Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 90, Issue 4, 2015

Education as a cleavage in the Dutch labour market, 1993-2011

This article describes developments in the association between educational attainment and labour market outcomes in the Netherlands over the last 20 years. Education has remained a very important asset on the labour market. The higher educated have higher participation rates and attain better jobs than the lower educated. The labour market participation rate has increased for all educational categories, and especially for women with low educational qualifications. The association between educational attainment and unemployment has not changed over this period. We do observe that higher credentials have less value on the labour market with respect to occupational status than before, pointing to overschooling. Furthermore, we see that the permanent full-time job is on the downhill. The relationships between educational qualifications and permanent or full-time jobs have not changed systematically over the two decades.

A cushy life, or being dead broke: Two decades of income inequality

Did income inequality decrease since the 1990s due to less pronounced differentials in educational attainment among the Dutch population, as modernisation theory presumes? Have the growing labour participation of women and the ensuing demise of the one-earner family translated into greater income disparities? And has public support for income redistribution dwindled? Various measures calculated over the tax data from the Income Panel Survey show that income inequality did not become less in the Netherlands, but grew somewhat, especially since 2001. This is most clearly the case with regard to earned income, and less so for gross income. During the new millennium the weakest growth occurred in the inequality of disposable income, and here the overall picture since 1990 is fairly stable. A decomposition analysis indicates that changes in educational attainment and in the average incomes of the lower, middle and higher educated hardly affected income inequality over time. The same applies to the rise in the number of people of non-western origin and the altering income levels of ethnic groups. Changes in the number of earners per household, however, did alter income inequality. The rising share of comparatively poor single persons saw their average income deteriorate in the 2000s, while the affluent group of double earners grew in size and generally experienced further income improvement. Over time, couples depending on one income became a rather small category, and their average amount of income decreased. Yet changes in people’s income sources were more important. This especially concerns the inequality enhancing effect of the growth in the relative number of pensioners and self-employed in the 2000s, vis-à-vis the dwindling share of employees. However, this was mitigated by higher average pensions among the elderly and lower incomes of entrepreneurs. In public opinion 1991 proved to be a turning point: The trend towards ever lower support for the redistribution of income that prevailed in the 1970s and 1980s reversed.

Educational homogamy in the Netherlands revisited. Stability or increased segmentation on the marriage market?

Using large-scale, representative survey data from the 1999, 2003 and 2007 waves of Aanvullende Voorzieningengebruik Onderzoek (AVO) we study trends in educational homogamy for the Netherlands between 1960 and 2010. Prior studies for the Netherlands focused on relative homogamy, the tendency to marry within the group given the supply of marriage candidates. We investigate next to relative homogamy, patterns and trends in absolute homogamy since absolute homogamy is consequential for social inequality and cohesion. Descriptive analyses display a decrease in absolute educational homogamy for lower educated men, a rise for higher educated men, and a decrease for higher educated women. Loglinear analyses of relative educational homogamy show relative stable patterns, except for an increase of relative homogamy for lower educated. Our findings indicate no uniform in- or decreased social segmentation on marriage markets in the Netherlands, and show that observed changes in educational homogamy are foremost due to changes in the supply of marriage candidates, and less so to changes in preferences for homogamy.

Trends in ethnocentric reactions among the Dutch population, 1979-2012

Based upon predictions from 1996 about future trends in ethnocentric reactions in the Netherlands, we investigate the trends in ethnocentric reactions among the general public from 1979 to 2012. We distinguish two forms of ethnocentric reactions: negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities and public support for ethnic discrimination. In line with one of the predictions from 1996, we find an increase in negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities. Although this relates to increasing levels of diversity in the Netherlands, this finding may also reflect a decrease in the social norm that prohibits overt negative stances towards ethnic minorities. With regard to public support for ethnic discrimination, we find no clear upward or downward trend since the mid-nineties. Lower educated and older birth cohorts show stronger ethnocentric reactions. Although there are some indications that those with secondary educational levels and the youngest birth cohorts show stronger ethnocentric reactions over time, there are no significant differences in trends across educational levels and birth cohorts. Changes in ethnocentric reactions are rather robust across different social categories.

Twenty years later …

In 1996, a group of Utrecht and Nijmegen based sociologists compiled a study on social segmentation in the Netherlands in 2015. In their contributions, they formulated testable predictions for 2015, based on the most up-to-date theories, models, and data. In this issue of Mens & Maatschappij, authors look back at and test these predictions, using data collected since 1996. Key findings are summarized in this contribution.