Self-made lawyers? Pathways of socially mobile descendants of migrants from Turkey in Europe

ABSTRACT

This study is based on narratives of successful lawyers in Europe who are descendants of migrants from Turkey. I will discuss the main mechanisms whereby social actors have a significant impact on the professional pathways of these upwardly mobile professionals. The findings provide two insights. The relevance of significant others found in literature on educational mobility of descendants of migrants can be extended to professional pathways. Some respondents became acquainted with the middle-class culture of the majority group through peers and school during their youth. This was instrumental in adjusting to the specific white-collar professional environments of corporate law firms. Others who grew up and attended schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods had more difficulties adjusting. However, they became accustomed to middle- and upper-class norms and behaviour at university or on the job by observing and learning along the way.     

Is ethnicity a meaningful category of employment policies for Roma? A comparative case study of Hungary and Spain

This paper aims to inquire into the potential of active labour market policies (LMP) to reach out to unemployed Roma population in Hungary and in Spain. While in Hungary unemployed Roma people are mainly thought to be reached through mainstream measures, Spain represents a more complex regime with an emphasis on ethnically targeted programmes. Our analysis draws on a wider comparative research project (NEUJOBS) conducted in 2012/2013 and provides an insight into how LMP function locally for unemployed Roma. We conclude that there are two intersecting challenges regarding the success of LMP that aim to influence the employment situation of the Roma: the targeting strategies and the quality and complexity of the programmes’ design. Our empirical data suggest that both aspects need to be given equal attention in order to promote the inclusion of the Roma into the labour market.     

The ‘division of labour’ model of eye evolution

The ‘division of labour’ model of eye evolution is elaborated here. We propose that the evolution of complex, multicellular animal eyes started from a single, multi-functional cell type that existed in metazoan ancestors. This ancient cell type had at least three functions: light detection via a photoreceptive organelle, light shading by means of pigment granules and steering through locomotor cilia. Located around the circumference of swimming ciliated zooplankton larvae, these ancient cells were able to mediate phototaxis in the absence of a nervous system. This precursor then diversified, by cell-type functional segregation, into sister cell types that specialized in different subfunctions, evolving into separate photoreceptor cells, shading pigment cells (SPCs) or ciliated locomotor cells. Photoreceptor sensory cells and ciliated locomotor cells remained interconnected by newly evolving axons, giving rise to an early axonal circuit. In some evolutionary lines, residual functions prevailed in the specialized cell types that mirror the ancient multi-functionality, for instance, SPCs expressing an opsin as well as possessing rhabdomer-like microvilli, vestigial cilia and an axon. Functional segregation of cell types in eye evolution also explains the emergence of more elaborate photosensory–motor axonal circuits, with interneurons relaying the visual information.     

Skills,division of labour and economies of scale among Amazonian hunters and South Indian honey collectors

In foraging and other productive activities, individuals make choices regarding whether and with whom to cooperate, and in what capacities. The size and composition of cooperative groups can be understood as a self-organized outcome of these choices, which are made under local ecological and social constraints. This article describes a theoretical framework for explaining the size and composition of foraging groups based on three principles: (i) the sexual division of labour; (ii) the intergenerational division of labour; and (iii) economies of scale in production. We test predictions from the theory with data from two field contexts: Tsimane'' game hunters of lowland Bolivia, and Jenu Kuruba honey collectors of South India. In each case, we estimate the impacts of group size and individual group members'' effort on group success. We characterize differences in the skill requirements of different foraging activities and show that individuals participate more frequently in activities in which they are more efficient. We evaluate returns to scale across different resource types and observe higher returns at larger group sizes in foraging activities (such as hunting large game) that benefit from coordinated and complementary roles. These results inform us that the foraging group size and composition are guided by the motivated choice of individuals on the basis of relative efficiency, benefits of cooperation, opportunity costs and other social considerations.     

Genome-wide analysis of alternative reproductive phenotypes in honeybee workers

A defining feature of social insects is the reproductive division of labour, in which workers usually forego all reproduction to help their mother queen to reproduce. However, little is known about the molecular basis of this spectacular form of altruism. Here, we compared gene expression patterns between nonreproductive, altruistic workers and reproductive, non-altruistic workers in queenless honeybee colonies using a whole-genome microarray analysis. Our results demonstrate massive differences in gene expression patterns between these two sets of workers, with a total of 1292 genes being differentially expressed. In nonreproductive workers, genes associated with energy metabolism and respiration, flight and foraging behaviour, detection of visible light, flight and heart muscle contraction and synaptic transmission were overexpressed relative to reproductive workers. This implies they probably had a higher whole-body energy metabolism and activity rate and were most likely actively foraging, whereas same-aged reproductive workers were not. This pattern is predicted from evolutionary theory, given that reproductive workers should be less willing to compromise their reproductive futures by carrying out high-risk tasks such as foraging or other energetically expensive tasks. By contrast, reproductive workers mainly overexpressed oogenesis-related genes compared to nonreproductive ones. With respect to key switches for ovary activation, several genes involved in steroid biosynthesis were upregulated in reproductive workers, as well as genes known to respond to queen and brood pheromones, genes involved in TOR and insulin signalling pathways and genes located within quantitative trait loci associated with reproductive capacity in honeybees. Overall, our results provide unique insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying alternative reproductive phenotypes in honeybee workers.     

Effects of a juvenile hormone analogue on honey bee foraging behaviour and alarm pheromone production

Worker honey bees treated with 250 μg of the juvenile hormone analogue methoprene shifted from the broodnest to the food storage region prematurely and displayed precocious foraging behaviour. Treatments with 25 and 2.5 μg caused slight but non-significant effects. Methoprene did not influence individual foraging performance as measured by mean number of foraging trips/h, mean amount of time spent foraging/h or mean duration of the total foraging period. Methoprene also induced premature production of two alarm pheromones, 2-heptanone and isopentyl acetate. These results support the hypothesis that juvenile hormone regulates temporal division of labour in the honey bee colony.     

Polymorphism and division of labour in a socially complex ant: neuromodulation of aggression in the Australian weaver ant,Oecophylla smaragdina

Complex social structure in eusocial insects can involve worker morphological and behavioural differentiation. Neuroanatomical variation may underscore worker division of labour, but the regulatory mechanisms of size-based task specialization in polymorphic species are unknown. The Australian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, exhibits worker polyphenism: larger major workers aggressively defend arboreal territories, whereas smaller minors nurse brood. Here, we demonstrate that octopamine (OA) modulates worker size-related aggression in O. smaragdina. We found that the brains of majors had significantly higher titres of OA than those of minors and that OA was positively and specifically correlated with the frequency of aggressive responses to non-nestmates, a key component of territorial defence. Pharmacological manipulations that effectively switched OA action in major and minor worker brains reversed levels of aggression characteristic of each worker size class. Results suggest that altering OA action is sufficient to produce differences in aggression characteristic of size-related social roles. Neuromodulators therefore may generate variation in responsiveness to task-related stimuli associated with worker size differentiation and collateral behavioural specializations, a significant component of division of labour in complex social systems.     

Waste Management in the Leaf-Cutting Ant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acromyrmex lobicornis</Emphasis>: Division of Labour,Aggressive Behaviour,and Location of External Refuse Dumps

In leaf-cutting ants, the handling of waste materials from the fungus culture increases the risk of infection. Consequently, ants should manage their waste in a way that minimizes the spread of diseases. We investigated whether in Acromyrmex lobicornis, waste-worker ants (a) also perform roles in foraging or mound maintenance, (b) are morphologically different than other ant workers, and (c) are aggressively discriminated by other worker ants from the same colony. In addition, we investigated whether the location of external waste piles minimizes the probability that wastes spread to the ant nest. In the field, we (a) marked with different colours waste-workers, foragers and mound-workers and monitored whether these ants interchanged their tasks; (b) measured head width, head length, hind femur length and total length of waste-workers; foragers and mound-workers; (c) forced field encounters between waste-workers and foragers, and (d) measured the cardinal orientation of the waste piles in relation to the colony mound. Waste-worker ants did not perform other function outside the nest; neither foragers nor mound-workers managed the waste. Moreover, waste-workers were smaller than foragers and mound-workers, and were attacked if they tried to enter their nest using foraging entrances. The location of external refuse dumps also appears to reduce contamination risks. Waste piles always were down-slope, and often followed the prevailing wind direction. The importance of behaviours such as the division of labour, aggressions against waste-workers and nest compartmentalization (i.e., the orientation of external waste piles) to minimize the spread of pathogens is discussed.     

Organism size promotes the evolution of specialized cells in multicellular digital organisms

Specialized cells are the essence of complex multicellular life. Fossils allow us to study the modification of specialized, multicellular features such as jaws, scales, and muscular appendages. But it is still unclear what organismal properties contributed to the transition from undifferentiated organisms, which contain only a single cell type, to multicellular organisms with specialized cells. Using digital organisms I studied this transition. My simulations show that the transition to specialized cells happens faster in organism composed of many cells than in organisms composed of few cells. Large organisms suffer less from temporarily unsuccessful evolutionary experiments with individual cells, allowing them to evolve specialized cells via evolutionary trajectories that are unavailable to smaller organisms. This demonstrates that the evolution of simple multicellular organisms which are composed of many functionally identical cells accelerates the evolution of more complex organisms with specialized cells.     

Parental aggression against dependent young results in task partitioning in a cooperatively breeding bird

In cooperatively breeding species, helpers can alleviate reproductive constraints by assuming the role of primary carers to first-born young, liberating breeders to invest in subsequent broods. However, evidence on how first-born young are transferred to helpers is currently lacking. We propose that breeder-offspring aggression might facilitate inter-brood division and test this idea using data from a wild population of cooperatively breeding pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). After second-brood young hatch, breeders become increasingly aggressive to first-brood fledglings and attack them when they beg for food. After an attack, fledglings reduce begging. Helpers are much less aggressive to begging fledglings and fledglings subsequently tend to target helpers, rather than breeders, when begging for food. In this way, first-born dependent young are transferred to helpers, resulting in a partitioning of tasks among breeders and helpers. Task partitioning in eusocial insects is thought to be determined by the morphological or physiological characteristics of individuals. This complementary study suggests that flexible behavioural strategies may also result in specialized roles in cooperatively breeding vertebrates.