The work addresses how Western European countries are incorporating immigrant populations and their influence on their mobility trajectories.

Wednesday, June 5, 2024.  main researcher of the LM²C²  Millennium Nucleus and Sociology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, published the research article "Intergenerational Social Mobility Among the Children of Immigrants in Western Europe: Between Socioeconomic Assimilation and Disadvantage" in the prestigious scientific journal “Journal of Social Sciences.

Through detailed analysis, the researcher examines how Western European countries are incorporating immigrant populations and why mobility trajectories are particularly suitable for measuring the influence of immigrant origins on life opportunities.

The work compares absolute intergenerational mobility trajectories between the second generation and native populations using nationally representative data in seven European countries and reports two main findings

On the one hand, the main trend of similarity between natives and immigrants in mobility trajectories is documented, suggesting that the fate of the second generation — like that of their native counterparts — is primarily determined by the social class of the parents rather than immigrant origin per se.

Secondly, disaggregating results by regional origins reveals heterogeneous mobility outcomes. On the one hand, certain groups have higher risks of stagnation when coming from lower classes, and on the other hand, a pattern of second-generation advantage was observed, whereby certain groups are more likely to experience some degree of upward mobility  observó un patrón de ventaja de segunda generación, en el cual ciertos grupos tienen más probabilidades de experimentar algún grado de movilidad ascendente.

Overall, the results suggest that immigrant origins themselves do not strongly constrain the socioeconomic destiny of the second generation in Western Europe.

Sociological Science is considered one of the most prestigious research journals internationally in the field of sociology. Its publications, which are open access and online, seek to contribute to debate and analysis, thus promoting knowledge in the field.

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