ABSTRACT Utilizing the German residential allocation and residency obligation policies, which can be regarded as a natural experiment, we investigate the causal effect of the local supply of language courses on refugees' labor market integration. By restricting refugees’ initial and post-arrival regional mobility, these policies allow us to circumvent the potential problems of initial and post-arrival residential selection. Moreover, we examine the intermediary outcomes – language proficiency, language course completion and certification, and contacts with natives – through which the local opportunity structure of language courses shape refugees’ economic integration. Our results reveal that the local supply of language courses positively affects refugees’ employment probability, and this effect persists over the duration of stay. We further find that greater supply of language courses in the assigned county increases probability of learning the German language, completing the course and receiving language certificates. From a policy perspective, our findings imply that the local provision of language courses should be considered in refugees’ residential allocation to facilitate immigrants' integration. This is because limited access to such courses can delay host country language learning, language certificate obtainment, and labor market entry, thus slowing the integration of recently arrived immigrants.

ABSTRACT The coronavirus pandemic, which first impacted European societies in early 2020, has created a twofold crisis by combining a health threat with economic turmoil. While the crisis has affected all European societies very significantly, its impact varies across countries, social groups, and societal domains. In an effort to provide a first overview of the effect of the coronavirus crisis, in this editorial we discuss contributions of 58 papers published as part of this special issue. These early research papers illustrate the varied impact of the pandemic on various areas of social life. The first group of studies in this special issue analyzes the effect of the pandemic on social inequalities with respect to gender, ethnic otherness, education, and work. A second stream of research focuses on the psychological consequences of the pandemic, especially with respect to wellbeing and resilience. Thirdly, the crisis is discussed on a societal level, in regard to welfare states, social policies, and approaches to crisis governance. In a fourth line of inquiry, several studies have analyzed the impact of the pandemic on social solidarity and cohesion. A fifth strand of research is devoted to examining the role of culture and lifestyles. This review ends with a discussion of areas for future research trajectories.

ABSTRACT Adult education may mitigate social inequalities during the life course by allowing educationally disadvantaged groups to catch up to their advantaged peers and thereby improve their career prospects. To challenge this idea, I analyze returns to adult education and implications for social inequality in transition economies, particularly in Russia. The results, based on longitudinal data from the Russian Education and Employment Survey, show that adult education either pays off equally for all groups or has a greater benefit for those who already occupy more advantageous positions. Accordingly, adult education does not facilitate mobility among those who need it most to improve their labor market prospects and opportunities. Moreover, in many cases, those who are least advantaged (e.g. lower educated, unskilled) appear to be effectively excluded from any positive payoffs of adult education due to their lower participation. Hence, despite the promise of adult education to lower social inequality, initial social inequalities are not offset but are often amplified through adult education in Russia.