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Why are some nations more religious than others? This article proposes a multilevel framework in which country differences in religious attendance are explained by contextual, individual, and cross-level interaction effects. Hypotheses from different theories are simultaneously tested with data from 60 nations obtained from the European/World Values Surveys. Multilevel logistic regression analyses show that religious regulation in a country diminishes religious attendance and that there are only small negative effects of people's own education and average educational level of the country. Religious attendance is strongly affected by personal and societal insecurities and by parental and national religious socialization and level of urbanization. These theories explain 75% of the cross-national variation in religious attendance. Adapted from the source document.

Whereas much research has been done on the benefits of social capital, less is known about the causes of the unequal distribution of social capital in people's networks. This study examines inequalities in access to social capital in terms of the socio-economic resources that are embedded in personal networks. Using data from NELLS, a nationally representative survey of the Dutch population aged 15-45 years, results show that within this age group access to social capital increases with age and educational qualifications, and is lower among women. Residing in a less affluent neighbourhood and scoring lower on a measurement for cognitive abilities are associated with less social capital. Participation in voluntary associations and having an ethnically diverse network are associated with more access to social capital. Surprisingly, when studying differences across national origin groups, we do not find that Turkish immigrants are disadvantaged in access to social capital.

In contrast to previous research on interethnic contact, which is static in nature, this article provides a dynamic analysis. The aim is to explain individuals’ changes in interethnic contact over time by considering relevant time-constant and time-varying characteristics. We investigate the effects of these characteristics measured at time one (t1) on the change in interethnic contact between t1 and time two (t2), thereby providing better estimates of causal relationships. A theory of preferences, opportunities, and third parties is used for identifying potential predictors of interethnic contact. The hypotheses are tested with panel data collected among Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Antillean immigrants in the Netherlands. The findings show that static research provides good estimates for time-constant characteristics, but it tends to overestimate the role of time-varying characteristics. Moreover, while education, language proficiency, low concentration of immigrants in the neighbourhood, and a native partner clearly lead to the development of more interethnic contact over time, there is indication that these characteristics might just as well be consequences of such contact.

This article examines differences in labor market participation and unemployment between immigrant groups in different countries. The authors argue that two macro designs must be combined to provide a more comprehensive perspective on the economic integration of immigrant groups. Instead of reliance on observations of multiple-origin groups in a single destination or a single-origin group in multiple destinations, multiple origins in multiple destinations are compared, suggesting that the economic status of immigrants may be affected by the country from which they come (\"origin effect\"), the country to which they migrate (\"destination effect\"), and the specific relations between origins and destinations (\"community effect\"). From the human capital theory, compositional hypotheses are derived, which predict that these macro effects can be attributed to the selection of human capital. From discrimination theories, contextual hypotheses are deduced, which maintain that macro effects can be ascribed to in-group preferences and out-group prejudices. Data on immigrants' labor force activity and employment in 18 Western countries during the period 1980 to 2001 are reported. Using multilevel techniques, the analysis shows that compositional differences associated with political suppression in the countries of origin, relative income inequality, and geographic distance affect the labor force status of immigrants. Contextual effects play a role as well in terms of religious origin, the presence of left wing parties in the government, and the size of the immigrant community.

Inspired by the emerging literature on transnationalism in the United States, this paper studies the return visits of adolescent children of immigrants in four European countries. Using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, cross-classified multilevel analyses indicate that parental economic resources, ethnic motivations, and political suppression are related to adolescent children of immigrants' return visits. Furthermore, return visits are positively related to adolescents' identification with the origin country and negatively to adolescents' identification with the host country.

Ethnically diverse settings provide opportunities for interethnic friendship but can also increase the preference for same-ethnic friendship. Therefore, same-ethnic friendship preferences, or ethnic homophily, can work at cross-purposes with policy recommendations to diversify ethnic representation in social settings. In order to effectively overcome ethnic segregation, we need to identify those factors within diverse settings that exacerbate the tendency toward ethnic homophily. Using unique data and multiple network analyses, the authors examine 529 adolescent friendship networks in English, German, Dutch, and Swedish schools and find that the ethnic composition of school classes relates differently to immigrant and native homophily. Immigrant homophily disproportionately increases as immigrants see more same-ethnic peers, and friendship density among natives has no effect on this. By contrast, native homophily remains relatively low until natives see dense groups of immigrants. The authors’ results suggest that theories of interethnic competition and contact opportunities apply differently to ethnic majority and minority groups.

This article examines the determinants of immigrants' language proficiency and language use, two dimensions of language which have so far remained rather separate in the literature. The underlying question is whether similar or different patterns underlie these two aspects of language. The data are from large-scale, repeated cross-sectional surveys specifically designed to study Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands. We focus on Dutch speaking skills and Dutch language use with the partner. The results show that although speaking ability and language use with the partner generally go hand-in-hand, the correlation is modest. Language proficiency and language use are equally affected by migration motive, settlement intentions and ethnic concentration in the neighbourhood. Dutch language use with the partner is strongly and directly affected by the Dutch language skills of the partner. Age at migration and education are more important for language proficiency than for language usage.

The sociological literature on social networks overwhelmingly considers the number of core social contacts. Social networks, however, reach far beyond this small number of social ties. We know little about individual variation in the size of such extended social networks. In this study, we move beyond core networks and explain individual variation in the extended social network size among youth. We use survey data of Dutch adolescents (N = 5,921) and use two state-of-the-art measurements to compute extended network sizes: network scale-up methods through Bayesian modeling and the observed number of contacts on Facebook. Among both measurements, we find that extended networks are larger among ethnic majority members, girls, and those who often engage in social foci. This highlights a crucial role for preferences and opportunity in the genesis of extended networks. Additionally, we find that differences between both network sizes (scale-up and Facebook) are smaller for girls and higher educated. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest directions for future research.

This study examines the role of immigrants' country of origin, country of destination and combinations thereof (settings or communities) in the likelihood of immigrants being self- employed. I pooled census data from three classic immigrant countries (Australia, Canada and the United States) and labor-force surveys from 14 countries in the European Union for a cross-national data set. Using multilevel techniques, I find that (1) immigrants from non-Christian countries of origin have higher odds of self-employment, (2) higher levels of unemployment among natives increase the odds of self-employment, and (3) self- employment is more frequent among immigrant communities that are small, highly educated and have a longer settlement history.

Previous studies on ethnic intermarriage have been done mainly in the United States and in other classical immigration countries. This article examines ethnic intermarriage among Surinamese, Dutch Antilleans, Turks, and Moroccans in the Netherlands. From a theoretical and empirical perspective, it is important to examine whether patterns observed earlier in traditional immigrant countries equally apply to the Dutch context. To obtain a sufficiently large sample, this study pools five nationally representative surveys, conducted in the period 1988-2002. In line with findings documented before, it observes that ethnic exogamy occurs more frequently among the second generation, and among those who arrived at a younger age, and who are higher educated. Equally corresponding to previous work, the study reports that ethnic intermarriage is more frequent when the group-specific sex ratio is more uneven and when the ethnic group is predominantly second generation. Contrary to findings observed elsewhere, results show that the black Surinamese and Dutch Antilleans have high intermarriage rates and that there is little evidence for status exchange in mixed marriages. Adapted from the source document.