Immigrants have become a big part in host country’s daily life. Pervious research study immigrants usually focus on the factors that influence the earnings of immigrants. In contrast, this paper analyzes occupational attainment of immigrants and compares occupational attainment between immigrants and natives. In general, the same as natives, nearly half of immigrants are employed in low-skilled occupations, which cover upper secondary education and tertiary level of no more than 2 years in length. However, immigrants have the less probability of being in skilled and high-skilled occupations than natives. For immigrants from western countries, their occupational attainment are similar to natives, that is, high-skilled occupations accounts for a higher proportion and they are less likely to be engaged in unskilled occupations comparing with immigrants from Africa and Asia and South America.

Extracurricular activities have long been recognized as a socializing agent fostering subsequent life achievements and success orientations in the status attainment process. In particular, minorities and disadvantaged high school students who may not succeed in traditional academic classes benefit greatly from extracurricular activities, especially sports. In the case of basketball, young Black males are more likely to both participate in basketball as an extracurricular activity and pursue a career as a professional basketball player than their White peers, even to the detriment of their formal education. This thesis uses the Wisconsin Status-Attainment model as a framework for examining the extent to which the educational attainment of these young men affects their eventual occupational status (salary and career longevity), specifically a ten-year sample of first-round NBA draft picks. In the end, White players averaged more post-high school educational attainment than their Black counterparts, but the variable that affected salary and longevity was on-court performance. Although the educational attainment of these players did not directly affect how much they make and how long they play, the results presented here still provide insight into how young men are socialized into a NBA career trajectory.

The general aim of this thesis was to extend knowledge of the interplay between self-regulation (SR) skills during childhood in relation to academic achievement and later adult educational and occupational attainment. Previous research has shown that cool SR (i.e., cognitive) is more closely linked to academic achievement than hot SR (i.e., motivational/emotional). However, studies investigating both cool and hot SR in relation to academic achievement have been restricted to young children. Therefore, Study I assessed cool and hot SR in relation to academic achievement over a longer time period. The results showed that cool SR at age 3 was related to achievement already at age 6. Hot SR at age 3 did not predict achievement until later on in elementary school. Study II investigated the contribution of interference control and attention skills at age 6 to concurrent and later academic achievement at age 10. As the learning material becomes increasingly more complex throughout elementary school and teachers may give less support, interference control was expected to have a delayed effect on academic achievement relative to attention skills. Results showed that attention skills were related to academic achievement at age 6, whereas interference control only predicted academic achievement at age 10. Study III investigated task persistence in young adolescence in relation to academic achievement later in school and educational and occupational attainment in midlife. Results showed that task persistence contributed to change in grades between ages 13 and 16. Further, task persistence predicted later educational and occupational attainment (men only). Importantly, individual differences in intelligence, motivation, social background, and later educational attainment did not account for these effects. The findings point to a fundamental role of self-regulation in childhood for successful academic achievement and later attainment in adulthood. / At the time of doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript.

The broad objective of this thesis is to study the patterns of objective and subjective well-being among the immigrants in Europe. The main part of the thesis consists of three single-authored empirical chapters. The first chapter analyzes the longitudinal patterns of relative poverty among the foreign-born in Sweden. The second chapter examines the mechanisms of occupational attainment, occupational mobility and long-term occupational cost of migration among Senegalese immigrants in France, Spain and Italy. The third chapter analyzes life satisfaction and income satisfaction among immigrants in Germany. At the most general level, the results in the empirical chapters suggest that the objective well-being improves with duration of stay at destination, even if very gradually for some immigrant groups, while, on the other hand, there is a ceteris paribus negative relationship between the subjective well-being and duration of stay. A number of other findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the processes associated with the well-being among immigrants. / L'objectiu general d'aquesta tesi és estudiar les pautes del benestar objectiu i subjectiu dels immigrants a Europa. La part principal de la tesi consisteix en tres capítols empírics d'autoria única. El primer capítol analitza les pautes longitudinals de pobresa relativa entre els nascuts a l’estranger a Suècia. El segon capítol examina els mecanismes d’obtenció d’ocupació, la mobilitat i cost professional a llarg termini de la migració entre els immigrants d’origen senegalès a França, Espanya i Itàlia. El tercer capítol analitza la satisfacció general amb la vida i la satisfacció amb els ingressos entre els immigrants a Alemanya. Els resultats en els capítols empirics suggereixen, a nivell general, que el benestar objectiu millora a mida que creix la durada de l’estada en el lloc de destí, tot i que de manera molt gradual per alguns grups d’immigrants, mentre que, d’altra banda, hi ha una relació ceteris paribus negativa entre el benestar subjectiu i la durada de l’estada. Diversos resultats contribueixen a una comprensió més matisada dels processos associats amb el benestar entre els immigrants.