The rapid increase of the number of children being born in cohabitation appears to have an important impact on their lives, since they face a higher risk of parental breakup than children born in wedlock. This article aims to provide a cross-national overview of the living arrangements of children following breakup of cohabiting unions and to investigate whether the post-dissolution living arrangements differ between formerly cohabiting and married families. Analyzing the first wave of Generations and Gender Survey for 9 European countries shows that former cohabiters are not more or less likely to establish shared physical custody of their children than formerly married couples; however, formerly cohabiting fathers are somehow less likely to have sole custody of their children. The lower odds of sole-father custody among former cohabiters are caused by the selection of individuals into cohabiting unions (i.e., different demographic characteristics of cohabiting parents and union duration).

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the value of foreign work experience for young migrants after their return to the home country labour market and their labour market preferences relative to stayers. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse the labour market integration patterns of young return migrants in Slovakia. After reconstructing the life histories of young people from online CVs, a set of regression models investigates the attractiveness, salary expectations and positions of interest to returnees in comparison to stayers. Findings Post-accession foreign work experience increases the attractiveness of job candidates. Foreign work experience changes the expectations of returnees with respect to wages and widens their perspective on the location of future work. In the underperforming labour market, migration experience signals to employers a set of skills that differentiate young returnees from young stayers in a positive way. Research limitations/implications While the web data are not representative, it allows the authors to study return migration from a perspective that large representative data sets do not allow. Social implications Foreign work experience is, in general, an asset for (re)integration into the home labour market, but the higher salary demands of returnees might hinder the process in a less-skilled segment of the labour market. Originality/value Return migration is a relatively underresearched area, and knowledge about the perception of returnees among employers and the labour market preferences of returnees is relatively limited. Another contribution lies in the use of online data to analyse return migration from the perspective of both labour demand and supply.

This paper analyses patterns of student employment in Slovakia where the numbers of university graduates have risen significantly. We use online job vacancy data and compare 'student jobs' and 'flexible jobs' to understand differences and similarities between the student and flexible labour markets that are often seen as identical. We find substantive differences in the required skill profiles between student-focused vacancies and those based on flexible forms of contract. In addition, student-targeted vacancies can be found across the occupational ladder, which refutes propositions that the student labour market is only precarious, temporary and part-time. From a policy perspective, our findings imply that any regulation of the flexible labour market will only partially address the student labour market. JEL Classification: J23, J21, J24, J63

We study if (and how) transitioning into and living in an unmarried cohabitation makes people more accepting of family dissolution. We explore if cohabitation and marriage associate with a different change in attitudes across a set of nine European countries. Using comparative two-wave panel data and within-person attitude change models, we show that time spent in an unmarried cohabitation associates with increased tolerance of divorce at the second interview, net of the transition to cohabitation itself. Cohabitation duration has an effect opposite to the effect of marriage duration. We found little systematic variation in the association between cohabitation and attitude change across countries. We highlight that cohabitation plays a dual role during the Second Demographic Transition: its rise stems from less traditional and more permissive attitudes and values regarding family life. Experience with cohabitation also serves as a catalyst for a value change and further contributes, at the individual level, to a shift toward a less traditional normative standpoint.