4. A spotlight on social mobility in the German middle class

Abstract

This chapter examines short-term income dynamics in Germany since the mid-1990s. It first focuses on the mobility patterns of people in the middle-income group over a four-year interval, looking at trends in their risks of sliding out of the middle, and of experiencing poverty, and their opportunities of rising out towards the top. It then looks at changes in the upward mobility into the middle-income group for low-income households. The last part of the chapter zooms in on the changes in income dynamics for different socio-economic groups, disaggregating results by age, level of educational attainment and occupational class, migrant background, and region of residence.