Racial residential and school segregation, while having declined in recent decades, are still pervasive in U.S. metropolitan areas. Given the consequences of segregation for individual life outcomes and its role in exacerbating inequalities in the U.S., it is of major importance to better understand the processes that shape segregation. The goal of this dissertation is to develop methods that allow us to better understand which social processes are producing increases and declines in segregation. The dissertation consists of five substantive chapters. In chapters two and four, I develop two decompositions methods that allow the decomposition of changes in segregation. The first decomposition method focuses on providing a mechanical solution to the problem of "margin dependency." Unlike alternative methods, this decomposition does not attempt to "purge'" the index from its margin dependency, but instead quantifies how much of a given change in segregation is due to changes in the margins, compared to structural changes. Arguably, this method provides more information about changes in segregation than a simple trend analysis. The fourth chapter introduces a more flexible method of decomposition, which allows the researcher to specify decompositions that are guided by theoretical considerations. This decomposition method is based on the Shapley value, originally developed in game theory. This chapter also shows that the Shapley value decomposition has many applications outside of segregation studies. The remaining substantive chapters are applications demonstrating the usefulness of these decompositions to understand changes in segregation. The third chapter applies the marginal-structural decomposition to a topic usually not considered in segregation analysis: the study of school-to-work linkages. This coauthored paper compares the skill-formation systems of France and Germany. Stratification research has often made a distinction between two ideal-types: "qualificational spaces," exemplified by Germany with a focus on vocational education, and "organizational spaces," exemplified by France with a focus on general education. Most studies that investigated this distinction did so by focusing only on the size of the vocational sector, not on whether graduates with a vocational degree actually link strongly to the labor market. Moreover, these studies often studied male workers only, ignoring potential gender differences in how school-to-work linkages are established. Our approach is instead to map the change in education-occupation linkage in France and Germany between 1970 and 2010, using the marginal-structural decomposition to distinguish between changes in rates (marginal changes) and changes in the structure of school-to-work linkages (structural changes). Surprisingly, we find that the German vocational system in 1970 was not, on average, substantially more efficient in allocating graduates to specific occupations than the French system. This finding is a major departure from earlier results, and it shows that the differences between 1970’s France and Germany, on which the qualificational-organizational distinction is based, are smaller than previously assumed. Partly, this is due to the fact that the female labor force was omitted from earlier analyses. We thus show that ignoring the female workforce has consequences for today’s conception of skill formation systems, particularly because a large share of educational expansion is caused by an increase in female enrollment in (higher) education. In the remaining two chapters, I apply the Shapley decomposition strategy to two long-standing interests of U.S. sociology: racial residential and racial school segregation. The fifth chapter, on racial residential segregation, studies changes in segregation from 1990-2010. This paper engages with a prominent concept in segregation studies, the idea of micro and macro segregation. Micro segregation refers to the small-scale neighborhood segregation within cities and suburbs, while macro segregation refers to segregation between larger geographical areas, such as cities, suburbs, and school districts. The paper first shows that, contrary to other results in literature, while micro segregation decreased, macro segregation remained at similar levels. Second, the paper shows that declines in segregation are almost exclusively caused by the Black and Hispanic populations, which have increasingly moved to majority-White areas. The sixth chapter studies changes in between-district school segregation from 2009 to 2016, studying both the relationships between school district racial composition and school district performance, as quantified by average test scores. Also in this later period, declines in segregation are mostly driven by the Black and Hispanic populations. Additionally, the decomposition by school district performance shows that families of all racial groups move from badly-performing school districts to better-performing districts.

The United Nations Population Division publishes fertility projections for all countries in the World Population Prospects (WPP). These are the most widely used projections for planning and policy implementation. Despite a substantial body of literature that suggests education has a significant impact on fertility, these projections do not incorporate changes in the composition of the population by level of education. We therefore propose and implement a method that incorporates education composition change in projecting fertility. We investigate fertility differentials by level of education, then evaluate how education influences fertility independently; and finally, a model is fitted to project fertility rates by education levels. In both cases, the fertility rates by education level are then weighted by the IIASA educational attainment distributions to get the national fertility rates. These national fertility rates are in turn validated against the WPP fertility rates to evaluate how good the proposed method works. Fertility is high among the less educated relative to educated women. Education proves to be an important driver of fertility decline in Southern Africa. The proposed model is a good fit for countries with sufficient DHS data. However, there are other sources of data that are available, for example, the census data but we could not rely on them since they only give summary information. Validation was done to evaluate how good the model is working. This exercise produced consistent results with the observed fertility estimates. The percentage difference between the projected and WPP fertility estimates varied from 1 to 5 percent in Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe. In conclusion, the model can also be used for other countries. Furthermore, education composition change should be considered when projecting fertility since it has proven to be a significant driver of fertility change. Data quality and availability issues were a major limitation to our study and in future should be improved.

In developing countries, vital registration is the best source of death data that can be used to estimate adult mortality provided they are sufficiently complete. However, they are usually insufficient for estimating mortality sub-nationally due to incomplete registration. This research adapts a method used by Dorrington, Moultrie and Timæus at the provincial level to determine whether it is adequate for estimating adult mortality at the district municipality level in the year prior to the 2001 census. The method uses registration data adjusted for completeness of registration to scale (up or down) the deaths reported by households in the census by age group for each sex. The process of correcting the registered deaths in the year prior to the 2001 census involves estimating intercensal completeness for each population group and each sex between 1996 and 2001 using the average of results from the GGB and the SEG+δ methods. Thereafter, the results are used to estimate the completeness in each of the years within the intercensal period. Thus, an estimate of completeness is obtained in the year prior to the 2001 census for correcting the registered deaths at the population group level. These registered deaths are then used to obtain population group specific adjustment factors to correct the deaths reported by households at the district level, and thereafter to estimate adult mortality rates. Most districts in Kwa-Zulu-Natal have amongst the highest rates of adult mortality, while most districts in the Western Cape have amongst the lowest rates. Results show the Buffalo metropolitan municipality to have higher mortality than that expected for most of the district metropolitan municipalities for both sexes. The same is true for women in Mangaung metropolitan district. It is suspected that HIV prevalence had a significant impact on different levels of adult mortality in the districts, although some adults in the more urban provinces may have died in other provinces. At the provincial level, the method produces marginally higher estimates of adult mortality than the other sources. Provinces that reflect a higher level of mortality appear to deviate more from other research findings than those reflecting lower mortality. In conclusion, the method produces district estimates of ₄₅q₁₅ that are consistent with provincial estimates from other sources and with estimates of HIV prevalence at the district level.

Includes bibliographical references. / I studied a long-term data set for Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans collected at sub-Antarctic Marion Island to investigate adult survival, breeding biology and factors affecting reproductive success of this long-lived pelagic seabird. Until recently, the complex adult life cycle has caused biases in conventional mark-recapture modelling analyses that assume that recapture probability is equal for 'observable' and 'unobservable' states of the biennial adult life cycle. During 'sabbaticals' taken after successful and late-failed breeding attempts, the chances of resighting an adult Wandering Albatrosses are reduced, thus affecting estimated recapture rates. I applied a multi-state mark-recapture method to the colony breeding data from Marion Island (1987-2005). This method allows individual albatrosses to move through a network of breeding states according to previous breeding history using transition probabilities to estimate survival, breeding and breeding success probability. The best fit models in the multi-state analysis were those representing constant survival and independent breeding probabilities, suggesting that Wandering Albatrosses constrain reproductive investment to ensure long-term survival. I used the parameter estimates in a transition matrix to calculate the steady state equilibrium for the Wandering Albatross breeding population. For the first time I was able to estimate that approximately 3000 pairs of Wandering Albatrosses use Marion Island for nesting. I also describe the effects of age, sex and experience on Wandering Albatross reproductive success. Birds that were most successful began breeding at the mean age of first breeding and older and younger birds were less successful in 5/10 year periods after the onset of breeding. Disappearance from the population decreased with an increase of age of first breeding. I tested the selection and experience hypotheses on birds with 'complete' histories defined according to an imposed rule on recovery data. Males appeared to increase breeding success as a result of selective removal of low-quality individuals from the population (the selection hypothesis), whereas females appeared to improve their breeding success as a result of increased experience.

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In July of 2021, thousands of people took to the streets in different cities of the United States in demand of military intervention by the U.S. government and freedom for the people of Cuba. This study aims to explore the motivation behind the Florida-based Cuban American popula-tion to engage in acts of civic protest. The study explains the unique characteristics of the Cuban American Immigrant group in the United States influencing social movement participation. The study provides an analysis of the background of the S.O.S. Cuba movement. To accomplish this, in-depth focus groups were conducted to explore the opinions, reactions, and perspectives among the Cuban American population regarding S.O.S. Cuba. In these focus groups, participants shared their experiences, their Cuban identity, and how that identity has played a major role in informing their actions in the U.S. A qualitative content analysis revealed interviews four major: dictatorship trauma, detachment, gratitude to the U.S. government, and a history of sacrifice, struggles, and sadness. These prominent themes, along with their sub-themes, are used to understand why Cuban Americans, as a group, have been found to refrain from participating in major social movements and the influence of the S.O.S Cuba movement on the changing attitudes of political participation.

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<p>The main purpose of this Master Essay is to analyse the integration of Ethiopian immigrants in Sweden between 1990 and 2000. My hypothesis has been that Ethiopian immigrants in Sweden constitute a group whose prospects to integrate are fairly low, but whose prospects to integrate also depend on the sex-composition and the length of staying in Sweden. In my analysis of the chosen group’s immigration pattern and integration, I have used a longitudinal database of the Swedish population where information on income and employment are included. I have analysed the group’s labour market participation and their prospects to reduce and eventually close the income gap in relation to the working aged population in Sweden.</p><p>The regime of control in Ethiopia between 1977 and 1991 forced hundreds of thousands of mostly young Ethiopians to flee to Europe and USA. Between 1985 and 2000, 8033 Ethiopians immigrated to Sweden. The peak years were 1989 and 1991, preceded by a dramatic increase of the number of Ethiopians who immigrated to Sweden. After 1991 the immigration from Ethiopia to Sweden declined rapidly to a similarly low level as before 1985.</p><p>Nevertheless, when analysing the age-composition, those aged 18-29 years were shown to be in majority throughout the whole period as mostly young Ethiopians were forced to flee before 1991. Also, younger persons are more likely to migrate than older persons. The spectacular decrease of Ethiopian immigration to Sweden was probably linked to the former regime’s capitulation in 1991. In addition, Eritrea’s outbreak from Ethiopia in 1991 also had consequences on the numbers of Ethiopian immigrants to Sweden as Eritreans were no longer categorized as Ethiopians. Up to 1991, men were more likely to immigrate, but after then females were clearly in majority.</p><p>The frequency of not being employed has decreased considerably among Ethiopian immigrants throughout the period. At the same time, the income gap between them and the population in general was reduced even though it remained large in the whole period. The decrease in the proportion of Ethiopian immigrants without employment was larger for the females than for the males, and even if men had higher incomes throughout the period, women’s income approached that. Thus it seems that the integration process is on its way for Ethiopian immigrants, especially for the women. The age-composition is probably an important factor behind the group’s relatively successful integration given the large share of working aged persons.</p>

The main purpose of this Master Essay is to analyse the integration of Ethiopian immigrants in Sweden between 1990 and 2000. My hypothesis has been that Ethiopian immigrants in Sweden constitute a group whose prospects to integrate are fairly low, but whose prospects to integrate also depend on the sex-composition and the length of staying in Sweden. In my analysis of the chosen group’s immigration pattern and integration, I have used a longitudinal database of the Swedish population where information on income and employment are included. I have analysed the group’s labour market participation and their prospects to reduce and eventually close the income gap in relation to the working aged population in Sweden. The regime of control in Ethiopia between 1977 and 1991 forced hundreds of thousands of mostly young Ethiopians to flee to Europe and USA. Between 1985 and 2000, 8033 Ethiopians immigrated to Sweden. The peak years were 1989 and 1991, preceded by a dramatic increase of the number of Ethiopians who immigrated to Sweden. After 1991 the immigration from Ethiopia to Sweden declined rapidly to a similarly low level as before 1985. Nevertheless, when analysing the age-composition, those aged 18-29 years were shown to be in majority throughout the whole period as mostly young Ethiopians were forced to flee before 1991. Also, younger persons are more likely to migrate than older persons. The spectacular decrease of Ethiopian immigration to Sweden was probably linked to the former regime’s capitulation in 1991. In addition, Eritrea’s outbreak from Ethiopia in 1991 also had consequences on the numbers of Ethiopian immigrants to Sweden as Eritreans were no longer categorized as Ethiopians. Up to 1991, men were more likely to immigrate, but after then females were clearly in majority. The frequency of not being employed has decreased considerably among Ethiopian immigrants throughout the period. At the same time, the income gap between them and the population in general was reduced even though it remained large in the whole period. The decrease in the proportion of Ethiopian immigrants without employment was larger for the females than for the males, and even if men had higher incomes throughout the period, women’s income approached that. Thus it seems that the integration process is on its way for Ethiopian immigrants, especially for the women. The age-composition is probably an important factor behind the group’s relatively successful integration given the large share of working aged persons.