European Immigrants Research Articles

Deservingness and temporal borders: the reproduction of global mobility hierarchies in Swedish family reunification

European immigration policy is increasingly selective and stratified, favoring immigrants considered productive in the eyes of society. Using the case of Swedish family reunification, this article investigates how ideas of deservingness underlie this selection process and how it intersects with temporal bordering, impacting hierarchies of transnational mobility. Through qualitative interviews with individuals across a spectrum of legal statuses, the study finds that the increased connection between immigration policy and the housing and labor markets, combined with restrictions concerning visas, age, and legal status, induce and reproduce inequalities in waiting times and access to reunification. Within these restrictions, however, families find ways to circumvent the wait and get family time. The study contributes to the temporal turn in migration studies by exploring reunification among families with diverse backgrounds, complementing previous literature’s focus on the experiences of forced migrants. By considering how deservingness and temporal bordering shape mobility, the article offers both conceptual and empirical contributions to mobility and migration studies. Ultimately, the study brings forward a nuanced analysis of the consequences of restrictive shifts in Swedish immigration policy, contributing to the broader understanding of the current, transnational, mobility regimes.

A Comparative Analysis of Ethnic Networks and Internationalization of Latin American Agri-SMEs: The Case of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile

This paper investigates the key drivers influencing the internationalization of agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (agri-SMEs) in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on the role of social and ethnic networks. Focusing on Argentina, Brazil, and Chile—three of the region’s largest agricultural economies—this study examines how familial and cultural connections between descendants of European immigrants and European entrepreneurs facilitate the global expansion of agri-SMEs. Using a cross-sectional quantitative analysis, data from agri-SME managers reveal the importance of these networks in reducing market entry barriers by providing insider knowledge of foreign markets, regulatory conditions, and potential business partnerships. The findings demonstrate that ethnic networks significantly reduce market entry barriers, providing Latin American agri-SMEs access to essential insider knowledge on foreign markets and local regulations, thereby facilitating internationalization. Additionally, agri-SMEs that leverage these networks are better positioned to meet growing global demands for sustainable, traceable food products, gaining a competitive advantage in international markets. The strength and frequency of interactions within ethnic networks are positively correlated with the degree of internationalization, highlighting the importance of social capital in overcoming operational challenges. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the underexplored role of ethnic networks in shaping the international marketing strategies of agricultural firms and their capacity to adapt to evolving consumer behaviors. The study offers practical insights for supporting the global integration of agri-SMEs in Latin America, addressing both operational challenges and the increasing need for sustainable food production practices.

Forms of address and the Portuguese presence in Santos, Brazil

The city of Santos in Brazil is the only area in the state of São Paulo where the form of address tu is found (Modesto 2006). The contact between Brazilians of European descent and Portuguese immigrants, in the beginning of the 20th century, is a possible cause of this phenomenon (Pereira & Frutuoso 2007). The literature on language contact highlights three important social variables which may lead to linguistic change. The first of these variables, as stated by Ravindranath (2015), is related to demography. The city of Santos became home to many Portuguese immigrants back in the first decade of the 20th century. The second variable is space and mobility (Britain 2013). Due to sanitary reforms (Mello 2007), the city of Santos had its urban mobility and spatial arrangement transformed, and this reshaped how the Brazilian and the Portuguese immigrants would move around the city. The last social variable is described by Dodsworth (2017) as the social role of individuals within a community. In Santos, the Portuguese immigrants had important roles in labor unions and helped to organize many of the harbor workers (Maram 1979). These factors converged to create a "solidary" scenario in Santos, which may have favored the use of more solidary forms of address where interlocutors could engage on more equal terms (see Brown & Gilman 1960) such as tu. In order to verify how the forms of address were used by Portuguese immigrants in the state of São Paulo in the beginning of the 20th century, 114 personal letters (Museu de Imigração de São Paulo 2019) were analyzed. Those immigrants who lived by the coast presented a higher use of tu in relationships among peers. In Santos, linguistic and social variables seem to have favored the use of tu and its usage persists today.

Les résultats économiques des réfugiés et réfugiées d’Europe de l’Est admis au Canada entre 1990 et 2007 : une analyse longitudinale par catégorie d’immigration et région d’origine

Canada received more than 6 million immigrants from 1990 to 2007, of whom more than 500,000 were refugees fleeing the conflicts and persecution that plagued the world during that period. However, the labour market outcomes of Eastern European Refugees have not often been examined in detail. Using the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), this paper analyzes the early years of economic integration of Eastern European refugees admitted as permanent residents to Canada from 1990 to 2007, when they were aged 25 to 54. Particular attention is paid to Eastern European immigrants because Europeans are generally among those who demonstrate better economic outcomes in the country. Thus, this paper focuses on two key labour market indicators: employment rates and income levels. Labour market outcomes are then examined by immigration categories (government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees and asylum seekers), region of birth, and gender. The results show that asylum seekers (both male and female) generally have an initial advantage on both economic indexes under analysis, but, relative to resettled refugees (those who are government or privately sponsored), this advantage fades over time. Additionally, we observe a significant variation in results depending on the region of origin and male refugees have higher economic participation than female refugees.

What Explains Voting for DENK: Issues, Discrimination or In-group Favouritism?

ABSTRACT Why do ethnic and religious minorities vote for DENK? DENK is the first pro-Turkey and pro-Islam party represented in Dutch parliament, led by Turkish- and Moroccan-origin politicians who openly profess to practicing Islam. Drawing on an original survey (N= 905) among Dutch voters in which we oversampled those with Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese roots, we put three possible explanations to the test: issues, discrimination and in-group favouritism. Each subsample is religiously mixed and includes Muslims and/or Christians and voters who are not religious. While ethnic in-group favouritism, feelings of belonging in the Netherlands, experiences with discrimination and issues sometimes explain voting for DENK, Muslim in-group favouritism is the decisive factor. These findings contribute to understanding voting behaviour in increasingly religiously diverse European immigration societies.

Immigration Causes: Threats And Implication for Europe

EU immigration has therefore caused the formation of a complex and controversial social and political process as a result of interrelated factors that are economic, political and social. Immigration in the European environment is discussed in this thesis through the identification of causes, impacts and challenges. For these reason, comers have arrived in Europe through several reasons like conflicts, poverty, and search for other better opportunities that have impacted societies in Europe, especially in the change of demography which can be seen as opportunities by some and challenges by others. Therefore, the goals of the present study are confined to the social, political, and economic consequences of Immigration in Europe. This paper considers the problem, challenges faced to services, social integration problems, and national security problems on the other side, it also considers the positive face of the immigrants in terms of diversification of culture, as being the economic boosters, and the solution of demography issues. As it turns out analyzing once again the discourses of populism and nationalism that came to the fore with the focus on immigration, the thesis measures the trends thrown up by the above discourses and their impact on shaping the desirable and non-discriminatory immigration policies at both European and national levels. In its economic part, it compares the supplanting of skills, the possibility of immigrants as innovators, and the role of an immigrant in pension schemes on the one hand, and immigrants competing for a job and taking the social welfare of society, on the other. To strengthen the criticism of grassroots utilization, the research emphasizes the need for integrating a hitherto juxtaposition of immigration, namely causes and domestic consequences. In this regard, this paper highlights the need to pursue conscious policies on integration and harmonization for purposes of fostering the development of social solidarity and proper management of implied diversity and inclusion.

From the Fringe to the front-stage. European immigration and the Far-Right vote: An IV approach

We use regional data spanning over 4500 electoral outcomes at NUTS3 level between 2000 and 2017 to assess the impact of immigration on Western European Far-Right voting. To deal with potential reverse causation, we use immigration in neighboring countries as an instrument for domestic immigration. The estimated effects of immigration are positive, significant and larger compared to those obtained by simple OLS and fixed effects regressions. Depending on the measure of immigration used, we find that a 1% increase in immigration stocks leads to a between 1.78% and 2.97% in Far-Right voting. Similar results are obtained using electoral outcomes and immigration shares at the NUTS2 level, where the effect of immigration is estimated between 3% and 5.32%. Our results are consistent with possible negative feedback from the Far-Right to immigration. Our estimated effects explain a large part of the observed rise in Far-Right in Western European countries that experienced high levels of immigration during the span of our sample.

“Foreign Work”: The New York Public Library’s Service to Slavic and East European Immigrants, 1901–1940

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) work with Czech and Slovak (Bohemian), Rusyn (Ruthenian), Hungarian, Polish and Russian immigrants 1901-1940. The work was commonly referred to among library staff as “foreign work.” Much of NYPL’s “foreign work” with members of these ethnic groups originated on the congested Lower East Side (five Carnegie branches), the Upper East Side (four Carnegie branches), and then followed population shifts to other areas of Manhattan and into the Bronx and Staten Island. By focusing on the needs and desires of these immigrants, the NYPL’s librarians helped them adapt to life in the United States of America.

The political effects of intra-EU migration: Evidence from national and European elections in seven countries

This article studies the impact of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe on support for Eurosceptic parties. The analysis covers 30 national and European Parliament elections in seven Western, Northern and Southern European countries (2004 to 2019). For each election, I analyse how the local-level share of the vote for right- and left-wing Eurosceptic parties varies as a function of the levels and changes in the local-level share of Central and Eastern European immigrants from the population, controlling for the influence of relevant demographic, social and economic variables. I find that higher levels of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe are systematically related to higher voting shares cast for right-wing Eurosceptic parties at the local level in all of these countries, net of the influence of non-Western immigration, in elections for the European Parliament and in national elections as well. The effects on left-wing Euroscepticism are heterogeneous: positive in the Netherlands, Austria and Portugal, but negative in Italy, Denmark and Sweden. The effects have not diminished significantly over the past 15 years and are most visible in mid-sized localities.

Family Formation and Employment Changes Among Descendants of Immigrants in France: A Multiprocess Analysis

This paper investigates the association between family formation and the labour market trajectories of immigrants’ descendants over the life course. Using rich data from the Trajectories and Origins survey from France, we apply multilevel event history models to analyse the transitions in and out of employment for both men and women by parity. We account for unobserved co-determinants of childbearing and employment by applying a simultaneous-equations modelling. Our analysis shows that women’s professional careers are negatively associated with childbirth. There are differences across descendant groups. The female descendants of Turkish immigrants are more likely to exit employment and less likely to re-enter employment following childbirth than women from other groups. The negative impact of childbearing on employment is slightly overestimated among women due to unobserved selection effects. Among men, the descendants of European immigrants are less likely to exit employment after having a child than other descendant groups. The study demonstrates the negative effect of childbearing on women’s employment, which is pronounced for some minority groups suggesting the need for further policies to help women reconcile work with family life.

A relational approach to digital racism: Toward a theoretical model

In recent decades, anti-immigrant, racist and nationalist attitudes have become increasingly mainstream, transforming public debates on immigration and immigrants in Europe and beyond. These attitudes and sentiments have been widely disseminated and amplified through digital communication, including commercial social media platforms. To better understand the relationship between racism and digital communication, it is necessary to move beyond media-centric explanations and simplified discussions of online hate speech and platform regulation. Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-theoretical approach to digital racism, i.e., racist content produced and circulated online. The paper presents an understanding of digital racism in relation to four perspectives: networked affect, nationalism, masculinity and conspiracy thinking. It takes a relational approach to these theoretical perspectives and discusses how they could be utilized to understand and analytically approach digital racism at the macro, meso and micro levels.

Caught between two homelands: The dilemmas of the second generation of Europeans in Argentina during the great war

ABSTRACT On the eve of the Great War, European immigrants made up 27% of Argentina’s total population. This article examines the tensions surrounding the definitions of citizenship and its concomitant duties as this impacted on the mobilisation of the second generation of three immigrant communities in Argentina: the British, the French and the Italian. In particular it will analyse wartime debates around the controversial issue of dual nationality and national belonging, and the measures adopted in the post-war era to remedy ambiguities in the socio-legal reproduction of citizens.

Correction to: Generational Dissonance or Cultural Persistence? European Immigration and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Beliefs

Correction to: Generational Dissonance or Cultural Persistence? European Immigration and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Beliefs

Regional Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Immigration: Evidence from the European Social Survey Using Small Area Estimation

The present article is the first empirical investigation of attitudes towards immigration in Europe via small area estimation providing reliable regional estimates across European regions. Four dimensions of regional attitudes are considered, i.e., restrictive attitudes towards specific groups, restrictive attitudes towards acquired criteria, threat, and restrictive attitudes towards ascribed criteria. We produce maps of these, as well as validation outputs, demonstrating that our estimates are reliable, hence, have a strong potential in informing policy makers. We show that, although there is a large between-country variation of these attitudes, there are also large spatial differences between-region in some countries. Overall, Swedish public attitudes tend to be quite homogeneous across regions, and located towards the positive side, whereas Eastern European countries tend to show negative attitudes across all the dimensions apart from the acquired criteria. However, in these countries, we can see larger spatial differences across regions, especially in the ascribed criteria and attitudes towards specific groups indicator. In general, the threat dimension does not show a large between-region variability, compared to the other three dimensions.

Holocaust Refugees in Bolivia: Immigration Through a Postcolonial and Microhistorical Lens

Abstract Jewish refugees who escaped the Holocaust by emigrating to Bolivia formed a vibrant Jewish community of around 20,000 for two decades and maintained a presence there until the 1970s. This article examines Bolivia as a place of migration and refuge during and after the Holocaust, and asks whether Eurocentric perspectives in postcolonial contexts have perpetuated the notion that Bolivia could not truly become a home for these refugees. In supporting European immigration for colonization, the Bolivian government sought to overcome an economic crisis caused by the Chaco War in the 1930s. During the peak emigration years of 1938 and 1939, Jewish families arrived from Germany and its annexed territories intending to rebuild a normal life. By focusing on one extended family and using a microhistorical lens, the article explores complex and layered experiences of prejudice. It analyses how migrants’ willingness or reluctance to engage with others through sport and music offers insights into forms of conviviality among individuals belonging to various social groups in a postcolonial context. Using archival documents, memoirs, and the video testimonies of Jewish survivors, this article presents Bolivia as an important refugee destination, thereby redressing its omission due to persistent epistemological shortcomings that have perpetuated its invisibility in this respect.

Generational Dissonance or Cultural Persistence? European Immigration and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Beliefs

Abstract Contemporary perspectives on gender highlight the multilevel processes that maintain the gender system, from the hegemonic cultural beliefs embedded in state institutions to the gendered interactions that occur in everyday life. This study investigates immigration as a source of diversity and adaptation in the gender system. Using data on immigrant and native adolescents in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), we examine the intergenerational transmission of attitudes about the domestic division of labor. Our results show a strong association between mother’s gender attitudes and child’s gender attitudes among both immigrants and natives, with no significant difference between the two groups. The persistence of beliefs grounded in family culture results in significantly higher levels of gender traditionalism among adolescent children of immigrants as compared to their native peers. These results underscore the centrality of families as a relational context that contributes both to the reproduction of cultural beliefs about gender and the slow pace of shifts in hegemonic gender beliefs in response to social change.

Origin of Islamophobia in Europe: A Case Study of Hungary

The attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) in 2001 proved to be a turning point in the relationship between Islam and the West. Subsequently, the United States (US) invaded Iraq to avenge the tragedy. The US called its militaristic venture into the Middle East as an "act against terror." This invasion triggered a political crisis in the Middle Eastern countries. This situation was further aggravated by the Arab Spring, which occurred in the Middle East in 2011. The Arab Spring created problems in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Tunisia. Political instability in the Middle East has forced Arab people to immigrate to European countries. The increase in Arab immigrants in the early 21st century fueled Islamophobia in Europe. Hungary is one of the European countries that has accepted many Arab immigrants. This studydiscusses the relationship between the rise of Arab migration and the increase of Islamophobia in Europe, particularly in Hungary. A qualitative research approach was used to analyse various government and non-government reports and literature. This study argues that the increasing population of Arab immigrants in Europe has led to the emergence of right-wing political movements. These movemnets play a major role in carrying out Islamophobic propaganda in European social and cultural life.

Debunking Immigration Myths: A Review Essay of Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success

This essay reviews Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success by Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan. This elegantly written book, whih is a must-read for anyone interested in the topic of immigration, walks the reader through a history of US immigration, examining patterns of immigrant assimilation from the mid-nineteenth century to today. The book challenges two myths about US immigration. First, it shows that historical European immigrants did not always arrive poor and quickly climb the economic and social ladder. Second, it documents that the pace of immigrant assimilation today resembles that prevailing at the turn of the twentieth century. (JEL J15, J18, K37, N31, N32, Z13)

Islam and the Transmission of Cultural Identity in Four European Countries

Abstract Studies exploring the integration of European immigrants tend to find cultural gaps between Muslim children and their peers. While some scholars argue that parent-to-child transmission is a key mechanism underlying this pattern, others privilege extrafamilial explanations by pointing to differences in cultural values within Muslim households. In the present study, I argue that these mixed results stem from a tendency in the literature to analyze distinct components of personal culture in isolation from cognate dimensions. To address this shortcoming, I use multigroup latent class models to explore how a wide range of attitudes (tapping ethnocultural identity, gender norms, sexual liberalism, and perspectives on integration) are clustered together in disparate regions of the belief space, marking distinct cultural identities. Then, I fit a series of logistic regressions to map how these cultural identities are distributed among immigrant-origin samples in four European countries and transmitted across generational lines. Ultimately, I arrive at the following conclusion: while Muslim youth stand out from their peers vis-à-vis their cultural identity profiles, there is little evidence to suggest that this pattern is decisively shaped by parent-to-child transmission.

The role of identification, intergroup contact, and group discrimination in shaping return and circular migration intentions: Recent Turkish immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands

This article investigates return and circular migration intentions among recent Turkish immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands using the “Socio-cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe” (SCIP) study ( N = 1,816). Analyses using multinomial logistic regression indicate that future settlement intentions vary with the interplay of identification with home and host countries, intergroup contact with natives, co-ethnics, and other groups, and group discrimination. Findings reveal that home country identification, intersecting with group discrimination, is associated with a higher likelihood of preferring circular migration, amplified by contact with other groups. Conversely, host country identification, when combined with group discrimination, is linked to a higher likelihood of intending to return and a decreased likelihood of considering circular migration—a trend that strengthens with contact with co-ethnics. Notably, the association between contact with natives and future settlement intentions is not contingent on identification or discrimination, and each has distinct effects.