上海大学社会学院系列讲座
2016年第8讲 总第414讲
题目：风险规避：英国少数族群子女的教育和劳动力市场错配
Aiming higher? A heightened risk aversion thesis for explaining the mismatch between the educational success and labour market disadvantages of the second generation minority ethnic members in the UK
主讲人：李姚军
曼彻斯特大学社会学教授
主持人：张文宏
社会学院 教授
时间：2016年4月8日(周五) 10:00-12:00
地点：校本部B417
内容简介：
The socio-economic integration of members of ethnic minority origins, the second-generation in particular, is of fundamental importance to the social stability and economic prosperity of the destination society. This paper examines the educational and occupational attainment of the second-generation ethnic minority groups in the UK. Using the UK Longitudinal Household Study (UKLHS), we find that the second generation from all major groups outperformed whites in educational attainment in spite of parental socio-economic disadvantages. Yet we also find that the returns to education are much lower for the second generation, which is as true of all second-generation members as of the degree-holders amongst them. The lower returns are shown in higher risks of unemployment, lower access to the salariat, and lower incomes and earnings. The second generation are also more likely than the whites to face discrimination of one kind or another, such as in getting an interview, being offered a job, receiving training opportunities or gaining promotions. The mismatch between the educational success and the labour market disadvantage of the second generation is not fully explicable by theories of class-lined social reproduction or relative risk aversion but needs to take into account expected or perceived ethnic penalty. We suggest a new thesis of ‘heightened risk aversion’ to account for the mismatch, namely, that in anticipation of disadvantages they are likely to face in recruitment and career advancement, the second generation wished to provide stronger signals to potential employers about their employability by having higher levels of educational qualifications to pre-empt and offset the likely discounting of such signals in the screening process in the recruitment processes. In addition, the omnipresent setbacks and frustrations, particularly those associated with hyper-cyclical unemployment rooted in ethnic penalty, as faced by parents, relatives, and co- and pan- ethnic friends and acquaintances, also reinforced the second generation’s determination to aim higher in education to avoid falling much lower in the labour market.
报告人简介：
曼彻斯特大学社会学教授和Director of the PGR Program for the Applied Social Research (ASR) at the CMIST、西安交通大学长江学者讲座教授。研究兴趣主要分布在社会流动、社会资本、少数族群社会融合、主观幸福感等领域，他历年来在这些领域的研究成果发表于British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, European Sociological Review等重要社会学刊物。目前从事的研究课题包括 'Understanding changes in ethnic relations' （funded by the ESRC）, 'Social Complexity of Immigration and Diversity' （funded by the EPSRC）, 'The socio-economic foundations of generosity in Britain' （funded by Notre Dame University and John Templeton Foundation）, 'Social mobility and social capital in China and Britain: a comparative study' （funded by the ESRC）, 'Social Networks and Subjective Wellbeing in Comparative Context' （funded by the Australian Research Council）, and 'From Fareej to Metropolis: social capital in Qatar' （funded by the Qatar National Research Fund）。
