Gender and Internal Geographical Mobility in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Family and Employment Over the Life Course

Geographical mobility plays a crucial role in shaping demographic and social change, yet few studies have examined its impact on occupational success and the transmission of social inequality across generations. This study aims to investigate the effect of internal migration on occupational status in Italy, exploring whether men and women experience a benefit or disadvantage from South-to-North migration, and if this effect is influenced by family status and social class of origin. The research is based on the Italian Household Longitudinal Survey and utilizes a set of fixed effects linear regression panel models combined with Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM). Results show that only men benefit from migration, while women experience a disadvantage, which increases when they move after union formation and the transition to parenthood. Furthermore, the impact of geographical mobility on occupational status varies based on social class of origin only for men, with those from higher classes experiencing a much greater migration benefit than those from medium and lower classes. These findings demonstrate that geographical mobility serves as an additional source of advantage for individuals from higher social classes. The positive effect on male occupational success compounds with family-related benefits, further widening social disparities between individuals in different social strata.

This study explores the role of cultural competence in the sociocultural adaptation of Arab immigrant women and examines how their marital status, employment status, and motherhood impact their adaptation. Cultural competence is essential for navigating societal expectations and overcoming barriers to inclusion. The integration experiences of Arab women are influenced by their employment, family status, and degree of social engagement. The current study employed a quantitative research approach, surveying 300 Arab immigrant women from Türkiye, Bulgaria, and England. Validated instruments, such as the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS), evaluated adaptation outcomes. The findings indicated that working women exhibited higher levels of cultural competence and social integration than unemployed women and stay-at-home mothers, as they benefited from greater exposure to multicultural environments and more opportunities for professional interactions. In contrast, unemployed women and stay-at-home mothers reported feeling more isolated, primarily depending on their ethnic networks for social interactions, which created both opportunities and barriers in their integration process. Additionally, the marital status of Arab women can significantly affect their integration, as married women may face additional barriers resulting from cultural expectations that limit their freedom of movement and participation in social and professional roles. Conversely, single women might experience greater independence but encounter societal pressures to seek autonomy. Another layer of complexity surrounding integration and adaptation for Arab immigrant women involves motherhood. Mothers must navigate their cultural identity while helping their children adapt to European societal expectations. This study emphasizes the importance of implementing targeted actions, such as promoting workplace diversity initiatives, encouraging community participation, and enhancing cultural competence initiatives, to bridge the adaptation gap for Arab immigrant women. Policymakers can create a framework for inclusion and well-being when designing an integration strategy by considering the interplay of marital status, employment, and motherhood. If Europe aims to support Arab immigrant women in overcoming cultural challenges, enhancing access to economic opportunities, and fostering a culture-specific understanding of their integration experiences is vital.

A comparative study of the patterning of women's health by family status and employment status in Finland and Sweden

The Link Between Homeless Women's Mental Health and Service System Use

The current issues surrounding migration and population mobility are subject to active study and analysis within both domestic and international literature. Concurrently, greater attention is accorded to the socio-economic and demographic aspects, factors and causes of migration processes and social and labour relations. Consequently, as with any social phenomenon, the labour and migration mobility of the population is influenced by a number of additional factors, including those that are not economic in nature. In this article, the authors examine the influence of two factors: family status and belonging to a particular ethnic group. The objective of this article is to ascertain the impact of ethnicity and family status on the labour mobility and migration behaviour of the population of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The empirical basis of this article is formed by the results of two sociological surveys: “Quality of Employment and Human Development” (2020) and “Ethnic Features of Employment and Labor Mobility of the Population of the Republics of the Russian Federation” (2024). The study focuses on individuals belonging to the three largest ethnic groups in the Republic of Bashkortostan, aged between 18 and 64 years, and residing in the region on a permanent basis. The three largest ethnic groups in the Republic of Bashkortostan are the Bashkirs, Russians, and Tatars. The findings of our study indicate that family and marital status exert a considerable influence on the labour trajectory and migration mobility of the population. While belonging to a particular ethnic group is significant, its impact is less pronounced in the context of the Republic of Bashkortostan, where it is more closely associated with the distinctive characteristics of rural or urban settlement of ethnic groups. The authors of the article concede that the influence of ethnicity on labour and migration mobility of the population may be less pronounced or, conversely, more pronounced in other Russian regions, republics or countries.

This paper analyses the reliability and accuracy of the relationships between migration and employment status when estimated using a linked data set. The analysis will be carried out using a new source, the Labour and Geographical Mobility Statistics, which is provided by the Spanish Statistical Office. This statistic is constructed by an exact matching procedure, linking the Labour Force Survey with the Official Population Register. The findings reveal that in order to accurately study geographic labour mobility, timing and geographical coherence between the two data sets must exist. If this is not the case, causality relations between the labour market and geographical mobility cannot be properly analysed. Although our analysis refers to the microdata quality and internal coherence of this new Spanish statistic, our conclusion can be extended to any linked data set for studying geographic labour mobility, including the population censuses mainly based on administrative data.

Drawing on the new DEMIG VISA database which covers global bilateral travel regulations from 1973 to 2013, this paper explores patterns and trends in international travel visa regimes. The analysis challenge the idea of a growing global mobility divide between ‘North’ and ‘South’, yielding a more complex image reflecting the multi-polar and multi-layered nature of international relations. While predominantly European and North American OECD countries have maintained relatively high levels of entry visa restrictiveness for Africa and Asia, the latter regions have the highest levels of entry restrictions themselves. While citizens of wealthy (mainly OECD) countries generally enjoy greatest visa-free travel opportunities, this primarily reflects their freedom to travel to other OECD countries. Visa-free travel is mostly realised between geographically proximate countries of integrated regional blocs such as ECOWAS, the EU, GCC and MERCOSUR. Analyses of global dynamics in visa reciprocity show that 21 per cent of the country dyads have asymmetrical visa rules, but also show that levels of reciprocity have increased since the mid-1990s. Our analysis shows that visas are not ‘just’ instruments regulating entry of visitors and exit of citizens, but are manifestations of broader political economic trends and inequalities in international power relations.

The private writings of two Southern Baptist women missionaries in China are analyzed to deepen our understanding of women’s perspectives on their daily lives. After reviewing secondary research on married and single women’s work in China, the author uses primary source examples from family letters and diaries to illustrate differences in responsibilities and opportunities for single and married women, and how motherhood changed their relationship to their work even further. Requirements for “homemaking”, and a “civilizing mission” expected of married women, increased pressure on missionary wives. Single women, arriving in larger numbers in the early 20th century, were able to focus only on the mission work and accomplish more. The success and productivity of single women further marginalized married women, particularly those with children, who could not keep up with their single counterparts in the mission work. By exploring these two exemplars we can draw an even more nuanced picture of the many ways Baptist women missionaries negotiated their callings in light of their family status.

Examining geographic and occupational mobility: A loglinear modelling approach

Although there is substantial attention to judicial decision-making during sentencing, fewer studies have examined decision-making post sentencing. Further, the interactions of probationer race and additional background factors have been under studied in post-sentencing decision-making. This study utilizes the focal concerns perspective to examine whether race interacts with gender, family status, and employment status in predicting sanctioning probationers for noncompliance. A sample of probation review hearings within an eight-month period in three domestic violence courts were selected. Results demonstrate that race does not interact with other background factors in influencing a jail sanction, while non-compliant behaviors are the strongest predictors.

This paper aims to analyse the social selectivity of internal movers in six European countries, by examining the influence of education and social origin on the likelihood of moving. The study, using ShareLife data, reveals country-specific variations in social selectivity. France and Poland show a skilled selection of internal movers, where education is the primary factor affecting the likelihood of moving, with no additional effect of social origin. In Germany and Sweden, internal movers are selected based on their social origin as well as education, but this double selection differs between the two countries, with a boosting scenario in Germany and a systematic effect of social origin in Sweden, regardless of educational level. Finally, in Spain and Italy, the social selectivity of movers is less evident. Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the interplay of education and social origin in understanding the social selectivity of internal movers.

This paper studies the effect in the Italian case of geographical mobility on employment and occupational attainment, defined as access to the upper class, avoidance of the working class, and avoidance of agricultural jobs. It observes the distribution of its effect over the life course. Given that migration is a gendered phenomenon, we perform separate analyses by gender. Our data set, moreover, includes residential information at the municipality level, making it possible to specify geographical mobility in different ways, according to the distance, the characteristics of origin, and destination and the frequency of individual movements. Third, it studies whether the effects of geographical mobility change according to social class of origin and geographical area of origin.Our analyses, based on linear probability panel models with fixed effects, show a strong gender divide concerning the probability of employment and avoidance of the working class. A positive effect of geographical mobility on occupational outcomes appears to exist only as regards men, because for women the divergence between movers and stayers appears well before geographical mobility. Finally, the effects of geographical mobility are generally stronger for individuals originating from the middle and lower classes and from rural areas, but they are not so strong as to enable those individuals to substantially change their position in the occupational hierarchy.

We study the joint impact of gender and marital status on financial decisions. First, we test the hypothesis that marriage represents - in a portfolio framework - a sort of safe asset, and that this effect is stronger for women. Controlling for a number of observable characteristics, we show that single women have a lower propensity to invest in risky assets than married females and males. Second, we show that the differential behavior of single women evolves over time, reflecting the increasing incidence of divorce and the expansion of female labor market participation. In particular, towards the end of our sample period, we observe a reduction in the gap between women with different family status, which can be attributed to the gradual erosion of the perception of marriage as a sort of safe asset. Our results therefore suggest that the differential behavior of single vs. married women can be explained by the evolution of gender roles in society, even after controlling for differential risk attitudes. Our empirical investigation is based on a dataset drawn from the 1989-2006 Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth.

This chapter examines the impact of recent French activation policies1 on social citizenship, that is, on the whole set of social rights and duties attached either to the individual citizen and/or to employment, as well as to the family. France is usually referred to as a Bismarckian welfare regime, where entitlements to social rights initially rely on both the employment and the family status as opposed to universal welfare regimes, where entitlements are attached to citizenship. However, recent shifts in activation policies tend to turn traditional Bismarckian welfare and income support schemes into 'active welfare', promoting'active citizenship' through conditional entitlements that increasingly rely on contracts rather than on employment or family statuses. These changes not only contradict traditional Bismarckian entitlement principles but also challenge the social status and entitlements of non-employed2 citizens.

nnnnn Much has been written about the low status of women in Australia in the late twentieth century. In attempting to explain this phenomenon, historians looked to the pioneering phase of Australia's settlement for the possible origins. It has been stated that the status and power of women was diminished by their dependence upon men during this period of development.nnnnn After the initial attempts by feminist writers to provide generalised analysis of the experiences of women in Australia in the nineteenth century, the belief arose that class, age, race, region and time of settlement (regional development) were all factors which influenced their experiences.nnnnn Before an overall picture can be formed of the commonality of women's experiences in Australia, studies of identifiable groups of women within cogent regions must be undertaken.nnnnn Sufficient evidence remains of the lives of upper middle-class or elite women in south-east Queensland, comprising the Moreton Bay and Darling Downs pastoral districts, for just such a study to be conducted. Letters, diaries and reminiscences of this literate stratum of women cover the period 1843 to 1900. The settlement and development of south-east Queensland up to the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia coincided with the lengthy Victorian period which was a time of change for women's aspirations and lifestyles.nnnnn To discern whether upper middle-class women gained, retained or lost status, independence and power because of the pioneering experience within south-east Queensland, it is necessary to compare their models (lifestyle aspirations) and modes (actual style) of life with those of their contemporary British equivalents.nnnnn It was from Victorian Britain that these upper middle-class women drew their roles, attitudes and behaviour. These models of life for women underwent significant change in Britain during this period as the burgeoning middle-classes looked to those above them for ideals and patterns of behaviour. When the ideals of marriage, family and home could not be fulfilled in practice, single women began to seek independent lives outside domestic patriarchy.nnnnn The changing models of life of Victorian British middle-class women as well as the region's development influenced the lives of women in southeast Queensland.nnnnn Upper middle-class women in Britain moved from the 'perfect wife' mode of life to that of the 'perfect lady' in the first part of the Victorian era. The 'perfect wife' was actively involved in housework and childcare as part of her role of helpmeet to her husband, assisting in the economic progress of the family. In contrast, the 'perfect lady' was supervisor of the servants who performed the housework and cared for the children. She carried out social duties in the form of entertaining, calling on suitable middle-class acquaintances and friends and generally maintaining or enhancing the family's status in this manner.nnnnn Single women were prepared for marriage by learning the skills necessary to run a home. The emphasis changed from performing the tasks to supervising those who did as the 'perfect lady' ideal was adopted. However, as the century progressed the percentage of women in Britain who married decreased. As marriage became a less likely option, single women began to pursue education and employment, living independently outside the home - the so-called 'new woman' mode of life.nnnnn In south-east Queensland, the physical independence of women was limited during the pioneering phase of development increasing as the region developed over the next fifty years until it equalled that possessed by women of similar rank in Britain.nnnnn The status of elite married women in south-east Queensland was high for most of the period because of women's involvement in the early phases of settlement. It declined as the perfect lady mode which separated the spheres of employment of men and women became not only the aspiration but the achievement of upper middle-class women.nnnnn For unmarried elite women, residence in south-east Queensland, particularly during the early period of settlement, allowed them relatively independent lives removed from the strictures of Victorian society and promoted their status within their families as they assisted in achieving the goal of economic success.nnnnn Married and single elite women possessed delegated or influential power rather than real power derived from economic independence and legal rights. For both groups influential power was dependent upon the status of the women and the quality of the personal relationship each held with the patriarch of the family.nnnnn The conclusion can be made that upper middle-class women in south-east Queensland did not lose independence, status or power in comparison with their British counterparts over the period 1840 to 1900 despite the rigours of the pioneering experience. Rather than isolation reducing women's status it was the growing uselessness prescribed by the perfect lady mode which de-skilled them and made work beneath their rank, leaving them vulnerable to a changing view of productive work whereby value became ascribed to paid employment only.