Social mobility is a key objective for policy to foster inclusive economies and societies. How immigrants and their children, who are now accounting for almost one-in-five persons in the OECD, are faring in this respect, is particularly important for social cohesion. It is not surprising that many persons who have immigrated as adults face specific difficulties to progress, linked among others to the fact that they have been raised and educated in a different environment and education system, and that they may not have the same command of the host language as the native-born. One would, however, generally expect that for children of immigrants, especially those who are native-born, these barriers would disappear and they could enjoy the same opportunity for social mobility as their peers. Yet, evidence from previous work by the OECD and the European Union suggests that native-born children of immigrants tend to still lag behind their peers with native-born parents in many OECD countries, especially in Europe. This is particularly worrying since these are a large and growing group in most countries.

The consequences of past immigration and integration are reflected in today’s intergenerational mobility of immigrants’ native-born children. This publication presents a series of country case studies. Among these OECD countries, Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands share the experience of large-scale low-educated immigration, the so-called “guest workers”, in the post-World War II economic boom period. The native‑born children of these immigrants generally had relatively lower starting conditions in terms of socio-economic characteristics compared to their peers with native‑born parents. In contrast, immigration to Canada has been largely high-educated, although not all immigrant groups have the same background, and intergenerational mobility patterns vary across groups. The native-born children of many Asian immigrants in Canada, for example, have a remarkably high university attendance rate that is relatively insensitive to parents’ education, family income and even their own high school results.

This chapter examines the intergenerational socio-economic mobility of immigrants’ offspring in Austria, and shows how the transmission from parents to their children differs between native parents and immigrant parents. The analysis focuses on children of Yugoslav and Turkish descent, since these two groups comprise the largest set of immigrants’ children in Austria. Besides offering information on the main characteristics of the Austrian immigration system and some historical and institutional information, it presents empirical findings on the educational attainment of immigrants’ offspring using EU-SILC data. The Austrian preschool system is identified in view of its strong relevance in determining one’s educational path, and results are presented on the role parents’ education plays in deciding which education route the children are likely to take. A concluding section summarises the three strongly interlinked “dividing lines” that greatly hinder the upward mobility of the native children of immigrants, and notes a striking contrast between those of Yugoslav and Turkish descent.

This chapter provides an overview of the intergenerational mobility outcomes of immigrants’ children in France, focusing on both education and labour market outcomes. A large share of the results stem from the Trajectories and Origin Survey (TeO), which was produced by the Institut national d’études démographiques (INED) and the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE). The TeO Survey allows for comparison of the outcomes of natives with immigrant parents with those of natives with native parents. Objective measures of inequalities, for instance in educational trajectories, unemployment and wages, are combined with self-reported measures of discrimination and viewpoints on social mobility. Overall, these results show that upward mobility is not evenly distributed among the offspring of immigrant parents and that gender, in addition to origin, is a major variable to take into account. Those whose parents arrived from outside Europe are generally at a disadvantage when compared with other immigrants’ children. More specifically, the sons of North and sub-Sahara African immigrants repeatedly appear to be in a position of disadvantage when compared to their fathers and sisters.

The chapter begins with a brief demographic sketch of Turkish and Yugoslav immigrants and their offspring in Germany based on data from 2012. It then describes their situation in the education system and in the labour market in 2000 and in 2012. In doing so it assesses how immigrant-native gaps vary across generations and over time, with separate analyses for men and women. The discussion explores the factors triggering intergenerational progress and change, exploring the extent to which a lack of educational attainment results in later disadvantage in the labour market. The most prevalent approaches to explaining group-specific trajectories are presented, with the focus on the ongoing disadvantage for those of Turkish descent. Factors other than educational attainment are also explored, namely by addressing the most important results from existing studies on the role of language skills, social ties and ethnic discrimination.

Using research reports from the Dutch Social Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP) and data from The Integration of the European Second Generation (TIES) Survey, this chapter compares the intergenerational social mobility of the offspring of immigrants and their parents for the two most disadvantaged ethnic groups in the Netherlands. It follows the school and labour market careers of the native-born children of Turkish and Moroccan descent, describing outcomes at various stages and noting differences with peers of Dutch descent. Attempting to ascertain what produces the stark polarisation within this group – whereby some enjoy exceptionally steep mobility while others stay behind – the chapter points to the role played by the complex policies and institutional arrangements of the country’s educational system. It goes on to discuss how educational outcomes translate into labour market outcomes, highlighting striking gender differences. Finally, it shows how the phenomenon of the “multiplier effect” can help children of less educated immigrants be successful against all odds.

This chapter investigates the labour market situation of Swedish native-born sons and daughters in immigrant and native families with regard to their parents’ education, as well as intergenerational educational mobility patterns for these families. The latter are compared in order to ascertain whether the roles played by institutions and family background vary across these two groups. Rather than focussing solely on father-son pairs, the chapter looks at all family combinations, including mothers and daughters and mixed couples. Since there can be differences across countries of origin for those families with an immigrant background, all country groups of interest are analysed separately. Transmission patterns are also investigated separately for different household types with regard to parental composition.

This chapter asks whether and why disadvantage might become entrenched for some groups of natives with a migration background. Using the ad hoc module of the 2014 European Union Labour Force Survey, it compares the over- and underrepresentation in occupational levels of children of immigrants from different origins. In light of prior research, it goes on to pursue possible lines of enquiry to account for entrenchment of disadvantage, demonstrating that it cannot be explained solely by low socio-economic origins. Other potential factors such as differential minority/majority rates of intergenerational mobility, perverse fluidity and replenishment from the countries of origin, grandparental influences and discrimination are then considered. The discussion concludes with a description of the characteristics needed for a data set to eventually furnish conclusive answers.

This chapter reviews the academic literature on new immigrants’ intergenerational educational and labour market integration in the United States and Canada, and presents new findings. It begins with a discussion of American and Canadian immigration history, and then addresses the intergenerational transmission of educational outcomes. Particular attention is paid to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially minority ethnic-group students. The discussion points to language deficiencies as a major drawback, and outlines possible reasons for the relatively slow integration of the Hispanic community into higher levels of education in the United States. The chapter then turns to labour market outcomes in both countries, examining participation rates and earnings gaps for adult immigrants, immigrants who arrived as children, the children of immigrants and, as a comparison group, children with two native-born parents.