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This data brief introduces the Friendship and Identity in School (FIS) dataset. The FIS data are school-based longitudinal social network data, which have become increasingly important in recent years. Including information on 2,500 adolescents in nine secondary schools in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the FIS data have four important key features that make them uniquely suited for studying the co-evolution of friendship networks and group identities or other time-varying individual characteristics. Specifically, the data include (i) fine-grained multidimensional measures of youth' ethnic, national, and religious identities, (ii) comparatively large social networks that span multiple classrooms, (iii) up to six waves over four and a half years, and (iv) an ethnoreligiously diverse sample. Besides friendship and identity, the data include other network dimensions such as romantic relations or dislike as well as repeated measurements of various individual attributes ranging from perceived discrimination over intergroup attitudes and religion to leisure time activities and students' perceptions of parents' identities and attitudes. In combination, the FIS data provide rich longitudinal information that allows researchers to study the development, change, and interplay of youth' group identities and friendship networks as well as broader questions concerning intergroup relations, network formation, and peer influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Migrant networks are usually regarded as helpful for the labor market integration of recently arrived immigrants. From a general assimilation perspective, however, it has been questioned whether they are really the right sort of ties to help immigrants succeed in the host society, or whether, instead, they constitute some sort of mobility trap. Empirical evidence from available studies is mixed, and a reference to more general social capital theory suggests that the effect might be contingent on the institutional context of the receiving country, the specific immigrant groups involved, and the particular types of jobs. In this paper, we study the impact of migrant networks on the labor market integration of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Germany. This turns out to be a strategic test case, for both theoretical and methodological reasons. Relying on longitudinal data and using discrete event history models, we show that the findings are different for two distinguishable groups involved, Ethnic Germans and Jewish Quota Refugees, and that whether the effects are positive or negative further depends on whether or not these groups seek entry to higher-status jobs in the professional, managerial, or technical occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article tests the popular social capital hypothesis in the context of recent temporary labour migration from Poland to Germany. It relies on data from the Polish Migration Project, which, following the model of the prominent Mexican Migration Project, collected rich longitudinal information on residents of four Polish communities in 2005. Discrete event history analyses are used to test, first, whether since 1989 prior migration experience of others indeed had an independent impact on the likelihood of making a working trip to Germany and, second, in how far this can explain the observed dynamics over time. In the course of the analyses it turns out that some of the variables frequently used as indicators of migration-specific social capital seem to be problematic. Thus, besides adding the Polish–German experience to discussions on the role of social capital in explaining contemporary migration, the article also contributes to general methodological issues involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study considers the interplay between patterns of immigrants’ self-selection and the context of reception (i.e. migration policies and the operation of the labor market) at the host country on different economic assimilation patterns. We compare three groups of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who arrived in Israel and Germany during 1994—2005: Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel, Jewish immigrants who arrived in Germany (JQR), and ethnic Germans who arrived in Germany (EG). Using the same questionnaire for the German and Israeli samples, we disentangle the impact of the two effects on immigrants’ earnings assimilation by applying the Juhn et al. (1991) method of decomposing the difference in the earnings differentials between natives and FSU immigrants in the two host countries. The results indicate that earnings gaps between FSU immigrants and natives are wider in Germany than in Israel and that the role of contexts of reception is significant in determining patterns of self-selection. We find that the less rigid market attracts the more motivated immigrants, as indicated by the comparison between Jewish immigrant men in Israel and Germany. Within contexts of immigrant reception, the operation of the labor market is more important than formal policies in enhancing economic assimilation of immigrants, as indicated by the comparisons between JQR and EG immigrants in Germany and between Jewish immigrant women in Israel and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Familienforschung (ZzF) is the property of University of Bamberg Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates whether the life circumstances of immigrants and natives in Germany have converged in recent decades. To answer this question adequately, the fact that Germany experienced demographic change and educational expansion at the same time has to be taken into account. On the theoretical side, the connection of demographic variables, education, and a basic assimilation argument is derived from an investment and production view of social behaviour. On the empirical side, a method is proposed that combines the multivariate regression approach with common measures of segregation. This technique allows an opportune and convenient assessment of assimilation trends controlling for relevant structural variables. An analysis of scientific use files of population censuses in1970, 1989, and 1996 indicates that immigrants and Germans clearly converged net of the structural changes, at least over generations. Demographic change plays an ambiguous role within this process. Educational expansion, however, has led to a widening educational gap resulting in barriers to further structural assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents a reply to the critical essay "Die Suche geht weiter... Kommentare zu „Auf der Suche nach einer Erklärung für die spezifischen Arbeitsmarktnachteile von Jugendlichen türkischer Herkunft" von Frank Kalter (ZfS 2/2006)," by Holger Seibert and Heike Solga. The author notes that in Seibert and Solga's research on the job prospects of German educated immigrants, they did not include the SOEP-Analysis, which the author considers important when talking about group identity.