published in: Population Research and Policy Review, 2005, 24 (6), 5-30
In this paper we study the occupational progress and earnings attainment of immigrants in
Germany over time and compare them to native Germans. Our analysis is guided by the
human capital and segmented labor market theories. To assess the separate effects of
occupational segmentation and discrimination in the allocation of occupations and wages we
conceptualize the process of earnings attainment as occurring in three stages: initial
occupational achievement, final occupational achievement after the accumulation of
experience, and contingent on the former, final earnings attainment. Using data from the
German Socioeconomic Panel, our results indicate a high degree of initial occupational
segmentation, with immigrants being less able to translate their human capital into a good
first job and being channeled into first occupations of significantly lower status than natives.
We also developed evidence to suggest that immigrants experienced significant
discrimination in the process of occupational attainment, yielding little job mobility over time,
and widening the status gap between Germans and guestworkers. Holding occupational
status constant, however, we found less evidence of direct discrimination in the process of
earnings attainment. Although immigrants achieved lower rates of return to technical or
vocational training than natives, their wage returns to experience, hours worked, years since
migration, and academic high school were greater, yielding significant earnings mobility over
time.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.