care provided within the family. However, analyses show that demographic 

trends will outweigh any reduction that may ensue from a declining incidence of care needs and that increasing labour force participation 

rates of women and the decline in co-residence between older people and their children are likely to widen the informal care gap. In the 

absence of structural reforms and a step change in the public funding allocated for older adult care - an unlikely scenario given the future 

constraints on public expenditure - the sector is likely to continue to rely on a significant number of migrant care workers. 

The final part of the paper explores the extent to which immigration policies in the EU are equipped to address the long-term 

demographic challenges which will affect the European labour markets. It is argued that the policy implications of these processes are 

largely ignored by labour immigration policies, which are usually driven by short-term objectives - e.g. annual reviews of quota systems 

and of shortage occupation lists - if not by political agendas treating migration as a security issue. However, some increasing recognition 

of the future demographic challenges is becoming apparent at the policy level. Some cases are discussed in the paper: the European 

Commission's Policy Plan on Legal Migration, stressing the need for labour immigration to fulfil the Lisbon's employment targets; the 

immigration policies devised by the Scottish and Canadian governments pursuing demographic targets as part of their economic growth 

strategy; and the heated policy debate in the UK around an immigration-driven demographic boom. 

Labour market inclusion and labour market exclusion among youths - What role does immigrant background play? 

*Jonas Månsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden 

Lennart Delander, Linnaeus University, Sweden 

That a large proportion of youths have problems in entering the labour market is a well known fact in Sweden as in other countries (see 

e.g. Ungdomsstyrelsen (The Swedish National Youth Board) 2008). Already in the 1990s, the proportion of youths without known 

occupation increased in the OECD countries. In Sweden both the size of this group and the growth rate was higher than in other OECD 

countries. (See e.g. Ryan 2001; Olofsson et.al. 2003; SOU 2003:92). This study aims to investigate if there are characteristics relating to the 

individual, or its parents, that to some extent can explain the variation in the probability of labour market inclusion and labour market 

exclusion among youths. Specifically we ask if immigrant background is of importance as regards labour market integration of youth. 

Besides having information about the persons own background, we also have information about the native country of his or her parents. 

Data and limitations 

In order to make possible, at a later stage, an integration of our quantitative analysis with qualitative information, we have limited the 

present study to cover only one county–the county of Kronoberg in the southern part of Sweden. The data comprise all individuals 18–24 

years old residing in this county one or more of the years between 1997 and 2007. Our conclusions about youths’ labour market status are 

50


based on information about their income. Other studies that have used register data for investigating attachment to the labour market 

are, e.g.: SCB (Statistics Sweden) 2000, Socialstyrelsen (The National Board of Health and Welfare) 2001, Olofsson et al. 2003, SOU 

2003:92, Bergmark & Bäckman 2004, Damsten & Erson 2005, Ungdomssstyrelsen (The Swedish National Youth Board) 2005. Although 

register data give very good basis for studying youths income situation, one has to be aware of that they only to some extent give a direct 

picture of youths’ attachment to the labour market. Discussions about problems that can be associated with using register data on 

income to draw conclusions about labour market integration can be found in SOU 2003:92 and Ungdomsstyrelsen 2005 and, with specific 

reference to youths with weak attachment to the labour market, in e.g. Salonen 2003 and Franzén & Kassman 2005. 

Following Statistics Sweden (SCB) 2000, the youths in our study were classified into four categories according to the degree of attachment 

to the labour market: (1) excluded from the labour market, (2) in an entrance phase, (3) in an establishing phase, and (4) included in the 

labour market (see also Raaum et al. 2009). Utilising these four categories made it possible for us to follow the inclusion process for 

individual youths in a rather detailed manner. The results presented in the study focus on individuals in the two extreme categories, i.e. 

youths who were excluded from and youths who were included in the labour market. 

Results 

Exclusion from the labour market 

Using the individual’s labour market situation in 2007 as the dependent variable, a probit model is used to estimate the probability of 

being excluded from the labour market. We identify one variable that is of major importance: not to have completed compulsory school 

studies. Persons who had dropped out of compulsory school in the sense that they had not received leaving certificate has a much higher 

probability of being excluded. It could be observed that even though immigrants are overrepresented in the group of youths who were 

excluded from the labour market in 2007, no immigrant effect could be identified. That is, having an immigrant background does not have 

an impact on the probability of being excluded from the labour market when other individual characteristics are being controlled for. 

Inclusion in the labour market 

Being included in the labour market 2007 was by us defined as having a yearly income from work that exceeds 16,000 Euro. Again, 

education is identified as a variable of major importance. Those without final certificate from compulsory school have a lower probability 

of being included in the labour market. As regards labour market inclusion, immigrant effects were observed. All estimates of effects of 

variables that relate to the individual’s immigrant background–being an immigrant him- or herself, father immigrant, mother immigrant– 

indicate reduced probability of being included in the labour market in 2007. 

Conclusion 

The main result from our study is that finishing at least compulsory school is of major importance for both exclusion and inclusion. We 

can not establish that having an immigrant background affects the risk of being excluded from the labour market. It is, however, clearly 

brought out that such a background reduces the probability of labour market inclusion. Thus, according to our study, having immigrant 

background is rather a labour market inclusion problem in Sweden than a problem that is manifested in labour market exclusion. An 

immigrant background seems to obstruct transitions from the establishing phase but does not increase the risk of being excluded from 

the Swedish labour market. Panel data estimations confirm these cross sectional results. 

SESSION 3c Migration, Gender and Employment 

Migrant women, employment and local development 

*Manuela Samek Lodovici, IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, Italy 

Renata Semenza, Università degli studi di Milano, Italy 

Flavio Scantimburgo, Università degli studi di Milano, Italy 

Daniela Loi, IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, Italy 

The paper considers the role of women in the migration flows from Northern Africa to Italy according to the transnationalism perspective. 

Adopting the transnationalism approach, the paper presents the results of a field research carried out on a sample of 116 women that 

have migrated from Morocco to Italy and of 100 women living in Morocco and part of transnational households or return migrants. 

The migratory flows of women from Morocco to Italy are still mainly determined by family reunions. However, the research presents a 

picture of changing conditions which may have important social implications. Women have a complex role within this ethnic group, which, 

on the one hand, supports the stabilization of the migratory path, but also, on the other hand, contributes to maintain the links with the 

cultural traditions of the country of origin and sustains the accumulation of the social and human capital needed to build bridges 

connecting the immigration context with their homeland. 

The research aims at assessing how the migration experience (either experienced directly or indirectly, as member of transnational 

households) changes the women attitudes within family relationships, the labor market, and their social networks. A specific attention 

has been given to self employment and business creation opportunities as a way for the integration of women in the country of arrival and 

of local development in the country of origin in the case of transnational business creation. The issues of adaptation, integration, 

pluralism and migration are considered from a gender perspective. 

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Adopting a gender based approach, the paper also considers the role of women migrants as potential agents for the local development of 

their country of origin, given the impact of their migration patterns and the role of remittances (cultural, social and economic ones). The 

role of the institutional and legal framework in Morocco and Italy has been also considered, as well as policies supporting the labor 

market participation of migrant women and circular migration flows in a gender perspective in order to assess the obstacles and 

opportunities to an active role of women in the labor market and local development. 

Self-employment of non EU immigrant women in Switzerland 

*Philipp Meier, University of Bern, Switzerland 

Raphaela Hettlage, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland 

The present day labor market, characterized by its high volatility, absence of routine, lack of security, and demand for highly skilled and/ 

or flexible employees, has had a dramatic impact on unskilled, low-wage workers. Non EU migrants in Switzerland, who on average have 

less formal education and work experience, are engaged in temporary labor and concentrated in cyclical sectors, are especially 

vulnerable. Not being able to satisfy the ever-changing demands of the marketplace many lose their jobs and are compelled to find 

alternative strategies to secure their livelihood. The need for more secure fields of labor has fuelled rapid growth in immigrant’s 

entrepreneurship/self-employment in many countries (for the US: Waldinger et al 1990, 1996, Portes 1985, 2002, for the UK: Phizacklea 

and Ram 1996, for France: Tarrius 1995, for Germany: Pütz 2003) where self-employment has become an important route for immigrants 

to improve their socioeconomic standing (Aldrich and Waldinger 1990; Light and Karageorgis 1994). 

In Switzerland self-employment of non EU immigrants was not part of the labor market policy and is still seen as something out of the 

ordinary. Their integration in to all divisions of the labor market and society is not intended and is still hindered by different structural 

barriers. As we will show in our paper this is partly due to Switzerland’s labor market oriented migration policy (‘dual system’) under 

which people from EU and EFTA member states are granted priority admission to the Swiss labor market over people from other 

countries. Concerning institutionalized cultural capital (Bourdieu 1983), the same dual systems discriminates between EU/EFTA and 

‘other’ foreigners. While the EU/EFTA bilateral agreements "Reciprocal Recognition of Diplomas" facilitates the recognition of EU 

diplomas, the recognition process of other foreign diplomas can be cumbersome and seldom is successful. 

Research on immigrant entrepreneurship shows that the structure of the host society’s labor market, its institutional framework as well 

as ‘ethnicity’ are key factors in determining immigrants’ success as entrepreneurs. By taking a social anthropological approach towards 

self-employment of immigrants we focus specifically on the question of how agency and structure interact within the field of immigrant 

entrepreneurship, hereby hoping to expand this perspective. 

Therefore we look specifically at how opportunity structures interact with gender, social capital, and biographical experience during the 

process of women’s self-employment in Switzerland in our research project “ImmigrAction“ (start date: November 2008; duration: 24 

months) funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology (OPET) within the research program “equal 

opportunities”. A qualitative methodology is being applied, using ethnographic techniques like participant observation and in-depth 

biographical interviews to study entrepreneurs in a local context. Data collected consists of biographical interviews, ego-centered 

qualitative network analysis interviews and participant observation. The ten women interviewed represent a wide range of ages, family 

structures, nationalities and types of entrepreneurial endeavors. 

Our paper presents first results based on these case analysis which position immigrant entrepreneurs, as ‘othered’ (i.e. foreigners) and 

as gendered (i.e. as ‘women’) within entrepreneurial practices. We show how immigrant status, gender, and entrepreneurship are 

enacted as situated practices. Reflecting migrants’ labor market experiences, careers and aspirations, our research data suggests that in 

the present day labor market where work that is rich in gratifying experience, work as the meaning of life, has become the privilege of a 

chosen few (Bauman 1998), self-employment can give back to individuals that what has been lost being employed; namely not only 

subsistence but work as a vocation. 

SESSION 4b Migration, Social Protection and Employment Rights 

A Question of Equality: Some Aspects of the Temporary Restrictions in Access to the EU-15 Labour Market in the Czech Republic 

Selma Muhic Dizdarevic, Charles University, Czech Republic 

In this paper my intention is to present some aspects of the phenomenon of temporary restrictions in relation to labour market access in 

the EU-15 countries as discussed in the Czech Republic (CR). The article begins by presenting some of the facts about the restrictions in 

the individual countries of the EU-15 together with data concerning Czech emigration. This is followed by a brief outline of the official 

attitude of the Czech establishment in relation to the issue and to similar problems encountered in relation to the opening of the Czech 

labour market to Third Country Nationals (TCN). By way of conclusion I then deal with the question of how some aspects of this issue 

affected the perception of the EU and the position of the CR in it. Here I also relate to the policy towards TCN, in which we can find the 

same arguments against a liberalization of the labour market that were applied to the CR from the perspective of some EU-15 countries. 

It is therefore possible to say that a kind of protective “food chain” line exists in which those on top fear those lower down the chain for 

similar reasons. 

In the Czech Republic the initial introduction of the so-called temporary restrictions on access to the EU-15 labour market was seen 

mainly in the light of two aspects: the questioning of whether a better “deal” could have been negotiated and the strengthening of the 

position of so-called Euro-sceptics. The term Euro-sceptics should be used with caution, however, since it covers the entire range of 

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motives for the rejection of EU integration or some of its aspects – e.g. some advocates of this position reject EU integration for economic 

reasons, others for fear of a loss of national identity, some because of the democratic deficit in the EU political system and others due to 

the perceived need for a US alliance instead of an EU integration. The main point here is that all these positions were reinforced by the 

limits imposed on a freedom of movement for Czech citizens. Although freedom of movement cannot be reduced to labour market 

accessibility, the two tend to be interlinked. The latter also influences the former in terms of the necessity for most people to work in 

order to meet their living costs. 

While it was perceived that the CR had to undergo huge social, political, economic and legislative changes in order to adjust its system to 

the ‘acquis communautaire’, such changes were not always easily accepted throughout society. However, when the goal was finally 

reached, and after strong EU marketing by the then ruling Czech Social Democratic Party, the result was perceived as limited in 

possibilities. On its part, the Civic Democratic Party, which at that time was in opposition, was able to flirt with anti-EU feelings when it 

became clear that the labour market and to some degree even entrepreneurship would be limited for Czech citizens. The ruling Social 

Democrats were also accused of not doing enough to abolish or reduce the restrictions. In this context, it is pertinent to ask how 

important this issue really is in terms of job mobility in the CR. 

Wilful negligence: The lack of employment protection for migrant workers under New Labour. 

Mick Wilkinson, University of Hull, UK 

In this paper it is argued that social and employment protections for migrant workers in the UK are wholly inadequate. Further, that the 

UK Government has a moral obligation to address these deficits because over the past decade they have actively encouraged the flow of 

hundreds of thousands of temporary workers into the UK, without first ensuring that the legal and social rights were in place to protect 

them. This paper draws together findings from two recent studies looking at (i) the numbers and needs of migrant workers in the Humber 

sub-region in Yorkshire (Adamson, Wilkinson et al. 2008) and (ii) the performance of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). 

(Wilkinson et al. 2009) The studies, undertaken by the Contemporary Slavery Research Centre at the Wilberforce Institute, Hull, were 

based on a mixture of secondary analysis of published and other data sets, and on a series of qualitative interviews with people providing 

statutory or voluntary services for migrant workers, supplemented by a similar number of personal interviews with and the collated 

testimonies of migrant workers, both individually and in focus groups. 

On coming to power in 1997, New Labour engaged in a deliberate programme of ‘managed migration’ aimed at actively encouraging the 

flow of temporary migration in the interests of the UK economy both by expanding the existing temporary worker schemes and adding 

new programmes. The number of work permits issued to foreign-born workers rose from 40,000 a year in the mid-1990s to over 200,000 a 

year in 2004. (Flynn 2008) Since May 2004, when the EU expanded eastwards, 700,000 migrants from Eastern Europe have registered with 

the Home Office to work here. This policy has both generated and fed the demand in the UK for cheap, mobile, flexible and exploitable 

labour and has led to many migrant workers in the UK today being subject to routine and systematic exploitation. 

As early as the 1920s, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommended to member states that they establish state control over 

employment agencies by issuing licenses and abolishing those working for profit. In the 1970s, such legislation was enacted in a number 

of European countries – in the UK, in 1973 the government launched the Employment Agencies Act under which all labour providers had 

to register and comply with legal standards. However, in 1994, as part of its ongoing neo-liberal agenda, the Conservative government 

introduced the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act, through which the system of agency licensing was abolished and action against 

exploiters became primarily dependent upon the complaints of victims. In this regulatory vacuum, the numbers of employment agencies 

and gangmasters mushroomed; the UK currently has more temporary workers than any other European country. With the enormous rise 

in gangmasters came a concomitant expansion in the form and scale of worker exploitation. Eventually, a series of negative outcomes 

surfaced in the national media – for instance, when 58 Chinese were found asphyxiated in the back of a lorry in Dover in June 2000. This 

culminated in the media explosion surrounding the deaths of 23 shellfish-pickers in February 2004 in the Morecambe Bay tragedy. Under 

pressure from a range of campaigning organisations the New Labour government were forced to respond. However, the measure finally 

taken, the setting up of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) in April 2005, provided only a partial solution. The GLA’s remit was 

effectively limited to those supplying labour in three industrial sectors, agriculture and horticulture, forestry, and shellfish gathering. 

Other key industrial sectors, including construction, hotels and hospitality, the care sector and contract cleaning, all now highly 

dependent upon migrant labour, are beyond the GLA’s remit and remain so poorly regulated by employment enforcement agencies such 

as the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate and employment tribunals as to be effectively a free-for-all zone for exploitative 

employers. There are roughly 10,000 gangmasters operating in the UK. The GLA, however, has less than 30 inspectors. There is also a 

dearth of accessible information and advice around migrant worker employment issues and how they would seek legal redress. This is 

clearly not a meaningful response to the widespread problem of temporary worker exploitation. 

Both studies found evidence of the most appalling forms of exploitation of migrant workers across the UK. They are generally paid the 

minimum wage, although some are paid much less; but frequently wages are reduced by systematic illegal or unfair deductions. For 

instance, we came across exorbitant fees for processing passports, for transportation to work or for inadequate safety clothing. Some 

have excessively high tax and NI contributions taken out of their wages which are not paid on to the taxation authorities. Working 

conditions are often appalling, sometimes dangerous (with inadequate safety procedures and training). Unsocial hours are the norm, with 

12 and 16 hour shifts common, usually without overtime payments. Workers are sometimes called in to do double shifts at a moment’s 

notice and it is commonplace for those refusing to do a double shift to be threatened with the sack and the loss of accommodation. 

Respondents gave accounts of systematic underpayment for hours worked, often by hundreds of pounds, and of complaints sometimes 

being met with threats of violence. Many pay a non-returnable signing-on fee, of up to £1000 to an agency in their home country. Upon 

arrival, some are then faced with an unexpected similarly-sized further signing-on fee in the UK, which has to be paid off from the outset. 

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The gangmasters then ensure that they earn insufficient monies to clear those debts. So, for instance, migrants are deliberately laid off 

work for periods during which time they continue to live in gangmaster accommodation - thus accumulating further debts. This is 

essentially debt bondage. 

There are charges for exorbitantly priced multi-occupancy accommodation also provided by the gangmaster/agency. It is standard 

practice that migrant workers cannot leave that accommodation without also losing their employment. That accommodation is often 

unsafe, appallingly overcrowded, with inadequate or only very basic amenities. 

The studies also found there to be a vast pool of undocumented (and thereby illegal) migrant workers. The Home Office median estimate 

is 430,000. (IPPR 2006) However, this figure may be low, given recent estimates on the number of undocumented Chinese migrants alone 

at between 170,000 to 200,000. (Pai 2008) These workers are at the most vulnerable end of the work /exploitation matrix. Trades union 

activists reported particularly distressing circumstances including sexual exploitation, severe mental distress, rape and the kidnap of 

children, but with no possibility of redress because the workers were unregistered thus liable for deportation if they came to the 

authorities’ attention. These circumstances meet the International Labour Organisation criteria for forced labour. 

These circumstances demonstrate the particular vulnerability of foreign workers in what is characterised officially as a ‘flexible’ labour 

market. Far from tackling this injustice, recent government initiatives such as the new points-based system for work and study introduced 

in the summer of 2008 and for British citizenship from 2011 will serve to make the position of migrant workers more vulnerable still. 

Already there is evidence of additional disadvantage for workers in the catering and healthcare sectors. (HoC 2009) 

The Contemporary Slavery Research Centre recommends a number of policy initiatives including an extension of the GLA’s powers to 

cover the whole of the temporary labour sector, and a one-off regularisation programme for undocumented migrant workers. 

What rights for migrant workers? The economics and politics of migrant rights 

Martin Ruhs, University of Oxford, UK 

The rights of migrant workers play an important instrumental role in shaping the outcomes of migration for receiving countries, migrants 

and their countries of origin. Because of their impacts on residents of the receiving country, migrant rights are – and can be analysed as 

– a core component of nation states’ immigration policies. The analysis of the determinants and variation of migrant rights across and 

within countries must thus consider the “economics and politics of migrant rights” including the potential inter-relationships with other 

migration policy components, including especially policies toward regulating the number and selection (especially skills) of migrants 

admitted. To study these interrelationships in practice, this paper constructs and analyses two separate indices that measure: (i) the 

“openness” of fifty high- and middle-income countries to admitting migrant workers; and (ii) the legal rights (civil, political, economic, 

social and residency rights) granted to migrant workers after admission. The analysis distinguishes between policies toward low-, 

medium, and high-skilled migrant workers. In addition to measuring variation in labour immigration policies and the rights of migrant 

workers both across and within high-income countries, the indices facilitate empirical analysis of two hypotheses developed in the 

existing literature: first, the rights of migrant workers are positively related to the skill level targeted by the labour immigration 

programme under which migrants are admitted; and, second, there can be a trade-off (a negative relationship) between the relative 

numbers and rights of low- and medium-skilled migrant workers admitted to high-income countries (see, e.g. Ruhs and Martin 2008; and 

Ruhs 2010). The paper provides empirical evidence on these questions and discusses potential policy implications. 

Project website: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/research/state/the-economics-and-politics-of-migrant-rights/ 

SESSION 4c The Constitution of Labour Market Needs 

A “season” of change: intensification, mobility and agency on “local” sites of production. 

Sally Daly, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland 

In this paper, I present ethnographic evidence from Ireland to show that the state’s labour migration discourse is not simply a controlling 

force imposed externally by the state on migrants, but is itself shaped by migrants’ strategies. In turn such initiative informs the 

regulation of the market over time. In this regard, I aim to reveal how migrant workers have explicitly and critically shaped the 

development of the agricultural sector and more particularly horticulture in Ireland. Changes in horticultural production driven by a 

concentration in retailer power are linked to the availability of migrant workers and state initiatives to manage migration. Prior to two 

converging occurrences; the opening up of the labour market to migrant workers through specific labour market strategies (the work 

permit system and the Seasonal Horticultural Workers Scheme: SHWS); and what Rogaly (2008) has called ‘the intensification of 

workplace regimes’; the employment profile within the sector was markedly different: “it was all summer, kind of casual labour. Children 

from primary and secondary school and their parents, whole families used to come…. but at that time the price, I don’t know what it is 

now, maybe it’s per hour rather than volume, at the time people were paid for what they picked and usually the price was about a third of 

what the farmer was getting at the factory gate”(Excerpt from interview with a former grower; 7th July 2009). More recently, the issue of 

extended seasonality has impacted on the labour requirements on growing sites: “it would be difficult enough to have local labour 

because you’d be depending on students and students are not available after September and that’s the problem we had years ago when 

we started growing this out of season fruit, you’d finish up once, actually from the 20th August, they wanted to go on holidays. You had no 

staff, you know and only for the foreign labour, we wouldn’t have a business” (Excerpt from interview with current grower; 17th August 

2009). While the state’s regulation of the labour market for the industry is evidenced through specific measures, workers have now 

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developed responses in conjunction with employers to maintain and create employment opportunities. Notably, in recent years and since 

the accession of 12 new countries into the EU, the number of permits issued to non-EEA workers has steadily decreased and from 2010, 

the SHWS will be discontinued. This paper is interested in the extent to which both temporary and more permanent workers within the 

horticultural industry have developed strategies to shape ‘landscapes of capitalism’ (Herod, 2001) and negotiate the terms and conditions 

of their employment and living circumstances. As a largely unorganised spatially mobile workforce, notwithstanding precarious health 

and safety concerns within the industry, I consider the extent to which agency in this regard can impact on workers’ spatially embedded 

everyday lives. With workers involved as research participants, I hope to reveal the subjective experience of employment and the extent to 

which agency and its limitations are significant to workers themselves. In this regard, I am interested in the local, the contingent, the 

partial and how these elements help to shape broader outcomes. 

The constitution of labour market needs in Western Europe 

Camilla Devitt, European University Institute, Italy 

The definition of labour market needs is one of the primary tasks of immigration policy-makers. Modes of identifying these needs vary 

considerably across Western Europe, from transparent scientifically-based models to more informal processes finishing with decisions 

taken behind ‘gilded doors’. I take a look at two ‘matched pairs’, Ireland and the UK and Italy and France. In the former states, state 

agencies and experts conduct transparent analyses of labour market needs, based on sets of pre-defined variables, as well as more 

qualitative examinations of labour demand and supply and stakeholder consultancy. In the latter states, the definition of labour market 

needs is based on state consultation with the social partners and other civil society groups, the process of which is not open to the public. 

There is also variation within the two ‘matched pairs’. While different variables and methods are used in defining labour market needs in 

Ireland and the UK, the French regions have a stronger, more consistent role than their Italian counterparts in defining their own needs 

for foreign labour. In this paper, I investigate variation in modes of defining labour market needs in these four states and evaluate the 

efficacy of the various methods in terms of meeting governments’ economic and political objectives. I then attempt to provide an 

explanation for cross-national variation. 

Recruitment Processes and Immigration Regulations: The Disjointed Pathways to Employing Migrant Carers in Ageing Societies 

*Kieran Walsh, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 


There has been a significant growth in the demand for migrant registered nurses and migrant care assistants in the British and Irish 

older adult long-term care sectors. The shift in population age structures, coupled with an increased difficulty in employing indigenous 

carers, has meant that migrant registered nurses and migrant social carers are now embedded in the care systems of the two countries. 

While this cultural transformation of the care workforce indicates that massive foreign recruitment has occurred in older adult care – a 

sector disadvantaged in terms of resource allocation and prioritisation - there is little known about foreign recruitment in the long-term 

care labour market. How recruitment strategies function within the regulatory structures of each country is also unknown. Given the 

reliance on migrant carers, the relationship between recruitment and the regulations that govern labour migration is likely to be crucial 

to sector efficiency; but has not featured in the literature. 

To address the current information deficits, this paper provides new evidence on the recruitment processes of UK and Irish older adult 

care providers to hire migrant nurses and social carers; the role of immigration regulations in facilitating and shaping these processes; 

and the impact of this system on the older adult care sector and on migrant carers. The different migration histories of Ireland and the UK 

and the disparity in the scale of migration and care sectors, introduces subtle differences in terms of policy, practice and regulation. 

Nevertheless, without an empirical comparison it is difficult to know what these factors mean for the recruitment of migrant care workers 

in older adult care. The research uses Irish and UK data collected as a part of the cross-national study on ‘the role of migrant care 

workers in ageing societies’. A national survey of long-term care employers, telephone interviews with employers and semi-structured 

interviews with migrant registered nurses and migrant care workers in Ireland and the UK were the primary data sources. 

The findings indicate that a combination of recruitment strategies was used to identify and recruit migrant carers in the older adult care 

sector. These included orthodox techniques (regional and local advertising), informal networks and recruitment agencies. While there is 

overlap in the methods used, differences existed for the type of labour market being targeted (i.e. local versus EAA versus international), 

the type of carers being recruited (i.e. nurses versus social carers) and the migration status of the care workers. The research showed 

that these three factors were intertwined in the experiences of migrant carers and employers and were influenced directly by the 

regulatory framework of each country. The findings are discussed in terms of key differences and similarities across the UK and Ireland 

and with respect to the disadvantage of older adult care and the conceptualisation of care as represented in immigration regulations. 

SESSION 6b Migration, Integration and the Labour Market 

Invisible Visible Minority: Chinese in Serbia 

Maja Korac, University of East London, UK 

Since the mid 1990s, the number of Chinese immigrants settling in Serbia has been steadily rising; estimates vary widely from a few 

thousand (Vasic, 2001) to up to 50,000 (Milutinovic, 2008). In explaining the phenomenon of Chinese migration to Serbia during the 

turbulent period of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, the paper examines the social processes underpinning it. Chinese 

immigrants started settling in Belgrade and Serbia at the time of massive inward and outward movements of the local/endogenous 

population caused by war, human rights abuse and economic hardship. As a consequence, Serbia and other successor states of 

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Yugoslavia have become ethnically homogeneous, preoccupied with ethnic identity politics and fear or hatred of an ethnic ‘Other’. Beyond 

Serbia and war affected region, in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Rumania, late 1980s and 1990s were marked by a new 

phenomenon: arrival and settlement of immigrants, including Chinese. 

Against the backdrop of these processes, this paper maps out the situation of Chinese immigrants in Belgrade and Serbia. It examines 

the reasons and patterns of their migration to South Eastern Europe and Serbia, moulds of their incorporation into the receiving economy 

and society, as well as the ways in which this recent influx of Chinese immigrants is impacting upon Serbian society. Discussion in this 

paper presents some findings of my research, which combines contextual analysis of Chinese migration to Serbia and a pilot 

ethnographic (qualitative) study among ‘newcomers’ and ‘hosts’. The collection of data was carried out in Belgrade/Serbia between 

September and December 2009. The contextual analysis of Chinese migration to Serbia is based on: 1) analysis of the media coverage 

concerning ‘the exotic stranger in our midst’, and on 2) semi-structured interviews with officials, academics and other professionals 

about the phenomenon of Chinese migration to Serbia and the economic, socio-cultural and political processes underpinning it. 

There is hardly any research and published studies on Chinese in Serbia, and there is very little, newly emerging on these groups in the 

countries of South Eastern, Central or Eastern Europe. The discussion in this paper is to fill in this gap and to contribute to the ongoing 

academic and policy debates on settlement and integration, diasporas and the role of transnational strategies and social spaces. 

Waves of Migration: Social and Economic dimensions of Brazilian immigrants in Portugal 

*José Marques, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria – INDEA, Portugal 

Pedro Gois, University of Porto, Portugal 

Brazil used to be a country that received migrants from around the world. Before the 1960s, Brazil was a country of immigration. In recent 

years, however, it is estimated that between 4-5 million Brazilians have migrated to the USA, Europe and Japan. Brazilian migration to 

European Union countries partially differs from the migration pattern to the USA and substantially differs from those to Japan. Regarding 

the EU, available evidence indicated that the current flow of Brazilians to the EU is significantly distinct from the previous migratory 

waves. Thus while previous migration maybe mainly attributed to historical colonial links (e.g. to Portugal or Italy), this new wave seems 

to be structured in a very different way. Although economic reasoning may explain the individual decisions, the evolution of the migratory 

flow depends also on the political sanctions of the countries involved (e.g. regularization possibilities) as well as on the force and degree 

of the structuring of formal and informal migratory networks at both ends of the migratory chain. In terms of human capital the 

newcomers from Brazil seem to have an heterogeneous composition, ranging from highly qualified Brazilian migrants to non qualified 

Brazilian migrants. Despite its importance, Brazilian immigration has not been yet the subject of a broad research and/or research 

dissemination, contrary to what has happened with other immigrant groups in the EU. 

Based on research conducted recently by the authors, the main objective of this presentation is to present the main characteristics of this 

recent migratory flow of Brazilians to Portugal, their incorporation into the labour market and in other social spheres, and the relations 

they maintain with the country of origin. 

It will be showed that this flow is above all a labour movement composed mainly by young adults that take the opportunities offered in the 

secondary segments of the labour market. The flow of Brazilians to Portugal is particularly illustrative of a more generalized migration 

pattern that spread to other European countries in the last years and its study could thus lead to a better knowledge of the new Brazilian 

migration waves to the EU. In fact, Brazilian immigrants in Portugal present a profile and migration strategies that aren’t radically 

different from other recent international migration flows directed to the EU, namely to Ireland and Belgium. In the Portuguese case, the 

existence of a consolidated lusophone migration system, the functioning of the social networks, and the political opportunities available to 

Brazilian immigrants seem to explain the reason why the country as been one of the most desired European destinies for Brazilians and, 

also, an open door or a transit country to other EU countries. 

Mass Immigration in the US: Who Gains and Who Loses? 

*Lynn Duggan, Indiana University of Bloomington, USA 

Barbara Bergmann, American University, USA 

The US experience of mass immigration from the 1980s through the present is characterized by highly concentrated benefits to 

immigrants and employers of recent immigrants and diffuse costs to many other groups. In this paper we examine the distribution of 

these benefits and costs in an attempt to sort out 1) what to do about the illegal immigrants already in the this country, (2) whether to 

allow the entry of large numbers of new legal immigrants, and (3) whether and how to prevent additional massive flows of illegal 

immigration in the future. 

Our focus includes the impact of immigration on wages in low-skill employment and on income inequality among women, among men, 

among racial/ethnic groups, and between women and men. This involves an examination of wages, working conditions, and the gender 

balance in construction, meatpacking, agricultural labor, domestic labor, and other industries with high rates of immigrant labor and/or 

high recruitment levels. We discuss the evolution of “caring chains” and the growing gap between high and low income women. 

We briefly examine the current US political climate regarding mass immigration. Some likely consequences of this climate are examined. 

We then move to a brief inventory of political forces supporting and opposing various immigration reforms as well as speculation 

regarding the reason for a stalemate on immigration policy reform. Our findings lead us to support a recommendation that immigration 

policy be reformed to include amnesty for undocumented immigrants currently in the US, coordination of immigration quotas with US 

unemployment rates, and enforcement of tough sanctions against employers who hire undocumented immigrants. 

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SESSION 6c Migration, Employment and Social Stratification 

New EU citizens and migrant workers in Britain: analyzing social experiences of Central Eastern Europeans in the local labour market 

Zinovijus Ciupijus, University of Leeds, UK 

Central Eastern European migration to the UK has been described as the most unprecedented migration wave in British history (Ruhs, 

2006). Historically, the UK has been a major destination for a number of waves of large scale labour migration – first, Irish labour 

migration, later followed by the arrival Ashkenazi Eastern European Jews and, finally, Commonwealth migrants in the post-second world 

war era. From the first sight, Central Eastern European labour migration which commenced on a massive scale in 2004 could be located 

in the same category. However, as some commentators have stressed (e.g. Sumption and Sumerville, 2010), it carried a unique and 

special characteristic. The structural component behind the distinctiveness of this labour mobility lied in the denationalization of its legal 

and political framework. Central Eastern European migration has been not simply a migration to British nation-state from poorer 

countries or countries which had a colonial link to the UK in the past. Crucially, this type of labour mobility has been firmly connected to 

the pan-national processes of European integration. Central Eastern European labour migration was an exercise of the right engrained in 

EU citizenship – the right of freedom of movement. Furthermore, as legal scholarship of EU enlargement has observed (Currie, 2008), the 

exercise of this right gives a real meaning to EU citizenship and increases legitimacy of the EU as a whole. 

The eastward enlargement of European Union in 2004 had two seemingly non-contradictory implications: first of all, it gave new freedom 

of movement to Central Eastern European citizens of the union and, secondly, it set a ground for the mobility of labour. Following this 

logic, those Central Eastern Europeans who came to the UK after the enlargement could be described as citizens-migrant workers’ - a 

description which carries in itself an ambiguous and contradictory socio-legal status. 

In spite of being EU citizens as well as workers, Central Eastern Europeans in the UK are commonly described as economic migrants. 

The public debates are concerned almost exclusively on the role of Central Eastern Europeans as workers rather than citizens. Thus by 

stealth, the right of freedom of movement turns into a refined version of the Fordist guest worker type migration – Central Eastern 

Europeans are construed as temporary labourers who expected to work and go back. The patters of EU migrants’ employment (largely in 

secondary labour market) and downgraded social welfare rights contribute in construing this social group as ‘Eastern European’ migrant 

workers as opposed to fully-fledged EU citizens. In contrast to such discourse, this paper aims to re-assert the citizenship aspect of 

Central Eastern European mobility and, holistically, examine both working and non working lives of mobile new EU citizens. 

The proposed paper attempts to explore the dynamics of EU citizens and migrant workers in the context of the local labour market. 

Drawing on Marshall’s (1992) concept of tripartite citizenship, it examines Central Eastern European migration as an exercise of civil, 

political and social rights. The particular attention is given to social rights – EU migrant workers’ involvement and participation in local 

community. The focus is on the role of social support mechanisms in offsetting the oppressive conditions of employment in secondary 

labour market. Furthermore, the paper examines the potential of EU citizenship in protecting social and human rights of migrant 

workers. 

The data has been collected in a Northern English city which has not been a major destination for migrant workers in the past. By 

mapping EU migrant workers’ local geography, we analyse both secondary data received from local authorities (housing and education) 

and national data sets – annual population survey, national insurance registration and workers registration scheme. We supplement 

secondary sources with original qualitative data – interviews with migrant workers and members of their families (the focus is on their 

live stories), but also with employers, local authority and community group representatives, and trade union activists. The totality of 

gathered data is used in interpreting the particularities of EU-triggered migration and re-examination of EU citizen/migrant worker 

nexus. 

The new stratifications of migrant labour in the hospitality industry in London: everyday experiences at work and mobility strategies 

Gabriella Alberti, Cardiff University, UK 

While the UK is considered an old country of immigration in the EU, with London representing historically a major destination for 

“postcolonial migrants” from Commonwealth countries or former colonial territories, recent research documented the shift from 

“multicultural” diversity to “super-diversity” of the population in Britain due to changes in migration patterns (Vertovec 2007). In London 

certain sectors of the service economy including hotels and restaurants where migrants comprise 60% of the workforce (Kyambi 2005) 

have registered an increased stratification in the composition of migrant employment, with growing tensions emerging between members 

of “ethnic minorities” (mainly from Afro-Caribbean and South Asian communities) and “new migrants” coming in grand part from Eastern 

Europe. The UK Government’s decision to open the country’s labour market to the EU “Accession countries” in 2004 appeared crucial in 

shaping a new complex “migrant division of labour” (Wills et al. 2010) in cities like London. Against this background the paper is based on 

ethnographic data collected during my PhD research on the conditions of both relatively settled and recently arrived migrant women 

employed in the hospitality sector in London. While this sector of the service industry has traditionally presented high levels of migrant 

employment, it results particularly impacted by the new patterns of mobiliy and labour market regulation in the UK as well as by the 

recently introduced “Points- Based System” for immigration. Focusing on the everyday experiences at work of a group of segmented and 

precarious migrant workers in one of the lowest paid industry of the UK, the paper analyses the intersection of migration and labour 

market regulations to illustrate the factors shaping these new migrant communities, their life and working conditions and explore the 

ways in which these subjects creatively challenge their marginalised positions and overcome the gender and racialised divisions in their 

workplaces through various “strategies of mobility” and “relationality”. Finally the paper attempts some reflections on the ways in which 

the economic recession has impacted on migrants’ employment focusing on issues of labour turnover and retention in London hotels and 

drawing from the workers “perceptions of the crisis” and the tensions emerging in their relationships at work as recorded during the 

fieldwork. 

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New and Old Immigrants in Portugal: Impacts on Employment 

Sonia Pereira, University of Lisbon, Portugal 

Since the mid 1960s Portugal has received a continuous inflow of African immigrants from Portuguese Speaking African Countries, or 

PALOP (Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and S. Tomé e Príncipe. These immigrants worked mainly in low-skilled 

occupations in construction, domestic services and cleaning. Roughly around the turn of the century Portugal’s immigrant population 

more than doubled with the sudden arrival of qualified immigrants from Eastern Europe (mainly from Ukraine, Moldova and Romania) and 

increased yet again a few years later with a boost in immigration from Brazil, again largely of low skilled workers. An important proportion 

of the newly arrived immigrants entered the labour market in the economic activities that were also the main employers of already 

established immigrants: construction, domestic service and cleaning (although to a lesser extent than the former two). The new 

immigrant inflow changed the hiring options available to employers and indeed PALOP immigrants began complaining that preference 

was being given to Eastern Europeans and Brazilians in the labour market. 

My PhD work discusses the impacts of these new arrivals both on the symbolic, subjective and perceptive dimension and on the actual 

outcomes in terms of labor market indicators by looking at both employers and immigrants’ experiences during the period 1998 to 2006. 

The paper I propose to present at the conference “New Migrations, New Challenges” will address the changes in employment that have 

resulted from the new immigrant inflows in three key economic activities for the integration of immigrants - construction, cleaning and 

domestic work – as well as the position of these different immigrant groups in the labour market. For each of these activities I will also 

reflect upon the contribution of some key-factors to the production of changes in employment and labour market position: prevailing 

working conditions; immigrants’ preferences and opportunities, employers’ preferences and available recruitment mechanisms. The 

choice of economic activities also enables me to highlight the gender differences that this change encompassed. 

SESSION 7b New Forms of Labour Mobility in Europe 

New forms of labour mobility? Polish migrants in Ireland after European Union Enlargement, 2004 


The large inflow of Polish nationals to Ireland has been a relatively new phenomenon. Most of those who migrated from Poland to this 

country came here after the EU enlargement in 2004. While many of those might have already left Ireland, some have stayed in Ireland for 

a longer time or may still be here. It has been widely recognized that this migration stream had mainly an economic character and that 

majority of Polish nationals came to Ireland in order to find an employment that sometimes could not be secured back in Poland or was 

at least not satisfactory in terms of the earnings. 

This situation seems to be somewhat similar to the situation of Polish labour migrants who were finding the employment in other EU 

countries after the breakdown of the communist system in 1989, but prior to the 2004 EU enlargement. Most of the research related to 

these migrants, however, tends to analyse migration streams in the framework of New Economics of Labour Migration and Dual Labour 

Market Theory. In such case, migrants don’t move on the basis of individual motivations, but are rather delegated by family, who, as an 

economic unit, chooses one of its members to migrate, and to provide financial support to those who stayed in the country of origin. 

These migrants, who are in many cases perceived as 'target earners', often secure the employment at the bottom of the host country 

labour market and they stay outside of the 'mainstream' social structure. 

In this paper I would however argue, that the socio-economic profile of post-accession Polish migrants in Ireland, who are relatively 

young and well educated, their situation is different to those who were engaged in international mobility in 1990s and early 2000s. Firstly, 

for many of them the decision about migration was made on individual basis and the main purpose of finding employment abroad was not 

the support of family 'back home'. Secondly I would argue that specific Irish economy of the early 2000s, which could be characterised not 

only by labour shortages but also by large skills shortages in certain sectors, combined with the legal status of Polish labour migrants in 

this country also allowed them to search for jobs in the Primary Sector of the Irish labour market. While many are still employed in the 

labour intensive sector, some managed to escape the trap of the bottom level jobs and moved to the positions either related to their 

qualifications or at least the non-manual jobs. In such case the initial ‘bad jobs’ were only a ‘path’ for an upward mobility on the Irish 

labour market. 

The paper is based on the findings from the research on Polish migrants in Ireland that I have conducted as part of my PhD dissertation. 

The research is utilising a qualitative methodology and three main methods are combined: fieldwork, semi-structured interviews and 

internet ethnography. 

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New migration patterns and experiences of Latvian labour migrants 

Zaiga Krisjane, University of Latvia, Latvia 

*Elina Apsite, University of Latvia, Latvia 

The aim of this paper is to describe, analyze and interpret the ongoing international migration processes taking place in the accession 

countries following EU enlargement. The case of Latvia will be used as principal source of empirical substantiation. The 

European Union enlargement and its free labour market are one of the key factors influenced migration processes in Latvia. 

There are changes of traditional migration flow pattern and the different studies indicated new types and flows of migration. 

The quantitative and qualitative data has been used. In the survey of the project “The Geographic Mobility of the Labour Force” (Project Nr. 

VPD1/ESF/NVA/04/NP/3.1.5.1./0003 commissioned by the European Social Fund and the Welfare Ministry of Latvia and carried out by 

University of Latvia) which 8,005 respondents were surveyed has been analysed socio–demographic characteristic, destinations and 

reasons for migration. To describe current Latvian migrant groups abroad the case of the UK has been used. For Latvian labour migrant 

profile establishment qualitative research process in period from 2007 – 2010 has been used. At the end of 2008 comprised two sets of 

re-interviews with the participants of Stage 1, and new respondents who were presented with retrospective questions about their 

experience abroad before and after the enlargement of the EU. Around 130 interviews were conducted. 

Over the five years since the enlargement of the European Union in May 2004 the UK has experienced what might be one of the most 

concentrated voluntary migrations in the world today (Pollard et al 2008, Sumption 2009) United Kingdom is one of the main destinations 

of Latvian migrants due to the open labour market. 

The population of immigrants from eight Eastern European accession countries (the A8) residing in the UK is estimated to have increased 

by about half a million, the majority coming from Poland. As the largest group from the recent immigration Polish immigrants are also 

the most amenable to study. Many of the conclusions are also relevant to other A8 nationals (Sumption 2009) like Latvian labour migrants. 

From previously distinguished migrant groups: short- term labour migrants, long-term labour migrants, family reunion group, students 

and adventure seekers group different migration motives can be singled out. Emigration motives are similar within a group. Short-term 

migrants most often face financial problems – they are unable to pay mortgage payments; young people need money to pay for their 

university studies as well as are unsatisfied with their salary in Latvia. Long-term migrants listed all these reasons as well as their wish 

to improve their quality of life in the long–term, to live in comfort and pleasant conditions. Those who follow initial migrants are not so 

interested in and driven by economic factors. 

Almost all respondents were employed before leaving Latvia. Just after moving to the UK, none of the migrants got a better job than they 

had in Latvia. Almost all respondents were employed in low-skilled jobs at first. Findings in this paper reflect the findings by Bridget 

Anderson on other A8 migrants: a key finding was that many of our migrant respondents, although working in low-wage, low-status jobs, 

are in fact well educated and/or experienced. They can be described as high-quality migrants in low-wage jobs. We have identified this to 

be important in understanding migrants’ experiences and perceptions of working in the UK, and the employer demand. Our respondents 

admitted that the jobs they were working in were often arduous and relatively poorly paid and did not suit their potential or their 

qualifications (see also Anderson et al, 2006, p. 113; Apsite 2010). 

Furthermore, discussing the employment history of the respondents, the following changes in professions were recognized: an assistant 

accountant in Latvia was a vegetable sorter in the UK, a student was a warehouse staff-member, a civil servant was a housemaid, a cook 

was a herb packer, an accountant was a packer in a paper factory, a state revenue service officer was a cleaner, a security guard worked 

as a loader, a marketing specialist as bartender, an English interpreter was a hotel staff-member, etc.(Apsite 2010). 

As well as poles also Latvians use traditionally developed informal social networks for employment. Poles traditionally have relied heavily 

on informal networks of all kinds. In the communist era, people used informal networks to obtain what they needed, compensating for 

inadequacies in officially provided goods and services (Wedel 1986, pp. 94–117, White and Ryan 2008, 1468). 

Two main tendencies stand out in the contemporary global migrations: 1) continually growing highly skilled migration in all the flows and 

2) the problem of “brain drain” increasingly affecting less developed countries (Kazlauskiene et al 2006). 

Many of these migrants accept sharp downward mobility in terms of status and qualifications in order to fill some low-end niche in the 

labour market that is grimly justified in terms of its payoff for family back home. The jobs they take are the ones that the West’s citizens 

no longer want those 3D (dirty, dangerous, difficult) jobs that have become a familiar range of employment ‘opportunities’ in the postindustrial 

service economy (Favell 2007). 

Young people dominate in the structure of those people from Latvia who have gone abroad to find work – 62% of the emigrants are aged 

15 to 40. The “labour migrants” in the UK and Ireland are comparatively younger – 43% of them are between 15 and 27 years of age. 

When we evaluate the motivations of those who have left Latvia and the diverse forms of migration, we can conclude that processes of 

migration can be linked to a whole series of economic factors – better abilities to find work, opportunities to study, a chance to save up 

some money or pay off some loans. 

In addition to the stated traditional model of emigration, there is also a new tendency which has to do with the desire to gain new 

experience and knowledge. Return migration enriches the local labour force with new experience and skills, albeit not always in the 

migrant’s original profession. Often it is in a more highly qualified area of the labour market. Here we can refer to the so-called “brain 

gain and circulation” process. To be sure, there is also a “brain drain” in which many educated people leave the country. 

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Labour migration from Latvia to other countries – mostly EU member states which have opened up their labour markets – usually is 

migration without a permanent change in the country of residence, and that is true irrespective of how long people stay away. This 

suggests that forms of migration should be reviewed again, because throughout the world, temporary, circular and transnational aspects 

of population mobility are coming to the fore. In Latvia, however, economic and temporary aspects continue to dominate. 

The impact of the recent wave of emigration on the Polish labour market and its social implications in the public debates 

Mariusz Dzieglewski, Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN, Poland 

The latest wave of migration from Poland which occurred after the 1st May, 2004 – the day of Polish accession to the European Union – is 

unprecedented in the history of the country. First of all, the destinations have changed, the UK and Ireland being the most popular 

destination countries to receive Poles. In the case of Ireland, the country was to become a completely new destination. Secondly, the scale 

and dynamics of the wave is unusual.Within just a few years about 2 million Poles have fled the country. Thirdly, the socio-demographic 

profile of migrants has changed, more and more young graduates becoming a part of the wave. What is more, the last migration takes 

place within the Europe that had opened its labour markets to Polish workers. 

All these aspects of recent migration have changed the profile of the country. Poland, while still being a country of emigration, is more 

and more likely to become a country receiving migrants from the beyond its eastern border. 

The paper is based on a qualitative analysis of the new migrant 

representation in the weekly Polish press, which echoes the public debates and in-depth interviews that have been conducted with Polish 

migrants in Ireland. The research provides arguments to track the main concerns in the public debate considering issues such as: the 

impact of the recent wave of emigration on the Polish labour market; the new regulations considering the gap in the labour market; new 

policies of immigration; the social implications of migration (family bonds, new attitudes and values);adaptation of migrants in the 

receiving countries, their professional careers (professional mobility) and the possibilities of social and economic transfer in the case of 

return from migration. 

SESSION 8b EU Enlargement and the Free Movement of Labour 

The macroeconomic consequences of migration diversion: evidence for Germany and the UK 

*Timo Baas, IAB Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

Herbert Bruecker, IAB Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

This paper examines the macroeconomic consequences of the diversion of migration flows away from Germany towards the UK in the 

course of the EU’s Eastern Enlargement.The EU has agreed transitional periods with the new member states from Central and Eastern 

Europe for the free movement of workers. The selective application of migration restrictions during the transitional periods has resulted 

in a reversal of the pre-enlargement allocation of migration flows from the new member states across the EU. Based on a forecast of the 

migration potential under the conditions of free movement and of the transitional arrangements, we employ a CGE model with imperfect 

labour markets to analyse the macroeconomic effects of this diversion process. We find that EU Eastern enlargement has increased in 

the GDP per capita in the UK substantially, but that the diversion of migration flows towards the UK has reduced wage gains and the 

decline in unemployment there. The effects of the EU Eastern enlargement are less favourable for Germany, but the diversion of 

migration flows has protected workers there against a detrimental impact on wages and unemployment. The migration diversion has 

reduced the joint GDP of Germany and UK by about 0.11 per cent. 

Occupational attainments of New Member States migrants in the Irish labour market 


This paper will examine the occupational attainment of migrants in the Irish labour market. Migrants will be defined as persons who were 

born outside of Ireland and declaring other than Irish nationality. Analysis will focus particularly on the occupational positions occupied by 

migrants from the New Member States (NMS) relative to both the indigenous workforce and other group of migrants, including migrants 

from the rest of the EU and other countries. The analysis will utilise data from a nationally representative sample from the Quarterly 

National Household Survey (QNHS) micro-data for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. 

Research conducted by Barrett and Duffy (2008) on the QNHS data from 2005 pointed to the lack of labour market integration of migrants 

in Ireland. Their analysis highlighted how migrants who arrived in Ireland shortly before 2005, many of them coming from the NMS, 

tended to occupy lower occupational positions than the native workforce, controlling for age and education. This research will extend the 

above analysis up to 2008 examining whether the occupational position of NMS migrants has improved four years after the EU accession. 

A multinomial logistic regression model will be used to examine the impact of a range of factors, including nationality, age, education 

level, length of time spent in Ireland, gender and marital status, on the occupational status. The analysis will shed light on changes in the 

employment situation of ‘new immigrants’ in the Irish labour market. 

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Free access to the common market? The dynamics of intra-European migrants’ employment and mobility within the European market. 

The case of Spain and Italy in comparative perspective 

Roxana Barbulescu, European University Institute, Italy 

The freedom of movement of workers was introduced as a means to establish equilibrium between labour force offer and demand 

within the newly created European market. This paper puts it to test and questions to what extend are the employment inequalities in 

the common market balanced by intra-European mobility. It does so by studying the factors governing the employment and mobility 

patterns within the European space on which there is surprisingly little understanding. Specifically, this paper analyzes the 1) new 

immigration from other member states and 2) employment behaviour of the “new” and “old” intra-European over time as well as at key 

time events: the last two EU enlargements and the effect of the 2008 economic crisis. Using a most similar systems design (MSSD), 

this study the cases of two new countries “mass immigration countries” Italy and Spain. The research uses data from the national and 

European statistics for the period 1985-2008. The study finds that in the case of EU migrants, the workforce shortages and level of 

unemployment do not predict the new migration as well as the employment rates of immigrants. The findings also show that although 

there has been a steady increase of intra-European movers over the last two decades in both Spain and Italy, it was the two enlargements 

that has significantly transformed the mobility patterns. In turn, the economic downturn had little effect in changing the established 

patterns. In respect to employment behaviour, the study reveals that migrants’ rate of incorporation on the domestic labour market 

also increases over time. In addition, the employment rates are significantly altered by the economic crisis and the two enlargements. 

Surprisingly, the results show that employment is independent of the introduction of restrictions to the “new” EU migrants in Italy but not 

in Spain. Moreover, the study finds that low employment in the domestic labour market does not predict new immigration: new entries 

of EU migrants continues despite the economic crisis. Conversely, low immigration from EU countries does not predict a high level of 

employment among the migrants in the country. Furthermore, the concentration of migrant in the lower and upper end positions show 

that the entry of migrants further depend the cleavages within the already segmented domestic labour market and thus, reinforced the 

dual labour market theory. 

policy implications 

SESSION 1d Migration Policy in Europe: Legal and Administrative Responses 

Legal and procedural change as instruments in immigration policy transformation: the case of administrative law in France. 


Foreigners’ law in France has been characterized by frequent changes since the Second World War. After 1973, it has been subject to 

many transformations, in particular in administrative procedures, which have been multiplied and more and more complex. This paper 

will look at the consequences of a specific administrative transformation in France in 2007, the introduction of a new type of decisions, the 

“Obligation de quitter le territoire français” (OQTF), for the expulsion of irregular migrants and of a time limit for the judgment of appeals 

against such decisions. 

This time-limit was set to 3 months, leading the administrative courts in charge of judging these appeals to a challenging situation, in 

particular in big cities where many irregular immigrants appeal of such decisions. We will look at the case of Paris administrative court. 

Through an observation and interviews led in this court in 2008, as well as the analysis of court decisions and internal communications, 

we will see how this structure dealt with what was perceived as a massive increase in foreigners’ cases. What was the impact of 

transformations in legal texts on an organisation? Several instruments inspired from New public management policies had been 

introduced before 2007, and their use was intensified. A reorganisation of work was also put into place in the name of the perceived 

“crisis” of the court. “Legal rationality” and “Managerial rationality” have confronted. 

This paper will also try to show how small technical changes on a law can be instruments for a change in the contents of immigration 

policy, and how procedural changes strongly impact the direction of this policy at a lower political cost. 

The Legal Framework for Integration in the European Union: Detaching Integration from the Constraints of the Nation State? 

Cliodhna Murphy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

My paper will explore the legal framework for integration in the European Union (“EU”). Law has a central and multifaceted role in the 

process of integration, defining the framework within which integration does or does not happen by regulating the legal and social 

conditions of migrants’ everyday lives. The rights of non-citizen groups are increasingly determined through membership of legal and 

administrative categories and law thus defines migrants’ rights and obligations and grants or restricts access to essential elements of the 

integration process. On the basis of legal provisions, Governments determine the conditions of access to citizenship including language 

requirements and knowledge of the host society. Governments may decide to deal with discrimination based on race or xenophobia by 

developing anti-discrimination and equality legislation. Legal mechanisms thus act as both instruments of and barriers to integration, as 

well as shaping perceptions of identity and who ‘belongs’ in a state. 

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The role of the ‘public philosophy’ of States in the integration of migrants is well-recognised and has been explored in detail. However 

there is increasing recognition of the impact of EU law and policy on EU Member States’ integration policy. This normative development 

is reinforced by the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty which for the first time establishes a legal basis in the new Article 79.4 for 

the adoption of measures on integration, while also excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States. 

Thus, while the existing soft law mechanisms will be put on a sounder legal footing, integration will probably never become subject to 

harmonisation processes. 

The core conceptual questions which I hope to discuss in the presentation of the paper are as follows: 

(1) How is a legal framework for the integration of immigrants being formed in the European Union? 

(2) What legal conception of integration does this framework embody? It will be argued that EU law does not contain a clear paradigm of 

integration, but embodies a multiplicity of conceptions of integration, depending on the context. 

(3) What are the limits of EU action in the field of integration, in particular given Member States’ (“MS”) continued control of access to 

citizenship and also considering the argument that the notion of ‘integration’ is inappropriate to a polity in which there is (i) a plurality of 

cultures and sub-cultures (ii) no shared definition of a ‘common life’ and (iii) multiple definitions of communal ‘homes’ formed at national, 

subnational and supranational levels of governance.” 

EU integration policy can be split into two separate but interlinked spheres: specific ‘soft’ integration policy and conceptions of integration 

contained in general immigration law, and this article will consider each in turn. This will be followed by a discussion of the implications 

of the developing concept of EU citizenship for the integration of TCNs. It will be argued that EU law encompasses a multiplicity of 

conflicting conceptions of integration, due in part to the preoccupation of Member States with maintaining tight control over the area of 

migration and citizenship and the treatment of TCNs. Furthermore, it will be argued that the inclusive concept of integration contained in 

the policy documentation is turned on its head in legally binding immigration measures, with the concept of integration ultimately being 

used as an instrument of immigration control and exclusion. 

My paper will argue that the approach taken in EU law and policy to the integration of third country nationals is significant - and thus 

relevant outside of the purely legal sphere - on a number of levels. First, EU law constitutes a significant body of norms impacting on 

integration in all Member States. In addition, on a more abstract level the European Union provides a supranational dimension to 

citizenship and belonging, potentially leading to a cosmopolitan openness towards the ‘other’. The transformative potential of EU law in 

the field of migration has been witnessed in the case of EU citizens. EU law relating to the free movement of workers altered the status of 

EU migrant workers and their families in a legal sense with a consequent change in the way in which such migrants are perceived. 

Nationals of EU Member States living and working in other Member States have been gradually transformed from ‘immigrants’ subject to 

the conditions of entry and residence imposed by the State, to EU citizens, entitled to equal treatment and respect as the host population. 

The concept of European citizenship has been a significant element of this process. It has thus been seen that EU law can in itself 

constitute an instrument of integration. 

Those with hopes for the EU as a model for an innovative paradigm of community, belonging and entitlement detached from the nation 

state will also be disappointed. If one considers the basic dichotomy between EU citizens and TCNs, this becomes clear: barriers to free 

movement within the EU for EU nationals are increasingly lifted whereas the legal measures relating to third-country nationals, even 

where relatively inclusive as in the case of refugees, confirm their position as outsiders. Citizenship and the construction of a European 

identity has the exclusionary consequence of constructing third-country nationals as ‘Others’. EU law on free movement and citizenship 

thus replicates the approach of the statist model of inclusion and exclusion on the basis of nationality. The construction of a European 

postnational space and identity is tremendously beneficial to migrants originating within the EU but legitimates the exclusion of those 

from third countries. Such migrants must overcome barriers to entry and integration erected by the nation state but also by the EU. 

Direct Provision and Dispersal: A Push Factor? 

Saoirse Brady, Free Legal Advice Centre, Ireland 

The paper is based on a report by the Free Legal Advice Centres issued in February 2010 called “One Size Doesn’t Fit All”: A legal analysis 

of the direct provison and dispersal system in Ireland, 10 years on. The report examines the system of direct provision in the context of 

government policy, domestic law and international human rights standards. 

It is ten years since the policy of direct provision and dispersal was introduced by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 

order to meet the accommodation needs of asylum seekers and those seeking other forms of protection in Ireland. During the 1990s the 

number of asylum seekers who came to Ireland rose from 31 applications in 1991 to 10,938 in 2000. The Government responded to this 

increase by introducing the direct provision and dispersal system for asylum seekers, firstly as a pilot scheme in November 1999, then as 

a nationwide policy in April 2000. 

The policy is administered by the Reception and Integration Agency, a section of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. 

However, the scheme operates on an administrative basis as legislation was never put in place to underpin the scheme as was first 

planned. Initially it was envisaged that asylum applicants would spend no more than six months in direct provision accommodation but 

the reality now is that of the 6,500 people currently living in the system, over a third have lived there for more than three years. A third of 

the current occupants are children under 18 years of age. 

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The Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, acknowledged Ireland’s obligation under international 

human rights law to “house homeless people who have pitched up on our shores” (Seán Aylward to the Oireachtas Public Accounts 

Committee in October 2009), but the Department has been careful not to create an economic “pull factor” (Noel Dowling in Ní Shé et al 

2007). Instead it has tried to strike a balance between fulfilling Ireland’s obligations under international treaties which it has ratified, and 

ensuring that a deterrent is in place to discourage people from coming to Ireland to seek asylum. 

While the policy alleviated the housing shortage in the Eastern Health Board area, it has had implications for those living in the 

accommodation provided as it is often seen as inadequate and not a suitable place to raise children. Most of the accommodation is full 

board which means that people cannot cook for themselves; children never see their parents cook; meals are at set times. 

Furthermore, direct provision residents are prohibited from working by law. Ireland is one of only two European Union member states 

which have not signed the Reception Directive which gives the right to work to asylum seekers after a specified period of time. The only 

income a direct provision resident receives is the weekly direct provision allowance of €19.10 for an adult and €9.60 for a child. It is the 

only social welfare payment not to have increased since it was introduced in 2000. The prohibition on working, and the dependency on the 

social welfare system, adds to the misconception that direct provision residents are lazy and want to avail of the Irish State’s generous 

social welfare system when in fact over the past ten years the Government has put in place a number of measures to limit access to 

social welfare payments. In 2003 asylum seekers could no longer access rent supplement and live in independent accommodation. In 

2004, the Habitual Residence Condition (HRC) was introduced to discourage “welfare tourism” from the EU accession states. Following 

this introduction, the Department of Social and Family Affairs operated a blanket ban on asylum seekers or direct provision residents who 

applied for any social welfare payment other than the direct provision allowance and clothing allowances in the form of Exceptional Needs 

Payments which may be granted at the discretion of the Community Welfare Officer. 

In 2009, FLAC won a number of cases in which the Chief Social Welfare Appeals Officer held that a person in direct provision could satisfy 

the HRC. The final five decisions were given in December 2009 but a week later the Social Welfare and Pensions (No 2) Bill 2009 was 

guillotined through the Dáil and enacted into law without proper debate on the issues. This means that no direct provision resident can 

now satisfy the HRC and avail of social welfare payments. 

The way in which the Government has responded to its obligations to provide for those seeking refugee status, humanitarian leave to 

remain or subsidiary protection, raises questions as to the extent to which their responsibilities are fulfilled. On the one hand States are 

given some leeway in relation to immigration control but they still have to comply with the treaty rights to which they are bound through 

the ratification of international instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on 

Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the European 

Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It is a matter of striking a balance between both and any response to an increase in people coming 

into the country must be proportionate. 

It seems policies such as the direct provision and dispersal system, as well as the introduction of the Habitual Residence Condition are 

being used as a deterrent to discourage people from coming to Ireland. In terms of individuals or families fleeing persecution in their own 

State, there is no evidence to suggest that they have researched the destination before they leave and have chosen it on the basis of the 

payments they may receive as demonstrated in a report by the British Refugee Council published in January 2010. Instead asylum 

seekers should be treated as refugees awaiting a confirmation of their status, rather than treated with suspicion and disrespect. 

SESSION 2d Managing Migration in Ireland 

Policy Paradoxes: The State and the Causes of Trafficking for Forced Labour in Ireland 

*Gillian Wylie, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Deirdre Coughlan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Research carried out in Ireland under the ESF project on trafficking for forced labour, revealed that there were at least 50 cases of TFL in 

Ireland between 1999 and 2007. Workers from around the globe were found to be exploited in the construction, farming, restaurant and 

domestic work sectors. 

Ireland adopted anti-trafficking legislation in 2008 and now has the ‘law, institutional capacity and consultative mechanisms’ (Plant, 2009) 

necessary to address human trafficking. The emphasis of this law is on defining trafficking as a form of organised crime, which 

necessitates a strongly prosecutorial response by the state. Ironically however, while the Irish state has adopted anti-trafficking policies, 

other aspects of its policy regime continue to create the underlying causes of trafficking and migrant worker exploitation. Over the last 

years, Ireland’s migration and employment regimes have been evolving with the intent of both squeezing out migrant workers from 

non-EEA countries and funnelling migrant workers from EU accession states into low-skilled, poorly regulated sectors (Ruhr and Quinn, 

2009). Such policies create the context for human trafficking, undocumented migration and workplace exploitation. 

Recognising these on-going dilemmas, NGOs and Trade Unions in Ireland have campaigned to protect exploited migrant workers. There 

have been some successes in this respect, particularly the bridging visa campaign and opposition to a government proposal to reduce the 

amount of time available for migrants who are made redundant to find new work. However, such campaigns work incrementally and have 

focused first on protecting the rights of those who legally entered Ireland. A more profound response to trafficking for forced labour will 

require addressing the dissonance between the state’s anti-trafficking commitment and its policy regimes which foster exploitative 

practices. 

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Governmentality of Immigration 

Jennifer Dagg, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland 

This paper explores the statutory progression of a restrictive policy towards asylum and immigration in Ireland within the time frame of 

1996-2009. This examination draws on Foucault’s concept of governmentality in order to explore the governmental rationalities that 

inform the immigration process from a policy perspective. The analysis of governmental rationalities is supplemented by poststructuralist 

discourse theory in order to examine the emergence of an exclusionary politics of asylum drawing out the exclusionary 

narratives of control that emerge both in domestic and European political discourse. 

Minority Ethnic Communities’ Access to Housing—Good Practice for Local Authorities 

Vanda Clayton, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland 

*Conor Farrell, Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency, Ireland 

Inward migration to Ireland has large implications for the implementation of the State’s housing policies and the three main housing 

tenures, private rented, social housing and owner occupation. Eighty-eight local authorities around Ireland are main bodies responsible 

for the implementation of housing policies and the provision of housing services. The Private Residential Tenancies Board also has a 

significant role in the regulation of private rented housing. Many if not all local authorities have witnessed a substantial increase in the 

ethnic diversity of their populations in recent times. In the region of one in ten of those living in this country are non-Irish nationals 

(Census 2006). 

A central objective of Government housing policy is that communities should be sustainable. This was a central element of the 

Government Statement on Housing Policy Delivering Homes Sustaining Communities (2007) which defined sustainable communities as 

places where people want to live and work, now and in the future; places that meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are 

sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well-planned, built and run, offer 

equality of opportunity and good services for all. The Statement also reaffirmed the core objective of housing policy: to enable every 

household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suitable to its needs, in a good environment and, as far as possible, at 

the tenure of its choice and acknowledged that the needs of new migrants and minority ethnic groups have to be reflected in the pursuit 

of sustainable housing and communities. 

A second framework informing policy development at this time is the lifecycle approach. By this approach policy is assessed from the 

perspective of meeting the needs of people throughout the lifecycle – young people, people of working age and older people and also 

those with disabilities. In this respect, addressing the housing needs of minority ethnic communities at different stages of the lifecycle will 

be an important consideration for local authorities. 

The focus of this paper, therefore, is on how local authority practice might best address the housing needs of minority ethnic communities 

keeping in mind the overall objective of achieving sustainable communities and addressing the needs of people throughout the lifecycle. 

In many cases this may involve the consideration of the housing needs of minority ethnic communities in overall strategic planning and 

service provision. In certain instances, however, it may require a more tailor-made response. 

The paper will provide a number of good practice recommendations for local authorities under a number of headings; planning and 

strategic management for housing minority ethnic communities; broadening the responses to housing need and pathways to home 

ownership. It is hoped these good practice guidelines will help improve the local authorities response to the housing needs of minority 

ethnic communities into the future. 

SESSION 3d Managing Migration: Local, Regional and National Responses 

Managing Migration in a Multi-National State: Regional vs. National Government Immigration Policy in Spain 

Erica Dobbs, MIT Massachussetts Institute of Technology, USA 

Immigration policy is generally the prerogative of national governments. In countries with federal political systems, however, conflicts 

often arise between regional or local governments and national governments over immigration policy. These conflicts may intensify 

during moments when anti-immigration sentiment runs high: in 2007, during a particularly nasty round in the ongoing debate over 

immigration in the United States, over 1,000 state and local ordinances were proposed in order to “regulate” aspects of immigration 

through zoning rules, “English-only” laws, or other symbolic measures (Migration Policy Institute 2008). However, in countries like the 

U.S. with a history of migration, there are well-developed networks of political and social actors who respond to anti-immigration 

flare-ups, and the U.S.’s status as a “nation of immigrants” is often invoked in the public debates around the issue. But what happens 

when these kinds of tensions arise in new immigration states – places where there is no historical memory of immigration? How do 

central governments respond? 

This paper will explore this question by using Spain as a case. Until the 1990s, Spain was mainly known as a country of emigration not 

immigration, but between 1990 and 2006, the foreign-born as a percentage of the total population rose from less than 2% to just over 10% 

(INE). Spain is also extremely decentralized; its seventeen autonomous communities (‘comunidades autonomas’) have leeway to craft 

their own laws around language, education, and a host of other issues. This flexibility is largely due to Spain’s status as a multi-national 

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state: Catalonia (which includes Barcelona) and the Basque Country in particular have a great deal of autonomy stemming in part from 

their historic claims to nationhood. These claims have been a particular point of contention in modern Spanish history, and the 20th 

century was marked by often violent struggles between the central government in Madrid and these outer regions for political and 

economic control. Given that migration may present an existential threat to the idea of a Catalan or Basque “nation”, yet control over 

migration is the responsibility of the federal government, what explains how the Spanish government responds to regional attempts to 

regulate migration? 

This paper will focus specifically on the relationship between the central government and Catalonia. Catalonia has been a major receiving 

region for immigrants; in 2007 the foreign-born were 12.8% of the population (INE). Many immigrants were drawn to Barcelona, the 

economic engine of the region, and the foreign-born population of the city rose from 3.1% in 1991 to 13.9% in 2004 (Ajuntament de 

Barcelona 2006). Not surprisingly, this has led to tensions over language, housing, and public services. However, it is relatively unclear 

where the boundaries of regional and central government lie, as the Spanish constitution is deliberately vague when it comes to defining 

the limits of regional autonomy. Therefore, by exploring key episodes of center-peripheral conflict over immigration during the last 

decade, I will attempt to identify how governments in new immigration states manage to define boundaries of state power and control 

when confronted with competing attempts for control over immigration from local and regional authorities. 

Changing Dynamics of Migration within the Americas 

Jacqueline Mazza, Inter-American Development Bank, USA 

*Eleanor Sohnen, Inter-American Development Bank, USA 

The large stock of Mexican migrants in the United States -- accumulating over the course of centuries – has continued to overshadow 

more recent and more ground-shifting trends of migration within Latin American countries and to new countries of destination. While 

trade in goods dominates national statistics, movements of workers across borders are much less official. In Latin America and the 

Caribbean, policy makers are noting labor movements inconceivable as little as ten years ago: Hondurans and Guatemalans crossing to 

El Salvador for agriculture and construction work; Bolivians and Paraguayans working in large numbers in Argentina; Mexicans from the 

state of Chiapas moving to the Yucatan for work, with Guatemalans replacing them at even lower wages, to harvest Chiapan crops; 

Ecuadorians and Colombians in large numbers in Spain. 

These shifts demonstrate a growing globalization of Latin American labor markets both within and outside the region. Migration to the 

United States and Europe appears to have slowed in the wake of the global financial crisis and return migration to the region as a result 

of the economic slowdown appears limited. To date, however, policy makers do not detect a slowdown in the smaller, but emerging flows 

of intraregional migration that are coming to characterize regional labor markets -- crisis or not. 

However, the data and tracking needed to accurately record these trends is limited in Latin American countries. Much better estimates 

exist of Latin Americans living and working in OECD countries. 

This paper will examine existing trends, including data on intraregional flows (albeit limited), looking in particular at some of the human 

capital characteristics of migrants, and conclude with a discussion of emerging subregional policy contexts in response to these flows. 

Transformations of migration patterns and European migration policy: administrative and policy reactions in a neighbouring country - 

the case of Morocco. 


Migration has recently been the object of many transformations, due to globalisation, and also more recently to the combination of an 

emergent European migration regime with established and changing national immigration regimes. These policy changes affect 

migration patterns at the European level as well as at Europe’s external borders, in neighbouring countries. 

The externalisation of European immigration policy has led neighbouring countries to adopt different strategies, from quiet resistance to 

full collaboration in negotiations with the EU, but it has also left policy-makers with no ready answers to the new challenges raised by this 

policy. In the case of Morocco, a traditional sending country, increasingly closed European borders have meant more irregular emigration, 

but also immigration, as migrants from other countries transit through Morocco in the hope of reaching Europe. Among this population, 

more and more decide to stay in Morocco, which is progressively becoming a transit and immigration country. 

These changes have challenged Moroccan institutions and administrative capacities traditionally in charge of migrations and migrant 

populations. How have they coped with the recent transformations of migration patterns? 

Through the analysis of interviews led at the end of 2009 in Morocco with policy-makers and civil servants in different administrations and 

a mapping of the institutional landscape and of its reconfigurations, I will show how the transformations in European policy and migration 

patterns have favoured institutional changes and a re-shuffling of political responsibilities among administrations. These changes have 

reflected the difficulties of policy-makers to define a comprehensive strategy dealing with migrations and the persistence of a 

circumstantial approach in dealing with social and political change. 

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SESSION 4d Push and Pull, Bricks and Mortar: Migration, Housing and Construction 

Public Housing Magnets: the Impact of Public Housing on Immigrants’ Location in France 

Gregory Verdugo, Banque de France, France 

This paper investigates whether public housing influenced initial location choices of immigrants who arrived in France between 1968 

and 1999. I use the variations provided by the massive increase in public housing supply during this period, which was unrelated to 

the distribution of immigrants across cities. I find a large magnetic effect of the public housing supply across cities on non-European 

immigrants. Public housing participants are less responsive to differences in economic opportunities than other immigrants are. Cities 

in which a community’s public housing participation rate is large are very attractive to new public housing participants in the same 

community. 

State, Union and Unauthorized Migrants in the Swedish Construction Sector - a Case Study in the Policy of Deportation 

Denis Frank, Lund University, Sweden 

During the 1990s the number of unauthorized migrant workers increased in Sweden. The migrants often came from Eastern Europe, and 

many were employed in typical low-wage sectors, such as cleaning, household work and agriculture. Trade unions are relatively weak 

in these sectors of the Swedish labor market. However, the number of unauthorized migrants also increased in the construction sector, 

which is not a typical low-wage sector in Sweden. On the contrary, wages and working conditions are relatively good in the construction 

sector. Moreover, work in the construction sector still appeals to native Swedes. With regard to the increase of unauthorized migrants, 

the Construction Workers Union reacted mainly restrictively. In fact, the Union’s restrictive reaction constitutes the opposite to that of 

the strategies that unions in United States and Spain have developed in relation to unauthorized migrants. Unions in Spain and United 

States have worked to include unauthorized migrants in the workers’ movement, but this was not on the political agenda of the Swedish 

Construction Workers’ Union. 

This paper deals with unauthorized migrants in the Swedish construction sector and clarifies how the Construction Workers Union 

responded to this group. The study focuses on the period from 1990 to 2004, which is the year when the European Union was enlarged 

to include ten new member states. During this period migration control was still in force with regard to citizens of the candidate states 

in Eastern Europe, while they in practice exercised free mobility to Sweden after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. The 

reason for making this limitation in time is that important migration processes both started and ended during the period 1990-2004. I will 

argue that this limitation in time is essential for understanding how “illegal” migration became a political problem in Sweden. I will also 

argue that “illegal” migration, in important respects, is created by the actions of groups that demand restrictions on migration. “Illegal” 

migration, such as overstaying a visa, is in itself often a rather trivial event that does not provoke any concerns in the destination country. 

The emergence of “illegal” migration as problem or a threat requires actions of groups with an interest in restricting migration. The aim 

of this paper is to identify the processes that generated the “illegal” migrant in the construction sector as political problem in Sweden. 

The Construction Workers Union fought an intense struggle to restrict the unauthorized migration from Eastern Europe to Sweden. 

The political objective was to preserve the political institutions that gave unions in Sweden possibilities to shape immigration. The 

Construction Workers Union worked on several different levels to achieve this end. On the level of discourse, it managed to construct 

unauthorized migrants as a threat to native workers’ wages and working conditions, and ultimately to the whole Swedish labor market 

model. On the level of praxis, the Union increased its workplace control, and cooperated with the police to detect unauthorized migrants. 

On the judicial level, the Union worked to expand the legal category “illegal alien”, aimed at making a larger number of the migrants 

deportable. However, the Construction Workers Union did not succeed in its ambition to restrict labor migration from Eastern Europe. 

These migrants continued to enter Sweden in the same proportion as previously, and to perform work under arrangements that created 

conflicts with the Construction Workers Union. The most important effect of the Construction Workers Union’s restrictive reaction was 

instead to create the “illegal” migrant in the construction sector as a political problem in Sweden. This migrant – who should also be 

understood as a social construction – was relatively unknown in Sweden before the 1990s. 

The Construction Workers Union’s response to unauthorized migration was shaped by the character of the Swedish state. More 

precisely it was shaped by the special relation between unions and the state. Political institutions shape the goals of both unions and 

employers, and correspondingly what they perceive as possible to achieve in migration policy. Political institutions also shape the 

methods that unions can use to achieve their goals. In this dimension we find the particularities of this study. In other words, the reaction 

of the Construction Workers Union was promoted by the corporatist political culture in Sweden. The Union perceived the police as an 

organization with which to negotiate, and an organization to use for its own purposes. Ultimately, its action forced the police authority 

to increase its internal migration control. Correspondingly, the police perceived the Union as an interest group with which it needed to 

negotiate, and it even included the Union in its internal migration control. In this manner the Union became in fact an integral part of 

the internal migration control that the police performed. From the perspective of migrants, not only the police, but also union officials, 

represented the threat of deportation. 

The Construction Workers Union’s response to unauthorized migration during 1990-2004 was exceptionally restrictive. It is not a typical 

case of union action, but one that requires, not only corporatist state structures, but also organizational resources that few unions 

possess in capitalist states. However, after 2004 there are indications that the Construction Workers Union is changing its strategy 

towards unauthorized migration. Even among its own ranks, the cooperation with the police has been questioned, both because of its lack 

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of success and because it alienates migrants. The Union is also developing a strategy to give concrete help to unauthorized migrants, in, 

for example, legal matters, instead of reporting them to the police. A reason for this change is that the Union does not any longer perceive 

unauthorized migrants as a serious threat to native workers’ wages and working condition. However, it is unlikely that the Construction 

Workers Union will begin to organize unauthorized migrants in the near future. In this respect, there are still important differences 

between many unions in Northern Europe and unions in Southern Europe and United States. 

children, youth and immigration 

SESSION 1e Identity and Immigrant Youh 

Proud to be Hmong? The Construction of Ethnic Identity among Second Generation Hmong in the U.S. 


In current research, comparatively little attention is paid to immigrant youth, particularly the second generation of immigrants. Attention 

seems focused only on immigrant issues when news about riots or acts of deviance, for example, make headlines. These news headlines 

spark debate concerning the integration of youth into their new society and with whom they identify. Additionally, these headlines seem 

to propagate dominant images and portray immigrant youth as ‘lost’ in and persistently struggling with their host country’s culture. 

The world in their house, the parent’s home culture, is often depicted as foreign and exotic. These contradictions thereby stand in sharp 

contrast to what these youth experience ‘outside’ at school in mainstream society. Young people of immigrant minority backgrounds 

are perceived to increasingly alienate themselves from their parents by rejecting anything that is connected to the “old ways” thereby 

deepening social distance and isolation within the family. At the same time, however, they might not fully integrate into the mainstream 

society. Due to social marginalization and the assumed loss of orientation, they adopt an oppositional stand as an expressive form of 

resistance towards mainstream culture and sometimes their home culture. In this essentialist discourse that conceptualizes culture 

as static, homogenous, closed and oppositional entities, immigrant youth are generally victimized since they are persistently struggling 

with two cultures and subsequently with identity issues. Little attention is given to the constant exchange, interpenetration, and fusion of 

cultural elements that inevitably takes place. 

Based on empirical research completed on the second generation Hmong in the U.S., this paper seeks to shed light on both their 

adaptation and their identity formation process. The Hmong are a diasporic group from mainland Southeast-Asia, who were admitted 

as political refugees into the U.S. due to their involvement in the Vietnam War. In present day America, the social reality of the second 

generation is shaped by their parent’s experiences and demands to maintain an authentic ethnicity as Hmong as well as the sociocultural 

context of school, and messages from popular and consumer culture. However, as data indicates the vast majority of second generation 

Hmong do not perceive themselves as being lost between two cultures. Instead, as an active agent, they negotiate their ethnic identity in 

social interactions with others thereby picking and choosing between Hmong and U.S. sociocultural elements, for example, urban hiphop 

culture. Out of these elements and practices, which are constantly re-evaluated and modified, a positively valued identity as Hmong- 

American is constructed. Questions as to what conditions and – as Floya Anthias has already asked – what are those “features of culture 

that can ‘travel best’?” and thus gain entrance into the process of interpenetration and fusion will stimulate further discussion. 

Placing identities and coping with diversity: strategies of South Asian children and youth in Switzerland 

Pascale Herzig, Universität Fribourg, Switzerland 

Switzerland experiences very high rates of immigration, a fact that becomes visible not only in public debates but also in schools. The 

paper aims to analyse focus group discussions and interviews with South Asian children and youths in Switzerland. The data has been 

collected for the research project “Migration and religious pluralism in Switzerland: Perspectives and practices of children and youths 

from South Asia and South Eastern Europe” which is part of the National Research Programme “Religion, State and Society”. 

In this paper I will explore the following questions: What does the experience of migration mean for children and young people? How do 

they cope with being visible ‘others’ in Swiss schools? What are their strategies to handle the different expectations of parents, peers and 

teachers? How are they able to place their identities in order to feel more at home in Switzerland? 

According to the interviewees South Asians in Switzerland are considered as “good foreigners” (in comparison to the “bad” ones) since 

they share some ascribed commonalities with indigenous Swiss people: they are stereotyped as being honest and diligent. 

The data illustrates the participants’ strategies to cope with diversity. In order to get a better understanding of the processes and 

experiences as lived by the children and youths I propose to conceptualise the various categories of difference and their intersections. 

Given the increasing significance of identity politics in the public domain, it could be the task of social science research to highlight the 

multiple dimensions of belonging of children and youths. This perspective will help to prevent rush measures that consider only one 

notion of difference such as religion, ethnicity or gender. 

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Returning to the country they never left. Young luso-descendants from France that choose Portugal to live 

*Margarida Carvalho, Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE – IUL), Portugal 

Vera Henriques, CIES – ISCTE – IUL, Portugal 

Emigration has always been a structural phenomenon in Portugal, but this was particularly true on the second half of the twentieth 

century, when it reached a level never seen before, with millions of people leaving the country. Most of this migration movement had 

France as a destination. 

Portuguese emigrants that settled in France came from an essentially rural country, with scarce media communication and with high 

rates of illiteracy. Most of them came from central and northern rural regions of Portugal. They brought with them a set of values, ways of 

living and thinking, micro-local beliefs that they endeavoured to perpetuate and convey, since the emigration was seen as temporary. 

The term “luso-descendant” began to be used in studies about Portuguese emigration in the mid 1980’s. It refers to the Portuguese 

emigrant’s descendants spread around the world that have a double culture. It’s an expression that illustrates that it is possible to be a 

Portuguese emigrant’s son without being an emigrant himself. 

The number of young luso-descendants from France that decide to leave France and live in Portugal is increasing. They go to Portugal for 

several reasons: to study, to marry, to fulfil their parents’ wish of returning to the homeland…. 

However, the arrival of these “immigrants” to their parents’ homeland is not free of difficulties in terms of their social integration. These 

young people, being born and raised in a society with different standards, habits and lifestyles of those of the Portuguese society, don’t 

feel belonging to the Portuguese culture, being in the same situation as their parents’ when they left – foreigners. 

The aim of our paper is to explain the reasons why these young people go away from their country, alone, to live in Portugal, leaving their 

family and friends. What are their motivations? Why did they choose to live in the country their parents left dozens of years ago? What are 

their expectations? How did they adapt themselves? What are their occupations? What relationship do they keep with their birthplaces? 

With a life story approach we inquire this young people who, somewhat, complete the migratory cycle started by their parents. 

SESSION 2e Large Scale Perspectives on Immigrant Youth 

The effect of host country institutions and social stratification on educational achievement of immigrants 

*Janna Teltemann, University of Bremen, Germany 

Michel Windzio, University of Bremen, Germany 

International migration accelerated during the last decades, thereby creating new and more diverse patterns of movements. Hence, 

experiences and challenges with regard to migration and integration vary considerably across the countries of destination. As destination 

countries feature diverging immigration backgrounds, they established differing institutions that shape integration trajectories of 

immigrants. The educational system plays a crucial role for intergenerational integration since educational credentials are a prerequisite 

for labour market attainment. Further, educational attainment fosters social assimilation by providing knowledge about the host country 

and by facilitating contact with natives. As educational systems but also other relevant institutions as labour market regulations and 

welfare provision vary, integration outcomes vary accordingly. Classical theory states that strong welfare states tend to attract low-skilled 

immigrants who are more likely to be dependent on welfare provisions. Empirical evidence further shows that liberal welfare states 

seem to be more capable in integrating first generation immigrants into their labour markets, due to less regulation and more flexibility. 

These and other findings seem to implicate that less decommodifying welfare states set better incentives for immigrants to integrate 

themselves and thus provide a more sustainable institutional framework for successful integration processes. In our paper we show 

with data from the OECD PISA study and contextual data that this hypothesis does not seem to hold for the 1.5th and 2nd generation of 

immigrants. Our dependent variable is the risk, not to reach the first proficiency level in reading as defined by the PISA study. If students 

do not reach this threshold they are unlikely to demonstrate success on the most basic type of reading that PISA seeks to measure. They 

show serious deficiencies in their ability to use reading literacy as a tool for the acquisition of knowledge and skills in other areas and are 

thus likely to be threatened by exclusion from the labour market and an acceptable participation within the host society. 

We apply multilevel analysis in order to test the influence of two relevant institutional dimensions of 31 destination countries: equality and 

diversity. Our results show that the level of social contributions has a positive effect on literacy of immigrants whereas income inequality 

has a negative effect, once the size and heterogeneity of immigrant populations is controlled for. Thus the institutional setting of more 

equal countries with higher degrees of income redistribution actually seems to bring about better results for long-term immigration 

processes. These findings enhance and challenge the previous research on the relationship of welfare states and integration which until 

now has often neglected to take into account the experiences of immigrant offspring. 

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Academic sphere and immigrant children in Ireland 

Merike Darmody, ESRI Economic and Social Research Institute, Ireland 

In Ireland, recent years have seen some movement from a culturally homogenous society to a more diverse one, with increasing 

numbers of immigrant children and youth living in Ireland. However, little is known about how immigrant students cope academically 

in Irish schools and what issues emerge for teachers. Based on a large-scale mixed methods study on immigrant children in primary 

and secondary schools – the first of its kind carried out in the Republic of Ireland – this paper focuses on the academic orientation, 

curriculum and teaching of immigrant students. 

Integration and Identity: Evidence from Governments, Schools and Youth in Europe 


Globalization, European integration, and migration are challenging national identities and changing education across Europe. The 

nation-state no longer serves as the sole locus of civic participation and identity formation, and no longer has the influence it once had 

over the implementation of policies. Drawing on documentary sources, semi-structured interviews with students and teachers as well 

as focus group interviews across four schools in Germany and Britain, this paper examines how schools mediate government policies, 

creating distinct educational contexts that shape youth identity negotiation and integration processes. The study is the first of its kind to 

bring together between-country and within-country differences in identity formation among young people. By delving into the discourses 

of ethnic majority and Turkish minority youth, the talk unravels a wide range of factors shaping contemporary identities and offers new 

insights into the particular role school policy approaches play in this process. The paper situates these discussions within broader 

European and transatlantic theoretical and empirical debates on immigrant incorporation. 

SESSION 3e Second Generation Immigrant Youth / Masculinities and Migrant Boys 

Generating intercultural integration or reproducing the Others? An anthropological study of Ecuadorian and Moroccan immigrants’ 

children in the secondary schools in a district of Seville. 

Simone Castellani, University of Seville, Spain 

The so-called “second generation” of migrants is a new phenomenon within southern European countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal 

and Greece, which recently became destinations of intensive international migratory flows. The international migration towards these 

countries, which several authors named ‘New Migration’ (King, 2001; Pugliese, 1992), is understandable within a framework of macro 

social transformations, beginning in the middle of the 1970s. It developed in a context of increased inequality between world regions 

caused by the global expansion of capitalism (Wallerstein, 1974). The progressive transformation from a Fordist to a post-Fordist model 

of production generated a precarious and unprotected labour market in developed countries. Most of the migrants who come from third 

countries can enter this kind of labour market only in the job sectors, which require lower qualifications. This situation is supported by 

a set of laws to contain the migration fluxes, which make the regularization of non-EU citizens difficult, and are promoted by different 

States and by the EU. This is the reason why many migrants who reside in southern European countries have often an irregular status; 

this contributes to the invisibility of these subjects and the negation of their human rights. 

Taking into considerations these transformations, it is highly interesting to investigate the “second generation” in the EU new migration 

destination countries, underlining the differences existing with studies made about migrants’ children in the context of Fordist migration 

to Northern European countries. It is plausible to hypothesize that the situation of job insecurity and the restriction of citizenship, which 

the parents suffered, influence the pattern of inclusion and development of these children. 

The School is a privileged unit of observation to study the influences of the national policies on migrants’ children. As highlighted by 

Bourdieu y Passeron (1972), the educational institution is one of the main socialization spaces where the structure of society and the 

ideology of the Nation-State are reproduced. The school is, also, one of the main contexts of socialization for a minor, along with the 

family and the peer group. 

The research presented in this paper is part of a thesis project, which aims to investigate the processes of identity construction among 

underage ’second generation’ Moroccans and Ecuadorians in the city of Seville (Spain). The project is based on an ethnographic fieldwork, 

consisting of participant observation and qualitative in-depth interviews, which intends to analyze the three main contexts of socialization 

of these teenagers: school, family and peer group. 

This paper presents the preliminary results of the fieldwork carried out in secondary schools in Seville. At first, it focuses on the analysis 

of the representations of migrants’ children generated by the school staff. In particular, it aims to examine the educational activities and 

the new job positions promoted within the framework of interculturality by some Andalusian educational policies, such as the classes 

for no Spanish speakers (ATAL), the mother culture workshops or the intercultural mediators. Finally, the paper explores how the 

representations, generated by institution and its members, influence the processes of identification of these young people in their peer 

groups within the school context. 

From the analysis of the data, it is possible to disclose some preliminary conclusions. Firstly, there is some evidence that the 

intercultural programmes, instead of encouraging the valorisation of the cultural differences, tend to construct these children as ‘Others’. 

Paradoxically, it seems that the diffusion of the “intercultural wave”, which introduced new activities in the school curriculum, contributes 

to confirm some culturalist representations and increase the stigmatization of these teenagers. In other words, these children are 

considered as natural carriers of parents’ culture, within a scale of distinctions on the basis of the arrival age in Spain, as well as their 

parents’ previous “cultural area”, and the ethnic composition of the peer group in which these minors take part. 

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Secondly, data show that the school staff’s representations influence the identity construction of the migrants’ children. It seems that the 

representation of the educational institution influences ethnic identification. However, for avoiding a deterministic perspective, the results 

show that these teenagers are active subjects in the construction of their own identity. They compose it by combining ethnic, gendered, 

class and young subculture identity components. 

Finally, it is unveiled that the educational institution, although it defines itself as multicultural and open to the incorporation of 

differences, continues to stigmatize the children of migrants through culturalist practices. In practice, it continues to consider good 

integration as assimilation into the national culture. 

The Influence of the Body in Migrant and Indigenous Boys’ Interactions within the Masculine Hierarchy of the School 

Lindsey Garret, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

This paper analysis data from the large Trinity Immigration ‘Learning Together Project’ to explore the impact of the body in the 

development of positive and negative relationships between migrant and indigenous boys within the child world of the school. The ‘body’ 

refers both to the presentation of self through one’s appearance such as height, weight, clothing, ‘racialised’ characteristics such as skin 

colour and physical competence/incompetence in sport and games. Thus, the active and passive functions of the body will be analysed 

as bearers of social value and status within the child world of the school; spaces in which the children’s attention is primarily directed at 

their peers instead of teachers or other authority figures. This paper seeks to highlight the need to understand integration beyond formal 

skill attainment such as English language proficiency and emphasises the importance of understanding integration as a lived social 

relation. For this purpose a Bourdieuian phenomenology of social space will be drawn upon to illuminate the impact of embodiment 

agency in childhood which simultaneously influences and is shaped by micro peer exchanges and macro concepts of gender, race and 

immigration. 

SESSION 4e The Children and Families of Polish and Russian Immigrants 

Polish migrants and their children in London: encountering schools 

*Louise Ryan, Middlesex University, UK 

Alessio D'Angelo, Middlesex University, UK 

Magdalena Lopez- Rodriguez, Middlesex University, UK 

Poland’s accession to the EU in May 2004 brought many new possibilities and opportunities for Polish migrants to Britain. In the 

period from May 2004 to June 2008, over 500,000 Poles registered with the Workers Registration Scheme as employees in Britain. 

One unforeseen consequence of this rapid increase in migration was the large numbers of Polish children arriving in British schools. 

According to office government statistics, there are over 26,000 school pupils in England whose first language is Polish (DCFS, Schools 

Census, 2008). 

Schools are not only places of education but also sites of socialisation and interaction. Social norms, values and expectations are taught 

and learned through both the formal and informal curriculum – in the classroom, playground and at the school gates (Adams and Kirova, 

2006). 

For newly arrived migrant children and their parents school may be the place where they encounter the diversity of the host society 

in all its complexity and newness. While school may be regarded as a safe place of learning, it can also be daunting and confusing. 

Conversations at the school gates may provide parents with a valuable opportunity to acquire new information and make friends (Ryan, 

2007). However, school can also be associated with culture clashes, negative stereotypes, feelings of isolation and even racist bullying. 

Thus, for newly arrived migrant children and their parents, school provides an array of opportunities and challenges. 

In this paper we explore these issues drawing on our research with Polish migrants in London (Ryan et al, 2007; 2008) and on Polish 

children in London primary schools (Sales, et al, 2008). Based on interviews with parents and teachers at 4 London primary schools, 

as well as some additional data from Polish children, we explore processes of adaptation, accommodation, negotiation and identity 

formation. In addition, we also consider the ways in which Polish migrants construct notions of Polishness in the context of education. 

Children of Emigration: an exploratory study of the acculturation experience of Polish adolescents in Ireland 

Beata Sokolowska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The paper reports first findings from an exploratory study of the acculturation experience of Polish adolescents in Ireland. The objective of 

this study is to understand how Polish adolescent migrants develop ‘acculturation strategies’ of adjusting to their new situation and how 

this is reflected in the unfolding of their social relations at school and in the family. It endeavours to answer the following questions: how 

it is to be a Polish teenager in Ireland and how the language barrier and social expectations for smooth assimilation create distinctive 

conflicts for personal and identity development. Moreover, this project includes an exploration of the perception of acculturation from 

parents’ and teachers’ perspective. 

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The study uses a qualitative multi-actor longitudinal (panel) research design that combines semi-structured interviews (with Polish 

teens, their parents and their teachers) with standardised measurements (questionnaires) in order to describe patterns of acculturation 

trajectories and patterns of employed strategies. 

The first findings reveal that young Polish teenagers sometimes face severe language problems resulting in being moved to lower 

streams in school. The experience of social exclusion and of separation from and re-unification with their parents in conjunction with 

the status lowering of their parents in the host country produces very dynamic and demanding relations. There is also evidence that the 

vibrant processes of identity-formation and adjustment undergo a permanent process of re-definition and re-construction accounting 

for variation in acculturation outcomes. The first wave of conducted interviews indicates that sometimes relations with peers from other 

ethnic groups can lead to ‘negative social mirroring’ or to ‘acculturative stress’. Therefore there is a need for further investigation because 

the new migration has posed many challenges for many Irish schools. Further enquiry will also provide better understanding of the 

acculturation phenomena of Polish teens in the Irish context. 

“My nationality is Capricorn” - narratives of Russian-speaking adolescents and their parents on migration and its influence on family 

practices, parental aspirations and adolescents position at school 

Svetlana Eriksson, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Target groups: 30 Russian-speaking families from Russia and Latvia currently living in Ireland 

Control groups: 15 Russian-speaking families in Russia, 15 Russian-speaking families in Latvia and 15 Irish families in Ireland where one 

child has a Russian-speaking classmate 

Intergenerational transmission of cultural capital, ethnic identity and values is thought to be more effective in migrant families than in 

national/non migrant families, particularly due to strong kinship ties which provide migrants with material and emotional 

interdependence; it appears to be an important coping resource and provides continuity with the past (Bryceson and Vuorela 2002; Foner 

1997; Goodwin 1999). Sometimes the image of one’s family is thus idealized by migrant children: family as a “happy home” with “precious 

objects” (de Leeuw and Rydin 2007,456). Thus, migration acts as a transmission belt, which Schönpflug defines as conditions favourable 

for transmission in a particular socioeconomic and cultural context, such as personal characteristics of the transmitter and the receiver 

(resources of education and age), and family interaction variables (parenting styles and marital relationship, child-parent dynamics), and 

transmission contents (Schönpflug, 2001). 

“We wish our children a better life than we had...” 

“We are Russian, but our children are Irish...” 

“It is amazing how flexible children are and how easily they integrate into the host society!” 

These are just a few comments that were obtained during 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with Russian-speaking families from 

Russia and Latvia. These comments are not new, nor are they surprising in any way. 

The first one is a common reason for families to migrate to another country. The other two bring relief or sorrow to migrant parents when 

they are looking back at their decision in hope that it was the right one, and that their children are of the same opinion. Are these beliefs 

shared by their children? In the semi-structured interviews I have conducted, children reflect on their position in the classroom and 

comment on their lifestyles in Ireland. Their narratives are then compared with perceptions of their parents and their Irish classmates. 

Migrant parents are torn by the dilemma: I do not want my children to be strangers in their own family, but I also want them to feel 

comfortable in the new context. Is this achievable? Do parents’ aspirations change with migration? Do they remain traditionalists as may 

often be the case when families from traditionalist countries find themselves in a new individualist context (Nauck, 2001a, Nauck 2001b, 

Nauck 1989), or do they adjust their parental goals and aspirations in accordance with their perceptions of the Irish context? Parents from 

the target and control groups dwell on what values they prioritise when bringing their children up, and what motives lie behind this 

prioritisation. Families also comment on the distribution of their family roles. A comparative analysis helps to see how the family dynamic 

differs in the groups under study. 

This study aims at finding out if migration, indeed, is a transmission belt in the complex process of intergenerational transmission of 

cultural capital within Russian-speaking migrant families in Ireland. 

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SESSION 5e Immigration and the Life of the School 

Inter-ethnic relations inside the child’s social space: What adults don’t see or hear 

*Philip Curry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


A range of Irish evidence is used to illustrate the fact that children have social spaces in- and out-side of school of which adults are 

generally poorly informed. Problematic inter-ethnic behaviours such as racist name calling and bullying occur with greater frequency 

inside these spaces than adults such as teachers and parents may be aware. Evidence demonstrating this is taken from published survey 

data and from our own qualitative work with 330 children in seven primary schools which shows how profoundly unaware teachers can be 

of problematic social interaction among their pupils. Children need such social spaces in order to learn and develop crucial social skills. 

The questions are what adults can do to help ensure children interact in a positive way when free to do so and how can they be alert to 

situations in which particularly harmful behaviour is occurring. Implications are also drawn for the evaluation of initiatives to enhance 

inter-ethnic relations in schools. 

Intergenerational transmission of interethnic social contacts 

*Sarah Carol, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 


Most studies on interethnic social contacts focus on the role of segregation, discrimination, inter-group threat and hostility (see e.g. 

Pettigrew 2008). The role of parents and the values they try to transmit have received much less attention. Many immigrant parents 

attempt to pass on some of their cultural group values to their children. These include ideas about the appropriate choice of friends and a 

spousee. Previous studies have shown an impact of parental attitudes and contacts on the interethnic contacts of their school-aged 

children (e.g. Nauck et al 1997; Nauck 2001; Reinders 2004). The wish for cultural preservation is often measured by the attitude towards 

interethnic marriage. Since decisions on marriage are generally not made at school-age but later in the life course, it is important to 

investigate the impact of parental attitudes on adult children as well. It might be that parental influence begins to wane after children 

have left home. This paper investigates the influence of parental attitudes and behaviour on the interethnic social contacts of their adult 

children. The dataset consists of 129 parent-child dyads from a random sample of Turkish immigrants in France, Germany and the 

Netherlands. The average age of the children is 27. A Structural Equation Model is used to test to what extend the ethnic composition of 

the social circle of parents affects that of their children and whether a parental wish for cultural preservation has a negative impact on 

their children’s degree of interethnic social contacts. In the analyses we control for two variables known to impact interethnic social 

contacts; the share of immigrants in the place of residence and the generation of the children (second or in-between). We find that 

parental attitudes do not have a direct impact on the interethnic social contacts of their children, but that there is an indirect effect 

through children’s attitude to cultural preservation. In the final section we use some material from in-depth interviews that were 

conducted in the same research project to illustrate the attitudes of parents and their effects on their children. 

Daily encounters between “non-immigrant” and “immigrant” youth in schools’ ethnic identity processes and boundary making 

*Kerstin Duemmler, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

Janine Dahinden, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

Joëlle Moret, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

‘Immigrant’ youths’ daily encounters in schools with other students largely contribute to their experience of growing up as a member of 

that category in their ‘host society’. Recognition and acceptance by others sometimes depend on ethno-national belongings. 

For these youths, ethnicity often remains an important signifier, invoked to articulate collective identities and to construct boundaries 

against others. However, studies have also shown that ethnicity is not only an identity and boundary marker among ‘immigrant’ youth, but 

also used by others to articulate differences against them. Thus, the concept of (ethnic) boundary work has become a key concept in 

social science to describe a two-fold process of group identification and categorisation against others. Such processes are embedded and 

visible in social interactions, and their analysis is the aim of this paper. 

Most research on ethnic identities and boundary work has been based on a particular immigrant group (“community studies”). In 

contrast, this paper examines how ethnic identities and boundaries are produced through interactions with others (“study on crosscutting 

ties”). Therefore, we focus on daily encounters among young people with and without ‘immigrant background’, aged 16 to 20, in 

classrooms of 3 vocational schools in Switzerland. 

Based on empirical research (ethnographic fieldwork, focus groups, and interviews with students), we show how ethnicity is important for 

the construction of identities and boundaries among young people, and how is it used as a category to demarcate groups in society and in 

particular in the classroom. The results emphasize that the construction of ethnic identities and boundaries are not neutral processes. 

Who defines what is similar or different to the ‘Swiss society’ or the ‘ethnic community’ is linked to power relations. These are also 

shaped and contested by both the majority and the ‘immigrant’ youth through boundary work. 

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SESSION 6e Young Asylum Seekers and Refugees 

Refugee and Asylum Seeking Children: Emerging Paradigms in Research and Practice 

Charles Watters, Rutgers University, USA 

In recent years the treatment of children seeking asylum in industrialised countries has been a matter of increasing international 

concern. Human rights organisations have documented numerous instances of summary expulsion or abandonment of those trying to 

cross borders in the hope of a more secure existence. Drawing on material from his recent book Refugee Children: Towards the Next 

Horizon, and a number of his recent studies of the treatment of asylum seeking and refugee children in Europe, Watters argues that 

decisions regarding the expulsion or incorporation of children are frequently governed by a moral economy in which children viewed as 

suffering from health problems, specifically mental health problems, are deemed to be legitimate and deserving of social and political 

support. Those who do not achieve a form of `bio-legitimacy’ are often viewed as undeserving and are excluded or expelled. In amplifying 

his theme, Watters will draw on current fieldwork in the Mediterranean region where children often arrive in Southern Europe having 

travelled over land and sea from highly unstable war torn regions, and from Northern European ports where further journeys may be 

attempted to the UK. In examining the treatment of asylum seeking and refugee children he will draw on his recent study of reception 

conditions for asylum seekers in sixteen European countries. In developing theoretical perspectives that draw on the work of Arendt and 

Agamben among others, Watters argues for an approach to research in the field that critically examines the historical, political and social 

contexts in which children are excluded from territories or incorporated in the context of emerging epistemologies of care. He will also 

argue that a research framework that engages with a wide social and political context is an essential component in developing receptive 

and responsive policies towards asylum seeking and refugee children. 

The Pre-departure Lives of Unaccompanied Minors: the “Ordinary” Amidst the “Extraordinary” 

Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Our knowledge of the pre-departure lives of unaccompanied minors – and indeed other asylum seekers and refugees – is often limited 

to accounts of difficulties and problems. As a result, the impression is given that somewhat ‘extraordinary’ experiences – of war, 

poverty, and lack of opportunity – fully represent these young people’s lives. Life at home is seen as negative, dangerous, and lacking in 

opportunities, whilst life in the host country is seen in a more positive light, representing safety and possibility. However, such accounts do 

not give the full story. ‘Thicker stories’ are often present (Kohli, 2006). By deliberately not focusing on problems at home and on reasons 

for departure, the research on which this paper is based allowed the participants to talk about what might be termed their more ‘ordinary’ 

circumstances of childhood and adolescence, many of which were positive in nature. Although frequently neglected in the literature, these 

circumstances are important to understand if we are to seek to fully appreciate where these young people have come from and to what 

extent their lives have changed as a result of leaving home. 

Supporting social inclusion for refugee youth 

*Karen Block, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Elisha Riggs, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Lisa Gibbs, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Deborah Warr, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Australia accepts approximately 13,500 refugee and humanitarian migrants yearly, over half of whom are under the age of 25. 

Currently, the majority of humanitarian entrants arriving in Australia are from countries in Africa, the Middle East and Burma which 

have experienced long periods of conflict and consequent displacement of populations. This background results in particular barriers 

to inclusion for young refugees who have often spent long periods of time, and sometimes their whole lives in refugee camps, as well 

as having experienced a significant degree of trauma. Many adolescent and young adult refugees arrive with significantly disrupted 

family and social networks as well as little formal education, compounded by limited vocational skills, work histories or experiences 

relevant to employment in Australia. Standard on-arrival programs provide twelve months of English language tuition before placement 

in mainstream education systems, where a mismatch of age, educational level and experience leaves individuals at high risk of 

disengagement, dropping-out, and subsequent welfare dependency leading to long term social exclusion. 

This paper will present findings from focus groups and interviews with young people from refugee backgrounds who are participating 

in an innovative intervention designed to improve settlement outcomes for this group. The Ucan2 program is situated within standard 

on-arrival English language programs. It brings host-community volunteers into the language classroom and promotes part-time work 

as a means to inclusion and engagement. The intervention provides participants with psychosocial support and relevant experiences in 

terms of employment focused language acquisition and employment skills while promoting social networking beyond existing community 

boundaries. The research focus is on experiences of resettlement and social connections generated through program participation as 

well as education and employment expectations, aspirations and outcomes. The presentation aims to enhance our understanding of the 

issues impacting on social inclusion for newly-arrived young adult and adolescent refugees in Australia and other developed countries 

and how this can inform policy and program development relating to service provision for this population. 

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education 

SESSION 1f Education Policy 

“Multicultural Britishness”: Balancing the Nation, Europe and Migration in Curriculum and Policy Discourses in England 


This paper begins with a socio-historical analysis of the impact of national, European and multicultural political agendas on education 

policy in England. It draws on history, geography and citizenship education curriculum documents and six semi-structured interviews 

with policymakers in the Department for Children, Schools and Families as well as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. The 

article argues that the governmental approach of a ‘civic rebalancing’ of multiculturalism is reflected in education with citizenship 

education and geography having an equal number of national and migration-related topics, recently complemented by a more global 

dimension. The study also shows little difference between curricula and discourses of policymakers, thus emphasising social cohesion 

whilst sustaining the British legacy of multiculturalism. The European dimension was seen as incorporated into a global educational 

dimension in the context of the recently completed review of the secondary school curriculum. This paper contributes to a larger debate 

in Europe on the ways in which school curricula and policymakers balance cultural diversity and social cohesion. It departs from standard 

two-way comparisons of national versus European or national versus multicultural agendas in addressing how national, European and 

migration-related issues are intertwined. 

The Includ-ed project 

*John Lalor, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Carmel Mulcahy, Dublin City University, Ireland 

Charlotte Holland, Dublin City University, Ireland 

The Includ-Ed project “Strategies for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe from Education” is a Framework 6 research project which 

runs from 2006-2011. Its aim is to analyse those educational strategies that contribute to overcoming inequalities and to the promotion 

of social cohesion, particularly focusing on vulnerable and marginalised groups, in order to reproduce these practices and to analyse 

those education strategies that generate social exclusion, in particular with vulnerable and marginalised groups, in order to change 

these practices. The project uses a Critical Communicative Research Approach which is concerned with knowledge created through 

intersubjective dialogue whereby researchers bring their expertise and knowledge of developments in the scientific community into a 

dialogue with social actors to reach consensus of meaning. This methodology also focuses on the inclusion of traditionally silenced voices 

by encouraging the active involvement of the people whose reality is studied throughout the entire research process. 

To date the project has examined the current situation in each of the EU 25 countries through the analysis of the literature (journals, 

databases, policy at local and EU level, NGO input) dealing with elements of school systems, reforms and practices. The research has 

also identified and built on good practices and has led to the implementation of innovative strategies in the classroom. 

This paper will present the interim findings of the Includ-Ed project in one of its key thematic areas which is concerned with how Europe’s 

education systems have responded to the linguistic challenges of immigration. The paper will look at some of the key finding from the 

literature and will offer some of the research into innovative practice in this area in Europe. 

SESSION 2f English as a Second Language in Irish Primary Schools 

Research in an Irish Primary School: Some insights gained into teaching and learning ESL 

Déirdre Kirwan, Scoil Bhríde Girls' National School, Blanchardstown, Dublin, Ireland 

Formidable challenges have been experienced by those involved in the education system in Ireland since the middle of the 1990s, when 

children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds began to seek enrolment initially in primary schools. Schools with varying 

degrees of teaching capacity, facilities and resources were required as a matter of urgency to provide language support for increasing 

numbers of ESL pupils so that these children would have access to their peers and to the primary school curriculum. 

The findings presented in this paper refer to research carried out in a primary school in Dublin. The purpose of this was to: 

a. document the learning processes and language development of individual children during the course of one school year; 

b. give an overview of what was happening in one national school in the school year 2005-06 in relation to English language support; 

c. highlight the unique nature of this moment in the history of Irish education, i.e., the early years of the development of English language 

support at the beginning of the twenty-first century; 

d. attempt to throw some light on the effectiveness of current educational thinking and practice and make a contribution to future best 

practice models. 

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Teaching English as a Second Language to Immigrant Pupils in Irish Primary Schools 

Joanna Kosmalska, University of Łódź, Poland 

The issue of language and bilingualism have been at the heart of Irish politics since the founding of an Independent Ireland in 1922. Until 

the late 1990s, the debate centred on how to revive the traditional Irish language in conjunction with the widely spoken language of the 

former colonial masters, English. The national effort to maintain and revitalise the language in the Republic of Ireland has been a wellresearched 

and well-documented topic in the literature on bilingual education (Baker, 2006; Romain,1995 among others). 

In the mid 1990’s, driven by Ireland’s economic success, thousands of people from a whole host of non-English speaking nations arrived 

in the country. Many came with children or had children once they settled down. This new linguistic diversity has changed the educational 

needs for children in Irish schools, creating a whole new set of challenges for policy makers and indeed citizens of the country. John 

Harris (2007:1) points out that at present “the chances of hearing Polish or Chinese on the street or in the school playground may be 

greater than the likelihood of hearing Irish.” Indeed a great number of young newcomers have either little or no English skills. In areas of 

high immigration density, they constitute over 50% of all pupils enrolled in the local schools (McGorman and Surge, 2007). 

At first, teachers were left to deal with newly-arrived children on their own. However, in the school year 1999-2000, the numbers of non- 

English speaking pupils entering schools increased significantly. At this point school principals successfully lobbied the Department of 

Education and Science (DES) to introduce the following measures to address the problem: 

• Finance the allocation of additional English language support teachers 

• Commission Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT) to design curriculum for teaching English as a second language at primary 

level, develop teaching and learning materials, and deliver the curriculum and materials via in-service seminars for language 

support teachers. 

As a result, the English language support (ELS) programme for newcomer pupils was created and it has been in place throughout Ireland 

since June 2000. This paper aims to document the elements of the programme and their implementation in Irish primary schools. 

It presents a comprehensive picture of ELS, then evaluates the programme and provides recommendations to alleviate some of the 

challenges encountered by teachers. 

The paper is structured into three sections. Each section, like a jigsaw, examines pieces of the puzzle, the final intention being, to present 

the English language support programme as a single entity, with its advantages and disadvantages. 

Section one provides a framework for the research that was conducted in the school year 2008-2009. It begins with an account of the 

research design of study. An ethnographic approach was used, as far as possible within time and resource constraints, to provide a 

description of ELS and trace the implementation of the programme in eighteen primary schools. 

Section two begins by highlighting the requirements issued by the Department of Education and Science (DES) that a school has to 

meet for English language support to be introduced. Then it delineates activity of Integrate Ireland Language and Training and provides 

critical analysis of their curriculum, teaching and learning materials and in-service seminars for ELS teachers. The analysis is done by 

juxtaposing the official, institutionalised perspective with the unofficial views of teachers. The section therefore contains quotations from 

interviews with the Director of Integrate Ireland, David Little, and ELS teachers. The opinions of the two opposite sides are balanced by a 

more objective evaluation provided by Rory McDaid, the co-author of the summer course for teachers on the issues of minority ethnic and 

language children. 

Section three investigates whether teachers are familiar with IILT’s guidelines and whether the recommendations can be successfully 

implemented in Irish schools. The reflections are grouped in three thematic areas focused on ELS pupils, teachers and classes. One 

striking issue that has emerged from the research is a patience fatigue phase. The common occurrence of this phenomenon seems to 

suggest that the phase is a natural stage in acclimatisation of immigrant pupils in the new linguistic environment. 

Conclusions illuminate advantages and drawbacks of the language support provision in Irish schools and provide a series of 

recommendations that are inter-connected in many tangible and intangible ways. 

It is interesting to note that the issues concerning the situation of newcomer pupils in schools have been frequently discussed in the Irish 

media. This indicates that immigration has created a dynamic context within which new approaches to multilingualism in education and 

teaching English as a second language are being developed. These developments put to test the principles of bilingual education and 

generate new data on the successes and failures of teaching methodologies and approaches. 

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The education system's response to the linguistic challenges of immigration 

Bronagh Catibušic, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Reflecting migrant children’s second language acquisition within a second language curriculum: An investigation of English language 

development among primary school children from non-English-speaking migrant backgrounds in Ireland, and its relationship to the 

curriculum for English language support. 

This paper will be based on a longitudinal study of primary school pupils receiving English language support which I have conducted and 

analysed in my Ph.D. research (thesis to be submitted in 2010). It will look at empirical evidence of second language acquisition (SLA) 

obtained from a sample of young learners of English as a second language (ESL) over the school year 2007 to 2008, and compare this to 

the language learning outcomes described in the current curriculum for English language support: the English Language Proficiency 

Benchmarks for non-native-speaking pupils at primary level (IILT 2003). I have outlined below the research project which informs the 

issues I will raise in this paper. 

The research involved the weekly audio-recording of English language support lessons (instruction provided on a withdrawal basis to ESL 

learners in Irish schools) in three primary schools in the north-east region of Ireland. Approximately 80 hours (154 lessons) of L2 oral 

production were recorded, transcribed and analysed for 19 ESL pupils participating in the study. A sample of pupils’ written work was 

also collected. The pupils involved came from 12 different national backgrounds (mostly Eastern European and Asian) and spoke at least 

12 different first languages from a range of language families (e.g. Slavic, Romance, Sino-Tibetan etc.). Their ages ranged from 4-14, 

although the majority were under 8 years old and in junior primary classes during the study period. The project included pupils in both 

their first and second year of their (generally) two-year English language support allocation. Five English language support teachers and 

two substitute teachers also participated. The research project was approved by and conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines 

specified by the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences (SLSCS) in Trinity College, Dublin. 

While the research design was essentially qualitative, the analysis of data adopted a mixed methods approach. Initially, the transcribed 

data was subjected to a three strand formal, functional and conversation analysis of each interactional turn produced by each sampled 

pupil. Then, where appropriate to the data, quantitative measures were used to support the findings emerging from its detailed qualitative 

description. 

From analysis of the data obtained within this study, I have been able to investigate indicators of the sampled pupils’ SLA, apparent 

within the evidence provided by their L2 use. In this paper I will focus on features of their grammatical and lexical development which 

emerged from the mixed-methods analysis. I will give examples of how SLA is indicated within the data obtained for specific pupils across 

the study period. I will also look at the possible influence of both internal factors (e.g. age and L1 background) on aspects of pupils’ L2 

development, and the potential impact of external factors (particularly features of interaction) on pupils’ SLA. From this, I will present a 

summary of likely SLA sequences and characteristics among primary school ESL learners, based upon empirical evidence of obtained 

from a representative sample of pupils. 

The aim of my research was to compare evidence of SLA within the sample group to the learning outcomes described by the English 

Language Proficiency Benchmarks for non-native-speaking pupils at primary level (IILT 2003), a curriculum for English language support 

which is ultimately derived from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2001). In this 

paper I will therefore outline how I compared pupils’ actual L2 production to the descriptors of communicative activity included in the 

Benchmarks, and comment on any recommendations for their revision resulting from my research. 

I will also look briefly at how my research into ESL pupils’ SLA may also be of wider pedagogical interest. While acknowledging the 

limitations of research based upon a mere sample of pupils, I will present any findings emerging from my study regarding possible 

influences on SLA which may be relevant and useful to language teaching. While the main focus of my research has been on examining 

L2 oral production as a key indicator of SLA, I will also look at issues related to pupils’ recorded literacy development and comment on 

their pedagogical significance. 

Since my research constitutes a relatively extensive longitudinal investigation into SLA among migrant children within an L2-dominant 

educational environment, and since it examines an L2 curriculum derived from the CEFR, a framework for language learning, teaching 

and assessment of widespread European and international application, I also believe that its findings are of interest beyond the Irish 

context alone. I hope, therefore, that my paper can in some small way contribute to the wider research field by offering some new insights 

into L2 development of migrant children and how their access to the language of education can be best supported. 

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SESSION 3f English as a Second Language in Irish Second and Third Level Education 

Inclusion or invasion? How post-primary teachers view newcomer students in the mainstream classroom 


This paper examines the attitudes of post-primary teachers to the inclusion of newcomer students within mainstream classes in different 

configurations of Post-primary schools within the Dublin 15 area. 

The key finding of the study is that teachers are reluctant to accept newcomer students within mainstream classes. The research 

indicates that this resistance is mediated by a complex pattern of attitude development, teacher experience and school context. Concerns 

regarding lack of training, knowledge, time and material resources appropriate to the learning needs of newcomers also inform teachers’ 

reluctance. Additionally, the language deficiency of newcomers, subject specific stress, parents’ lack of English and differing cultural 

attitudes to discipline, as well as the impact of newcomers on schools and future society, all emerge as influential factors. 

Overall, the findings indicate that newcomer students require more attention and assistance than mainstream subject teachers can 

currently provide. While teachers recognise the importance of inclusion, they lack the necessary skills and resources to succeed with 

increasing cohorts of ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse students. From the entirety of the data, it emerges that the absence of 

training constitutes the most significant contributor to teacher reluctance to accept newcomer students into mainstream classes. 

The overall conclusion of the study is that there is an immediate and overwhelming need for comprehensive training on newcomer 

inclusion, at both pre-service and in-service levels. 

The linguistic challenges of immigration: the higher education sector’s response 

Brid Ní Chonaill, Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Ireland 

Ireland is one of a number of peripheral countries which, similarly to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, transformed relatively recently 

from having a long history of emigration, to becoming a recipient of substantial inward migration. Despite a current trend reversal, 

instigated principally by the economic recession, with emigration surpassing immigration for the first time in 14 years (CSO, 2009), 

Ireland, to cite Mac Éinrí, ‘is no longer a country where immigration can be regarded as a short-term or transient issue. The country has 

definitely joined the European mainstream as a society where a population of mixed ethnic backgrounds is the norm’ (2007: 215). While 

migration is frequently debated in purely economic terms - particularly since economic necessity was the main driving factor behind Irish 

migration policy (Hughes et al, 2007: 224) - it cannot be restricted merely to labourers and workers. Rather migration has a far wider 

reaching impact across society, on services such as housing, health and education. 

The debate in new immigration societies like Ireland, which concentrated until recently on who gains entry into the country, has now 

shifted towards the topic of integration and the whole issue of what happens people once they are in Ireland (Mac Éinrí, 2007: 215). Given 

the fundamental importance of education for individuals to participate effectively in society and the necessity of a competency in English 

in order to participate in the Irish education system, language competency constitutes ‘an essential prerequisite of integration’ (NESC, 

2006: 190). Attention has thus been directed towards the education system in light of the impact of migration on the sector. The main state 

response has been the investment in English language support provided at primary and post primary level. Provision reached its pinnacle 

in 2008 with 2100 language support teachers employed, although the consequent deterioration of the economic situation has resulted in a 

reduction of posts in this area to the current figure of just over 1500 (Naughton, 2009). Hand in hand with the provision of language 

support, at both primary and post primary level, has been the commissioning of research on the impact of migration on these same 

sectors, for example Smyth et al’s study, Adapting to Diversity: Irish Schools and Newcomer Students (2009) and the OECD’s Review of 

Migrant Education in Ireland (2009). In view of the major focus at primary and post primary level, this paper aims to concentrate instead 

on the situation in higher education in Ireland where there is a dearth of research on migrants. One notable exception is Linehan and 

Hogan’s study (2008) on Migrants and Higher Education in Ireland which was the product of a Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), awarded by 

the Department of Education and Science. 

This paper will focus initially on the national level and the government’s policy regarding migrants in the higher education sector as a 

whole will be critiqued. Key terms pertinent to the topic will be defined such as ‘migrants’ as opposed to ‘international students’ whose 

normal residence is outside of Ireland but who come to Ireland to study on a student visa on a fee-paying basis and who will not be a 

focus of this paper. Next, moving onto a micro-level, case studies will be used to examine the responses of a number of third level 

institutions to the linguistic challenges of migration, measures put in place or approaches adopted. However, in spite of certain action 

taken at local institute level, challenges still remain, as supported by the EINE(Education in Employment) study where interviewees 

identified low levels of English competence as a major barrier to third-level education (Linehan and Hogan, 2008: 3). A research project 

funded by the Dormant Accounts is currently being carried out at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, whose aim is to look at the 

transition from second to third level of migrants, in a bid to broaden access and increase participation in the third level sector. The issues 

that still need to be addressed around the area of language will be identified through the use of qualitative data gathered as part of this 

project, with the views of migrants in the higher education sector, amongst others, being provided to support the analysis. Finally, in 

conclusion, since English language proficiency remains essential for accessing higher education as well as a prerequisite for social 

inclusion and integration into Irish society, some recommendations regarding language will be made in a bid to promote equality of 

access in the higher education sector. 

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SESSION 4f Home Language 

How do Turkish and German children acquire early mathematical abilities? 

Nicole Biedinger, University of Mannheim, Germany 

Introduction 

Ethnic education inequality is a well know phenomenon in the German educational system (Diefenbach 2004, quantity ring 2005, 

Schwippert et al. 2003). Also on a very early stage of the educational career and even in preschool age ethnic differences are found 

(Becker 2009, Biedinger & Becker 2010). These disadvantages are disturbing, since they cumulate themselves in the course of the time to 

serious ethnic stratifications (Kalter 2003). Therefore the following paper is about determinants of the early mathematical ability of 

German and Turkish preschool children. The analysis mainly deals with the influence of early investments of parents in their home 

environment. 

Past analyses showed that the investments of parents (preschool education, home environment etc.) make an important contribution for 

the early cognitive development of the child. In addition some studies even find that this is more important for immigrant children. Büchel 

et al. (1997) showed that the choice of the secondary school is significantly influenced my an earlier kindergarten attendance within the 

group of immigrant children, whereas this is not the case for German children. This can also be confirmed within the preschool system, 

where it could be shown for the cognitive ability that the home environment is even more important for Immigrants than for Natives 

(Biedinger 2009, Biedinger et al. 2008). However most of these studies have the disadvantage that they do not use longitudinal data. 

Theory 

The development of the child can be stimulated through different ways. I will analyse the influence of home activities between parents and 

their children (e.g. reading out aloud, singing, playing games, visiting a museum etc.) on early mathematical abilities. I assume that these 

activities have a stimulating effect on the child. I think that this ability is mainly responsible for their later school achievement. From a 

theoretical perspective I think that the stimulation through these activities might be explained by social learning theory (Bandura 1977) or 

operant conditioning (Skinner 1974). In addition I assume that learning early mathematical abilities is similar to learning another 

language (cf. Chiswick & Miller 1995). This model implies that there exists the efficiency, economic incentive and the exposure to do so. 

For the case of very young children I think efficiency and economic incentive should be negligible and the exposure of important 

stimulating impulses is given through the activities with their parents (hypothesis 1). In addition this should be true also after controlling 

for the efficiency of the child (hypothesis 2). So this theory leads to the assumption that the activities should be as stimulating for the 

Turkish as for the German children (hypothesis 3). 

Data and Results 

The data for the empirical analyses are part of the project ‘Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children’. In this 

project, we randomly selected German and Turkish families with a 3–4-yearold child from data of registration offices in 30 cities and 

communities of a local region in South-West Germany. After the parent interview, the standardized developmental test ‘Kaufman 

Assessment Battery for Children’ (K-ABC) was conducted with the child. This was done twice (in 2007 and 2008 with a distance of about 

12 months). 

The results show that the mathematical abilities rise between the two waves. The mathematical ability is measured by the correct 

answers of a subtest of the K-ABC. All children have improved with about 5.5 more correct answers. There exists no ethnic differences 

within this improvement; although Turkish children have at all time points about 2 less correct answers. 

The results of the fixed effects models are done separately for Turkish and German children. The German children are significantly 

influenced by the activities with their parents. We also control for the cognitive and lingual development of the child. The results show that 

even under control of the efficiency the home environment persist to have a significant influence on the mathematical abilities of the 

German children. In contrast to this result the mathematical abilities of the Turkish children are not influence through the activities. 

However their abilities mainly depend on the efficiency measured through the cognitive and lingual abilities. In sum, there is a strong 

influence of the home environment on mathematical abilities for the German children, but not so for the Turkish children. So hypothesis 1 

can only be accepted for the German children. This is also true for the second hypothesis. Finally also the third hypothesis must be 

rejected, because the argued determinant of the mathematical ability, namely home activities, does not influence the Turkish, but the 

German children. 

Bilingualism and educational achievement: Does L1 matter? 

*Joerg Dollmann, University of Mannheim, Germany 


One of the central questions in contemporary debates about the integration of immigrant students in the school system addresses the 

role of the language of origin (Esser 2004; Portes/Hao 2002; Zhou/Bankston 1994). We seek to clarify whether scholastic achievement 

primarily depends on skills in the language spoken in the country of destination (L2) or whether there are additional effects associated 

with proficiency in the language of the country of origin (L1). These additional effects could result from cognitive advantages of children 

raised with two languages. Their use may foster the development of cognitive capabilities related to language processing, e.g., 

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metalinguistic awareness (Bialystok 2002; Cummins 2000). On the other hand, it is argued, that proficiency in the language of origin is an 

important resource providing opportunities for mobilizing additional resources which may in turn promote educational success 

(Bankston/Zhou 1995; Mouw/Xie 1999). Although the underlying mechanisms differ, both views suggest a positive relationship between 

skills in L1 and achievement over and above the effect of L2 on achievement. 

In the empirical account, we analyze primary survey data from a study of Turkish students in German primary schools. The dataset 

contains objective and in the German context almost unique information about students’ language skills in Turkish (L1) and German (L2), 

assessed with a standardized language test. To measure educational outcomes we use achievement test scores as well as grades. The 

analyses reveal that proficiency in Turkish (L1) does not affect children’s educational achievement. Instead, the driving force for school 

success is proficiency in German (L2). In other words, students who have acquired good language skills in Turkish on top of good skills in 

German do not profit extra with regard to their performance in school. These results persist when controlling for students’ immigration 

history and socioeconomic background. 

Mapping The Diversity of home Language Resources. Two case studies of Turkish and Chinese language 

maintenance in Sydney, Australia. 

Liam Morgan, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia 

Home Language Maintenance is one of the most important issues facing so-called multilingual societies such as Australia. It is important 

for individual children in terms of their cognitive and affective development and it is important to multicultural societies in terms of the 

development of their linguistic resources and in terms of the strength of their social fabric. Although almost one in 4 Australians come 

from homes where a language other than English is spoken, language attrition remains a major problem for second and third generation 

migrants. The loss of the home language represents a significant loss of a national economic resource, but it also represents a loss of 

connection and weakening of identity can be disastrous in terms of the individuals affected. Although lip service is given to the notions of 

multilingualism and linguistic pluralism the critical importance of home language maintenance to cognitive and affective development of 

school age children continues to be underestimated (Cummins, J. 2008). 

Through the Saturday school of Community Languages, through mainstream schools and through government supported Community 

Schools, opportunities exist in Australia for students to maintain their home language. Nevertheless, the take up of these languages 

remains low and this research addresses the acute need to know more about the whole picture of home language provision and take up. 

Using data from two case studies focusing on Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Turkish speaking parents and children in Sydney, 

Australia this paper will examine and compare the affordances and hindrances to the maintenance of these languages at a number of 

different levels. The methodology for this research draws on the Multilingual Cities project (Extra, G. and Yagmur, K. 2004) and explores 

home language from three perspectives: the demographic; the sociolinguistic and the educational. The theoretical framework also draws 

on the work of Jim Cummins in explaining the significance and the need for this research. 

The results of these studies will form the basis for an interesting comparison between two community languages experiencing quite 

different dynamics of growth and development. The first case study presented focuses on the more established Turkish community in 

one local government area of Sydney. Turkish migrants are part of the early waves of migration that came to Australia from the 1940’s 

to the 1970’s. The Turkish community, though well established, is now working hard to maintain its language among the third and fourth 

generation descendants of those post war migrants. 

The second case study presents findings from Chinese community from the inner-western suburbs of Sydney. Although the Chinese 

presence in Australia has a long history, the current wave of new arrivals from mainland China, Hong Kong and South East Asia has 

created vibrant and diverse communities interested in maintaining their links to home language and culture. 

The paper will focus on the range of factors that inhibit and encourage home language maintenance for both communities, from the 

perspectives of home, school and society. It will also present a survey of local formal and informal opportunities for maintaining these 

languages. Finally, the paper will suggest a framework for collaboration with colleagues researching Turkish language maintenance in 

Europe and Chinese language maintenance in the USA. 

SESSION 5f The Role of Migrants’ Home Language at School 

How to deal with plurilingual repertoires in multilingual classrooms? 

*Piet Van Avermaet, Ghent University, Belgium 

Sven Sierens, Ghent University, Belgium 

The educational debate about multilingualism and immigrant minorities in Western societies has been dominated by a set of static 

and decontextualised views. Monolingualism has been juxtaposed categorically with multi- or bilingualism. A set of related features 

can be identified in the ways in which education systems have responded to heightened multilingualism in the wake of globalization: 

assimilation has been presented as a civic ideal, proficiency in the dominant language as a preferred outcome, and debates have mostly 

adopted a deficit view on the effects of linguistic and sociocultural diversity on language learning, on educational achievement and on the 

relationship of parents to their children’s schooling. 

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Answers to the question how optimal language education for underachieving immigrant minorities can be organized has equally reflected 

a polarised division into camps: immersion into the majority language (the voice most often heard) versus bilingual education (sometimes 

with positive reference, more often with negative reference); language assimilation (the dominant voice) versus language maintenance, 

etc. One of the important questions to be raised is how such choices interact with the de facto multi-ethnic and multilingual dynamics of 

urban neighbourhoods and the schools situated in them. 

The education system of the Flemish Region in Belgium is characterized by a denial of the linguistic capital of plurilingual learners from 

immigrant minorities. The dominant language ideology is monolingual (Dutch only). Languages spoken by low-status minority groups 

are undervalued and seen as an impediment to social integration and scholastic achievement. This ideology pervades school policies 

and practices: L2 submersion is widely taken for granted as the normal language education paradigm; some schools even ban the use 

of home languages from the school premises. Attempts at bilingual instruction with immigrant pupils have met with mixed results so 

far. Consequently, policy makers often brand multilingualism as problematic and bilingual education as ineffective. Furthermore, urban 

inner-city schools have in recent years become so linguistically diverse that organising bilingual instruction in separate L1 classes tends 

to become unfeasible. 

These new challenges have undoubtedly put enormous pressure on ‘traditional’ bilingual education. Therefore, multiple alternative 

approaches are tentatively being developed. They focus attention on the psycho-social and functional use of minority home languages 

within linguistically diverse mainstream classes, and emphasise an additive and empowerment-oriented approach to multilingualism. 

In this paper we draw on a current research study – the ‘Home Language in Primary Education’ project – which investigates educational 

and sociolinguistic practices in four linguistically diverse inner-city primary schools in Ghent. We will illustrate to what extent teachers 

in these schools mobilise home languages as a resource for rendering learning environments more powerful. Multilingual strategies are 

developed to enhance a safe and positive learning climate, to render tasks more meaningful and to scaffold the learning process, while 

individually supporting the plurilingual learners. 

Piet Van Avermaet’s paper will be followed by a roundtable discussion. 


Joana Duarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany 


Deirdre Kirwan, Principal, Scoil Bhríde Girls' National School, Blanchardstown, Ireland 

Breda Naughton, Department of Education and Skills, Office of the Minister of State for Integration, Ireland 

SESSION 6f The TII’s English Language Support Programme I 

Teaching English to Immigrant Students in Irish Post-Primary Schools: the Irish School System, Students' 

Identities & Access to Education 

Rachael Fionda, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

Linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms offer both challenges and opportunities for policy makers and educators in Irish postprimary 

schools, which in the past decade have responded to unprecedented immigration with a variety of responses in the education 

system. Each school is unique and therefore differs in provision for both the English language teaching necessary for access to school 

knowledge (in the English language medium schools) and the support for the development of subject knowledge needed for participation 

in state exams. 

My research began with systematic empirical explorations of Dublin based schools to discover variation in English language support 

provision, and the results were analysed within a theoretical framework spanning education philosophy, linguistic minorities within 

education, second language acquisition and learning processes. The outcome of my research, as presented in this paper, contributes to 

emerging context-specific research (see Devine, 1999 & 2005; Keogh & Whyte, 2003; Nowlan, 2008; Lyons & Little, 2009; ESRI, 2009) to 

determine the impact of immigration on schools and find out how schools are equipping themselves to provide an education for numbers 

of students who speak English as a Second Language. 

I will concentrate on three themes within my research; first, the existing boundaries of Irish second level education, in order to establish 

an outline of existing resources which can be optimised and developed into efficient English language support. Second, issues which 

have significant impact on the provision of mainstream education to students who speak a native language other than the language of 

education. Finally, I draw the two previous themes together to make suggestions and observations on processes which promote best 

practice in Irish schools and their English language support provision. 

The academic language demands of the Irish post-primary curriculum and English language support for immigrant students 

Stergiani Kostopoulou, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The principal aim of English language support in Irish post-primary education is to help immigrant students acquire the language 

of schooling so that they become fully integrated into the mainstream classroom. Research into current language support practices 

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(Lyons and Little, 2009; ESRI, 2009) reveals, however, that English language instruction is not directly linked to the specialized language 

demands of the post-primary curriculum. This discussion addresses the need to facilitate students’ subject-specific language learning 

by offering comprehensive characterizations of the hallmarks of academic English language in the core curriculum subjects (English, 

Geography, History, Mathematics, Science, Civic, Social and Political education), as these are manifested in the written academic 

discourse of school textbooks. 

First, I demonstrate how detailed linguistic profiles for what is typical in texts for each subject area were constructed using a corpusbased 

methodology. This involved a computational analysis of six text corpora, designed to represent specialized language use in 

the thirty most commonly used subject textbooks. The linguistic analysis of corpora was focused on subject-specific language at a 

lexical, grammatical and semantic level and it was facilitated by WordSmith Tools 4 Scott; 2004) and Wmatrix2 (Rayson; 2008). Initially, 

quantitative and qualitative analyses of individual subject-specific corpora illuminated the distinctive lexico-grammatical characteristics 

(e.g., keywords, collocations, multi-word units, key grammatical categories) and semantic fields (together with the associated lexical 

items) of each subject area. Subsequently, a comparison of academic language use among subjects revealed a common academic core 

comprising linguistic features used across subjects. 

In the second part of the discussion, I briefly discuss the pedagogical applications of these insights into academic English language use 

in the Irish post-primary curriculum with respect to curriculum and materials development and the design of language tests for language 

support. The implications of these findings for a whole-school approach to language learning across the curriculum are also considered, 

arguing that a visible pedagogy which makes explicit the way the curriculum is constructed in language can promote all students’ 

academic literacy development (including native speakers of English) (Schleppegrell, 2004). I conclude by suggesting that, since migrant 

education is, and will remain, a common concern across Europe and beyond, the present research may be immediately relevant and 

applicable to other educational contexts with similar pedagogical needs. 

SESSION 7f The TII’s English Language Support Programme II 

Assessing the impact of ELSP materials in post-primary language support and mainstream subject classrooms 


The concept of successfully integrating newcomer students with ESL needs into the language of schooling and the mainstream postprimary 

school curriculum is multi-dimensional, involving the successful integration of cultural adjustment, language and learning skills 

and lexico-grammatical development. Within the Irish post-primary school context the successful teaching of Academic English derived 

from subject textbooks and examination papers plays an important role in the integration of all students – not just ESL learners - as it 

informs the language of instruction, of communication and of assessment within the classroom. 

During 2007-2010, the English Language Support Programme (the Trinity Immigration Initiative, Trinity College Dublin) developed 

and exploited a comprehensive corpus of post-primary curricular subject textbooks, teacher guidelines and examination papers. This 

open corpus of nearly 5.2 million words permits a focus to be directed on subject-specific language which, in turn, has informed the 

development of a large array of materials designed to support teaching and learning at each of the CEFR A1-B2 Benchmarks. The 

mediation of these materials to teachers and students alike is web-based. This paper reports on the impact of this array of materials in 

post-primary ESL and mainstream subject and learning support classrooms. As evidenced by internet usage metrics, teacher feedback 

and classroom observation, the units are currently being widely used. A survey of 18 language support teachers, 2 learning support and 

8 mainstream subject teachers in 14 schools shows the role the materials have played both in the linguistic development of the teacher 

and in the linguistic, functional literacy and metacognitive development of the learner. The data suggest that the materials have greatly 

facilitated access to the Academic English of the curriculum to the point that they are commonly used by SEN and resource teachers who 

work with learners displaying other learning needs. 

Instructional findings and implications for the post-primary curriculum will be discussed and challenges for the future development and 

use of the materials will be outlined. 

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methodological issues 

SESSION 1g 

Displacement and income effects of Central and Eastern European labour migrants in the Netherlands 

*Ernest Berkhout, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Siemen van der Werff, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Arjan Heyma, SEO Economic Research, The Netherlands 

Labour migration from the Central and Eastern European countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, 

Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania, together referred to as the New European Member States (NMS), has a modest impact on the 

Dutch economy. 

In this paper we analyse displacement and wage effects of migration using a combination of the regional and skill-cell approach on 

administrative data of all employees in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2005. To estimate the effect of labour migration from the NMS 

countries on labour market outcomes of native Dutch employees, we explain the growth in native employment and native wages -within 

specific industries and regions- by a number of explanatory variables, including the relative size and growth of labour migration from the 

NMS countries. Despite the substantial growth since 2000 in the number of Polish labour migrants in particular, displacement of Dutch 

employees hardly takes place. No significant effects are found from long-term migrants, and significant but very small dispersion effects 

from temporary migration. Also, effects on wages are barely noticeable. Since we use a complete set of data on employees, the estimated 

effects can be interpreted as general equilibrium effects. 

Job mobility of Polish migrants in Ireland 


Human capital models expect that migration is associated with a loss of non-transferable human capital components and a depreciation 

of complementary skills which are recovered in a post-migration period of heavy investment in destination country-specific human 

capital. There is little evidence that the predicted U-shaped pattern of occupational mobility holds for workers migrating from the new 

member states to EU 15 countries. The study examines employment histories of Polish migrants to Ireland scrutinizing whether there are 

indications of a recovery of their occupational status in the post-migration period and how individual attributes and period effects shape 

the occupational mobility of these migrants. 

In and out from employment and unemployment. An Analysis of migrants' penalisation in Employment Trajectories in Italy 

*Emilio Reyneri, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy 

Giovanna Fullin, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy 

The article aims at analysing the trajectories of immigrants in the Italian labour market, focusing on yearly transitions from 

unemployment to employment and vice versa. Regression models show that, controlling for age, educational attainment and region, 

immigrant workers lose their jobs more often than natives, but, once they become unemployed, they have more probabilities of finding 

a job than natives. In order to explain these differences we investigate whether immigrants hold more often non-permanent jobs than 

natives and to what extent they concentrate in small firms, which are much more unstable than large ones. Specificities of housekeeping 

sector have been taken into account, as many female immigrants are employed as housekeepers and caregivers, but this “industry” is not 

strictly comparable with other ones. 

Analyses are based on the yearly transition matrices of Italian Labour Force Surveys from 2005 to 2008, which provide information 

collected by two interviews with the same individuals and allow us to highlight also differences among ethnic groups. 

SESSION 2g 

Ethnic Competition Theory in a Dynamic Perspective: What Economic Shocks Teach us about Inter-Group Attitudes 

*Bram Lancee, European University Institute & University of Amsterdam, Italy & The Netherlands 

Sergi Pardos-Prado, European University Institute, Italy 

One of the most frequently used approaches to explain attitudes of native populations towards immigration is ethnic competition theory. 

According to ethnic competition theory, when socio-economic vulnerability is high, anti-immigrant reactions among the members of the 

in-group are more salient and intense. The mechanism is based on a rationalistic approach, whereby the resentment towards the outgroup 

grows as the perception of competition for scarce material resources increases. 

Ethnic competition theory is rarely tested using longitudinal data. The scarce examples of dynamic analyses replicate the same crosssectional 

design in studies conducted in different years. Without longitudinal data, it is however impossible to test the mechanism at 

hand: are negative attitudes towards immigration indeed a consequence of aggravating economic conditions, or are they endogenous, and 

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hence rather a symbolic construction of a more permanent and latent racial prejudice? The recent economic and financial crisis offers a 

new valuable opportunity to examine the effect of hard material conditions on anti-immigrant reactions. 

Using high quality panel data, our paper analyses the effect of individual and macro-level indicators of economic conditions on attitudes 

towards immigration. More specifically, we examine whether economic shocks result in an increasingly negative attitude towards 

immigration at a later point in time. If so, this supports ethnic competition theory. An insignificant effect of such indicators would shed 

doubt on the theory, and would reinforce rival theories based on symbolic racism or latent identity prejudice. 

We make use of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), a survey that started in 1984 and provides a representative sample of 

German households. Our dependent variable is a dichotomous item measured every survey year, indicating whether the respondent 

feels worried about immigration. Previous research has shown that this type of item is a suitable proxy for capturing the saliency of the 

immigration issue, and that it corresponds with negative rather than with positive attitudes towards immigration. However, to proof the 

validity and reliability of our dependent variable, we test the negativity of the saliency through additional dimensional analyses with the 

GSOEP and the Eurobarometers. 

Our main independent variables are the transition from employment to unemployment and being fired, together with a wide range of 

individual and contextual economic indicators derived from the GSOEP. Amongst other possible confounding factors we control for 

life satisfaction, inter-personal trust, social capital, political interest, party id, right-wing ideology and general socio-demographics. 

We furthermore include year dummies to control for a general time trend, and dummies for the federal states to adjust for regional 

differences. 

We estimate logistic random- and fixed-effects models across different specifications and perform posterior Bayesian sensitivity 

analyses. Preliminary findings suggest that anti-immigrant attitudes are indeed more salient after experiencing an economic shock, such 

as becoming unemployed and getting fired. However, not all indicators have the expected effect. While becoming unemployed and other 

job precariousness indicators are seemingly important, other traditional socio-economic indicators are not (like income). The coherence 

of our findings with previous literature and the possible existence of different dimensions of economic ethnic competition are discussed. 

The Apple Does Fall Far from the Tree: The Welfare State and the Social Capital of Immigrants and their Children. 

*Rocio Calvo, Harvard University, USA 

Natalia Sarkisian, Boston College, USA 

Mary C Waters, Harvard University, USA 

Terje A Eikemo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway 

The fact that destination countries in contemporary migration are predominantly welfare states marks a distinct departure from historical 

patterns. While the impact of international migration on the welfare state is broadly discussed in the literature, the other side of the 

relationship—the ways in which advanced welfare states influence the social capital of immigrants—has barely been examined. In this 

study we explore the relationship between the welfare state and social trust for immigrants and their children, and we compare it with 

that of the native-born population. Our purpose is twofold. First, we test the cultural hypothesis which claims that social trust stems from 

one’s culture and remains stable thorough one’s life against the institution-centered hypothesis which sustains that the welfare state 

shapes social trust. Second, we examine whether or not the welfare state influences similarly the social trust of natives, foreign-born and 

second-generation immigrants. We depart from the assumption that targeted social spending influences social trust, and we test if social 

spending in universal versus means-tested benefits influences differently social trust for natives, foreign-born and second-generation 

immigrants. 

To test our hypotheses, we employ the first three waves of the European Social Survey and 24 countries clustered into 5 welfare regimes: 

Nordic, Bismarckian, Anglo-Saxon, Southern and Eastern. In a second step, we substitute the welfare regime classification with country’s 

social spending and social scope (social spending in means-tested benefits versus social spending in non means-tested benefits). To 

measure social trust we construct two scales, one for generalized trust and another for trust in institutions. We then conduct a series of 

multi-level analyses to discern the influence of the welfare state on individuals’ reported social trust, while controlling for individual and 

aggregated confounders. 

We found no evidence for the cultural hypothesis. Foreign-born individuals and their children report lower generalized trust than their 

native peers. However, the generalized trust of second-generation immigrants is higher than that of their parents across welfare regimes. 

The institutional trust of second-generation immigrants is also closer to natives than to their parents. However unlike generalized trust, 

foreign-born report higher trust in institutions than their native counterparts. With regard to the influence of the welfare state on people’s 

social capital, we find a consistent pattern across populations and regimes. Individuals living in countries representative of the Nordic 

regime report the highest social trust, followed by individuals living in countries under the Anglo-Saxon and Bismarckian regimes. Those 

living in countries under the Southern and Eastern regimes report the lowest levels of social trust. We also found that both country’s 

unemployment rate and degree of market inflexibility have a negative influence in social trust. Concerning the impact of targeted social 

spending on people’s social capital: both social spending and social spending in universal benefits increase social trust across 

populations, although the impact is larger for natives and second-generation immigrants than it is for the foreign-born population. As 

regards social spending in means-tested benefits, the evidence is mixed; it decreases the social trust of natives but increases that of the 

foreign-born population. In addition, it does not exert a significant influence in the social trust of second-generation immigrants. 

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Our results suggest that social trust is not stable thorough one’s life and that welfare design matters for people’s social trust. Overall, the 

social trust of immigrants’ descendant is closer to the social trust of natives than to the social trust of their parents. In addition, welfare 

spending, particularly spending in universal benefits is positively related to people’s social trust, regardless of their migratory status. 

This study adds to the existing literature in several ways: by exploring the impact of the welfare state in the social capital of immigrants in 

a comparative setting, by testing the cultural versus the institutional hypothesis on people’s social capital, and by including market 

characteristics in the conceptualization of the welfare state. 

SESSION 3g 

Occupational Incorporation of Immigrants in Western European Countries 


Moshe Semyonov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

The major goal of the present paper is to study patterns of occupational attainment and occupational incorporation of immigrants in 

Western European countries. Using data from the European Social Survey for 15 West European countries we examine the extent to which 

time spent in the host country, socio-demographic attributes, ethnicity and religious affiliation affect the integration of immigrants into 

the occupational system of the host country. The data analysis is performed separately for men and women. The analysis reveals similar 

patterns across the 15 countries. In general, occupational status of both immigrants and native born Europeans tends to increase with 

educational level, with age and with urban residence. It also tends to be higher among married men but not among married women. The 

analysis further reveals that immigrants, whether men or women, are disadvantaged in attainment of occupational positions as compared 

to the native populations but experience upward mobility with the passage of time in the host country. That is, the occupational status of 

immigrants, whether men or women, is lower than the occupational status of native born even after taking into consideration differences 

in socio-demographic attributes such as education and marital status. However, the occupational disadvantage of immigrants tends to be 

lower among second generation immigrants than among first generation immigrants and it tends to decline with passage of years in the 

host countries. Yet, some meaningful differences among sub-groups of immigrants are observed. Specifically, among men, immigrants of 

non-European origin and of the Muslim conviction remain occupationally disadvantaged even in the second generation despite 

considerable educational gains. Among women, , however, non-Europeans and Muslims are in fact advantaged in attainment of 

occupational status as compared to native born women; second generation non-Muslim and European immigrants although not 

advantaged in attainment of occupational status, are found to close the entire occupational status gap with native born European women. 

The findings and their meaning are evaluated and discussed in light of sociological theories of immigrant assimilation and ethnic 

inequality in society. 

Residential Segregation and Spatial Assimilation among Immigrants in European Societies 

Anya Glikman, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

*Moshe Semyonov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel 

The influx of immigrants and labor migrants during the second half of the previous century had changed the ethnic fabric of many 

European cities. Currently, most West-European metropolitan centers are characterized by distinct-segregated ethnic neighborhoods. 

Whereas patterns of segregation and spatial assimilation have been studied extensively and for quite long time in American society, the 

body of research on immigrants' segregation and spatial assimilation in European societies is relatively new and small. The present 

research provides the first systematic examination of patterns of spatial segregation among immigrants across 13 European countries. 

Using data from the 2003 European Social Survey we examine the extent to which patterns of residential segregation and spatial 

assimilation are influenced by immigrants' tenure in the host country, socio economic characteristics, preferences for residential location, 

and ethnic and cultural origin. Ordinal-logit analysis reveals that ethnic residential segregation is quite prevalent in Western Europe. 

Although immigrants go through a process of spatial assimilation due to acculturation and economic mobility, the patterns vary 

considerably across ethnic and cultural groups. Specifically, rate of residential assimilation among immigrants from Asian or African 

countries is considerably lower than that among immigrants from European countries. Likewise, Muslims are more spatially segregated 

than other immigrants. While preferences for residential location and perceived discrimination cannot account for residential segregation 

among Asian immigrants, high rates of residential segregation and low rates of spatial assimilation among Muslims and African 

immigrants could be attributed to their relatively greater preference to reside in ethnic neighborhoods and to their perception of 

discrimination. 

The socio-economic integration of second-generation minority ethnic groups in Great Britain and the USA (1990-2000) 

Yaojun Li, The University of Manchester, UK 

Both Britain and the USA have seen large influxes of non-white immigrants in the large fifty years and an increasing proportion of the 

populations in both countries are the second-generation who have come of age and are active in the labour market. How well the ‘new 

second generation’ do in their educational and occupational attainment will have an enormous impact on the social integration and the 

democratic processes of the two countries. 

There are long-standing debates on the social fluidity of the British and the American social structure (the British sclerosis versus 

American Exceptionalism) and on the trajectories of the second-generational socio-economic integration (the straight-line versus the 

segmented assimilation theories). Although some studies have been carried out on social mobility in the two countries (Erikson and 

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Goldthorpe 1985; Kerckhoff et al. 1985), on specific groups such as Chinese in the two countries (Cheng 1994) and on similar groups at a 

particular point of time (Model 2005), and although a great deal of research has been done on the ethnic socio-economic profiles in each 

of the two countries, and some with specific regard to the second generation (for the latest in the debate, see Waters et al. forthcoming; 

Portes et al. 2009), there has been, to the best of my knowledge, no research on the patterns and trends of socio-economic integration 

comparing similar minority ethnic groups in the two countries, the very analysis that can attest to the competing claims of the relative 

social fluidity and the differential trajectory theories. It is this dual but closely related research question that this paper seeks to address. 

Using micro-data from the two most recent Censuses of the Population (3% Samples of Anonymised Records in Britain and 6% Integrated 

Public Use Microdata series in the USA for 1990/1 and 2000/1) with over twenty million records and standardising key variables on 

ethnicity, education, class, employment status and other demographics such as age, marital status, dependent children and health status 

which have generally been found in existing research to exert significant impacts on educational and, particularly, occupational 

attainment, this paper examines the patterns and trends of tertiary education and labour market position of the second generation in the 

two countries. With regard to ethnicity, we differentiate White, Black Caribbean, Black African (or African American in the US), Indian, 

Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Chinese in both countries and, in addition, two US-specific groups: Mexican and (non-Mexican) Hispanic. 

Some of these groups such as Indians and Pakistanis/Bangladeshis are rarely separately listed in US research but their differentiation is 

essential for the cross-country analysis. 

Both descriptive and multivariate analyses are used. As for the modelling exercises, a range of techniques are employed, from loglinear 

and unidiff models to test the overall and the changing patterns of social fluidity in the two countries, to logit modelling for education and 

conditional mixed-process modelling for labour market position where more refined analyses can be conducted with regard to the 

impacts of socio-cultural attributes on the outcomes of interest. The latter method is particularly appropriate for our research purposes, 

as we wish to analyse the combination of occupational and employment statuses, namely, firstly the selection effects on labour market 

participation (to test the thesis of ‘rising aspiration and growing reservation wages for the second generation) and then, for those who are 

economically active, the social hierarchy within the occupational order ranging from unemployment, to routine manual jobs, to 

intermediate jobs and through to privileged professional and managerial salariat positions. All such analysis is aimed at testing 

expectations from the straight-line and the segmented assimilation theories on the one hand and the long-standing thesis of American 

Exceptionalism on the other. 

The findings show that the second generation in both countries were making progress but some groups were still facing heavy 

disadvantages and ethnic penalties. The results in the patterns are not incompatible with the segmented assimilation theory but the 

trends data lend greater support to the straight-line assimilation theory. We also show that the second generation were doing better in 

the US than in Britain but the gaps were being closed, showing that the American Exceptionalism was losing its edge. As some groups 

were persistently disadvantaged in both countries, governments, employers and the wider society must do more to help the most 

vulnerable in achieving upward mobility. Parental and community support are surely important and necessary but are unlikely 

to achieve social equality without effective societal mobilisation. 

A cross-national investigation of secularization among the children of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants 

*Ruud Koopmans, WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Germany 


Most European countries have a significant share of immigrants who adhere to Islam. Whereas the majority of European countries has 

seen a trend towards secularization, studies have shown that the degree of religiosity among Muslim immigrants remains high, also in 

later generations (see e.g. Diehl & Koenig, 2009; Phalet, Gijsberts & Hagendoorn, 2008). In this paper we analyse Islamic religiosity of 

immigrants from three different angles; host-country context, region of origin and individual-level factors. We investigate the effects of 

two host-country level factors; the degree of accommodation of Islam and Islamic religious practice and the level of secularisation in 

the host country. Data come from a survey among Turkish immigrants and their children in six European countries; France, Germany, 

the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden. These countries have accommodated Islam to different degrees and also vary in their 

degrees of secularisation. 

The regional origins of Turkish immigrants vary and variation across destination countries may be explained by the religiosity in the region 

of origin of the migrants. Region of origin effects are operationalised as GDP and support for the Islamist AK party in Turkey in the 2007 

general elections. Finally, we look at the effect of individual level factors such as generation, education and labour-market participation. 

Four different areas of religiosity are investigated: religious affiliation, identification, religious practice (mosque visiting, halal diet, 

participation in Ramadan, headscarf wearing) and attitudes. 

The results show no clear connection between the two host-country context factors and degrees of Islamic religiosity. There are however 

important effects of the region of origin. People who come from more religious regions tend to retain a higher degree of religiosity in the 

host country as well. 

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SESSION 4g 

Using cognitive interviewing techniques to improve surveys of the remittance sending practices of immigrants 

Audrey Lenoel, University of Bristol, UK 

In recent years, the surge in international migrant remittances has attracted considerable policy and research interest focusing on ways 

of enhancing their developmental impact. However, both research and policy-making have been hindered by the limitations of official 

statistics in providing accurate information on remittances’ size and characteristics and the organisation of remittance payments. Survey 

methods are increasingly used with both remittance recipients and senders to address these knowledge gaps. While surveys collecting 

information on the characteristics and uses of remittances by the recipient households are quite common in developing countries, 

remittance surveys of immigrant households have only been developed very recently. They are however crucial to improving the estimates 

of flows and to understand the determinants of remittance sending and the preferred transfer modes. 

Against the backdrop of this increasing number of immigrant surveys, the reliability of survey questionnaires for capturing accurate data 

on remittance practices has however been insufficiently reflected upon. The risks of measurement error are particularly acute in these 

surveys due to the sensitivity of questions on household finances and the recall error associated with the collection of retrospective data. 

This study sets out to address this problem by applying an innovative approach to questionnaire testing called cognitive interviewing to the 

field of migrant remittances research. Rooted in cognitive psychology and mainly used to date in health and market research, this type 

of in-depth interviewing aims to explore the mental processes respondents use to answer survey questions, their understanding of the 

questions and the meaning of their answers. 

This presentation will describe the results of cognitive interviewing to test common remittance survey questions on a small sample of 

remitting Moroccan migrants residing in France. The study highlights common sources of measurement error resulting from problematic 

question wording, ill-defined categories, recall error and other issues relating to the survey design and interview situation. It also 

emphasizes the potential of cognitive methods for improving research design by gaining ethnographic insights into the cultural 

background of the respondents. However, the research also found that cognitive interviewing can have limitations, particularly when used 

with populations characterised by various levels of education and literacy, and in cross-cultural research settings. 

Overall, this study demonstrated that cognitive interviewing techniques can be successfully applied to questionnaire design in survey 

research on migration and remittances, and that it can address some of the limitations of normal questionnaire piloting methods. 

Who is in, who is out? Some Methodological and Conceptual Challenges for Survey-Based Research into Changing Migration-Labour 

Market Constellations 

Kenneth Horvath, University of Vienna, Austria 

*Sanna Markkanen, University of Cambridge, UK 

Over the past decades, developments in European labour markets, migration patterns, and migration and citizenship politics have led to 

the emergence of new and complex migration-labour market constellations. In our paper, we discuss the challenges that these pose for 

quantitative – especially survey-based – research into current patterns and dynamics of labour migration and labour market inequalities. 

The argument proceeds in four steps. First, we outline some of the key features of recent developments that have taken place in (Western) 

Europe, focusing on (i) labour markets; (ii) migration patterns; (iii) migration regimes, and the complex interrelationships between these. 

Regarding labour markets, the crucial changes include the contraction of the industrial labour force and the expansion of the service 

sector, the deregulation of working conditions, and the flexibilisation of working arrangements. Against this background, migration 

patterns have evolved and added to the resulting complexity by both leading and responding to the economic and political changes. In 

addition to staying numerically noteworthy (or increasing in numbers), migration movements have also grown increasingly diverse in 

terms of countries of origin/countries of destination, migration channels, and educational/occupational background of migrants, among 

others. These new migration movements overlap with minority formation processes that resulted from previous large scale immigration. 

Amongst the most significant political developments are the expansion of the EU and changes in the regulation of migratory movements 

(characterised by an emphasis on restriction and on immigration control), leading to new and complex forms of legal and political 

stratification between different migrant populations, as well as the gradual emergence of regimes of migration management. 

In a second step, we discuss specific migration-labour market constellations that have emerged on the basis of these developments. With 

focus on the Central European (i.e. Austria and neighbouring new member states) and the British contexts, examples of relevant 

constellations and processes are taken from qualitative studies to illustrate the various and partly new ways in which migrant labour is 

being integrated into European labour markets. These include the increased relevance of transnational working and living arrangements 

(partly connected to EU-enlargement), various forms of irregularity and legal stratification regarding residency rights, working relations 

and entitlement to social welfare (resulting from restrictive policies, forced migration, and EU-enlargement), and complicated (and 

dynamic) categorisation processes of migrant labour along the lines of "skill-level" and educational background. As will be discussed, 

these phenomena are of high analytical as well as political relevance. Yet reliable quantitative information that could be used to explore 

their size and structure remain largely unavailable. 

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In addition to well-known issues such as translation and cross-national equivalence of constructs, a number of specific methodological 

problems can be identified. In a third step, we use the Labour Force Survey 2008 ad-hoc module on the ‘labour market situation of 

migrants and their immediate descendants’ to illustrate what we consider to be some of the key challenges. The focus is on the process 

of data generation, i.e. (i) sampling and (ii) measurement issues. 

i. Apart from obvious problems such as under-sampling of migrant and minority populations, a number of specific problems 

linked to the prevalence of “methodological nationalism” in the field of survey research can be identified. While some of these 

may seem inevitable (such as the problem of sampling undocumented migrants), others are neither obvious nor unavoidable. A 

number of issues arise, among others how to define target populations, how to draw samples that allow for the representation 

of transnational relations, and how to draw statistical inferences from the sample to the target population. 

ii. In addition to errors and biases resulting from under-sampling, under-identification problems are caused by the absence of 

relevant migration (regime) related information (i.e., migration channel, current type of residency, etc.), in most surveys. 

Consequently, certain populations that are relevant from a theoretical (and political) perspective cannot be identified in the 

existing data and supposedly important factors for explaining labour market outcomes are missing – as will be shown using 

data from the LFS ad-hoc module. 

Finally, we discuss some of the key implications of the above-mentioned issues for survey-based research and outline some possible 

ways forward. Concerning measurement and questionnaire design, the necessity to include migration regime-related information is 

acknowledged, as are the problems associated. The (im)possibility of compensating for the identified problems and lack of information at 

the stage of data analysis is discussed. The most important issue is also the most challenging one: the definition of target populations 

and development of sampling schemes and research designs that allow more accurate capturing of transnational phenomena. 

Linguistic Diversity Management: a Large-scale Longitudinal Approach on Multilingualism 

*Joana Duarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Thorsten Klinger, Universität Hamburg, Germany 


Ingrid Gogolin, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

Jens Siemon, Universität Hamburg, Germany 

The paper intends to present the work conducted within the "Language Diversity Management in Urban Areas (LiMA)" cluster of 

excellence run at the University of Hamburg. The "Super Diversity” frame of reference, developed by Steven Vertovec (2006), offers a 

general theoretical starting point, as it is understood as a characterisation of social positioning by means of a dynamic interaction of 

linguistic, cultural and social phenomena which exceeds the magnitude and present understanding of complexity in societies. This 

concept allows for a change of perspectives. It states that the present knowledge of the impact the complexity of the situation has on 

individual development is systematically insufficient, as the categories employed in the analysis (e.g. mono- or bilingualism) reify images 

which are no longer appropriate for the current social environment or the practice of individuals in societies. 

Such observations form the basis of the LiMA research cluster which thus focuses its expertise on the investigation of migration-induced 

multilingualism as found in urban centres worldwide and aims at investigating whether and in what way migration-induced 

multilingualism can be translated into advantages for individuals and society and into benefits for the cultural and economic development 

of urban centres. The cluster is divided into five interdisciplinary networks (iNets) focusing on different aspects of the general theme and 

this paper intends to present the work of iNet 1 and 2 within LiMA. 

The LiMA iNet1 aims at conducting a longitudinal panel study on language development (LiPS). A panel study is suitable for both 

considering the various complexities the multilingual speakers are exposed to on a daily basis as well as trying to determine the impact 

these complex influences have on linguistic development. In doing so, the study does not deal with recognisable short-term phenomena 

– such as surface phenomena in the language of an individual – but rather with linguistic proficiency and (in many cases multiple) 

repertoires in a long-term perspective. On the one hand, the longitudinal research on language development has mostly focussed on 

monolingual speakers, either toddlers or adults, but has rather neglected the phase of adolescence, which in terms of school 

achievement and future career is of crucial importance. On the other hand, research on multilingual speakers is mostly of quantitative 

nature or follows subjects only for two to four years. In addition, it also has not focussed on adolescent speakers (de Bot and Schrauf, 

2009). The LiPS study intends to follow multilingual speakers over a longer period of time (at least 12 years) and will have three initial 

cohorts (5-6, 10-11 and 15-16 year-olds), thus allowing a larger-scale longitudinal approach to adolescent multilingual speakers. 

Furthermore, it aims at collecting a corpus of bilingual written and oral language samples from each subject instead of relying only on the 

subjects' own view of their language proficiency. Another relevant aspect of the LiPS is its focus on the issue of academic language 

(Cummins, 1979) or the language of schooling (Schleppegrell, 2004) and its influence on language development of multilingual speakers 

over the lifespan. The panel study will use language assessment tools which allow a developmental approach to academic language 

competence. In the paper, the design of the study, its instruments and examples of the language samples will be presented and 

discussed. 

Within iNet-2 we concentrate on the age group of 15-17 year olds as this marks a significant threshold in educational development in the 

German system because after 10th grade students either stay in the higher education system or move into some kind of professional 

training. Access to further schooling or different levels of training and the job market depends to a large degree on linguistic skills of the 

students; mastering academic language is one aspect of this. LiMA iNet-2 faces a methodological challenge that led to the decision to 

draw on methods and results from iNet-1 but to amend them in a number of ways. The phenomena under examination in our iNet are not 

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confined to the specific age group in their development. They reach back into early developmental stages and depend on a number of 

language independent factors. Therefore, data gathered in the panel study will give a baseline, e.g. for language assessment, and they 

will provide a background, e.g. concerning socio-demographic factors. However, in order to determine how – academic – language 

develops at this stage and how this process is shaped by language use in classroom, but also non-school activities, we need to observe 

and analyse these situations to the appropriate level of detail. This goes beyond the scope of the panel study. Thus, iNet-2 performs 

research on a sub sample using sociolinguistic methods of field research; these include specific questionnaires, structured linguistic 

tasks, and analyses of audio- and video recorded interactions. This adds to the panel study and that it delivers case studies to support 

some of its findings. At the same time research in iNet-2 is highly controlled, because of the detail and reliability of information available 

on the research participants. In this joint paper we would like to discuss this approach of embedding smaller scale and comparatively 

openly structured studies into selected stages of very long-term and large scale studies. We argue that this approach allows for 

significant synergies in research effort and at the same time support reliability and validity of both types of studies. 

SESSION 5g 

The economic returns of bonding and bridging social capital for immigrant men in Germany 

Bram Lancee, European University Institute & University of Amsterdam, Italy & The Netherlands 

Using longitudinal data this paper analyzes the effect of several forms of social capital on the employment and occupational status of first 

generation immigrant men in Germany. This allows me to examine to what extent social capital of the bonding and the bridging type yield 

different returns. It is studied how inter-ethnic ties, co-ethnic ties and family-based social capital are beneficial to the economic position 

of immigrant men. Random effects and fixed effects models show that strong inter-ethnic ties are beneficial both for employment and 

occupational status. There is no effect of co-ethnic ties and family-based social capital. It is concluded that, also when using panel data, 

bridging social capital contributes to a better economic position and bonding social capital does not. 

Different networks, different social resources? The ethnic (in)equality in the access to social capital in Belgium 

*Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe, Ghent University, Belgium 

Bart Van de Putte, Ghent University, Belgium 

This study explores whether ethnic differences in formal and informal networks also result in differences in social capital resources. The 

study fits into a broader research project that focuses on the role of individual social capital in explaining ethnic inequalities in labour 

market outcomes. 

Following the social capital theory (Lin, 2000), ethnic differences in labour market outcomes can be explained to some extent by 

differences in the access to and the mobilization of social capital. In previous research, the ethnic inequality in the access to social capital 

has been measured by social network measures, like the ethnic composition of the social contacts, the ethnicity of the partner, and the 

membership of formal organizations (Dribe & Nystedt, 2009; Kanas & van Tubergen, 2006; Lancee, 2010). However, these social network 

measures are just proxies for the access to social capital, because there are not directly measuring the resources embedded in the 

social networks. 

The first aim of this study is to examine the extent to which such proxies assess adequately social capital resources, using the position 

generator methodology. The position generator asks whether the respondent “knows” anyone having an occupation from a systematic list 

of 10-30 different occupations: subsequently, it is checked whether people in these positions are known as family members, friends, or 

acquaintances (Lin & Dumin, 1986; Van der Gaag, 2005). Social capital data from the position generator are based on the idea that the 

occupations of network members represent social resource collections that can be qualified with job prestige scores. 

The second aim of this study is to explore whether there are ethnic differences in accessed social capital measured by the position 

generator in a west-European continental country. Previous studies using the position generator showed that there are differences in 

accessed social capital between natives and immigrants in Sweden and in the United Kingdom (Behtoui, 2007; Li & Savage & Warde, 

2008). In the United States, however, only Hispanics differ from white males in their access to social capital (McDonald & Lin & Ao, 2009). 

So, the empirical evidence about the ethnic inequalities in social capital is mixed. 

For these purposes, unique data are collected among the last-year vocational high school students in two multi-ethnic cities in Belgium 

(N=1299). Belgium is an interesting case because of its high socio-economic ethno-stratification, and its old and new waves of labour 

migrants. We compare five ethnic groups: the Belgians, the Turks, the North-Africans, the Sub-Sahara Africans, and the East-Europeans. 

The population of last-year high school students is chosen for two reasons. First, data collection in high schools is an efficient way to get 

representative data about this young age category. Second, measuring the access to social capital before the labour market entrance is 

the best moment in the life course to assess the social inequality, because having a job is also a source of social capital. Moreover, 

because we have data about the access to social capital of both the student and his parents, we are able to assess adequately this social 

inequality. 

With respect to the first aim, the preliminary results show that the volume, range and position of social capital resources are higher for 

people with active membership in formal organizations, especially with respect to the resources from weak ties. For the Belgians, 

ethnically diverse friendship networks result in the highest volume and range of social capital resources. For the ethnic minority groups, 

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the pattern is, however, more complex. With respect to the second aim, we find that there are few to no ethnic differences in the access to 

social capital, measured by the position generator. However, it appears that the range and position of social resources from strong ties is 

lower for the East-Europeans and that the volume of social resources from strong ties is higher for the Turks. The implications of these 

findings for future studies are discussed. 

Leisure behaviour of Eastern European immigrants 

Julia Sevtsenko, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The paper aims to explore how constraints and experienced discrimination shape the nature and extent of leisure activities of Polish 

migrants in Ireland. Previous research suggested that the subjective integration and the well-being of immigrants are closely connected 

with their self-realization at work and leisure. Social research of the last decade was mainly concentrated on integration of Polish 

migrants through labour and economic position, and very little research has been done in the area of leisure activities of this ethnic 

group. In the paper, it is argued lack of language proficiency, time, financial means and information constrain the leisure choices 

immigrants. Similarly, discrimination at work-place and different kinds of institutions are expected to reduce the willingness of migrants 

to participate in leisure activities which expose them to contact with Irish people. Empirical hypotheses are tested using a unique dataset 

of ca 500 Polish migrants in the Greater Dublin Area. 

Core networks of Polish migrants in Ireland - Polonia in Dublin 2009 study 

*Monika Kaliszewska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 


The study describes and explains the composition of core networks of recent Polish immigrants to Ireland. A “core network” is defined as 

the group of people that were entrusted with private matters of immigrants within the last 6 months from the time of the interview. Core 

networks of Polish migrants differ with regard to their ethnic composition, the place of residence, level of education of and the type of 

relationship with the network members. The study exmines how age at migration, duration of stay and work history in the country of 

origin and residence affect the composition of the core network. Language proficiency and education level are considered to be important 

moderating factors. The unique dataset of circa 500 Polish immigrants to Ireland - living in the Greater Dublin Area – is used to test 

hypotheses. Data was collected in 2009/2010 in a series of structured interviews, and the sample was selected employing a new 

respondent driven sampling method. A name generator was used as an instrument to identify the core network of respondents. 

SESSION 6g 

The Educational Achievement of Immigrant Children: Does Parents' Relative Education Play a Role? 

*Ozge Bilgili, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands 

Frank Van Tubergen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 

Marcel Coenders, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 

In many destination countries, immigrant children perform significantly worse than the native population in school (e.g. Heath et al. 2008; 

Kalmijn and Kraaykamp 2003; Kao et al. 1996). This group difference between the immigrant and the native children is explained to a 

large extent by parental socioeconomic status. That is to say, when parental education, income and occupational status are taken into 

account, as suggested by Blau and Duncan’s status attainment model (1967), most immigrant children have similar educational outcomes 

as the native population (e.g. Fase 1994; Langen and Jungbluth 1990; Van Ours and Veenman 2003; Warren 1996). 

Researchers have evaluated these results as surprising, considering the unique situation in which immigrant children are found (Gang 

and Zimmermann 1999). It is argued that several factors such as language proficiency, ethnic segregation and discrimination in school 

put immigrant children in a disadvantageous position compared to their native peers (Epps 1995; Fase 1994; Warren 1996). Hence, it is 

remarkable to see that parental socioeconomic status can explain most of the differences between populations. Even more surprisingly, 

in the Netherlands, some studies suggest that after controlling for parental socioeconomic status, immigrant children perform even 

better than their native peers (e.g. Hustinx 2001; Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen 2007). 

These challenging findings have led researchers to question the existing approaches used in explaining educational achievement 

differences. Recently, Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen (2007) have argued that the measurement of parental education has to be 

adjusted to better fit the migration context. It is claimed that the conventional measurement of parental education may actually be the 

cause of spurious results concerning outperformance of immigrant children, since it is insensitive to education obtained in different 

countries. 

There are extensive differences between countries concerning what they can offer to their citizens in the educational domain. Accordingly, 

access to education shows extensive differences between countries. In less developed countries, there is a large proportion of people who 

do not attend school at all, whereas in more developed countries almost the whole population finishes at least compulsory education (Van 

de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen 2007). Based on such differences, we can argue that the same level of education does not have the same 

meaning across countries. Consequently, controlling for parental education does not necessarily mean a perfect equalization of the 

underlying factors of this indicator (Hustinx 2001). Hence, with the conventional measurement of parental education, immigrant children’s 

parents’ talents, aspirations and expectations remain unobserved to a certain extent. 

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Not taking into account cross national differences in access to education obtained in the origin country has possibly led to 

underestimation of immigrant parents’ educational achievement and talents in previous research. Because of this, when controlled for 

parental education, migrant children even seem to outperform their native peers, even though they are disadvantaged in many ways. In 

order to overcome this puzzle, and improve cross-national comparability, Van de Werfhorst and Van Tubergen (2007) suggest that 

educational qualifications should be assessed based on the context in which they were obtained. Accordingly, in this study we propose a 

“relative educational achievement” (REA) measurement, which is sensitive to the educational distribution in the origin country. 

In light of the proposition of this study, we empirically study the extent to which inclusion of relative educational achievement of parents 

can explain immigrant children’s educational achievement. For this purpose, we make use of data collected by OECD (PISA 2003 and 

2006) concerning the performance of 15 years old children on science, mathematics and reading. The REA measurement is created based 

on the highest educational level obtained in percentages of the population (gender specific) at the age of 25 and over in the birth country 

of parents. This way, educational achievement of parents is assessed in relation to the rest of the population in their country. For testing 

the hypotheses of this study, multilevel analysis has been conducted in four different models. The models are run separately for mothers 

and fathers, and on three dependent variables. The models are cross-classified, where respondents are nested within the destination 

countries and the origin country of their parents. 

The results of this study show that both for mothers and fathers, their REA has a significant positive effect on their children’s 

mathematical, reading and scientific literacy. This shows that next to the absolute parental education measured by ISCED scale, REA has 

an additional positive effect on their children’s educational outcomes. We also examined the differences in educational outcomes between 

the native and the immigrant populations when REA is accounted for. Parallel to our expectations, we have shown that the single use of 

conventional measurement of parental education causes an overestimation of the immigrant children’s educational performance. When 

father’s and mothers’ REA is additionally controlled for, in all educational outcomes (mathematical, scientific and reading literacy), we 

observed that the difference in performance between the native children and the first-generation immigrants increases. 

One could argue that the effect of the REA is partially due to the country level differences it reflects. Thus, to better reflect the individual 

relative success of parents, we additionally controlled for the average years of schooling in the origin countries. The analysis showed that, 

even after controlling for the country level differences on the educational performance next to both REA measurement of mothers and 

fathers, migrant status has a more negative effect on educational outcomes. Thus, we can overall conclude that the REA is not only a 

reflection of cross-national differences, but also the individual relative educational achievement of parents. 

Given that the purpose of this study was to adjust parental education in the migration context from a socioeconomic status perspective, 

we also controlled for the underlying factors of parental education to show that the mechanism also works well when the relative 

educational achievement of parents is taken into account. In line with our expectations, we showed that when the employment, 

occupational status and the family wealth are additionally controlled for, the REA of mothers still has a significant and positive effect on 

their children’s educational outcomes. 

Finally, we argued that the REA measurement can be more relevant in developing countries compared to developed countries. Therefore, 

we repeated the analysis based on a sample consisting of individuals from developing countries only. Looking at the effect sizes of the 

REA measurements in the two samples, we observed that the effect size of the REA is somewhat greater in the sample including 

individuals from developing countries, compared to the sample of individuals from both developed and developing countries. Moreover, in 

this analysis we observed that the REA’s effect is much greater than the absolute education of parents, indicating the significance of the 

REA measurement especially in developing countries. 

Overall through this study, we were able to show the significance of REA of parents in explaining their children’ school success. Hence, 

future studies concerning the relationship between the parental education and the ethnic differences in educational performance of 

immigrant children, should take into consideration that parents obtain their education in different countries, and that education obtained 

in different countries are not directly comparable. 

Immigrant Integration and Transnational Activities. Longitudinal Evidence from Germany 

Reinhard Schunck, University of Bielefeld, Germany 

The paper investigates transnational involvement among immigrants in Germany, one of Europe’s major receiving countries. On the basis 

of the German Socio-Economic Panel (1994-2008), the paper seeks to answer the following two questions: First, to what extent do 

immigrants residing in Germany engage in transnational activities? And second, how are these activities related to the immigrants’ 

integration into the receiving society? 

Not only is empirical evidence on this issue still limited – especially for Europe –, but there are also theoretical blind spots regarding the 

determinants of the phenomenon. On the one hand, the literature assumes that those immigrants who are not well integrated into the 

receiving society are more likely to show a strong orientation towards their sending country and engage in transnational activities. On the 

other hand, studies from the US show that highly skilled and economically well integrated migrants command more resources, which 

enhance mobility and ease border crossing activities. Hence, it is indispensible to explicitly address how immigrants’ motives, beliefs, and 

opportunities interact in generating specific patterns of transnational involvement. 

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The empirical analysis focuses on one main example of transnational, border-crossing activities that is visits to the country of origin. 

Descriptive analyses reveal that a significant proportion of the immigrant population in Germany is transnationally active. With respect 

to the relation of integration and transnational activities, the application of longitudinal data analysis (random and fixed effects 

regression models) shows that those immigrants who are economically well integrated and at the same time not well integrated on other 

dimensions (e.g. cultural or emotional) are the most likely to visit their country of origin and spend considerable amounts of time there. 

However, this relation is not unidirectional, as further evidence suggests that transnational involvement also has important implications 

for subsequent integration into the receiving society. For instance, immigrants who frequently visit their country of origin have lower 

German language skills. 

Therefore, systematically incorporating transnationalism into models of immigrant integration can advance our understanding of the 

complex processes and paths of immigrant integration. 

Investigating policy effects, mission impossible? A modest attempt at investigating the effects of integration policies on the sociocultural 

integration of immigrants. 


There is ongoing political debate on the type of policies that are best suited to stimulate immigrant integration. Numerous studies 

have compared integration policies across Europe (e.g. Brubaker 1992; Castels, 1995; Koopmans et al. 2005; Geddes & Niessen, 2005; 

Bauboeck et al. 2005), but few of these studies have looked at the impact of policies on actual levels of immigrant integration. Large-N 

studies have compared immigrant integration across countries (e.g. Van Tubergen 2005), however they have used rather coarse indicators 

of policies such as years in government of Social Democratic parties. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of the sociocultural 

integration of Turkish immigrants and their descendants in three countries that are generally seen as exponents of different 

types of integration policies, namely France, Germany and the Netherlands. Small-N studies are generally better equipped to investigate 

the contents of policy differences, but they are often troubled by a large amount of confounding variance. Countries do for instance not 

only differ in their integration policies but also in the definition and composition of their immigrant population. The data presented in this 

paper were collected using a quasi-experimental design that limits the sources of confounding variance. The data were collected on the 

same narrowly circumscribed target population using the same sampling techniques in each of the three countries. Several studies have 

shown the effect of country of origin on socio-cultural integration. The target group therefore consists of only immigrants from Turkey. To 

minimise effects from different regional migration patterns, the target group is further limited to immigrants from two regions, namely 

East-Central and South-Central Anatolia. At the time of guest-worker migration the immigration regulations in France, Germany, and 

the Netherlands were fairly similar. Since then these regulations have diverged. To minimise the impact of selections effects, the target 

group consists of only Turkish immigrants who arrived in the time of guest-worker migration (i.e. before 1975) and their adult children. 

Three hypotheses on the relation between policies and socio-cultural integration are tested. The results indicate that policies that grant 

immigrants a high degree of individual equality have a positive impact on socio-cultural integration. Policies that accommodate diversity 

seem to have a negative effect, with the exception of host country identification. The paper ends with a discussion of several alternative 

explanations of the findings and suggestions for further research. 

Immigrants’ Confidence in Criminal Justice Institutions 


*Antje Roeder, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

What determines the confidence of immigrants in criminal justice institutions? Using pooled data from the four rounds of the European 

Social Survey, first and second generation immigrants’ trust levels are compared to those of the native population to examine the role of 

various factors linked to individual and immigrant group characteristics, as well as factors related to the host and origin country. Most 

importantly, we examine the actual quality of criminal justice institutions in the host country, the effects of discrimination and social 

exclusion on trust, and the role of dual frames of reference linked to the quality of the legal system in the country or origin. 

Real and perceived discrimination of ethnic minorities and immigrant communities by police forces as well as the overrepresentation of 

certain minority groups in the legal justice system in many countries are expected to lead to lower trust amongst some immigrant groups, 

which is anticipated to impact particularly on those of different ethnic background than the majority population and lower socio-economic 

status. This may be balanced to some extent by a generally more positive evaluation of the quality of these institutions by immigrants 

from countries with weak criminal justice institutions if they compare the host country institutions to those of their respective countries of 

origin. This effect is expected to fade over time as the origin country experience becomes more distant, and as immigrants adopt a more 

similar evaluative framework to the native population. 

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SESSION 7g 

Muslim women in the German labour market: A large scale assessment of their economical activity and occupational success 

*Stephanie Muessig, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees & Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany 

Anja Stichs, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Germany 

As to their process of integration, the involvement and positioning of migrants in the labour market of the host country is wideley 

acknowledged as acid test. Those migrants, who are economically active and take root in the labour market, are considered as sufficiently 

integrated into their host society. 

Furthermore, the assimilation theory itself states that labour market integration – as part of the structural dimension of assimilation – is 

an indispensable aspect to the assimilation of migrants into the host society (Esser 2000: 306). 

The vast amount of scientific publications dealing with immigrant integration into the labour market underlines the importance ascribed 

to employment patterns of migrants (Haug 2002, Kalter 2007, Seibert 2008, Tucci 2008). 

Being employed and holding certain job positions is highly determined by gender and ethnic cleavages on the German labour market. 

Official statistics report that women in Germany are less often employed than men, and women with migration background are less often 

employed than native German women (Statistisches Bundesamt 2007: 208ff.). Disadvantages for migrants on the labour market– often 

referred to as ‚ethnic penalties’ – have been also observed in other countries (Cheung/Heath 2007; Bowlby/Lloyd-Evans 2009). Research 

findings display a lower labour force participation rate especially for women of Turkish origin compared to women, who migrated from 

other countries to Germany (Bender/Seifert 1996; Haug 2002; Stichs 2008). Up to now, it is an unanswered question, whether this can be 

traced back to the religious affiliation of Turkish women, who are predominantly Muslim or to other factors. 

Our research proposal tries to fill this gap by investigating labour market participation and occupational careers of women in Germany, 

which derive from different countries of predominantly Muslim population. We ask whether both – labour market paricipation and career 

– are affected by their religious affiliation by comparison of Muslim and non-Muslim women. In addition, we analyse the influence of the 

individual religiosity level on economical activity and occupational positioning. Both requests are based on the theoretical assumption 

that a high level of religiosity comes along with traditional role perceptions. Thus, highly religious women, regardless of their religious 

affiliation, are more likely to be less gainfully employed than women with a lower level of religiosity. However, if women are in a work 

relation, their religious affiliation and the level of religiosity should not as much affect their occupational position as their educational 

achievement and professional qualification should. 

Besides, we would like to investigate, whether, and if yes, how important the headscarf is for employment and occupational patterns of 

Muslim women. 

In detail, we would like to answer the following questions: 

• How can differences in labour market participation and occupational careers be described between Muslim and non-Muslim 

women in Germany from countries with predominantly Muslim population? 

• Which factors explain labour market participation and occupational positioning of Muslim and non-Muslim women? 

• Does the individual religiosity level exert an independent influence on labour market participation and occupational positioning 

while taking into account other theoretically relevant explanation? 

• Does wearing a headscarf induce differences to the employment situation of Muslim women and their occupational positions 

compared to unveiled Muslim women? 

The analysis is based on the data of the large-scale survey project „Muslim life in Germany“, conducted by the Federal Office of Migration 

and Refugees in Germany (Haug, Müssig, Stichs 2009). A total of 6004 people were interviewed via telephone in the first half of 2008. The 

target population comprises persons aged 16 and over in private households in Germany in which lives at least one person with a migrant 

background from a predominantly Muslim country. In some cases, countries of origin are also included in spite of a lower proportion of 

the local Muslim population, when large numbers of persons from these countries immigrate to Germany, as in the case of migrants 

from the Russian Federation. The gross sample was taken from the telephone directory using the onomastic (name-related) procedure 

based on lists of names from the Ausländerzentralregister (AZR, Central Register of Foreigners) for the relevant countries of origin. About 

2000 interviews of women in working age between 16 and 64 are available for the analyses of this conference proposal. 

Gender gap? The divergent gender role attitudes of immigrant men and women 


Attitudes and practices on gender and sexuality are some of the most fundamental parts of a society’s normative system, and have been 

shown to differ vastly across the globe. Hence it is not surprising that debates around the integration of immigrants in their countries of 

residence are often linked to gender-related issues, which has been particularly salient in connection with the increasing numbers of 

Muslim migrants living in Europe, and is epitomised by the ongoing discussions in various European countries about the wearing of 

the hijab. 

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Despite the public interest in these issues, relatively few studies investigate empirically the gender role attitudes of immigrants and 

patterns of acculturation. Most previous research has been in the form of small scale qualitative studies, and has focused on one specific 

immigrant group at a time. This body of work indeed suggests that there is a gap in gender role attitudes between migrant men and 

women, which is furthermore argued to have the potential of resulting in increased marital tension and conflict. 

In this paper, I draw on comparative, cross-national data from the second and fourth round of the European Social Survey, which 

allows the inclusion of first and second generation migrants from various countries of origin living in different European host societies. 

I investigate the attitudes of male and female migrants from different backgrounds towards gender equality, focusing on factors that 

mediate the process of acculturation on the individual, group and country level. Of particular interest is the question whether a gender 

gap emerges between men and women from less gender egalitarian backgrounds when they live in comparatively more egalitarian 

societies, and whether this persists in the second generation. Women are expected to adopt beliefs that favour their position more rapidly 

than men, who may perceive their relative position threatened. 

SESSION 8g 

Politics and indicators of immigrant integration in Romania 

Astrid Hamberger, University of Bucharest, Romania 

Nowadays, Romania is more an emigration country and less an immigration one. Thus, one can find a large amount of literature on the 

subject of emigration and less on the subject of immigration in Romania. 

Less is known about the integration of immigrants in Romania, about the facilities the Romanian state guarantees for integration and 

about the efforts the immigrants make for their integration in Romania. The integration phenomenon in Romania is quite new, therefore 

the “consequences of migration” or what happens with the immigrants after their settlement in Romania is a subject which only in 

year 2004 materialized itself with the first law of immigrant integration for the persons who received a form of protection in Romania 

(refugees). This law was modified in 2006 when the Romanian Government decided to extend the integration program also to other types 

of migrants who were granted residence in Romania. 

Through the 2004 law regarding the social integration of the foreigners who received a form of protection or residence right in Romania, 

the Romanian Government initiated the integration program for the above mentioned foreigners on the Romanian territory. The 

integration program was initially dedicated to certain categories of migrants, for example those who beneficiated from a protection form 

in Romania, like refugees. Nevertheless, the current legislation extended the eligibility criteria in order to include other categories of 

migrants who reside in Romania and the EU citizens. The services for each individual depends on his/her statute, the refugees being the 

ones who have the right to participate in every aspect of the integration program (Romanian language lessons, accommodation, cultural 

orientation, psychological and social counseling, etc). The other categories have access to several services only, like Romanian language 

lessons. 

This research intends to make an evaluation of the integration program offered by the Romanian Office for Immigration evaluation which 

in my perspective, is one of the blind spots of the immigration research in Romania. Around 50% of the asylum seekers who received a 

form of protection and become refugees in Romania enroll in the integration program offered by the Romanian Office for Immigration. 

After one year, these people finish the integration program, and, according to the Romanian Office for Immigration, they are integrated 

into the Romanian society. No further assistance is given by the Romanian authorities. This research intends to find if there is an 

accordance between the integration policy promoted and implemented by the Romanian state and the actual integration of immigrants. 

Research questions: 

• What are the indicators or the key elements in the process of immigrant integration in Romania? 

• What are the refugees’ and immigrants’ personal strategies to integrate into the Romanian society? 

• Is there an accordance between the integration policy promoted by the Romanian state and the actual integration of immigrants; 

• To what extent are the Romanian state’s objectives related to immigrant integration accomplished? 

• To what extent is there is a connection between cultural, social and economical integration in Romania? 

Foreign-born in Europe and their attitudes towards immigration: evidence from the European Values Survey 2008 

*Aigul Alieva, CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg 

Marie Valentova, CEPS/INSTEAD and KU Leuven, Luxembourg 

While more attention is paid to the perception of immigration among native population, little is known about what do migrants themselves 

think about immigration. Studies focusing on perception of minority by majority population argued that the attitudes are conditional on 

perceived direct competition for jobs, in accordance with the labour market competition hypothesis. Recently, more studies reported that 

cultural differences and values matter when seeking such explanations. 

The 2008 data of the European Values Survey contain questions related to the perception of effects of immigration in each particular 

society: those cover labour market and welfare, culture and diversity, perceived threats, such as crime and estrangement. In addition to 

that, it contains information on socio-economic background of the respondents, as well as information about migratory background. 

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We will start with a straightforward analysis of differences in attitudes towards migration between native respondents and those 

with migratory background. And will compare these differences across European societies while controlling for standard individual 

characteristics. 

In the second step, we will compare various aspects of these attitudes between three groups, namely native population, first- and 

second-generation immigrants. While the main focus on attitudes remains unchanged, we are interested in exploring whether there are 

some tendencies towards the acculturation, i.e. the second-generation migrants hold views which are more similar to those of the native 

population, rather than first-generation. 

Unfortunately, the data limitations do not allow us analysing the attitudes which would be expressed differently towards a particular 

ethnic-origin group, rather than towards an entire migrant population, or towards their own group, nor the expression of views of 

migrants towards the host societies. Nonetheless, our work is an important contribution to the discussion of this under-investigated area 

in migration research. 

Short-Term Training Programs for Immigrants: Do Effects Differ from Natives and Why? 

Alisher Aldashev, Kazakh-British Technical University of Almaty, Kazakhstan 

Stephan L Thomsen, University of Magdeburg, Germany 

*Thomas Walter, ZEW Centre for European Economic Research, Germany 

We evaluate the effects of different short-term training programs on the employment chances of immigrant and native welfare recipients 

in Germany. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between both groups and what might cause these potential 

differences. To answer these questions we estimate separate models for immigrants and natives using propensity score matching 

estimators in a first step. In a second step to provide an explanation of the differences in effects, we suggest a decomposition method 

based on the matching procedure that allows identification of differences due to observable characteristics and differences related to an 

immigrant fixed effect. 

integration 

Session 1h East European and Return Migration 

The state, media, and racialisation of Hungarian and Romanian migration to the UK 

*Jon Fox, University of Bristol, UK 


Eszter Szilassy, University of Bristol, UK 

In 2004, the UK opened its doors to migrants from the EU’s newest member states – 8 East European countries, and Cyprus and Malta. 

Earlier predictions of about 10,000 workers arriving were quickly eclipsed; to date about 1.5 million migrants from Eastern Europe, 

including a smaller fraction of workers from Romania and Bulgaria (which joined the EU in 2007) have come to the UK. In many respects 

these newest migrants to the UK resemble past migrants to the UK: they left poorer parts of the world in search of work and better life in 

the UK. But in other respects, they look different: they’re white. The link between racism and migration is well-documented. But what 

happens when migrant and host are supposedly the same ‘race’? Does nominally shared whiteness between migrant and host exempt 

this current cohort of East Europeans from the types of racism that have plagued previous waves of migrants to the UK? This paper 

addresses such questions, by looking at the case of Hungarian and Romanian migrants in the UK. 

These recent migrations have already been the focus of sustained scholarly investigation. The whiteness of the migrants, however, has 

meant that ‘race’ has not typically figured as a part of that analysis. Yet the history of migration to the UK and elsewhere suggests that 

shared ‘whiteness’ has provided earlier cohorts of migrants with little insurance against racism. Evidence from the current migrations 

would seem to indicate that history is repeating itself. The purpose of this paper is thus to explore the role of ‘race’ and racism in this 

current and ongoing East European migration to the UK. Toward this end, we consider the role of the state and the media in proffering, 

transmitting, and legitimating racialised understandings of migration and the migrants that people them. The state and media have long 

been recognised as important institutions responsible for supplying and disseminating racial and racialised frames of interpretation for 

making sense of migration. Our case will demonstrate that the absence of ‘racial’ difference doesn’t get in the way of xenophobia and 

racism; it turns out racial difference can be invented in vitro. 

Our investigation will focus on two cohorts of East Europeans from these recent migrations: Hungarians and Romanians. Hungarians 

began coming with the first and much larger wave of migrants in 2004; their entry into and subsequent mobility in the labour market is 

mostly unregulated. Romanians started coming in 2007 when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU; they are much fewer in number and 

their labour market access is highly regulated. We are interested in whether and how these differences account for differences in the 

ways in which (and degrees to which) these two cohorts of migrants are racialised. Our examination proceeds in two parts. In the first part 

of the paper, we consider how questions of ‘race’ get implicated in British immigration policy concerning these migrants. We argue that 

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East Europeans are not identified in immigration policy for explicitly racial reasons; rather they have been selected for other reasons – in 

this case to fill a perceived gap in the low-end sectors of the economy. These policies did not invoke racial categories in a sense because 

they didn’t have to: by choosing migrants from the EU, the UK implicitly chose white migrants. In the second part of the paper, we turn to 

the ways in which these migrations and migrants have been presented and discussed British national print media over the past six years. 

We adopt a frame-analytic approach here to argue that the media’s framing of these migrations has contributed to their overall 

racialisation. Concerns over the economic impact of migration, the strain migrants place on services, and cultural integration invoke and 

evoke racialised understandings of migration. We find this process more pronounced with respect to Romanians than Hungarians. In 

sum, we present evidence to demonstrate that both the state and the media contribute to racialised understanding of East European 

migration. 

Difficult come backs. Some re-adaptation problems of Polish migrants. 

Monika Banas, Jagiellonian University, Poland 

Since Poland joined the structures of the united Europe and most of the EU countries opened their labour markets to Polish citizens, 

nearly two million people left Poland and settled in other EU countries. Waves of migration headed mostly towards the British Islands, 

Ireland, Sweden and other Nordic countries as well as towards France, Spain and Germany. 

A number of complimentary pull and push factors were behind the size of the 2004-2009 wave of migration. They were of predominantly 

economic nature and were associated with both the country of origin as well as with the countries of destination. In the recipient 

countries, deficits of available workforce in some sectors of economy played a crucial role in accommodating the influx of migrants. On 

the other hand, among factors of a different kind, there were also the psychological ones, associated e.g. with migrants’ readiness to 

explore new places and discover new cultures. 

For Polish migrants, mostly young people, years of work and study abroad allowed them to experience different organization of life and a 

different life quality. This experience influenced the modification of their self-identity and changed earlier hierarchies of the recognized 

values. Some of these changes became evident already during the emigration period, other however, emerged only upon the return to the 

home country. 

For many of those who decide to come back to Poland, life after return brings problems of rather unexpected nature. They result mainly 

from to the still persisting economic, political and societal differences between Poland and the older countries of the EU. Confronting the 

old reality, which migrants originally left behind when leaving Poland, may often lead them towards situations of psychological crisis. 

These crises arise around e.g. the difficulties with re-entering to the societal structures of the home country. New research based on 

surveys and interviews with individuals who returned after some years abroad, show a worrying picture. It is a picture of a fraction of 

society, who after an initial period of an attempt to accommodate back to Polish realities fails to do so. It subsequently rejects the rules of 

social life which dominate in Poland. Societal values incorporated during the migrants’ life abroad, to a greater or lesser extent modify the 

migrants’ worldview as well as the way these mostly young people think and act in their later life. A remedy for this unexpected problem 

comes usually in the form of a decision to emigrate again. However, this time, the plans are usually to emigrate for much longer than 

previously. In many cases, the plans envisage repatriating to Poland only for the retirement. 

In cooperation with non governmental organizations, Polish state institutions organize targeted schemes to facilitate bringing migrants 

back home. Although many individuals participate in the schemes, this alone does not reflect the success of these measures. For the 

returning migrants to re-enter the domestic labour market, of paramount importance are such matters as remuneration, employment or 

self-employment. These issues require more effective approaches to be applied. Next to an economic one, the other key problem that 

occurs in this domain is of rather psychological and social nature. It is associated with migrants’ return to the local domestic social 

structures. Not seldom, returning migrants feel not accepted and not understood by those around them who have no migration 

experience. Threat of social ostracism becomes yet another reason, a very strong one indeed, to emigrate again. 

This article portrays the situation of young Poles who decided to return to Poland after some years abroad. It presents the detailed nature, 

character and origin of the phenomenon of re-adaptation problems of Polish migrants, leading many of them to emigrate again. 

Determinants of Return Migration: Evidence from Migrants living in South Africa 

Daniel Makina, University of South Africa, South Africa 

It is rare for migration to become a one-way traffic. It has been observed that a migrant has conscious intention to return to the home 

country. While return migration has not been widely researched, there is considerable evidence that indicates that a large proportion of 

migrants actually do return to their countries of origin. For example, it is estimated that 30% of the migrants that went to the USA 

between 1908 and 1957 returned home (Gosh, 2000). Elsewhere, an estimated 85% of Greeks migrating to West Germany between 1960 

and 1984 gradually returned home (Glytsos, 1988). In the literature four main reasons are cited (Cerase, 1974). First, there are those who 

return after failing to get jobs that are necessary for survival and be able to send remittances back home. Second, there are those who 

return after realizing that they cannot live in a different culture away from family and friends. Third, there are those who return to retire 

after earning enough money. Fourth, there are those who return to practice their new skills in the home country after human capital 

accumulation in the immigration country. 

In Africa, the major destination of migrants is South Africa, the economic powerhouse of the continent. While South Africa has had an 

enduring migration relationship with neighbouring countries that dates back to the discovery of diamonds and gold mines in the 19th 

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century, since the 1990s the number of migrants has increased significantly. There was particular increase in irregular migration largely 

emanating from internal strife in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The political and economic crisis that gripped Zimbabwe since 2000 resulted in 

unprecedented migration to South Africa. Surveys have estimated that by the end of 2007 between one million to two million 

Zimbabweans had migrated to South Africa to eke a living. Two-thirds of these migrants have indicated in surveys that they would return 

home should there be political and economic stability (Bloch, 2005; Chetsanga and Muchenje, 2003; Makina, 2007). 

This paper analyses return migration dynamics using secondary data from a survey of 4,654 Zimbabwean migrants done by Makina (2007) 

in Johannesburg, South Africa, which had become the major destination for migrants. The survey was undertaken in mid-2007 in three 

suburbs of inner-city Johannesburg - Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville –provided unprecedented insights into the profile, activities and 

migrant behaviour of Zimbabweans in South Africa’s largest city. Although Zimbabwean migrants are increasingly dispersed throughout 

South Africa, the 2001 South African Census showed that 80 percent of the total recorded Zimbabwean migrant population lived in 

inner-city Johannesburg. The survey could not use random sampling methods due to the lack of a reliable sampling frame. Convenience 

sampling was therefore used to identify respondents. While questions may be asked about the representativeness of the sample, its large 

size and the fact that so many Zimbabweans are concentrated in inner-city Johannesburg means that the results are probably quite 

representative. 

Employing descriptive statistical analysis, this paper evaluates ten migrant factors that could have influenced the respondents’ desire to 

return to the home country should there be political and economic stability. Two-thirds of respondents indicate that they would return. 

The factors evaluated are gender, age, legal status in the host country, marital status, number of dependents in home country, level of 

education, economic activity in host country, level of income, level of savings and length of stay in host country. The results of the analysis 

are as follows: 

Legal status: Undocumented migrants are more likely to return to the home country than those who are legally in South Africa. 

Gender: Male migrants are more likely to return than female migrants. 

Marital status: Married migrants are more likely to return than single migrants. 

Age: Migrants over 21 years of age are more likely to return than younger ones. 

Number of dependents in Zimbabwe: Migrants with one or more dependents at home are more likely to return than those without 

dependents in Zimbabwe. 

Level of education: Migrants with university degrees, professional qualifications (such in teaching, nursing, artisans) and with postsecondary 

education are likely to return than those with primary education. 

Economic activity in host country: All professions indicate in majority that would return, especially those employed as hospitality workers, 

artisans, and teachers. 

Income: Migrants earning more than R4 000 (US$500) per month are more unlikely to return than those earning a lower monthly wage. 

Savings: Saving migrants are likely to return than non-saving migrants. 

Length of stay: Migrants who arrived in South Africa from the year 2000 onwards are more likely to return those who arrived before 2000. 

Session 2h New Immigration Societies & the Impact of Education and Democracy on Immigration 

Integration of immigrants and new immigration countries: The case of Croatia 

Jadranka Cacic-Kumpes, University of Zadar, Croatia 

*Drago Župaric-Iljic, Institute for Migration and Ethnnic Studies, Croatia 

Immigrants' integration poses a problem of both conceptual and practical nature. An overview of critical questioning of the "integration 

concept" and integration policies for immigrants demonstrates diversity of possible approaches and reveals changes of concepts 

and practices of integration policies in Western immigration countries. Integration of immigrants has thus been slightly changing 

from a "more sophisticated forms of assimilation" towards an effort of establishing a two-way interaction between immigrants and a 

host society, two main actors in the process of integration. Unequal relations of power and access to resources make this interaction 

asymmetrical and dependent on social context, but also upon the role that immigrants themselves assume in the integration process. 

This paper raises the question whether the ways of dealing with immigrants' integration in the traditional immigration countries could 

influence (and how it might affect) the regulation of relations towards immigrants in the countries which are yet to become immigration 

countries. Understanding the integration of immigrants as the "process of becoming an accepted part of a society" this paper explores 

social conditions necessary for achieving a genuine participation of immigrants, taking Croatia as an example. These conditions are 

tracked through political, legal, cultural and economic dimensions of integration processes with special emphasis on perspectives of the 

institutionalization of the immigrants' right for diversity within the educational system. 

The analysis of the characteristics of integration policy towards immigrants in Croatia is being mainly based on content analysis of official 

documents (state's migration strategy, guide for the integration of asylum grantees, the national educational curriculum), but also on 

interviews with the actors responsible for creation and implementation of integration policies (ministries’ officials, representatives of the 

civil sector, teachers who work with immigrants and with immigrants themselves). 

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By examining how Croatia has been developing its migration policies, and how it implements its integration practices, the main question 

of research focuses on the integration policies of immigrants and the children of immigrant origin into the educational system. Learning 

the official language, permanent adult education, vocational training opportunities and validation of diplomas are understood as essential 

prerequisites for the realization of socio-cultural and economic dimensions of integration. Comparing integration policies in Croatia with 

those of the EU countries (with special reference to Slovenia as a state with which Croatia shares a common history and thus the ways of 

regulating the right to cultural diversity) it becomes apparent that Croatia so far has no clearly-defined politics for immigrants integration. 

Furthermore, the internal potential of the country to establish integrationist and to it related educational policy on the principles of 

interculturalism has not been utilized. A selective approach towards each category of immigrants is evident: Croatian returnees from 

diaspora; immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, who are linguistically and culturally close(r) to the receiving society; immigrants from 

the developed EU countries; immigrants from other countries and asylum grantees. 

The results obtained open further possible consideration of problems connected to integration processes which traditional immigration 

countries of the EU are facing today, and possible manifestations of these problems in a country that is in the process of preparing to join 

EU membership. Considering Croatian tradition that acknowledges ethnic and cultural diversity, it is all the more justified to problematize 

identification of the ways and opportunities for raising public awareness towards acceptance of diversity and "otherness" nowdays. 

The Influence of Education on Individual Mobility: Considering East-West Migration in Germany 

Silvia Melzer, Institute for Employment Research, Germany 

Nearly 20 years after the reunification, the incomes and, correspondingly, the living standards still vary remarkable between East and 

West Germany. Simultaneously, migration costs are extraordinary low due to the lack of legal constrains and language barriers. These 

huge income differences combined with low costs of relocation should represents powerful incentives to migrate for all groups of 

the population. However, migrants from East Germany usually represent a highly selective group with favourable characteristics. For 

example, they are younger and better paid. The impact of education on migration, stays unclear. Some studies find a distinct positive 

influence of the education on migration. Hunt (2006) shows for examples that young college graduates are five times more likely to 

migrate to the West than individuals without vocational training. Although, there are other studies which don’t identify any effects of 

education on migration. Finally, there is a group of researches finding no direct effects of education on migration; nevertheless these 

authors show that migrants are positive selected regarding to their income. 

The aim of this article is therefore to analyse the impact of education on migration focusing on the influence of education on migration, 

and on the self selection process involved in education and migration decisions. 

Even less clear is the different impact of education on migration of men and women. Already the question if either women or men are 

more likely to leave East Germany is difficult to answer. In the past, mobility of women was treated as a residual factor. Women were 

excluded from the sample and understood as ‘tied movers’ at best; gender was used as a controlling variable. However, a new trend 

can be observed in the mobility patterns in Germany lately. Young women leave East Germany at disproportionately high rates. In fact, 

most Eastern regions experience an imbalance between the sexes. At the age-span of 18 to 29, only 80 women per 100 men live in East 

Germany. The situation shows that the ‘tied mover’ approach is no longer appropriate. Therefore, this paper also analyses the genderspecific 

dimension of migration. 

Using human capital, signalling and segmentation theory, hypotheses on the influence of education on migration are derived. The 

migration patterns for men and women are investigated on the basis of individual behaviour which caused the aggregated movements 

on the macro level. Separate fixed effects models for men and women are used to estimate the migration patterns, and combined 

estimations were applied to investigate factors with gender-specific influence. In a further step the Heckman selection is applied (also 

separately for men and women) to control for unobserved characteristics of the migrants influencing both the decision to visit further 

education and to migrate. 

I use data from the Socio-economic panel study (SOEP) a representative longitudinal dataset. It contains extensive information on 

the employment and educational history of individuals. The analyses are based on the waves from 1992 to 2007 and therefore contain 

information from 15 years. Preliminary results of the fixed effects models show that young women tend to be more mobile and that their 

willingness to migrate is slightly more influenced by their education; for every year spend in education the likelihood to migrate rises 

1.5 percent more for women than for men. Admittedly, the difference is not statistically significant. Using Heckman selection it can be 

showed that unlike men, women are in fact selected on education. 

From Democracies to Dictatorships: Political Determinants of the Direction of Migration Flows 

Atisha Kumar, Yale University & University of Cambridge, USA & UK 

Nearly forty-nine years ago, on 13 August, 1961, the Berlin Wall was built, in part, to stop the influx of people from authoritarian 

East Germany into its more democratic Western counterpart. Prior to the building of the Wall, approximately three and a half million 

Germans moved permanently from East Germany to West Germany. Why did these individuals leave the East? Between 1945 and 1961, 

East Germany was prospering economically and offered a comparable number of employment opportunities as its Western neighbour. 

These migration patterns in the period preceding the installation of the Wall highlight that economics is not the sole determinant of 

human flows. The movement of people from a repressive to a democratic system, from one Germany to another, illustrates that political 

freedoms can affect migration. In this paper, I put forward the idea that regime type influences the direction of migration flows, with 

democracies witnessing higher rates of in-migration than dictatorships. 

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Today, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, cross-border migration or “new migration” acts a fundamental driver of 

economic, social and political change not only in post-Cold War Europe, but also across the globe. Although scholars have explained the 

causes of migration based on income differentials, social networks and demographics, the political determinants of migration remain 

understudied. Politics can affect an individual’s decision to migrate through labour laws, visas, guest worker programs and the level of 

political rights and civil liberties available to a foreigner in host countries. Given the relevance of these factors in a contemporary setting, 

the role of politics in the migration decision can have significant ramifications for nations receiving or sending large populations. 

This paper examines the effect of regime type, particularly democracy, on immigration. Other factors (such as income differentials, 

employment opportunities and existing migrant networks in host countries) also play a major role in the migration decision. Thus, in 

order to isolate the effects of political factors in the migration decision one must hold all other potential determinants constant. The 

central hypothesis of this paper is that ceteris paribus, people migrate to countries with greater levels of political freedoms or higher 

levels of democracy. An empirical analysis of a dataset of 180 countries provides weak evidence that net migration is higher in more 

democratic countries. However, due to the inability of this macro-level analysis to capture bilateral migration flows, the paper also utilizes 

Turkish migration to Germany as a case study. Using literature and migration statistics, I assess the extent to which democratic values in 

Germany impact the inflow of Turkish migrants. 

Finally, I discuss the lessons from these analyses in a national and a global context, highlighting their implications for political scientists 

and practitioners. On a theoretical level, understanding the way in which politics drives migration could contribute to a better grasp of 

the deregulation or tightening of labour markets. In the policy realm, this insight may be used by multilateral institutions to make more 

informed decisions when dealing with treaties concerning labour flows. The findings from this study highlight that the role of politics in 

the migration decision can have far-reaching consequences for migrant-sending and receiving countries. 

Session 4h Health, Humour and Integration 

The Funny Side of Integration: Linking humour and cross-cultural adaptation 

Maria Ramirez de Arellano, Dublin City University, Ireland 

This presentation will examine the nature of humour in cross-cultural adaptation as an interdisciplinary area that should be of interest to 

Intercultural and Migration Studies. It will include a review of the complexity of humour studies by offering an introduction to traditional 

and modern theories of humour (Freud, Kant, Chiaro). It will then present some theoretical models of cross-cultural adaptation (Kim, 

Anderson) and make connections between the two fields of studies. The occurrence and relevance of these connections will be illustrated 

with primary research data from a study on the evolution of humour in the adaptation process of Spanish sojourners living in Ireland. The 

study examines the attitudes and behaviour of Spanish people living in Ireland in order to come to conclusions based on real life research. 

It analyses their views on the cultural facets of humour and the positive and negative effects that humour may have on the process 

adaptation and integration into a new culture. The result is a set of conclusions that show that humour is a key factor of adaptation. On 

the one hand humour is a powerful intercultural tool; on the other hand it is part of one’s intercultural identity whose evolution is closely 

linked to cross-cultural adaptation and integration in the host society. The personal experience and individual evolution that take place 

along the process cross-cultural adaptation brings changes in our world view which would affect our perception of humour as well as the 

way we use it within the different social networks maintained in our home and host culture. One important conclusion of this study which 

is examined throughout this paper is that humour is a very important facet of cross-cultural adaptation and a key factor to integration 

which makes it a valuable subject for further research in intercultural and migration studies. 

Behind closed doors: Understanding the politics of migrant health conditions in Modern Ireland - The case of Sickle Cell Disease 

Esther Owuta-Pepple Onolememen, University College Dublin, Ireland 

This research focuses on the public policy (social policy, social work, public health and service design) implications of the growth of 

Sickle Cell Disorders (SCD) in the Republic of Ireland. SCD is a new paediatric prevailing disease, and has been found to be one of the 

key areas of migrant health conditions (apart from HIV/AIDS) challenging 21sth century Irish health service. One notable area of public 

policy that has seen tremendous challenges following migration trends in many countries has been the health care system. Many nations 

now consistently seek to resolve questions addressing how well a health care system should be structured in order to afford an improved 

health status for its people and for the new guests. The PhD research builds on an MSW (TCD) study of “African Parents’ experiences 

of Living with Children with Sickle Cell Disease in Ireland”. The research locates current policy underdevelopment in the Irish case in a 

comparative analysis of Sickle Cell Disorders health policy development in the United and the European Union. Specific field research 

will be undertaken of sample (predominantly African-immigrants) families living with Sickle Cell Disorder and sample health service 

practitioners and policy actors in the Republic of Ireland and England. The aim of the research is to inform best practice in the Irish case. 

The author builds on the sole three studies to date that have examined the cultural implications of Sickle Cell Disorders in the Irish case. 

These are McMahon and Smith (2000), McMahon et al. (2001) and O’Callaghan, (2002). Each of these preceded the growth of the Sickle 

Cell community resulting from recent immigration. None focused on the broader implications for public policy. This research aims 

to make a unique academic contribution to the field of immigration and social policy, social work and health policy research in the 

Irish case. 

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Session 6h Identity 

Sexing Up Migration Studies : Homosexual Identity and Stigma Management in Contemporary Migration Flows to Belgium 

Wim Peumans, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium 

This paper will focus on an exploratory ethnographic study on homosexual and lesbian immigrants of first generation in Belgium. The 

objective was to question the heteronormativity of migration studies through an intersectional approach. Although migration scholars 

have frequently treated the issues of ‘race’/ethnicity, class and gender within migration processes, sexuality is generally not a topic of 

interest. 

Concerning methodology, the narrative method was employed. The aim of this inductive method is to gain an understanding of the 

perceptions of participants of specific life experiences. Data collection was done through semi-structured in-depth interviewing and 

participant observation in a support group for queer asylum seekers and refugees. 

Two research questions were central: Firstly, in what way was migration used as a stigma management strategy? Or put differently, 

what role did their sexuality play in the decision to migrate? Secondly, what was the influence of migration on their sexual identity and 

the choice of stigma management strategies employed? The results of the study showed that most participants fell under the category 

‘sexual migrant’. The influence of migration on their sexual identity was very diverse. For those who used migration consciously as 

a stigma management strategy, the difference between life in the land of origin and arrival was often considerable. For all of them 

migration brought along the freedom for which they had hoped. The participants from countries where homosexuality was strongly 

intolerated legally and culturally, disposed in Belgium of a wider choice of stigma management strategies. For some however Belgium 

stood for (nearly) complete freedom, while for others there was more freedom, but this was strongly limited by experiences with 

discrimination and exclusion. The limitations of their freedom were strongly variable depending on the intersectionality of ethnicity/ ‘race’, 

class and citizenship status. The absence of legal recognition with the adjacent low socio-economic position, living in neighbourhoods 

where certain ethnic minority groups live (of which some members are hostile towards homosexuality) and the dependence of ethnic 

solidarity led to more discrimination and exclusion. Furthermore belonging to a certain ethnic group/ ‘race’ led to more discrimination 

within the gay world and the world outside. 

Transnational migrant identity and networks: the case of migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal 

Demyan Belyaev, Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies, Portugal 

The process of globalisation has turned international migration into a constantly growing phenomenon around the world. Different 

to countries with long immigration traditions, for Europe this is still a fairly recent experience, which in addition is highly unequally 

distributed across various European countries. Some countries, those with colonial pasts, have already lived with people coming from 

other cultures for decades, while for others it is still a novelty that only became noticeable 10-15 years ago. 

Whenever migration becomes a subject of public discussion, it is usually assumed that the primary motives behind the migration decision 

are mostly economic in nature. Politicians, economists and social scientists alike tend to analyze migration in the first place in terms of 

its impact on the labour market in host countries, migrant employment patterns, need for adjustment of regulatory policies etc. However, 

along with economic reasons, the family also plays an important role in migration processes, and more so when it concerns not simply 

the economic, but also the social and cultural impact of migrants on both sending and receiving societies. 

Family-driven migration can take various forms, from reunification with one of the family members (usually male) who temporarily 

migrated for economic reasons some time ago, over interethnic marriages to return to the country of the family’s historical origin (for 

example, the case of so called “Russian Germans”, ethnic Germans who are in fact bearers of Russian culture and migrated to Germany 

in large numbers in 1990s and 2000s). 

Different to a single-person migration for work or study purposes which often turns out to be temporary, family-driven migration tends to 

have a more permanent character. This kind of migration also brings with it a stable set of social and cultural traits which then interact 

with the traits of the host society, both within the migrant family and outside of it. Migrants often end up feeling they “belong to nowhere”: 

in part maintaining their original culture and social structures and in part replacing them with those of the host society, they become 

“transnational” or “transcultural” persons. 

From this theoretical perspective, the paper analyzes the experience of transnational migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal. 

In the 1990s, collapse of the Soviet Union and rapid economic growth achieved by Portugal owing to abundant financial support from the 

EU created a situation in which tens of thousands of Russians, Ukrainians and Moldovans chose to move to Portugal for work and life. 

Obviously, such migration involved a radical change of social and cultural milieu and posed a number of serious challenges. 

This paper focuses on the social, economic and cultural situation of migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal today, after over 

a decade of stay in this country. Based on a recent survey of Russian-speaking migrants in Portugal, it seeks to reconstruct how their 

identities are being shaped and how far they have managed to adjust to the host country environment from social and cultural point of 

view. Keeping in mind the integration challenge, the paper also addresses the question in what areas these migrants’ integration into the 

host society has been successful, in what it has not occurred and in what it can be best described precisely by their “transnational” status. 

Finally, the paper explains the structure of the social networks in which these migrants are involved and what functions these networks 

fulfil for them. 

99


Belonging’s uncertainty: Latin Americans in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland 

Fina Carpena-Mendez, Oregon State University, USA 

The neoliberal globalization project has relied on transnational mobilities to profoundly rework local spaces, subjectivities, and 

the developmental role of the state through shifts in the relationship to its citizens. While neoliberal reforms aimed at deepening 

transnational economic and political integration of Latin American countries in the global order has resulted in increased levels of 

migration, social inequality, and the dismantling of local subsistence economies, immigration has been central to the Celtic Tiger story 

of development. Economic restructuring in the last 15 years in Ireland has been dependent on foreign direct investment and the state’s 

withdrawal of public services and infrastructures to its citizens. In the last decade, both rural and urban areas in Ireland have received 

rapidly shifting and highly contingent immigration flows, including sending areas from Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and 

Colombia mainly). Latin American migration to Ireland is extremely socio-economically diverse. Latin Americans from middle-class and 

working-class sectors have come to fill a broad range of occupations, from highly-skilled jobs in health care, pharmaceutical, 

IT and software, to industrial and agricultural, in both rural and urban Ireland. Migration networks often involve third and 

fourth countries and depend on the specific insertion in the labor market. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Latin American 

families and their children in households, school classrooms, and community life, this paper examines narratives on these different 

migratory trajectories through several countries; how in each of these countries Latin Americans have experienced different 

constructions of their subject positions, identities, and ethnicity, in school, working and community life; how these learning experiences 

have shaped their sense of belonging and their understanding of their incorporation experiences in Irish society, and how, in turn, these 

experiences have affected decisions to return to Latin America or settle in Ireland. A sense of self deeply rooted in solid experience has 

emerged against the vanishing global neoliberal mirage of transnational social mobility, a source of delusion and revelation of terra 

incognita. This solidly experiential self articulates contestations to both impending futures as minorities in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and 

as return migrants in Latin America, socio-economic and cultural areas ravaged by the effects of neoliberal globalization and in search of 

alternative governance models. 

Session 8h Focus on Ireland 

Nothing to do with me: Observation without interaction – The Irish professional social class and those they categorise as ‘immigrants’ 

Martina Byrne, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

This paper draws on preliminary results from the first in-depth exploration of the attitudes of the Irish professional social class towards 

immigrants in contemporary Ireland. My experiences as an Irish professional suggested, and my preliminary findings confirm, a diverse 

range of attitudes are held by this social class towards immigrants. This qualitative peer research examines what informs these attitudes 

and if/how racialised Irish and ‘other’ identities are constructed by members of this small yet influential section of the Irish population 

whose relative advantages include workplace decision making (e.g. recruitment), political power and access to social networks such as 

the media. 

Available attitudinal research on immigrants in Ireland includes large-scale quantitative European studies such as Eurobarometer and 

European Social Surveys and small qualitative studies amongst minorities or those in the lower socio-economic groups living in areas 

with high levels of population diversity. Throughout Europe, however, the intersection of the professional social class and immigrants 

is under-researched by comparison to studies on other social classes and immigrants and no in-depth attitudinal studies have been 

undertaken in Ireland on relations between the professional social class and immigrants. This research addresses that gap and 

problematises the ‘common-sense’ acceptance that those in the professional social class have, by virtue of their social class position and 

education, positive attitudes towards immigrants and immigration. 

A predominant theme of these findings is that the work, social and family lives of the majority of interviewees do not intersect with those 

whom they classify as ‘immigrants’. They do not compete for work, homes, school or hospital places with immigrants and there is no 

expectation this will change. 

Due to the semi-structured nature of the interviews there are frequent discussions around who is categorised as ‘immigrant’ and why. For 

example, while white immigrants from Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand are not categorised as ‘immigrants’, white people 

from EU accession states such as Poland are. In addition, regardless of race, ethnicity, and nationality, those perceived to be in same 

social class as the interviewee (i.e. professional social class) are generally not categorised as ‘immigrants’. 

Finally, as fieldwork began before, and continues during, a significant global recession, this study is uniquely positioned to examine 

theories on the impact of economic change on the attitudes of the indigenous majority towards immigrants. 

Both class and race are contested concepts and the relationship between the two has been theorised in a number of ways. In situating my 

findings within the fields of race, ethnicity and class theory I find the work of Hall (1980), Anthias and Yuval-Davis (1992), and Gilroy (2002) 

on the existence of a mutual relation and interconnection between class, race, ethnicity, and nationalism most useful. 

100


European migrants in Ireland: the challenge of integration 

*Bettina Migge, University College Dublin, Ireland 

Mary Gilmartin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland 

While Ireland has attempted to develop an integration policy, its efforts in relation to integration are directed towards migrants from 

outside the European Union. However, some of the largest migrant groups in Ireland, by nationality, are from the EU; both more 

established members (the UK, France, Germany) as well as recent accession countries (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia). This paper 

focuses on the experiences of integration of a range of recent European migrants to Ireland. It draws on a wider study of the 

experiences of two migrant cohorts in Ireland – people who moved to Ireland in either 2004 or 2007 – using qualitative research in 

a longitudinal framework. Our findings complicate dominant narratives about migration as a planned decision based on economic 

imperatives, and about integration as an aspatial process. Instead, we argue that other motivations including personal relationships, 

the desire for adventure and language learning have a significant role in the decision to come to, as well as remain in, Ireland. We also 

highlight the ways in which the experiences of migration and integration vary significantly across space. In addition, while generally not 

being targets of overt discrimination, many Europeans feel that their needs, qualifications and experiences are not always accepted. Our 

paper thus highlights the specific challenges and difficulties that are encountered by European migrants in Ireland, yet not acknowledged 

in Irish integration policy aspirations. 

Leitkultur Debates in Northwest Europe: Convergence or divergence? 


*Daniel Faas, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 

The concept of Leitkultur ('leading culture') was introduced in 1998 by the Syrian-born political scientist and German citizen Bassam 

Tibi. He espoused a ‘European’ rather than a German Leitkultur. It was then hijacked by conservatives, right-wing nationalists and others 

advocating a white Christian Europe. This paper begins with a historical overview of the concept of Leitkultur and then focuses on what 

might be seen as national shared values in Europe at a time when some scholars talk about a 'retreat' from or 'backlash' against the 

idea of multiculturalism as a public policy. The paper then looks at citizenship and religious aspects within these Leitkultur debates 

and argues that there has been a convergence around legal provisions of citizenship but divergence with regard to political and cultural 

aspects. The talk raises important questions around the extent to which new shared European values are emerging and how the changes 

in cultural citizenship facilitate integration. 

101

conference delegates 

Adel Pasztor | Northumbria University, Department of Social Sciences, UK | adel.pasztor@northumbria.ac.uk 

Adrian Favell | Aarhus University, Denmark | afavell@soc.ucla.edu 

Agnes Kakasi | Dublin Institute of Technology, Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, Ireland | agnes.kakasi@student.dit.ie 

Agnieszka Ignatowicz | Aston University, School of Languages and Social Sciences, UK | ignatowa@aston.ac.uk 

Aigul Alieva | CEPS/INSTEAD, IMPALLA, Luxembourg | aigul.alieva@ceps.lu 

Alana Smith | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | smitha6@tcd.ie 

Aleksandra Kaczmarek-Day | Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, UK | KaczmarekAD@cardiff.ac.uk 

Alessia Passarelli | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | passarea@tcd.ie 

Alessio Cangiano | University of Oxford, COMPAS Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, UK | alessio.cangiano@compas.ox.ac.uk 

Alessio D'Angelo | Middlesex University, Department of Social Sciences, UK | a.dangelo@mdx.ac.uk 

Alicja Bobek | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | bobeka@tcd.ie 

Anaheed Al-Hardan | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | alhardaa@tcd.ie 

Anastasia Gorodzeisky | Juan March Institute, Center for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Spain | agorodzeisky@march.es 

Anders Wigerfelt | Malmö University, Department of Working Life Studies, Sweden | anders.wigerfelt@mah.se 

Anja Rouhuvirta | Fakiirimedia Oy, Finland | anja.rouhuvirta@fakiirimedia.com 

Anja Stichs | Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Migration Research, Research Area II “Empirical Social Research”, Germany | 

anja.stichs@bamf.bund.de 

Anna Triandafyllidou | European University Institute, Italy | anna@eliamep.gr, anna.triandafyllidou@eui.eu 

Anne White | University of Bath, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, UK | A.White@bath.ac.uk 

Antje Roeder | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | roedera@tcd.ie 

Astrid Hamberger | University of Bucharest, Department of Sociology, Romania | astrid2001ro@yahoo.com 

Audrey Lenoel | University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies (SPS), UK | audrey.lenoel@bristol.ac.uk 

Barbara Lazenby Simpson | Trinity College Dublin, CLCS Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Ireland | bsimpson@tcd.ie 

Barry Hollywood | National College of Ireland, Ireland | barraoc@live.co.uk 

Beata Sokolowska | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Social Science, Ireland | sokolowb@tcd.ie 

Berit Wigerfelt | Malmö University, IMER, International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Sweden | berit.wigerfelt@mah.se 

Bettina Migge | University College Dublin, School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics, Ireland | bettinamigge@ucd.ie 

Bram Lancee | European University Institute & University of Amsterdam, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Italy & The Netherlands | 

bram.lancee@eui.eu 

Breda Naughton | Office of the Minister of State for Integration, Department of Education and Skills, Ireland | Breda_Naughton@education.gov.ie 

Bríd Ní Chonaill | Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Department of Humanities, Ireland | brid.nichonaill@itb.ie 

Bronagh Catibušic, | Trinity College Dublin, CLCS, Ireland | irebos98@iol.ie 

Camilla Devitt | European University Institute, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Italy | camilla.devitt@eui.eu 

Carla De Tona | The University of Manchester, Department of Sociology, UK | carla.detona@manchester.ac.uk 

Caroline O'Nolan | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | onolanc@tcd.ie 

Charles Watters | Rutgers University, Department of Childhood Studies, USA | c.watters@rutgers.edu 

Chinedu Onyejelem | Metro Éireann, Ireland | chinedu@ireland.com 

Claudia Hartmann-Hirsch | CEPS/INSTEAD, PSELL, Luxembourg | claudia.hartmann@ceps.lu 

Cliodhna Murphy | Trinity College Dublin, School of Law, Ireland | csmurphy@tcd.ie 

Conor Farrell | Centre for Housing Research, Ireland | conor.farrell@housing.ie 

Constant Leung | King's College London, UK | constant.leung@kcl.ac.uk 

Cornelia Kristen | Georg August Universität Göttingen, Institute for Sociology, Germany | cornelia.kristen@sowi.uni-goettingen.de 

Damian Jackson | Trinity College Dublin, Irish School of Ecumenics, Ireland | jacksodf@tcd.ie 

Daniel Faas | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | daniel.faas@tcd.ie 

Daniel Makina | University of South Africa, South Africa | makind@unisa.ac.za 

David Little | Trinity College Dublin, CLCS Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Ireland | dlittle@tcd.ie 

Deborah Reed-Danahay | SUNY at Buffalo, Department of Anthropology, USA | der5@buffalo.edu 

Deirdre Murphy | Trinity College Dublin, Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Ireland | murphyd3@tcd.ie 

Déirdre Kirwan | Scoil Bhríde Girls' National School, Blanchardstown, Ireland | kirwandm@tcd.ie 

Demyan Belyaev | Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies, TERCUD - Research Center on Territory, 

Culture and Development, Portugal | demyan.belyaev@ulusofona.pt 

Denis Frank | Lund University, Department of Sociology, Sweden | denis.frank@soc.lu.se 

Diana Gouveia | National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Anthropology Department, Ireland | dianagouveiapt@yahoo.com.br 

Diana Schacht | Georg August Universität Göttingen, Institute for Sociology, Germany | diana.schacht@sowi.uni-goettingen.de 

Drago Župaric-Iljic | Institute for Migration and Ethnnic Studies, Croatia | dzuparic@gmail.com 

Dympna Devine | University College Dublin, Ireland | dympna.devine@ucd.ie 

Eithne Heffernan | University of Limerick, Department of Personnel and Employment Relations, Ireland | eithneheffernan@gmail.com 

Elaine Moriarty | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | elaine.moriarty@tcd.ie 

Eleanor Sohnen | Inter-American Development Bank, Labor Markets Unit, USA | eleanors@iadb.org 

Elena Moreo | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS, Ireland | moreoe@tcd.ie 

Elina Apsite | University of Latvia, Department of Human Geography, Latvia | elina.apsite@inbox.lv 

Elisa Brey | Universidad Complutense de Madrid & Université de Liège, GEPS & CEDEM, Spain & Belgium | elisa.brey@gmail.com 

Emilio Reyneri | University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Sociology and Social Research, Italy | emilio.reyneri@unimib.it 

Eoin Healy | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | healyeb@tcd.ie 

102


Eoin O'Sullivan | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | tosullvn@tcd.ie 

Erica Dobbs | MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, USA | edobbs@mit.edu 

Ernest Berkhout | SEO Economic Research, Department of Labour & Education, The Netherlands | e.berkhout@seo.nl 

Esther Murphy | Dublin City University, School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies, Ireland | esther.murphy@dcu.ie 

Esther O-P Onolememen | University College Dublin, College of Human Sciences (Public Policy), Ireland | onolemee@tcd.ie 

Ettore Recchi | University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy | ettore.recchi@unifi.it 

Evelyn Ersanilli | University of Oxford, International Migration Institute, UK | evelyn.ersanilli@qeh.ox.ac.uk, evelynersanilli@yahoo.ca 

Fidele Muswaratibo | University College Dublin, Immigrant Council of Ireland & Africa Centre, Ireland | fidele@immigrantcouncil.ie 

Fina Carpena-Mendez | Oregon State University, Department of Anthropology, USA | finacarpena@gmail.com 

Fiona Kearney | Special Education Support Service, Ireland | fkearney@sess.ie 

Fiona Murphy | National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Department of Anthropology, Ireland | fionaeileenmurphy@gmail.com 

Flavio Scantimburgo | Università degli studi di Milano, Department of Labour and Welfare Studies, Italy | docscanti@yahoo.it, 

flavio.scantimburgo@unimi.it 

Franca van Hooren | European University Institute, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Italy | franca.vanhooren@eui.eu 

Frances McGinnity | ESRI Economic and Social Research Institute, Department of Social Research, Ireland | Fran.McGinnity@esri.ie 

Francisco José | Cuberos Gallardo, University of Seville, Department of Social Anthropology, Spain | fcuberos@us.es 

Frank van Tubergen | Utrecht University, The Netherlands | f.vantubergen@uu.nl 

Frédéric Merck | Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Department of Political Science, Germany | f.merck@web.de 

Frieda McGovern | University College Dublin, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, Ireland | friedamcgovern@gmail.com 

Gabriella Alberti | Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, UK | AlbertiGL@cardiff.ac.uk 

Gergory Verdugo | Banque de France, DGEI-DEMS-SAMIC, France | gregory.verdugo@gmail.com 

Gerlinde Verbist | University of Antwerp, Centre for Social Policy, Belgium | gerlinde.verbist@ua.ac.be 

Gerry Danaher | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS, Ireland | gerry.danaher@gmail.com 

Gillian Wylie | Trinity College Dublin, Irish School of Ecumenics, Ireland | wylieg@tcd.ie 

Gobnait Byrne | Trinity College Dublin, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Ireland | gobnait.byrne@tcd.ie 

Godfried Engbersen | Erasmus University Rotterdam, Faculty of the Social Sciences, Netherlands | engbersen@fsw.eur.nl 

Grit Grigoleit | Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Department Work-Gender-Technology, Germany | grit.grigoleit@tu-harburg.de 

Guillermo Toral | University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations, UK | guillermo.toralmartinez@politics.ox.ac.uk 

Héctor Cebolla Boado | UNED, Departamento de Sociología II, Spain | hcebolla@ceacs.march.es 

Helle Bendix | AKF Danish Institute of Governmental Research, Denmark | hbl@akf.dk 

Iseult Honohan | University College Dublin, School of Politics and International Relations, Ireland | iseult.honohan@ucd.ie 

James Wickham | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | james.wickham@tcd.ie 

Janna Teltemann | University of Bremen, Institute for Empirical and Applied Sociology EMPAS, Germany | janna@uni-bremen.de 

Jennifer Scholtz | Trinity College Dublin, Children's Research Centre, Ireland | scholtjj@tcd.ie 

Jenny Dagg | National University of Ireland, Galway, Department of Political Science & Sociology, Ireland | jennydagg@gmail.com 

Jessica Farnan | City of Dublin VEC, Curriculum Development Unit, Ireland | jessica.farnan@cdu.cdvec.ie 

Joana Duarte | Universität Hamburg, Linguistic Diversity Management in Urban Areas (LiMA), Germany | duarte@erzwiss.uni-hamburg.de 

Joanna Kosmalska | University of Łódź, Department of English Studies, Poland | joanna.kosmalska@gmail.com 

Joerg Dollman | University of Mannheim, Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung MZES, Germany | 

joerg.dollmann@mzes.uni-mannheim.de 

John Lalor | Dublin City University, School of Education Studies, Ireland | john.lalor@dcu.ie 

Jon Fox | University of Bristol, Department of Sociology, UK | jon.fox@bristol.ac.uk 

Jonas Månsson | Linnaeus University, Centre for Labor Market Policy Research, Department of Economics and Statistics, Sweden | 

jonas.mansson@lnu.se 

José Marques | Instituto Politécnico de Leiria - INDEA, Research Centre for Identity(ies) and Diversity(ies) (CIID), Portugal | 

jose.marques@esecs.ipleiria.pt 

Josephine Ahern | The Integration Centre, Ireland | josephine.ahern@integrationcentre.ie 

Joyce Jiang | Loughborough University, Business School, UK | z.jiang@lboro.ac.uk 

Judy Brown | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | brownja@tcd.ie 

Julia Sevtsenko | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS & Department of Sociology, Ireland | sevtsenj@tcd.ie 

Justyna Salamonska | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | salamonj@tcd.ie 

Justyna Samolyk | Queen's University Belfast, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, UK | jsamolyk01@qub.ac.uk 

Jutta Höhne | WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), 

Department of Migration, Integration, Transnationalization, Germany | hoehne@wzb.eu 

Karen Block | University of Melbourne, McCaughey Centre, School of Population Health, Australia | keblock@unimelb.edu.au 

Kate Babineau | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, Children's Research Centre, Ireland | babineak@tcd.ie 

Kate Waterhouse | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS & Department of Sociology, Ireland | waterhok@tcd.ie 

Kathryn Breda Feehan | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | feehankb@tcd.ie 

Katrina Goldstone | Create the national development agency for collaborative art, Ireland | communications@create-ireland.ie 

Kenneth Horvath | University of Vienna, Department of Methods in the Social Sciences, Austria | kenneth.horvath@univie.ac.at 

Kerry Gallagher | National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Department of Sociology, Ireland | kerry.gallagher@nuim.ie 

Kerstin Duemmler | University of Neuchâtel, Maison d’analyse des processus sociaux (MAPS), Switzerland | kerstin.duemmler@unine.ch 

Kieran Walsh | National University of Ireland, Galway, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, Ireland | kieran.walsh@nuigalway.ie 

Koopmans Ruud | WZB Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Social Science Research Center), Department of Migration, Integration, 

Transnationalization, Germany | koopmans@wzb.eu 

103


Laura Morosanu | University of Bristol, Department of Sociology, UK | soxlm@bristol.ac.uk 

Lennart Delander | Linnaeus University, Centre for Labor Market Policy Research, Department of Economics and Statistics, Sweden | 

lennart.delander@lnu.se 

Leonie Kerins | Doras Luimni, Ireland | l.kerins@dorasluimni.org 

Leslie McCartney | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS, Ireland | leslie.mccartney@tcd.ie 

Liam Morgan | University of Technology, Sydney, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Australia | liam.morgan@uts.edu.au 

Lindsey Garratt | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | garratlb@tcd.ie 

Liutauras Labanauskas | Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania | liutauras.labanauskas@gmail.com 

Lorraine Downey | City of Dublin VEC, Curriculum Development Unit, Ireland | lorraine.downey@cdu.cdvec.ie 

Louise Ryan | Middlesex University, Social Policy Research Centre, UK | l.ryan@mdx.ac.uk 

Louise Tregert | Malmö University, Sweden | louise.tregert@mah.se 

Lynn Duggan | Indiana University of Bloomington, Labor Studies Program, USA | lduggan@indiana.edu 

M Assunta Nicolini | City University London, Department of Sociology - Centre for Race, Ethnicity and Migration, UK | 

a.nicolini@mac.com, maria.nicolini.1@city.ac.uk 

Maeve Foreman | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | maeve.foreman@tcd.ie 

Mairead Finn | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | finnm2@tcd.ie 

Maja Korac | University of East London, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, UK | m.korac@uel.ac.uk 

Malgorzata Irek | University of Oxford, COMPAS, UK | gosiairek@gazeta.pl 

Manuela Samek Lodovici | IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, Italy | msamek@irsonline.it 

Margareta Popoola | Malmö University, IMER, Culture and Society, Sweden | margareta.popoola@mah.se 

Margarida Carvalho | Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE – IUL), Portugal | margarida_carvalho@yahoo.com 

Maria Ilies | Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Sociology, The Netherlands | ilies@fsw.eur.nl 

Maria Ramirez | Dublin City University, SALIS, Ireland | spanishmaria@gmail.com 

Marianna Prontera | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | pronterm@tcd.ie 

Mariusz Dzieglewski | Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Department of Sociology, Poland | 

mdzieglewski@wp.pl 

Mark Maguire | National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Department of Anthropology, Ireland | mark.h.maguire@nuim.ie 

Martin Ruhs | University of Oxford, COMPAS Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, UK | martin.ruhs@compas.ox.ac.uk 

Martina Byrne | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | byrnem19@tcd.ie 

Maura Gallagher | LTI Intercultural Training, Ireland | mauragallagher@langtrain.ie 

Maura Rosa | Parazzoli, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Anthropology Department, Ireland | maura.parazzoli@gmail.com 

Merike Darmody | ESRI Economic and Social Research Institute, Department of Social Research, Ireland | merike.darmody@esri.ie 

Mick Wilkinson | University of Hull, Department of Social Sciences, UK | m.d.wilkinson@hull.ac.uk 

Miguel Amaral | Instituto Superior Técnico -Technical University of Lisbon, Department of Engineering and Management, Portugal | 

miguel.amaral@ist.utl.pt 

Milla Laasonen | Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Digital Media Department, Finland | milla.laasonen@metropolia.fi 

Miri Song | University of Kent, School of Social Policy, Sociology & Social Research, UK | ams@kent.ac.uk 

Monika Banas | Jagiellonian University, Poland | monika.banas@uj.edu.pl 

Monika Kaliszewska | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | kaliszwm@tcd.ie 

Moshe Semyonov | Tel-Aviv University, Department of Sociology, Israel | moshes@post.tau.ac.il 

Muireann Ní Raghallaigh | University College Dublin, School of Applied Social Science, Ireland | muireann.niraghallaigh@ucd.ie 

Niamh Mc Mahon | Cambridge University, POLIS, UK | mcmahon.n@gmail.com 

Nicole Biedinger | University of Mannheim, Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, Germany | 

nicole.biedinger@mzes.uni-mannheim.de 

Nora El Qadim | Sciences Po, Centre d'études europénnes, France | nora.elqadim@sciences-po.org 

Oliver Scharbrodt | University College Cork, Study of Religions Department, Ireland | o.scharbrodt@ucc.ie 

Özge Bilgili | Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands | ozge@bilgili.info 

Pamela Castro | Nottingham University, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, UK | lqxpac@nottingham.ac.uk 

Pascale Herzig | Universität Fribourg, Department of Social Anthropology, Switzerland | pascale.herzig@unifr.ch 

Patrick Grommes | Universität Hamburg, Linguistic Diversity Management in Urban Areas (LiMA), Germany | Patrick.Grommes@uni-hamburg.de 

Paul Keane | Trinity College Dublin, Student, Ireland | keanepr@tcd.ie 

Paula Kahan-Strawczynski | Myers-Joint-Brookdale Institute, Engelberg Center for Children and Youth, Israel | paula@jdc.org.il 

Pedro Gois | Universidade de Coimbra, Center for Social Studies, Portugal | pedrogois@ces.uc.pt 

Peter Mühlau | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Sociology, Ireland | muhlaup@tcd.ie 

Peter Sheekey | Trinity College Dublin, CLCS, Ireland | sheekeyp@tcd.ie 

Philip Curry | Trinity College Dublin, Department of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | pcurry@tcd.ie 

Philipp Meier | University of Bern, Institute for Social Anthropology, Switzerland | pmeier@anthro.unibe.ch 

Piet Van Avermaet | Ghent University, Centre for Diversity and Learning, Belgium | piet.vanavermaet@ugent.be 

Pieter-Paul | Verhaeghe, Ghent University, Department of Sociology, Belgium | pieterpaul.verhaeghe@ugent.be 

Rachael Fionda | Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Immigration Initiative, IIIS, Ireland | fiondar@tcd.ie 

Rebecca King-O'Riain | National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Department of Sociology, Ireland | rebecca.king-oriain@nuim.ie 

Reinhard Schunck | University of Bielefeld, Department of Sociology, Germany | reinhard.schunck@uni-bielefeld.de 

Robbie Gilligan | Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Ireland | robbie.gilligan@tcd.ie 

Robert J Sampson | UCLA, Department of Sociology, USA | rsampson@wjh.harvard.edu 

Rocio Calvo | Harvard University, USA | mcalvo@hsph.harvard.edu 

104

Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

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