MPIDR Working Paper
The transferability of foreign educational credentials - the case of ethnic German migrants in the German labor market
Kreyenfeld, M. R., Konietzka, D.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2001-002
Rostock, Max-Planck-Institut für demografische Forschung (Januar 2001)
This working paper has now been published. It is available at European Societies 4(2): 53-78.
Abstract
Since the breakdown of communism, Germany has experienced a major influx of Ethnic German migrants from Eastern Europe. In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel of the year 1998 to analyze the integration of Ethnic German migrants into the German labor market. We particularly focus on the transferability of educational credentials for the labor market integration of migrants. Although there are official procedures for Ethnic Germans to have their educational and vocational certificates recognized, only half of them are working in the occupation they were actually trained for. However, for migrants working in their trained occupation is a prerequisite for performing well in the German labor market. The problems Ethnic German migrants are faced with transferring their vocational skills lead us to some general conclusions on the dominant allocation mechanisms and also predictions on the fate of future migrant populations in the German labor market. (AUTHORS)