Research
Our researchers are contributing to the following projects:
The MigrantLife project will investigate how employment, housing and family trajectories evolve and interact in the lives of immigrants and their descendants in the UK, France, Germany and Sweden; and how factors related to a societal context, an early life context and critical transitions shape their life histories. The study will project their future life trajectories using innovative computer simulation techniques, considering the main life domains and diversity between and within immigrant groups. The project will exploit large-scale longitudinal data from the four countries to deepen our understanding of the relationships between the three life domains, and the causes of less and more successful life trajectories among immigrants and their descendants. This project will show whether the current heterogeneity between and within immigrant and minority groups vanishes over time or rather persists, suggesting an increasing diversity of European societies.
Link: MigrantLife – Understanding Life Trajectories of Immigrants and Their Descendants in Europe and Projecting Future Trends
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 834103).
Project period: 2019 – 2026
PHRG members: Prof Hill Kulu (PI), Dr Sarah Christison, Andrew Ibbetson, Dr Joseph Harrison, Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad, Parth Pandya
This project engages directly with the notion that all-age communities are vital for intergenerational connection and for tackling the causes of intergenerational unfairness; and the idea that the development of ‘age friendly environments’ support the wellbeing and participation of older people. Although recent literature has stressed the positive outcomes of communities of mixed ages, there remains limited quantitative scholarship in the UK (and, indeed, elsewhere) on residential age mixing, despite some increased attention in recent years. Similarly, recent community-oriented studies of place have paid greater attention to age, though with a particular focus on ageing (and ageing in place) rather than intergenerational connections. Studies have highlighted increases in neighbourhood age segregation in Britain, life course variations in age mixing and the need to consider the dynamics of places where people grow older. This project uses mixed methods to trace intergenerational residential mixing and understand the social and population processes that are shaping it.
Link: CPC – Projects – Community resilience and social coherence
This project is funded by the ESRC via the Centre on Population Change (CPA) (UKRI grant).
Project period: January 2024 – March 2027
PHRG members: Prof. Nissa Finney, Prof. Elspeth Graham, Jo Mhairi Hale, Qiong He, Alice Butler-Warke, Rachel Wilkie
Considerable and persistent inter- and intra-generational inequalities exist in individuals’ propensities to move across space and to move up (or down) the social hierarchy. There is recent evidence of declining rates of spatial mobility amongst higher socio-economic groups and hyper-residential mobility for some more marginalised groups. At the same time social mobility has stalled, particularly amongst younger generations, especially those lacking access to inter-generational transfers of wealth and other support. These inequalities are being exacerbated by the current health crisis and its economic consequences alongside the economic fallout of Brexit.
In this project, we use data from censuses and longitudinal studies (ONS LS, SLS and NILS), along with linked data from the NHS Central Register, to investigate persistent and emerging inequalities within and between generations. The research investigates how patterns of spatial mobility are changing, the trends in socio-economic mobility and the complex nexus between spatial and social mobility. The work provides new evidence for the ‘place’ agenda policy interventions aiming at ‘levelling up’. This research will be supplemented by analysis of the recent Understanding Society COVID-19 waves, providing insights into how the pandemic has shaped patterns and processes of spatial and social mobility.
This research is of interest to stakeholders such as the Social Mobility Commission, Sutton Trust, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Centre for Cities, as well as relevant development agencies in large cities and private, public and third sector organisations involved in the UK’s City Deals. It will allow them to better target efforts to attract specific population sub-groups to particular types of places as a catalyst for economic growth. The post-Covid 19 landscape will likely result in new relations between place of work, place of residence and career progression, on which this research will be able to inform policy and business decisions.
Link: CPC – Projects – Social and spatial mobility within and across generations
This project is funded by the ESRC via the Centre on Population Change (CPA) (UKRI grant).
PHRG members: Dr David McCollum, Gauthier Dulout
The spontaneous loss of pregnancy before 24 weeks of gestation, that is, miscarriage, affects around 25 % of women and may cause mental and physical health problems. Although stress due to financial conditions or high-pressure jobs may increase the risk of a miscarriage, the role of social inequalities in this risk has rarely been investigated. Funded by the European Research Council, the SOC-MISC project aims to address this gap in knowledge using data from registers and surveys in Finland, France and the United Kingdom. The aim is to use these results to improve population health.
In Scotland, we will link de-identified data from health records of women of reproductive age (16-49 years) to their health and census data, enabling us to:
- Show how individual and family-level social inequalities affect miscarriage risk over the life course.
- Uncover the role of national and sub-national context in social inequalities in miscarriage over a women’s life course.
This part of the work is led jointly by Dr Katherine Keenan, Dr Heini Väisänen (Institut national d’études démographiques), in collaboration with Dr Andrea Woolner (University of Aberdeen), eDRIS, Public Health Scotland, and the National Records of Scotland.
This work is funded by a European Research Council starting grant SOC-MISC awarded to Heini Väisänen: SOC-MISC
PHRG members: Dr Katherine Keenan
EVENS is the largest and most comprehensive survey to document the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain. Data collection took place between February and November 2021 to produce a survey of 14,200 participants, of whom 9,700 identify as members of ethnic and religious minority groups, uniquely allowing comparative analyses of their experiences. The EVENS dataset, the EVENS Teaching Dataset and associated resources are available from the UK Data Service, and the free-to-download book, Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a time of Crisis is available from Policy Press. The EVENS team are currently engaged in the EVENSinACTION project, working with partners to use EVENS data and analyses to inform policy and practice.
Link: Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS) | Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity
EVENS is funded by the ESRC via the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) (UKRI grants ES/V013475/1 and ES/W000849/1).
Project period: August 2020 – August 2026
PHRG members: Prof. Nissa Finney, Michaela Štastná, Dr. Joseph Harrison
The UK’s population, households and neighbourhoods are becoming increasingly ethnically and racially mixed and diverse. Alongside these demographic changes, the uneven impacts of, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic and austerity measures, have shone a light on persistent ethnic and racial disadvantages, between people and across local areas. The GEDI project is answering these, and related, questions through an innovative integration of previously disparate research strands on ethnic diversity, residential segregation, ethnic inequalities, and internal migration.
Link: About – Gedi
This project is funded by the ESRC.
Project period: April 2023 – June 2026
PHRG members: Prof. Nissa Finney
The ChildLives project will investigate the trends, inequalities, and consequences of family complexity across children’s lives in Europe. Although family change has major implications for the lives of children who live in these families, surprisingly little research has investigated children’s experiences of family change across Europe. This project will study children’s experiences of family complexity across their lives, whether their experiences differ by socio-economic background and across countries, the reasons behind cross-national differences, the consequences of increasing family complexity for children’s lives across Europe, and the potential consequences of family change for children of the future. The project fills important research gaps by taking a novel, child-centred life course approach and studying the lives of European children using a range of large-scale national and cross-national longitudinal datasets and a combination of advanced longitudinal methods, machine learning, and simulation.
This work is supported by the UKRI [grant number: EP/Y036441/1].
PHRG members: Dr Julia Mikolai
This study (2022-2025) investigates well-being, indebtedness and sustainability among transnational families in Indonesia and the Philippines at a time when the recent global COVID-19 pandemic is further exacerbating vulnerability in such families, with unplanned repatriations and income reductions for many migrants globally. It extends two waves of data collected in 2008/9 and 2016/7 for the Child Health and Migrant Parents in South-East Asia (CHAMPSEA) project with a new survey and selected in-depth interviews conducted with the same households, as well as a new sample of households, in both study countries in 2023/24.
Drawing on this unique dataset, the study examines the prevalence of indebtedness at different points over time; whether and how household debt affects the health and well-being of those who stay behind in origin countries; the impact of patterns of migration and debt on family sustainability (e.g. the likelihood of divorce); and the short-term impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on indebtedness, well-being and family sustainability in transnational households. The in-depth interviews provide greater insight into the strategies adopted by households to address current vulnerabilities. Engaging with a range of stakeholder, including the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and local NGOs, ensures that the findings are relevant both to migrants and their families in sending countries and to policy and services for migrants in destination countries.
Link: HKU Scholars Hub: Project
The study is funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council: Research Impact Fund (R7028-21).
Project period: 2022 – 2025
PHRG members: Prof. Elspeth Graham (Co-PI)
As an international partner of the MyMove project led by Professor Helga de Valk (NIDI) we are analysing the UK Household Longitudinal Study to understand the prevalence, associates and implications of residential mobility in childhood.
Link: HOME | MYMOVE Project
MyMove is funded via an European Research Council (ERC) grant (ID: 819298).
Project period: 2020 – 2025
PHRG members: Prof. Nissa Finney
One of the many anticipated lasting consequences of the covid-19 crisis is a structural change in working practices and residential preferences, brought about by increased remote working and an associated desire for more spacious homes in appealing locales. This shift has the potential to fundamentally reshape the geographies of work and home. However there remains much uncertainty regarding the prevalence and permanency of these changes. Furthermore, they risk forming new inequalities between those benefitting from new working practices and able to meet their residential preferences and those unable to do so. This research will analyse statistical datasets and conduct in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to elucidate the nature of changing working practices and residential preferences and to shed light on their socio-economic implications. Given its significance nationally and to the wellbeing of specific population sub-groups and types of places, this research has considerable public, commercial and policy saliency.
This project is funded by the British Academy.
PHRG members: Dr David McCollum