Second-generations—children of immigrants—experience particular university-to-work transitions in the UK, including precarious entry into the labour market This article examines the importance of intersecting social divisions, such as gender and ethnicity to these transitions, and also explores complexities within long-term economic progression. By comparing the educational achievement and labour market integration of British-born female graduates from one of the largest— Pakistani—and newly settled—Algerian—migrant groups and by focusing on long-term progression from the first job postgraduation to the most recent one. Using repeat semi-structured interviews with twelve British Pakistani and Algerian female graduates, this article produces a fine-grained analysis of key academic and economic stages. It reveals how the contextualised impact of intersecting social divisions—social class, ethnicity, as proxy for culture and religion, and gender— and the ability to maximise and increase one’s identity capital i prove employability, transforming initial disadvantages into pathways for success.

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The Ethnic Penalty investigates the professional situations of 'visible ethnic minorities ' (p. 4) in Toronto (Canada). Drawing on the official definition, ethnic minority groups are described as the non-European cohort living in Canada such as South Asians, Africans and Caribbeans. These are immigrants who arrived in the country between the 1960s and the 1990s, immigrants' children (i.e. born in the country) and new immigrants (i.e. individuals who arrived more recently). Reza Hasmath examines the relationship between educational attainment and professional outcomes for these visible ethnic minorities by looking at four key stages: schooling, job search, hiring and promotion processes. He questions the extent to which ethnic minorities are successfully integrated in society through schooling and employment processes after two decades of multicultural policies in Canada. Statistical data, comprised of the 2001 Census and the results of the Institute for Social Research analysis of the 2001 Census to refine results for Toronto, were used to measure the proportion of ethnic minorities living in the city of Toronto and their educational and professional distributions. Additionally, the empirical data include qualitative data from 59 interviews, undertaken with ethnic minority individuals in Toronto and participant observation in all three educational sectors (primary and secondary schools and university). The occupational experiences of ethnic minorities were analysed in different sectors of the labour market such as government bodies, private companies and employment centres.By systematically comparing the educational and professional outcomes of ethnic and non-ethnic minority groups, Hasmath's central objective is to uncover the reasons for the low returns of educational success in terms of employment for visible ethnic minority workers. His key argument, as can be expected from the title, is that the operations of ethnic penalties lead to economic discrimination for the ethnic minority cohort. The results show that although the group outperforms their white counterparts in education, they experience discrimination in the hiring, job search and promotion processes. Consequently, they are to be found in lower income positions and have high rates of unemployment. Thus, Hasmath calls for stronger anti-discrimination and equal opportunities policies that will enhance the group's socio-economic positions.The concept of ethnic penalty is used to demonstrate that people of visible ethnic minority background are at a disadvantage in the labour market when compared to nonethnic minority groups with similar human capital. Human capital refers to individuals' skills and qualifications that are influenced by parental skills. In the context of the book, ethnic minorities' socio-economic positions depend not only on their human capital but also their ethnic capital, 'the average skills of the ethnic group of the parents' generation ' (p. 19). In that sense, ethnic origin is used as a stratification tool between the majority ...

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