Positive choices for all? SES- and gender-specific premia of immigrants at educational transitions

Abstract

Although often disadvantaged with respect to educational achievement, immigrants usually outperform natives at educational decisions, achievement inequalities taken into account. However, less is known about whether these ethnic premia hold true for all SES-groups and for males and females alike. Using data from the German part of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) and focussing on the transition after lower secondary education into academic tracks or the vocational training system and the labour market, positive choice effects among immigrants are confirmed. However, this only holds true for native-immigrant comparisons of low-SES groups. Furthermore, immigrant girls seem to attain similar transitions compared to immigrant boys, indicating no additional female advantage for immigrant girls. However, group-specific analyses reveal that such a double advantage (female advantage in addition to positive choices among immigrants) actually exist for Turkish girls, with this group showing the highest probabilities of transition into upper secondary education. Regarding an explanation, positive choice effects among immigrants are due mainly to differences in aspirations and seem to be less attributable to perceived or expected discrimination on the labour market.