Vortrag
Kick It Like Özil? Second Generation Migrants¿ Initial Disadvantage and the Failure of the Education System

Annabelle Krause, Ulf Rinne, Simone Schüller

16th Annual Conference of the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE)
Vancouver, Kanada, 29.04.2011 - 30.04.2011



Abstract:
This paper studies second generation migrants and natives in Germany's education system. It has been shown that native-migrant gaps in labor market outcomes as well as schooling are surprisingly persistent over migrant generations. We shed more light on this puzzle and address the question at which point(s) in time those developments are initiated. By employing a matching approach, in which we control for family background and other observed characteristics at pre-school ages, we carefully take into account the fact that the migrant population is a selected group and hence different from the native one. Our results show that second generation migrants are both, initially disadvantaged and disadvantaged by the education system. However, we also find that comparable natives face similar difficulties. This indicates a general failure of Germany's education system to provide equal opportunities for initially disadvantaged individuals rather than a migrant-specific problem.