efms Paper Nummer 29 School Education and Labor Market Integration of Second Generation Migrants in Germany efms Paper Nr. 29 Friedrich Heckmann

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1 efms Paper Nummer 29 efms Paper Nr. 29 School Education and Labor Market Integration of Second Generation Migrants in Germany Friedrich Heckmann Paper presented at the Workshop Work in the European Context at Budapest University of Economic Sciences, , Budapest europäisches forum für migrationsstudien (efms)

2 1 Introduction There has been a very long discussion in Germany about whether the country is an immigration country or not. This has been and still is a sometimes quite confusing discourse, different people working with different notions and assumptions when using that term "immigration country". What nobody can deny is that there has been an almost uninterrupted net inflow into the country (see chart 1). There is now a stock of 7.5 mio. foreigners in Germany, a number that does not count the around 3 mio. ethnic Germans that have come into the country. The continuous net in-migration or immigration creates a continuos need for the integration of these migrants, of groups of labor migrants, family members, ethnic Germans, asylum seekers and refugees. This is one of the big challenges in relation to overall societal integration; another is the huge task of East-West integration after the reunification of the country in Both kinds of integration tasks have to be done simultaneously. Chart 1: In- and outflows of migrants across German national borders: in Thousands Inflows Outflows Year Source: Federal Statistical Office One of the main dimensions of the integration of new groups into a society is the access to and equal participation in society's key institutions: in the education system, the occupational qualifying system, the labor market and the political community (structural integration). In my contribution I will have a brief look at the first three institutions: school, vocational training and labor market. This topic is connected to a new EU project of the european forum for migration studies at the University of Bamberg in which we study the integration policies of several European countries towards second generation migrants (EFFNATIS). Integration of migrants is - on the one hand - a market process; on the other side it is a conceptually and politically guided process. As to political concepts for the integration of migrants there are two basic kinds of policies: one is to have migrants participate in the normal and general institutions of societal reproduction and integration policies of

3 the modern welfare state. The other concept is to create special institutions for migrant integration. The concepts and policies connnected with these are not mutually exclusive, but could be given different emphasis in different countries. Germany clearly follows the universal policy as to the integration of migrants, but has some special institutions as well. To illustrate this: migrants children normally attend schools of the general school system, but there are some special classes to prepare them languagewise for that; in addition there are officially recognized and publicly financed voluntary so-called afternoon classes that teach the languages and cultures of the emigration countries. A totally different strategy as to schools would be to have a minority school system for the migrants children. We have such a system for the traditional national minorities of Danes and Sorbs in Germany, but for migrants only as an exception (Greek national schools). Integration into the general school system Whereas the unemployment rate for Germans is about 10 %, it is about 20 % for foreigners (1st and 2nd generation). One of the main explanatory variables for this difference is the difference in general educational attainment between the two groups. When viewing integration as a process one has to look 1) at the characteristics of the immigrant population when entering the country and 2) at time series data to learn about the development of educational integration of children of international migrants, who right now, are about one mio. in Germany. About the characteristics of migrants: The core group of Germany's foreign population are former so-called guest workers and their families. They were recruited for jobs of low qualification, little pay and little prestige. The large majority of these labor migrants had very little schooling, no or little occupational training and were of rural background. And, of course, they had no knowledge of German and of institutions in Germany. This means in terms of family socialization conditions that the children of the labor migrants were severely disadvantaged and had little cultural and social capital compared to the native population. Despite of these starting conditions a continuos process of improvement in educational attainment can be observed over a period of more than 30 years. The progress effect that the core group of recruited labor migrants has made is confounded in the official statistics though still visible by several factors: data are collected for "foreign children" in general. This group of foreign children includes 2nd and 3rd generation labor migrants who have been born in Germany, children of asylum seekers and war refugees who have come to the country only recently, particularly after the wars and crises in former Yougoslavia. The group of foreign children also includes so-called "Seiteneinsteiger", which means children of migrants who have stayed behind in the country of origin of their parents and who join their parents as older children or as youth. In other words, among the foreign school population there is a large and growing proportion who have not lived in Germany before and have had their childhood socialization in a different country which implies many disadvantages for success in the German school system. There is another interesting group of so-called transnational migrants who - on the basis of EU law - frequently move between two or three living and working contexts and seem to have big problems as to their integration in each. This group of transnational migrants is particularly large among the Italians, who as a category, are the oldest immigrant group in Germany, but are often relatively "young" in terms of individual time spent in Germany and score low in educational achievement. 2

4 With this in mind let's have a look at some of the data of educational integration for the past ten years (Tables 1 and 2). 3 Table 1: Types of schools attended by foreign children in Germany (%) Type of school* Vorklassen - 0,9 0,9 0,8 0,8 0,6 0,7 0,7 0,7 0,8 0,8 0,8 Schulkindergärten - 0,9 0,9 0,8 0,7 0,9 1,0 1,0 1,0 1,0 1,1 1,1 Grundschulen 1) 40,6 39,5 39,1 39,1 38,1 37,8 37,3 37,5 38,1 39,0 40,2 41,4 Orientierungs stufe 1,9 2,0 2,4 2,2 3,1 3,2 3,3 3,4 3,4 3,3 3,2 3,2 Hauptschulen 2) 28,6 28,4 28,4 27,9 27,5 27,0 26,4 26,0 25,3 24,2 23,2 22,1 Integr. Klassen für Haupt- und Realschüler ,1 0,3 0,3 0,4 Realschulen 3) 7,3 7,7 8,4 8,7 8,8 8,9 9,0 8,8 8,6 8,7 8,4 8,3 Gymnasien 4) 8,3 8,5 9,1 9,5 9,7 9,8 10,1 9,9 9,7 9,5 9,3 9,2 Gesamtschulen 5,2 5,7 4,4 4,7 5,0 5,2 5,6 5,9 6,2 6,4 6,5 6,5 Freie Waldorfschulen 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,1 0,1 Sonderschulen für Lern behinderte 5) 4,4 4,5 4,1 3,9 3,8 3,9 3,9 3,9 4,0 4,1 4,2 4,0 Sonderschulen für sonstige Behinderte 1,5 1,5 1,7 1,7 1,8 1,8 1,9 1,9 1,9 2,0 1,9 2,0 Abendhaupt- / Abendrealschulen 0,2 0,2 0,3 0,3 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,4 0,4 0,4 0,4 0,5 Abendgymnasien / Kollegs 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,3 0,3 Total 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 Source: Sekretariat 1997, Table 18. * Translation of the major categories: 1) = elementary school; 2) = basic education; 3) = middle level secondary school; 4) = secondary school preparing for university; 5) = schools for handicapped children Table 2: School diploma achieved by foreign children in Germany (%) Kind of diploma Schulentlassungen nach Beendigung der Voll - zeitschulpflicht ohne Hauptschulabschuß 1) 18,2 17,4 17,4 17,8 17,1 17,7 16,2 15,8 15,4 14,7 Schulentlassungen aus der Sonderschule für Lernbehinderte 2) 5,1 5,3 5,0 4,5 4,6 4,0 4,6 4,5 4,6 4,8 Schulentlassungen nach Beendigung der Vollzeitschulpflicht mit Hauptschulabschluß 3) 48,4 47,4 46,0 45,6 45,3 43,6 43,5 43,6 42,9 43,6 Realschulabschluß und entsprechende Abschlüsse 4) 22,1 23,7 24,3 25,1 25,4 25,0 26,6 26,6 27,3 27,6 Fachhochschulreife 5) 0,2 0,3 0,3 0,5 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,7 0,8 0,8 Hochschulreife 6) 5,9 5,9 6,4 6,4 7,2 7,7 8,4 8,8 8,9 8,5 Total Source = Sekretariat 1997, Table A, E, 2 Translations: 1) = no diploma; 2) = finishing school for handicapped; 3) = basic education diploma; 4) = middle level diploma 5) = diploma to attend college; 5) = diploma to attend university

5 4 Integration into the vocational training system There are two major qualification systems in Germany: the college university system of higher education and the vocational training system. I shall talk about the latter. The vocational training system has as its major element the so-called dual system, i.e. apprenticeship and parallel to that schooling in special schools. Besides the dual system there is a system of vocational schools without apprenticeships. It has become more and more difficult for young people to find apprenticeships since most employers not only want a school diploma but also decent grades. Remembering the position of immigrants children is the educational system it is not surprising to learn that substantially fewer migrants children are in apprenticeship positions compared to Germans. The figures for the relevant age group of and excluding the students in 1997 are 65% for Germans and 33% for non-germans (Jeschek 1998, 4). This latter figure of 33% may seem rather low; looking at the quota of migrant children holding an apprenticeship position in a time series perspective, however, the latter figure takes on a different meaning: it is a recent value in a time series which started extremely low and has continuously improved over the years. In addition, the number of migrant youth in the full-time vocational schools without apprenticeship has continuously increased as well over the past 30 years. Thus, to summarize, the integration of second generation migrant youth in the occupational training system is still well behind the natives level, but has continuously progressed. What are the others doing, those that are not in the "regular system"? Are they working in jobs that demand no occupational training, or are they unemployed? The majority is neither working nor registred as unemployed, but is trained in publicly financed measures. These measures are particularly designed for those without an apprenticeship or without a place in the vocational fulltime schoolsystem. The goal of these courses is to improve participants chances to get into the regular training system or to function as a substitutive vocational training system. The competition for apprenticeships at least attractive apprenticeships is quite tough, since demand and supply for these positions are not in equilibrium ( applicants for positions in 1997/98). I will briefly describe some of the features of this system of preparatory or substitutive measures which are not particularly designed for migrants children, but are open to them as inhabitants of Germany and are of particular importance for their integration. One type of measure is organized within the vocational schools that also train people who are in the dual system. There are two basic courses, lasting for 12 months each: "Berufsvorbereitungsjahr" or pre-apprenticeship programme is designed to improve basic general skills; "Berufsgrundbildungsjahr" or basic vocational training is more specific in terms of vocational training and can be counted as an apprenticeship year after an apprenticeship position has been found. Another basic type of measures is financed by money from the "Arbeitsförderungsgesetz", (labor training act) and organized by the labor office and private or public training firms: - "Ausbildungsvorbereitende Maßnahmen", courses to prepare people for vocational training (2 11 months) including:

6 - motivation courses - courses for basic skills (including language) - courses for handicapped people - support of employers who employ and train people; efms Paper Nr "Außerbetriebliche Ausbildung in überbetrieblichen Einrichtungen", occupational qualification in publicly financed training firms; - "ausbildungsbegleitende Maßnahmen", supportive measures for people in apprenticeships to help them pass their exams. What I have described so far are all general measures that are of prime importance for the integration of immigrants children but that are not specifically designed for them. Besides, there is a multitude of measures and initiatives that are particularly designed for migrants, including ethnic German in many cases, which are financed mainly by the federal and state ministries of labor. I can only mention some of these migrant specific measures: - the bi-national program, training people to work in two countries - incentives for employers of migrant background the self-employment rate among migrants is approaching that of the natives to create apprenticeship positions for second generation migrant youth - "Pro-Qualifizierung", a training program for people between 25 and 45 to adapt them to technological changes - special measures to train migrant woman - many regional and local initiatives to increase apprenticeship positions for second generation migrants. 5 Effects of preparatory or substitutive training measures There are evaluative studies on some of these single programmes and measures, but I will not touch upon them. I can also not give any kind of cause and effect type of analysis for the evaluation of these programmes on a macroeconomie and macrosociological level, but I can give some comparative European data that suggest that the programmes are not totally ineffective. Eurostat s so-called "European Labor Force Survey" which is a standardized regular micro-census in all EU countries and measures labor market and labor market related data, allows among others for the international European comparison of unemployment of foreign youth in different European countries. Kiehl and Werner (1998) of the research institute of the Federal Labor Office, have for the first time used the Eurostat data for that purpose. The data given are for 1995 (Chart 2). Chart 2 demonstrates that Germanys unemployment rate for foreign youth is substantially lower than for most EU countries. Only Austria, Denmark and Luxembourg have similar figures.

7 Chart 2: Unemployment rates of youth (15-24): natives, foreigners (total), EU nationals in EU countries unemployment rate (%) natives foreigners EU-nationals in EU countries Austria Belgium Germany Denmark Spain Finland France Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Portugal Sweden UK Source: Kiel and Werner 1998 EU nationals: no data available for Denmark, Finland and Italy. Conclusions () In addition to the traditional dual system of vocational training a system of preparatory, supportive and substitutive training measures has developed largely financed by the Federal Labor Office. This trend has strongly increased the role of the state in the occupational training of people. () The new system has developed in a structure of corporatist arrangements in which the state, the employers and the unions closely cooperate. () The strategy for the integration of second generation migrants has been to integrate them into the general educational system, the general dual system and the new general system of preparatory, substitutive and supportive measures. Special integration policies for migrants exist, but are of less importance. () Over the past 30 years a continuos progress of educational and occupational integration of migrants can be observed. () The new system of substitutive and preparatory measures helps to ease the general crisis of the dual system and is struggling with the problem of preparing people with offen poor skills for an economy in which jobs for unqualified labour are getting more and more scarce.

8 7 Bibliography Jeschek, W., Integration junger Ausländer in das Bildungssystem kommt kaum noch voran, in: DIW Wochenbericht 24, 1998, Kiehl, M. und Werner, H., Die Arbeitsmarktsituation von EU Bürgern und Angehörigen von Drittstaaten in der EU. IAB Werkstattbericht Nürnberg Sekretariat der Ständigen Konferenz der Kulturminister der Länder (Hrsg.), Ausländische Schüler und Schulabsoventen , Dokumentation Nr. 143, Bonn 1997.