For the past 20 years, social scientists have devoted increasing attention to the links between type of postsecondary education received and socioeconomic inequalities. Borrowing the terminology of Charles & Bradley (2002) , we refer to the forms of these connections as horizontal dimensions of education-based stratification. We review studies of how institutional characteristics (college quality and type) and college experiences (field of specialization, academic performance, and pathway) are related to labor market outcomes. We also discuss research that treats college quality and field of specialization as dependent variables influenced by gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Throughout, we assess alternative theoretical explanations for why and how these horizontal aspects of college education play a stratifying role. We also note methodological developments that raise questions about some of the effects. Mirroring the literature, we emphasize how horizontal dimensions of stratification at the postsecondary level relate to gender differences on both the labor market and education sides. We propose additional theoretical and empirical issues that research on horizontal stratification in postsecondary education should address.

This paper examines the impact of family background (social class, cultural and economic capital) and ability on the choice of subjects in secondary and tertiary education in Britain.Using a framework that integrates rational choice perspectives and cultural reproduction theory, we assume that children take their parents' social position as a reference for their own choices, and are guided mainly by the amount of economic and cultural capital that is available within the family. Using longitudinal data from the 1958 British birth cohort (N = 13,245), the empirical analysis shows that children from higher social class backgrounds achieved a higher standard in both humanities and scientific subjects in primary and secondary school. Furthermore, children of the professional class were relatively likely to choose the prestigious subjects of medicine and law in university, independent of ability. Both absolute and relative levels of ability were relevant to the choice of subject at degree level, as it was found that people chose subjects that they were relatively good at compared to other subjects. This concept of 'comparative advantage' gives additional insight into field-of-study choices, but does not explain the gender segregation across disciplines.

This study examines the relationship between social capital and labour market integration of new refugees in the UK using the Survey of New Refugees (SNR). Our findings suggest that length of residency and language competency broaden one's social networks. Contacts with religious and co-national groups bring help with employment and housing. The mere possession of networks is not enough to enhance access to employment. However, the absence of social networks does appear to have a detrimental effect on access to work. The type of social capital appears to have no significant impact on the permanency or quality of employment. Rather, language competency, pre-migration qualifications and occupations, and time in the UK are most important in accessing work. Our findings also have clear implications for both asylum and integration policy. The unequivocal importance of language ability for accessing employment points to a clear policy priority in improving competency.

This article explores the impact of asylum support systems on refugee integration focusing on the UK and the Netherlands. Both have adopted deterrent approaches to asylum support. The Dutch favour the use of asylum accommodation centres, segregating asylum seekers from the general population. The UK disperses asylum seekers to housing within deprived areas, embedding them within communities. Both countries have been criticized for these practices, which are viewed as potentially anti-integrative: something of a paradox given that both promote the importance of refugee integration. We analyse national refugee integration surveys in both countries and provide original empirical evidence of negative associations between asylum support systems and refugees' health, which differ in relation to mental and physical health. The integration and asylum policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Britain has long been home to migrants from Ireland (which until 1921 had been part of the United Kingdom). More recently, it has seen major inflows from a number of less-developed countries such as Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Hong Kong that had formerly been part of the British Empire. While there is some reason to believe that the Irish experienced some discrimination in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century or before, evidence implies that the Irish, both first and second generation, now compete on equal terms with the indigenous British. The ethnic penalties experienced by the visible minorities from the less-developed members of the Commonwealth have declined markedly in the second generation, but all the major visible minorities still find it more difficult to obtain jobs commensurate with their qualifications than do the various white groups, even in the second generation. Continuing discrimination against visible minorities is likely to be a major part of the explanation for the difficulty in gaining employment.