Jenseits von Mittelwertunterschieden: Die Rolle von Bildungssystemen in der Strukturierung von ethnischer Bildungs- und Arbeitsmarktungleichheit
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
This project elaborated on the conceptual idea that variation around group averages represents an important dimension of social inequality commonly ignored in most social science research. When applied to the phenomena of ethnic inequality, this project generated the following novel insights: with respect to ethnic educational inequality, it was demonstrated that students with migrant backgrounds score on average lower in mathematical competence tests. Coincidentally, their scores also vary less concentrating members of this group more around those lower scores which hints at higher levels of ethnic inequality than would normally be found with a focus on average group differences alone. The characteristics of educational systems do appear to have the potential to alter the extent of ethnic inequality in a country’s educational system. Namely, in countries with highly stratified systems (like the German system with physical separation into different tracks), there may not be more inequality in the average scores but students with migrant backgrounds are even more concentrated around their scores. Hence, educational systems do not contribute to ethnic competence inequality because they increase the average differences between students of different groups but rather because students with migrant background tend to be more concentrated in the lower competence spectrum. With respect to ethnic inequality on the labor market, it was demonstrated that institutional settings shown to produce positive outcomes cross-nationally are in fact an obstacle to the labor market integration of immigrants. Specifically, countries with highly stratified and standardized systems generate conditions where the transition from the educational system to the labor market is more efficient (which manifests in faster transitions and entry positions with higher returns in terms of income and status) – but predominantly for the native-born population. For immigrants, this project showed that this institutional setting is associated with lower and more variable labor market returns. Findings like those generated in this project which are derived from a tradition of crossnational comparison can be highly informative in designing policy measured geared towards reducing the observed extent of ethnic inequality – like in this case in the educational systems and on the labor market. But in order to do so, an encompassing description and explanation of patterns of inequality is required. Ignoring variation as one central dimension by which a phenomenon can be described thus necessarily provides an incomplete picture and runs the risk of missing important leverage points for policy responses or even unintended consequences that may not manifest in mean but in variation differences.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
- 2018. How education systems shape cross-national ethnic inequality in math competence scores: Moving beyond mean differences. PLoS One 13: e0193738
Spörlein, C. & E. Schlueter
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193738) - 2018. How educational systems structure ethnic inequality among young labour market participants in Europe: Occupational placement and variation in the occupational status distribution. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 55:109-199
Spörlein, C.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2018.04.006) - 2020. Selektive Migration und Muster der Sozialintegration von Zugewanderten im internationalen Vergleich
Spörlein, C.
