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Abstract: How do interactions with non-migrants affect immigrants’ wellbeing? Drawing on novel qualitative data for a new immigrant destination (Slovakia), I examine this under-researched question from the immigrants’ perspective. I investigate how their wellbeing is related to contacts with non-migrants and immigrants’ interpretations of non-migrants’ behaviour and attitudes. Using thematic analysis, I explore immigrants’ accounts of the impact of these contacts. First, I demonstrate that different forms of intergroup interaction collectively contribute to immigrants’ wellbeing and need to be studied concurrently. Next, I show that immigrants understand non-migrants’ attitudes and the importance of immigrants’ ethnicity/race and social class for their experience in Slovakia, and how these characteristics hierarchise immigrants in the perception of the Slovak population. Immigrants are forced into roles depending on their position in the hierarchy (e.g., an expat, a spouse of a Slovak, a migrant worker). Third, immigrants consistently feel treated as a part of a group and in their assigned role. Lastly, they feel unable to leave the migrant identity, which forces them to perform the role of a “good migrant”, especially in contact with institutions. My findings speak to existing quantitative research and identify that the mechanism linking migrants’ subjective wellbeing with the destination population’s attitudes/behaviour is the combined extent and character of all immigrants’ social interactions.

Key words: subjective wellbeing, immigrants, intergroup contact, attitudes towards immigrants, new destination country, Slovakia

Abstract: Citizenship by investment (CBI, or “golden passport”) and residence by investment (RBI, or “golden visa”) schemes, have come under criticism as potential tools for money laundering, evading taxes, and committing financial crimes. However empirical work on these themes remains limited. This working paper takes as its starting point the most thorough report on these issues to date, “The Misuse of Citizenship and Residency by Investment Programmes” by the OECD/FATF, to ask: What and where are the wider risks involving residence, citizenship, and identity documents with respect to identity laundering, money laundering, and tax evasion or avoidance? To answer this question, it draws on nine years of fieldwork in 19 countries and a new dataset on investment migration. First, it addresses scope issues, identifying several modes of acquiring citizenship or residence based on wealth that carry similar vulnerabilities to investment migration programs and that should be taken into account when developing problem based approaches to risk mitigation. Next it assesses the scale of actual CBI and RBI offerings, identifying typically ignored cases that are particularly vulnerable to misuse, and it fills in absences in the depiction of the investment migration ecosystem by including powerful but overlooked actors and relationships. Finally, it assesses risks related to identity laundering, money laundering, and tax. Overall, it shows that risks in these three areas operate through building profiles that are legible and acceptable to financial institutions as indica of a person’s relationship to a jurisdiction and that can be used to establish legal “substance” or techniques around “ghosting.” As such, a wider range of possibilities for acquiring citizenship or residence based on financial means –beyond merely investment migration programs – needs to be taken into account if financial crime risks are to be fully addressed. Though this working paper carries over the risk-framing from the FATF report, it closes by proposing that future research and policy-making address actual “harms” rather than posited “risks.”

Keywords: investment migration, citizenship by investment, residence by investment, money laundering, financial crimes, tax

Abstract: I propose an empirical framework to identify different degrees of vulnerability to poverty using two vulnerability lines that classify currently non-poor people into risk groups: high, moderate and low risk of falling into poverty in the next period. The latter corresponds to the income secure middle class. My approach makes two contributions. First, it extends recent research that defines the middle class using a vulnerability threshold by introducing a new subdivision of the vulnerable group that would be useful in practice for public policy objectives. Second, it uses two models to predict both the probability of entering poverty and household income as part of the estimation procedures. The former controls for initial conditions effects and attrition bias, and the latter addresses the retransformation problem. I apply my approach to Chile using longitudinal data from the P-CASEN 2006-2009. The resulting vulnerability cut-offs (using the upper-middle-income country poverty line) are $20.0 per person per day for the low vulnerability line and $9.9 pppd for the high vulnerability line (both in 2011 PPP). My vulnerability lines differ significantly from those estimated in previous research on vulnerability and the middle class in Latin America. I argue that previous research has underestimated the size of the population at risk of falling into poverty and overestimated the growth of the middle class. Misclassifying the vulnerable as middle class limits their access to anti-poverty policies.

Keywords: Chile; Latin America; longitudinal data; middle class; poverty dynamics; vulnerability to poverty

Perceptions Matter: Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Spain’s New Minimum Income on Households’ Financial Wellbeing
Eugenia Bilbao-Goyoaga
Keywords: Financial Wellbeing, Subjective Wellbeing, Minimum Income, Poverty, Quasi-Experiment, Synthetic Control Method

COVID-19 Testing, Tracing and Isolating Strategies in the UK (England)
Anne West
Keywords: COVID-19, TTI, testing, contact tracing, isolation strategies

Household Joblessness in US Metropolitan Areas during the COVID19 Pandemic: Polarization and the Role of Educational Profiles
Thomas Biegert, Berkay Ozcan, and Magdalena Rossetti-Youlton
Keywords: household joblessness, COVID19, polarization, educational heterogeneity, educational homogamy

Effects of team diversity on performance, perceptions, and predictions: Experimental evidence of gender composition and language
Valentina Contreras, Chiara Orsini, Berkay Ozcan, and Johann Koehler
Keywords: Peer effects, Higher education, Gender, Linguistic diversity

Hostility of lived environment as a determinant of immigrants’ life satisfaction
Case of England and Wales
Michaela Šedovič
Keywords: subjective wellbeing, contact theory, attitudes towards immigrants, immigrants‘ integration

The impact of centre-based childcare on non-cognitive skills of young children
Greta Morando & Lucinda Platt
Keywords: centre-based childcare, child socio-emotional development, Growing Up in Ireland

Age at marriage and marital stability: Evidence from China
Jorge Garcia-Hombrados and Berkay Ozcan
Keywords: Age at marriage, divorce, legal age of marriage, China

Edtech procurement matters: It needs a coherent solution, clear governance and market standards
Velislava Hillman
Keywords: edtech, data privacy, edtech procurement, children, education

School funding and resourcing policies- Meeting the needs of disadvantaged pupils in France, Poland, UK (England), China, New Zealand, Singapore
Anne West, Sarah Ang, Valentin Calori, Ning Wang, Frederick Waters and Julia Wodzinska
Key words: school funding, resourcing, compensatory funding, needs, disadvantage, equality of opportunity

Poverty traps and affluent shields: Modelling the persistence of income position in Chile
Joaquín Prieto
Key words: Longitudinal data; poverty persistence; affluence persistence; income mobility; Chile; Latin America.

How does children’s time allocation affect their noncognitive skills? Evidence from four developing countries
Grace Chang
Key words: Child labour, non-cognitive skills, time use.

Reporting COVID-19 deaths in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the UK
Anne West, Thomas Czypionka, Monika Steffen, Stefanie Ettelt, Simone Ghislandi, Céu Mateus
Key words: Comparative health policy, comparative administration, data for policy making, data harmonization, COVID-19, comparable health data.

What’s Left? Political orientation, economic conditions, and incarceration in Greece under Syriza-led government
Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis
Key words: Government political orientation; economic downturn; imprisonment; immigration detention; Syriza

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University research engagement around climate knowledge: findings from a small empirical study
David Lewis
Key words: research-policy interface; knowledge brokers; policy engagement; public policy

The sounds of development: Musical representations as (an)other source of development knowledge
David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock
Key words: Music, protest, representation, development, knowledge

How uneven is the playing field? Inequality of socio-economic opportunity in the UK, 2009-2017 (MSc Dissertation)
David Flatscher
Key words: Inequality of opportunity, income inequality, social disadvantage

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Government and NHS reform since the 1980s: the role of the market vis à vis the state, and of political ideas about the ‘direction of travel’
Jane Lewis
Key words: English NHS, NHS reform, political ideas, ideas in policymaking

Identity, belonging and economic outcomes in England and Wales (Postgraduate dissertation)
Ivelina Hristova
Key words: identity economics, sub-state national and ethnic diversity, progression at work

Upper and lower bound estimates of inequality of opportunity: A cross-national comparison for Europe
Rafael Carranza
Key words: circumstances; equality of opportunity; equivalized household income; inequality; MLDindex; upper bound estimate.

Recent trends in religiosity of majority and minority European populations
Ayse Guveli and Lucinda Platt
Key words: religion; religiosity; migrants; second generation; Europe; natives; prayer; attendance.

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Loaded lesbians: how far do negotiations in the private sphere transfer to the labour market? (Undergraduate dissertation)
Liz Searle
Key words: (re/un-doing) gender; domestic labour; sexuality pay-gap; lesbian; housework.

Neither dupes, not pipers: violent crime, public sentiment and the political origins of mass incarceration in the United States
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Key words: mass incarceration, violent crime, public sentiment, politics of criminal justice

The lasting effects of natural disasters on property crime: evidence from the 2010 Chilean earthquake
Jorge García Hombrados
Key words: Natural disasters; crime; social capital.

Stalling of mortality in the United Kingdom and Europe: an analytical review of the evidence
Michael Murphy, Marc Luy and Orsola Torrisi
Key words: Life expectancy; UK mortality trends; Europe mortality trends; Influenza; Austerity.

Female genital cutting and education: theory and causal evidence from Senegal
Jorge García Hombrados and Edgar Salgado
Key words: Female genital cutting, education, harmful traditions.

Read the related blog post here.

Preterm births and educational disadvantage: heterogenous effects across families and schools
Anna Baranowska-Rataj, Kieron Barclay, Joan Costa-Font, Mikko Myrskylä and Berkay Özcan
Key words: SEN, disability, social isolation, loneliness, life-course

Growing up lonely? Exploring the social outcomes of three generations identified with special education needs or disabilities in childhood
Samantha Parsons and Lucinda Platt
Key words: SEN, disability, social isolation, loneliness, life-course

Read the related blog post here.

Reducing Mommy Penalties with Daddy Quotas
Allison Dunatchik and Berkay Özcan
Key words: family policy, gender roles, parental leave, work, work-family issues

Inter-ethnic relations of teenagers in England's schools: the role of school and neighbourhood ethnic composition
Simon Burgess and Lucinda Platt
Key words: ethnicity, attitudes, contact, children, school context

Two Become One: Improving the Targeting of Conditional Cash Transfers With a Predictive Model of School Dropout
Cristian Crespo
Key words: conditional cash transfers, targeting, school dropout prediction, machine learning, proxy means tests

Cash for Grades or Money for Nothing? Evidence from Regression Discontinuity Designs
Cristian Crespo
Key words: cash for grades, regression discontinuity, bono por logro escolar, cash transfers

Social Policy with Tunnel Vision: The problems of state efforts to curb adolescent pregnancy in Post 1988 Brazil
Beatriz Burattini- MSc Dissertation
Key words: adolescent pregnancy, sexual citizenship, legibility, health indicators, medicalisation

Social entrepreneurship before neoliberalism? The life and work of Akhtar Hameed Khan
David Lewis
Keywords: social entrepreneurship; non-governmental organisations (NGOs); community development; public administration; rural development; life history

A different perspective on the evolution of UK income inequality
A.B. Atkinson and Stephen P. Jenkins
Key words: inequality, tax unit, household, Gini coefficient, income tax data, household survey data, HBA1, SPI

Perspectives on poverty in Europe
Stephen P. Jenkins
Key words: poverty, material deprivation, Europe, EU-SILC

What are the factors that lead to the disengagement in activism over an individual's lifetime in the Global South?
Daniel Silver
Key words: Activism, social movements, sustainability, civil society

NGOs and the success paradox: Gay activism 'after' HIV/AIDS in China
Timothy Hildebrandt
Keywords: NGOs, LGBT, HIV/AIDS, China, development, aid

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