Abstract
Current stratification research usually takes on an individualistic perspective focusing primarily on a social and economic position of individual men and women in the labour market. This approach, however, fails to recognise family and household context that plays a key role in understanding social inequality. Although early stratification research considers the role of family in social stratification, it emphasises only the status of the male family head as a key factor determining a social position of other family members (e.g. Blau and Duncan 1967; Goldthorpe 1980). It was not until recently, that family (all family members as a whole) was recognised as a key unit of analysis in explaining social inequality. Drobnič and Blossfeld (2004) highlight the importance of family properties – the properties of the relationships between individuals in the family – as one mechanism underlying a stratified access to positions in the labour market. Subsequently, they conduct an empirical research investigating how socio-economic assortative matings as well as upward and downward marriages affect labour market achievement of husbands and wives during the family life cycle.
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Notes
- 1.
Partnerships contracted overseas are embedded in a different context with partnerships formed in the host country. Including these partnerships in the analysis could bias the estimation of immigrants' partner choice in the host country.
- 2.
In this study, ‘native’ refers to individuals who chose the ethnic category ‘White British’ according to the ethnic classification in the 2001 Census. Ethnic minorities are identified through a self-reported ethnicity question in the 2001 Census. Individuals who reported their ethnic group other than ‘White British’ in the 2001 Census ethnic classification are treated as an ethnic minority.
- 3.
See http://www.celsius.lshtm.ac.uk for more details about the data.
- 4.
This five-class version is different from that given by the ONS (See https://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/classifications/current/ns-sec for information on NS-SEC classes and user guideline). This paper distinguishes between higher and lower managerial and professional occupations while the original ONS version does not. In addition, while the original version distinguishes between intermediate occupations and small employers and own account workers, the two classes are combined in this paper. Technically it is recommended that the self-employed should be treated as a separate class because they are distinctive in their life chances and behaviour. This paper nevertheless combines the self-employed with those in intermediate occupations for an analytical purpose.
- 5.
Although interethnic unions between Irish or White other with native White British are very common, they are excluded from this study. This is because their migration history, cultural and language background as well socio-economic composition differ substantially from non-White minority groups.
- 6.
It should be noted that the 1991 Census records limited details of educational qualifications. Only the information about higher qualifications obtained after the age of eighteen was collected. This study therefore could only distinguish between ‘degree’ and ‘sub-degree’ qualifications while the rest includes all individuals with other/ no qualification or missing information on qualification.
- 7.
For further information on Cambridge Scale of Occupations see http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk for a detailed background of the scale development and Prandy (1990) for a thorough evaluation of the scale.
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Acknowledgments
The permission of the Office for National Statistics to use the Longitudinal Study is gratefully acknowledged, as is the help provided by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information & User Support (CeLSIUS) particularly Christopher Marshall and Julian Buxton. This work contains statistical data from ONS which is Crown copyright and reproduced with the permission of the controller of HMSO and Queen’s Printer for Scotland. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.
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Muttarak, R. (2011). Occupational Mobility in the Life Course of Intermarried Ethnic Minorities. In: Wingens, M., Windzio, M., de Valk, H., Aybek, C. (eds) A Life-Course Perspective on Migration and Integration. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1545-5_10
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