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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of first-generation college graduates in the USA, as they transitioned from higher education into employment in the private sector. First-generation college graduates are from families in which neither parent had a bachelor’s degree.

This paper used phenomenology to gain an understanding of the transition experiences of first-generation college graduates employed within the corporate sector.

First-generation status influences the experiences of students beyond college and limits their awareness of and access to graduate employment. Lack of college education in the family affects the graduates’ career decision-making, familiarity with corporate culture and expectations, preparedness for the corporate sector and restricted access to people with the ability to ease their entry into the sector. These translate into transition outcomes such as starting at entry-level positions not requiring a college degree, delayed access to graduate-level positions, having to engage intentionally in additional efforts to reach graduate-level positions and potential to be discriminated against during the recruitment process, albeit unintentionally.

Is first-generation status yet another structural contextual factor that influences career decision self-efficacy? Is the influence of FG status common across sectors? Longitudinal studies need to be conducted across sectors, regions and countries.

There is a need to sensitize faculty and career service staff to career-related challenges of first-generation students and for programs and policies that increase awareness of these students regarding professional environments and expectations. There are social justice implications for recruitment strategies and overcoming discrimination.

This paper explored first-generation college graduates’ experiences, an issue hitherto not explored in depth.

Given that a relatively large percentage of college students entering historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are first-generation students and considering the low completion rate among this group in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discipline, the purpose of this preliminary meta-synthesis study is intended to facilitate a greater understanding of the academic and social adjustment among college students, particularly first-generation college students enrolled in STEM disciplines at HBCUs. Therefore, this meta-synthesis will shed light and offer important recommendations for university administrators and faculty members in supporting the academic and social adjustment of these students in STEM fields at HBCUs.

This review of literature was conducted using a meta-synthesis approach (also referred to as integrative review). A meta-synthesis is based on a process by which findings across multiple studies are organized and presented (Turner, Gonzalez and Wood, 2008; Wood, 2010). This approach is used to provide insight to academicians and practitioners alike on the status of research on a given phenomenon (Bland, Meurer and Maldonado, 1995; Patterson, Thorne, Canam and Jillings, 2001; Wood, 2010). We engaged in a cyclical process of collecting, annotating, and synthesizing research over a 45-year time-frame (1970 to 2015). This produced over 50 cited resources with more than 100 scholars including peer-reviewed articles, reports, books, book chapters, and conference papers.

Factors present in the literature that affected students enrolled in a STEM program at a HBCU are grouped into three contexts: (a) first-generation academic and social characteristics, (b) first-generation college dropout and transition, and (c) first-generation STEM retention. Tables 2 to 4 provide these contexts by author and year of publication. Within these general groupings, four interrelated themes emerged from the literature: (a) prior academic performance and STEM discipline, (b) college adjustment and STEM discipline, (c) social integration and STEM discipline, and (d) academic integration and STEM discipline.

This information may help professors and university professionals in the STEM fields to be more aware of the challenges faced by incoming college students. More empirical work is needed in this area in a way that is useful for understanding and enhancing professors’ and university professionals’ knowledge. To this end, research that carefully describes what HBCU professors and university professionals know or their ideas about teaching college students, especially first-generation students enrolled in the STEM discipline, is needed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of first generation peer mentoring experiences on retention, grade point average and students’ perception of their academic and leadership development.

This study utilized a mixed methods approach. Focus groups and interviews were utilized to determine the reported leadership experiences of the mentors. Descriptive statistics were used to compare grade point averages and retention rates.

The study found peer mentors in residential life perceived an increase in leadership skills; including role modeling, time management, personal confidence, and problem solving. The peers were challenged in their roles, and perceived these challenges to help them to grow as leaders. When compared to their peers, the peer mentors experienced increased retention and similar grade point averages. The results indicated that peer mentoring experiences can be beneficial for the mentors who are first generation college students, even experiences that are particularly challenging.

The biggest limitation to this study is the fact that this was a small sample, without a control group. A further limitation is that it was difficult to get students to participate in the study. Future research might examine peer mentoring experiences of first generation students on larger campuses or on multiple campuses to allow for a control group of first generation peers without a peer mentoring experience.

The results indicated that peer mentoring experiences can be beneficial for the mentors who are first generation college students, even experiences that are particularly challenging.

Due to the potential for their success, these types of experiences should be expanded for first generation students, a group that is at a higher risk for drop out. Special attention should be paid to ongoing training in peer mentoring experiences, given the level of commitment by the mentors.

While other studies have examined the impact of peer mentoring on those that have been mentored, and a few have examined the impact of the experience on the mentors themselves this study extends the research by looking at first generation college students. This is valuable because first generation students continue to lag in their success in college and practical research on what can improve the student experience for this group is necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between supportive campus measures and student learning outcomes for first-generation students and non-first generation students to determine if variances are present. A lack of social capital of first generation when compare to non-first-generation students is theorized to be a contributing factor driving differences between the two groups.

Research survey design using penalized regression methods to quantify differences between groups. The analysis used 10 years of student engagement data.

Final analysis showed that first-generation student outcomes had little to no significant connection with the administrative focused aspects of the campus environment as compared to non-first-generation that represented highly significant relationships. This results supports the theory that first-generation students may simply be unaware of how to leverage these resources do to social capital disadvantages.

The result suggests that universities should reconsider first-generation programs to ensure that they have the capability to address first-generation students’ lack of social capital. The primary method by which social capital is generated is through networking or peer groups expansion. Consequently, first-generation students might benefit greatly from student mentors that are not first-generation students to help aid in the transition to college as compared to participating in programs that group and isolate first-generation students together.

Very few studies have attempted to use social capital as a theoretical framework to explain differences in how first-generation and non-first-generation student learning outcomes relate to campus engagement variables. Moreover, no studies have used both penalized regression and bootstrap validation in addressing this issue, making the study original in design and analysis.

Studies examining immigrant generational status and violence have supported differences in the prevalence of violence between these groups. The purpose of this paper is to measure relevant risk factors for violence to focus on whether negative perceptions may contribute to understanding the between-generations differences in violence. Based on the literature, it is theorised that pro-violence attitudes would be related to and be higher in second-generation immigrants than first-generation immigrants, and that negative perceptions would mediate the relationship between pro-violence attitudes and violence.

Data to answer the study’s key questions were taken from the 2010-2011 UK citizenship survey, where only the main sample was analysed.

The findings reveal that first-generation immigrants have a higher prevalence of pro-violence attitudes than the native population.

This suggests that there is an intergenerational transmission in violent attitudes, and this is a risk factor for actual violence in second-generation immigrants.

This article deals with the impact of ethnic origin on individual employability, focussing on the first stage of the hiring process. Deeply, the authors’ goal is to fathom whether there is a preference for native job candidates over immigrants, decomposing the discrimination against minority groups into its statistical and taste-based components by means of a new approach.

The authors built up a data set by means of an ad hoc field experiment, conducted by sending equivalent fictitious CVs in response to 1000 real online job openings in Italy. The authors developed the discrimination decomposition index using first- and second-generation immigrants.

The authors’ main result is that both first- and second-generation immigrants are discriminated compared to Italians. In between the two categories, second-generation candidates are discriminated especially if their ethnicities are morphologically different from those of natives (i.e. Chinese and Moroccans). This last finding is a clear symptom of discrimination connected to taste-based reasons. On the other hand, first-generation immigrants of all nationalities but Germans are preferred for hard-work jobs.

The authors develop the discrimination decomposition index to measure the proportion of the two kinds of discrimination (statistical and taste-based) over the total one and apply a probit model to test the statistical significance of the difference in treatment between the three groups of natives, first-generation and second-generation immigrants.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the key differences between first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs in their path to entrepreneurship. The aim of the study is to better understand entrepreneurial motivations amongst immigrants by comparing first- and second-generation entrepreneurs in their motivation for business entry, reliance on co-ethnic market, use of social and financial capital, business planning and marketing practices.

Using an interpretivist approach and a qualitative design, this study comprises 20 in-depth interviews with first- and second-generation Turkish entrepreneurs (TEs) in Melbourne, Australia. Turks in Australia were chosen because of their high level of entrepreneurial activity. In order to uncover deep-seeded motivations, participants were interviewed in a face-to-face format guided by a semi-structured interview guide.

The second-generation TEs were distinctively different from their first-generation counterparts in motivation for business entry, business establishment and use of ethnicity. The analysis shows that although the generations differ in their approach to business establishment, they both appear to be drawn to entrepreneurship based on “pull factors”. This is in contrast with previous literature suggesting that first-generation immigrant entrepreneurs were motivated by “push factors”.

This paper suggests that both first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs are “pulled” into entrepreneurship voluntarily. While the first-generation entrepreneurs seem to be motivated/pulled by financial reasons, the second generation are motivated by opportunity recognition, status and ambition. Nevertheless, a lack of trust in government support agency is found within both generations. Thus, outreach activities towards entrepreneurial immigrant communities may have positive effects for the economy as well as in the integration of ethnic enclaves.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the gap in reading literacy of young immigrant children in Italy and examine if this gap is significantly influenced by pupils’ length of stay in Italy and country of origin.

The author estimate a standard education production function where student test performance in language is modelled as a function of the native vs immigrant first- and second-generation status and a set of additional variables that control for students, schools and catchment area characteristics. In the analysis the author use the 2010-2011 school-year data for four stages of schooling: second and fifth grade/year of primary school, sixth grade of lower secondary school and tenth grade upper secondary school.

Results confirm the presence of a significant gap between natives and immigrants students in school outcomes for all grades, with first-generation immigrants showing the largest gap. Further, comparing the results between first- and second-generation immigrant students suggests that the average significant gap observed in the first generation is mainly due to the negative performance of immigrant children newly arrived in Italy. That is, for first-generation students, closing the gap with second-generation ones seems to be, for the most part, a matter of time. At the same time, the gap between natives and second-generation immigrants remains significant in all grades. Finally, when the author compare the results across the different years, it turns out that interventions at younger ages are likely to be more effective.

Despite the availability of a rich set of controls, endogeneity issues may play a role in the analysis.

Results suggest that if the foreign children’s late arrival is the result of national migration policies on family reunification, the authorities need to carefully compare the possible benefit of delaying immigrant family reunification against the possible costs of students’ lower school performance.

Among economist, only few recent studies address the important question of whether the age at arrival and the length of stay in the host country matters for immigrants’ educational achievements. Moreover, while according to PISA 2009 results, Italy has some of the largest native-immigrant school performance gaps among OECD countries there are no studies that investigate this issue.

Although there is an increasing body of literature looking at the postgraduate student experience, there is a lack of research and knowledge in understanding the impact of postgraduate (taught) PGT students' learning experiences prior to their postgraduate study, and their expectations of studying at PGT level. The research undertaken in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing at a post-1992 institution, which focuses on STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), aims to correct this deficiency by providing valuable data and insights into this nationally and internationally largely neglected area. This paper seeks to report the notable findings of first and second-generation respondents.

Data were collected via a hard copy questionnaire that had been developed through previous research and with staff and PGT course representative input. It was distributed and completed by new taught postgraduate students during the orientation period in September 2012. It was entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and a range of tests were run on the data.

This original research highlights the similarities and differences between first and second-generation respondents' prior learning experiences and their expectations of studying at postgraduate taught level.

The findings from the research presented was conducted over a one-year period and the findings are based on the limitations that such a time and financially limited project can offer. The university concerned is a post-1992 institution and has a high concentration towards teaching functions. What is observed at this UK HEI could be replicable in other teaching oriented organisations thus merits further research.

The findings from this original piece of research offer potentially important contributions to the current PGT debate looking at developing and expanding PGT provision and ensuring its sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if global and situational support for police use of force vary across first-generation immigrants, second-generation immigrants and native-born Americans.

Drawing on data from the 2012 General Social Survey, multivariate logistic regression models are performed to predict each of the three binary outcome variables (e.g. support for police use of reasonable force or excessive force) depending on immigrant generation status.

Results indicate that, compared with native-born individuals, first-generation immigrants express less global support for police use of force and less support for police use of reasonable force. In contrast, the first-generation group is more supportive of police use of excessive force compared to the second-generation group and native-born group.

Much research on immigrants’ perceptions of the police has yielded conflicting findings. Part of the reason has been attributed to failure to distinguish first-generation immigrants from successive generations of immigrants. The present study fills a gap in this line of research by assessing the extent to which there is a disparity in support for police use of force between different generations of immigrants and native-born individuals.