Attitudes Towards Non-Marital Family Forms Among Polish Immigrants in the Netherlands

Fertility intentions and perceived health status: A study of Polish migrants and non-migrants

Background: Fertility intentions provide a reliable measure of future fertility behaviour. By looking into fertility intentions, we can figure out if people are thinking about becoming parents and how many kids they might be considering. Additionally, the role of perceived health has not entered the debate about fertility. Aims: This study aims, probably for the first time, to compare the fertility intentions of migrants and non-migrants of the same nationality at origin based on their self-rated health and well-being. Methods: The study utilized data from the Families of Poles in the Netherlands (FPN) survey and the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS). This study used Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition models and generalized ordered logit models (gologit). Results: The findings reveal that both migrants and non-migrants who have good self-rated health and well-being are more likely to express a desire to have children in the short term. Additionally, the average fertility intentions score is higher for Polish migrants residing in the Netherlands compared to Polish non-migrants residing in Poland across the models. The study emphasizes the role good perceived health plays in shaping fertility intentions. Conclusion: It is encouraged that future research to consider perceived health in the demographic debate about migrant and non-migrant fertility.

The release of formal restrictions on the free movement of Central and Eastern Europeans that started with the end of the Cold War and the eastward enlargement of the European Union in the 2000s have led to new migration flows in Europe. In the Netherlands, in absolute terms, Poles are the largest group amongst emigrants from the central and eastern European countries which accessed the European Union in 2004. The Families of Poles in the Netherlands (FPN) survey aims to develop a database which allows examining different aspects of Polish migrant family life, including family formation, generational interdependencies, espoused family obligations and life outcomes.The sampling frame of the FPN study was population registers (Basisregistratie Personen, BRP). Names and addresses of sample members were drawn by Statistics Netherlands based on the following criteria: the potential respondent was born in Poland, registered in the Netherlands for the first time in 2004 or later, and was between 18 and 49 years old at the time of the most recent registration. In total 1131 Polish migrants participated in the survey. The fieldwork started in October 2014 and lasted until the end of April 2015.A blueprint for the survey is the questionnaire of the Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS). The FPN data can be thus matched with the Polish and Dutch GGS, and Onderzoek Gezinsvorming data (OG; a longitudinal data on fertility and family formation executed in the Netherlands) to reveal the impact of contextual and policy influences on, among others, family relationships.To study the determinants of family solidarity and migration choices, following changes in respondents’ situations over time is necessary. Therefore, the FPN has a panel character – the second wave of the survey will be repeated in 2017.The FPN survey was carried out by the Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a part of Pearl Dykstra’s ERC Advanced Investigator project “Families in Context”. Financial support from the European Research Council, Advanced Investigator Grant “Families in Context” (grant agreement no. 324211) is gratefully acknowledged.The data from the FPN are accessible via the DANS website to researchers affiliated with academic and (semi-)government organizations. No one has any exclusive right or priority to use the FPN to work on any research question. Karpinska, K., Dykstra, P.A., & Fokkema, T. (2016). Families of Poles in the Netherlands (FPN) survey. Wave 1. DANS. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17026/dans-zep-et7y

Background: In this contribution we critically appraise the social network indices in the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS). Objective: After discussing the rationale for including social network indices in the GGS, we provide descriptive information on social network characteristics and an overview of substantive questions that have been addressed using GGS social network data: antecedents and consequences of demographic behaviour, care, and differences in well-being. We identify topics that have received relatively little attention in GGS research so far, despite the availability of novel and appropriate social network data. We end with a discussion of what is unique about the social network indices in the GGS. Methods: The descriptive information on social network characteristics is based on empirical analyses of GGS data, and an experimental pilot study. The overview of GGS research using social network indices is based on a library search. The identification of what is unique about the social network indices in the GGS is based on a comparison with the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE), and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Results: Results show a high representation of family members in the social networks, and confirm the adequacy of using a cap of five names for network-generating questions. GGS research using the social network indices has largely focused on determinants of fertility behaviour, intergenerational linkages in families, and downward care transfers. Conclusions: Topics that have received relatively little attention are demographic behaviours other than those related to parenthood, upward transfers of practical support, ties with siblings, and stepfamily ties. Social network indices in the GGS show a high degree of overlap with those in other international surveys. The unique features are the inventory of family ties ever born and still living, and the assessment of network members’ normative expectations. The GGS holds a wealth of social network data that warrants a myriad of future investigations.

Current globalisation processes witness the mobility and migration of labour as their characteristic features. The free movement of people and workers is one of the rights of citizens of the European Union (EU), and includes the right to move, to reside and to work in an EU member state without discrimination. The aim of this paper is to analyse the labour mobility within the EU with special attention to Slovakia. In its historical development, Slovakia belonged to countries with population migrating predominantly to foreign countries and was not a traditional destination country for migrants. However, today it has gradually become a state that employs foreign labour, especially in production plants. This change has not only been contributed to by Slovakia’s accession to the EU, but especially by the economic development of the state and the creation of new job opportunities for both domestic and foreign labour. The study analyses the intra-mobility in Slovakia and focuses on analysis of the trends in employment of foreign workers from EU and non-EU member states between 2007 and 2019. For the purposes of this paper, data were extracted from a relatively large number of prominent sources, for example: the European Commission, Eurostat, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) reports, and the Slovak Statistical Office resources related to labour mobility. In the desk research, the collected information were analysed and subjected to critical multidimensional assessment from quantitative, absolute, and relative, as well as cross-sectional perspectives. Special attention was paid to analysis of documentation that accompanied these data. The significance of the examined topic is underlined by the fact that Slovakia is currently a recipient of foreign labour due to insufficient qualification of domestic labour. It therefore introduces new legislative measures to speed up the employment process, remove administrative barriers and, in cooperation with employers, accelerate the process of adaptation to new work-related conditions, especially for workers from non-EU countries. In addition, employment of third-country nationals in Slovakia is a relatively demanding and lengthy process. On the one hand, the employment of foreigners contributes to economic development. On the other hand, this process stirs various problems, which are mainly related to cultural and social integration, and the removal of which cannot be achieved only through the legal regulations.

Purpose– The purpose of this study is to assess how the recent financial and economic crisis has affected European Union (EU) member states’ ability to attract intellectual capital. The issue was found to be relevant, as one of the key elements of competitiveness today is the ability to attract intellectual capital and the question how the recent financial and economic crisis has changed this ability of EU member states can be asked. The question is relevant in relation to the diversity of effects that the crisis had on EU member states, including, the different levels of real economy adjustment constraints.Design/methodology/approach– The concept of competitiveness applied by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in constructing the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) was used. Based on selected WEF GCI sub-indicators and the WEF’s methodology, we a new index named “Ability to attract intellectual capital” was generated. EU member states’ performance was compared along this indicator for the 2007-2008 (pre-crisis) and the 2013-2014 (post-crisis) periods. In this way, EU member states can be ranked before and after the crisis; their performance can be compared in the two periods, relatively to each other, and in relation to their performance along other relevant indices.Findings– The findings show interesting results. First, many peripheral EU member states, deeply affected by the crisis, could considerably improve their relative positions between 2007 and 2013. Second, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries show a rather mixed picture, drawing up rather different individual development paths. Third, the advancements in some countries do not imply that overall convergence is proceeding in the EU. Nevertheless, some countries have not wasted the “good” crisis to take those steps of structural reform.Research limitations/implications– Because we only look at two time periods (pre-and post-crisis), the authors are not able to describe the processes that were going on in the EU member states during the years of the crisis; the results can only show the difference between the two periods. Furthermore, there may be other methodological approaches to countries’ abilities to attract intellectual capital that may bring results different from this study’s results. For the countries who, according to our investigations, could improve these abilities, enhanced competitiveness is likely to occur in a few years’ time.Practical implications– For those countries aiming at improving their abilities to attract intellectual capital, or for EU policy design, this research may provide useful results. Moreover, not only this study’s results but also the methodology can be used by others, for other purposes: to compare different years, different sets of countries included in the WEF GCI or even along different dimensions.Social implications– This study’s research findings, the authors believe, will help EU member states and the EU as a whole in getting to know their abilities to attract intellectual capital better. In the introductory part of this paper, the aim was also to collect arguments from the economic theory to explain why such abilities are crucial for future competitiveness of countries.Originality/value– The methodology that was used is the adoption of WEF methodology, and the data are from the WEF GCI dataset. However, to the authors’s knowledge, no other research work has applied this methodology on this set of WEF GCI sub-indicators, with such purposes as to compare EU member states’ abilities to attract intellectual capital before and after the crisis.

Data protection and research in the European Union: a major step forward, with a step back

This paper examines the childbearing behaviour of Polish migrant women and their descendants in Sweden. Also considering stayers in the country of origin, we rely on a country-of-origin and country-of-destination approach in a careful examination regarding the relevance of three hypotheses on migrant fertility: the socialisation, selection, and adaptation hypotheses. We analyse the transitions to first and second births based on a piecewise exponential model, using Swedish register data and the Polish Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) first wave. The results support the socialisation hypothesis, as the Polish stayers and the first-generation Polish migrants have their first child at younger ages and are less likely to remain childless than the other groups but are also more likely to not proceed to a second child, unlike the Swedish natives and the second generation. We find partial support for the selection hypothesis. Descriptively, we observe signs of selection into migration based on education, cohort, and marital status. Additionally, our study shows that the impact of marriage varies between stayers and migrants, in the first-birth transition, suggesting selection into migration when it comes to unobserved characteristics as well. The adaptation hypothesis is also supported, as the fertility behaviour of the second generation more closely resembles that of the Swedish natives than that of the first generation and differs more from that of the Polish stayers in terms of both quantum and timing of the first and second births.

1. IntroductionThe Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), which is part of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), has been one of the most ambitious projects in Population Studies in the last decade. Its stated goal is to improve understanding of demographic and social development and of the factors that influence these developments (UNECE 2005). This requires elaborate survey design and implementation, resulting in a long and complex questionnaire. Previous research has shown that with increasing length and complexity, the probability of distortions in a survey rises. In this paper we focus on the German GGS, in which distortions appear in parts of the questionnaire which are complex, i.e., the retrospective parts on fertility and partnerships. There are various types of distortion: compared to German vital statistics the total number of children in the GGS is too low for birth cohorts 1930-1954 and too high for the cohorts born thereafter. When looking at partnership history we have too many women who were never married in our data in the older cohorts and too many married ones in the younger cohorts (Kreyenfeld et al. 2010; 2011; Kreyenfeld, Hornung, and Kubisch 2013; Sauer, Ruckdeschel, and Naderi 2012; Vergauwen et al. 2015). So far, approaches explaining these distortions have not provided satisfactory results. In this paper we try another approach by investigating if and under which conditions the complexity of the questionnaire could hinder the GGS improving the knowledge of the factors that influence demographic and social development. We investigate if the distortions in the German GGS can be explained by questionnaire design factors, interview situations, or other aspects of the implementation of the survey. In the following we especially assume that length, complexity, and structure of the GGS questionnaire are factors that affect respondents' as well as interviewers' behaviour and which offer advantageous conditions for shortening interviews by recording or giving incomplete or wrong answers.The paper is structured as follows: first, it presents a summary of the current state of research concerning possible causes of these distortions. Next, we describe the GGS questionnaire and the distortions in the German GGS in greater detail. Based on this, hypotheses are formulated concerning the nature and causes of the distortions in the GGS. Data and methods used as well as the results are presented in the subsequent sections. Finally, the conclusion suggests lessons for future surveys and provides advice for handling data from the German GGS in empirical analyses.2. Possible distortions due to survey implementationAfter discovering and identifying the distortions in the German GGS, different explanations have been posited, but with limited success. Kreyenfeld and her colleagues came to the conclusion that wording, question placement and technical problems do not seem to be the major sources of error leading to the bias in the fertility (Kreyenfeld, Hornung, and Kubisch 2013: 20). A paper by Sauer, Ruckdeschel, and Naderi (2012) instead concluded that the complexity of the retrospective histories could be a main source of distortion. In this paper we will elaborate upon this aspect.The literature on sources of distortion in surveys covers a wide range of topics, such as the characteristics of the event itself (saliency of event), respondent characteristics, and survey design (Blasius and Thiessen 2012). The design of the questionnaire is a decisive factor in the accuracy of answers, as is the interview situation. In this context most approaches explain interviewers' and interviewees' response behaviour and social desirability by rational choice theory (e.g., Stocke 2004, 2007). This also applies to the description and explanation of possible distortions in the German GGS, where rational choice theory offers a useful approach (e.g., Esser 1985, 1990; Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski 2000). …

Focusing on Polish migrants in the UK, this article seeks to emphasise the role of market forces in immigrants’ pathways to inclusion in the social and economic system of the host society. The traditional agents of civil society—voluntary organisations, state policies, the Polish Church or advocacy networks—have, before and after EU enlargement, been less prominent in responding to the immediate needs of recent migrants for information, networks and access to host-society institutions, than the migration industry as such—here understood as a particular sector of the service economy that stimulates mobility and eases adaptation. These profit-driven institutions are also in a position of power over information that is being distributed to migrants, although their sheer outreach has a positive impact on processes of integration overall. The argument in this article seeks to inform debates in political theory that see political and market forces as locked in contradiction over the reception of migrants. In fact, the lesson learned from the story of recent Polish migrants in the UK is that free access to the labour market is the crucial step towards overcoming the so-called ‘liberal paradox’ of migration politics, and to the successful integration of migrants into their host society.

Disharmonization in the Regulation of Transgenic Plants in Europe

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is being endured throughout the world, and the European Union (EU) is no exception. The rapid spreading of the virus effected, among other things, restriction on the freedom of movement. The EU member states introduced national response measures to contain the pandemic and protect public health. While broadly similar, the measures differ with regard to strictness and the manner of introduction, reflecting the political legitimacy of the respective country. With the ‘Guidelines concerning the exercise of the free movement of workers during COVID-19 outbreak’ – its first COVID-19-related Communication – the European Commission (EC) attempted to curb differing practices of the EU member states and ensure a coordinated approach. Ultimately, this action was aimed at upholding of fundamental rights as guaranteed to EU citizens, one such being the freedom of movement. Thus, from the very start of the pandemic, the coordinated actions of EU institutions sought to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections with the support and cooperation of EU member states. This is confirmed by the most recent Council of the EU (Council) recommendation on a coordinated approach to restrictions to freedom of movement within the EU of October 2020. While they did prevent the spread of infection and save countless lives, the movement restriction measures and the resulting uncertainty have greatly affected the people, the society, and the economy, thereby demonstrating that they cannot remain in force for an extended period. This paper examines the measures introduced by EU member states and analyses the legal basis for introducing therewith limitations on human rights and market freedoms. To what extent are the EU and member states authorized to introduce restrictions on the freedom of movement in the interest of public health? Have the EU and member states breached their obligations regarding market freedoms and fundamental rights under the Treaty? And most importantly: have they endangered the fundamental rights of the citizens of the EU?

In this paper, I address the issue of European Union (EU) Member States' participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the EU Reform Treaty enters into force. In Giuliano Amato's view, no member of the EU is powerful enough to be taken seriously on its own in the international arena. Thus, in order to play an effective role in the world, the EU must join together. In this sense, coordinating its foreign trade policies and streamlining the process was one of Amato's major ambitions during the Convention on the future of Europe. If Amato's ambitions were to materialize, it would therefore be correct to interpret that EU Member States will no longer participate in the WTO forum because the EU Constitutional and Reform Treaties give exclusive competence to the EU in all areas of trade policy. However, how do we reconcile the fact that the EC and its Member States are currently members of the WTO, but after the EU Constitutional Treaty or its successor, the Reform Treaty, the EU will have exclusive competence in all trade matters? Aren't EU Member States sovereign states? Once the EU Reform Treaty is in force, how will the current polycephalous physiognomy of the EU in the WTO change? Will it make a difference? Will the EU become monocephalous in international trade negotiations, i.e., a sole trade actor? What will its implications be? Will EU Member States disappear from international trade fora? Is the EU becoming a federation of States when it comes to trade policy?

The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is a panel study on families, life course trajectories and gender relations. The GGS is part of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), a unique research infrastructure providing open access data to registered researchers. We will be focusing on the GGS waves that were already collected. With large samples per country, the GGS microdata provides researchers with a key resource to examine changes in family life, inter-generational and gender relations. The analysis of these trends is at the core of the research produced in several social science disciplines and the GGS data users have extensively used it to better understand topics such as the transition to adulthood, partnership formation and dissolution, fertility, gender roles and caring responsibilities. In the first part of this study profile, we focus on the design features of the GGS (data collection and adjustment, panel maintenance, and coverage) and subsequently we provide an overview of the organisational setup and outputs of the GGP. In the last part we reflect on the opportunities and challenges ahead of the next round of data collection.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze a particular aspect of the so-called Dublin Regulation, whose aim is to determine the European Union (EU) Member State responsible for examining an asylum application, that is, the presumption that the EU Member States are “safe countries.” Although the notion of “safe country” is on the base of the Dublin Regulation functioning mechanism, as it implies that any EU Member States can transfer an asylum seeker to any other EU country which is responsible, the authors contend that the safety of an EU Member State can be given as presumed for the purpose of asylum seekers. The analysis of the present work starts, firstly, with the examination of the notion of “safe country” under the Dublin Regulation. In the second part, relying on the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) case-law, it will be discussed to what extent the Court of Strasbourg clarifies the notion of “safe countries” and the test it applies to it. Finally, the Commission’s proposal for a recasting of the Dublin Regulation will be analysed with the aim of foresee possible future developments of the EU law mechanisms to rebut such a presumption as applied to the EU Member States. It will emerge that in order to assess the safety of an EU Member State, attention has to be given to the prohibition of both direct and indirect refoulement as well as to the effective remedy at the EU Member State’s domestic level.