Search

The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss how learning is experienced by young, newly arrived immigrants in Germany. In particular, it addresses the connection between their experiences and the expectations of the German education system, as well as the connection between different kinds of learning experiences (formal and informal) in the context of adolescence. Adolescence is understood as an intergenerationally shaped psycho-social space of developmental opportunities. It is always affected and formed by aspects of social inequality such as milieu, gender, and race. Research shows that when migration takes place during adolescence, young people must cope with a "doubled transformation requirement" (King and Schwab). This paper discusses whether adolescent immigrants face even more transformation requirements—again, interwoven with learning—than two. Based on cases taken from two qualitative-interview-study samples, I reconstruct how coping strategies in terms of psycho-social development can be associated with different kinds of learning. Finally, I emphasise the responsibility of formal education as a supportive framework and stabilising factor for child and adolescent immigrants after they reach Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the communicative factors that facilitate or hamper the development of an inclusive work environment with an emphasis on the communication about equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), while taking diversity characteristics of employees into account. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 84 persons employed in Austria and Germany, who feature various observable and non-observable diversity characteristics, were interviewed following a problem-centered approach. Findings: The results indicate that employees with (observable) diversity characteristics, who tend to feel less included, observe more excluding and marginalizing communication and practices in their organizations. Moreover, formal interpersonal communication appears to be more important to develop a highly inclusive workplace than informal interpersonal communication and other forms of communication about EDI. Research limitations/implications: The sample was rather imbalanced and comprised only employees in Austria and Germany, which limits the study's explanatory power. However, the findings stress the significance of formal interpersonal communication as the cornerstone of an inclusive workplace, which should be followed up in future research. Practical implications: In terms of the development of an inclusive work environment the findings suggest that strategic (i.e. formal) organizational communication about EDI issues is key to increase the perception of inclusion. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the importance of interpersonal communication as a key factor that facilitates, but also hampers an inclusive work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German social security records involve an indicator for part-time or full-time work. In 2011, the reporting procedure was changed suggesting that a fraction of worker recorded to be working full-time before the change were in fact part-time workers. This study develops a correction based on estimating the probability of being a part-time worker before and after the break. Using the correction, the paper confirms that the rise in wage inequality among full-time workers in West Germany until 2010 is not a spurious consequence of the misreporting of working time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the importance of the factors associated with the rise in male wage inequality in Europe's largest economy over the period 1995-2010. We simultaneously consider an extensive set of explanatory factors including personal characteristics, measures of internationalization, task composition, union coverage, industry, region, and firm characteristics. Our study uses a different data source than most of the other prominent studies on wage inequality in Germany. We carefully assess differences implied by the different data and show that previous studies have most likely underestimated the dominating role of de-unionization for the rise in German wage inequality. As the second most important factor, we identify compositional effects of personal characteristics such as age and education. We find only moderate effects linked to internationalization, firm heterogeneity, task changes and regional convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inequalities lead to flood resilience inequalities across social groups, a topic that requires improved documentation and understanding. The objective of this paper is to attend to these differences by investigating self‐stated flood recovery across genders in Vietnam as a conceptual replication of earlier results from Germany. This study employs a regression‐based analysis of 1,010 respondents divided between a rural coastal and an urban community in Thua Thien‐Hue province. The results highlight an important set of recovery process‐related variables. The set of relevant variables is similar across genders in terms of inclusion and influence, and includes age, social capital, internal and external support after a flood, perceived severity of previous flood impacts, and the perception of stress‐resilience. However, women were affected more heavily by flooding in terms of longer recovery times, which should be accounted for in risk management. Overall, the studied variables perform similarly in Vietnam and Germany. This study, therefore, conceptually replicates previous results suggesting that women display slightly slower recovery levels as well as that psychological variables influence recovery rates more than adverse flood impacts. This provides an indication of the results' potentially robust nature due to the different socio‐environmental contexts in Germany and Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inheritance tax is often seen as an effective tool to reduce wealth inequality, to raise public revenues if needed, and to increase incentives to work by lowering the tax burden on labour, which is especially high in Germany, according to the OECD. The purpose of this paper is therefore to shed light on the question of whether an inheritance tax is a promising tool for fighting wealth inequality without having distorting effects on the economy. For this purpose, firstly, the distributional effects of inheritances on wealth distribution are evaluated for Germany and are then compared with those in Austria and France, using data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). A change in the German inheritance tax law in 2009 is further used in a difference-in-difference analysis to identify the behavioural effects of the change in the inheritance tax on the volume of bequests, which are large and robust for different specifications. Secondly, the insight from part one is applied to the design of an inheritance tax reform for Germany. The potential tax revenue of the reform can be estimated by using the data from the inheritance and gift tax statistics. A revenue shift from income to inheritance tax could be used to increase work incentives by cutting the marginal tax rates for the working population. However, it turns out that taxing inheritances will be accompanied by significant behavioural responses of donors via tax planning. Furthermore, the introduction of a flat tax model with a broad tax base would not generate enough additional revenue to foster relevant employment effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of marital sorting on earnings inequality, taking into account extensive and intensive margin labour supply choices. Using German microdata, the observed distribution of couples' earnings is compared to a counterfactual of random matches. In West Germany, marital sorting is found to be disequalizing only after adjusting for labour supply. This means that positive sorting in earnings potential is veiled by low female participation rates. In East Germany, the impact is highly disequalizing even when earnings are taken as given, due to the fact that East German women are more attached to the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries--Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types--this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residential care. With attention paid to issues of "capacity" and the institutional arrangements in each case, we find that institutional histories in Germany and Sweden permitted a certain recidivistic reliance on established practices in the areas of employment and social protection. In sum, certain social and economic inequalities were mitigated as these countries set aside recent trends toward "liberalization" and mobilized longer-standing institutional capacities to protect some groups, although by no means all. Evidence of this trend is less clear in the health and residential care sectors, where Germany had existing capacity, allowing its older population to weather the crisis in better order than its counterparts in Sweden and the UK. In the UK, welfare liberalization has led to increased social and economic inequalities and funding reductions in health and residential care--all of which have reduced the country's ability to deal with severe crisis. The Covid response in this case was agile, but also chaotic, with little being done to ameliorate the positions of the most vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and quantifies the contribution of a set of covariates in affecting levels and over time changes of happiness inequality. Using a decomposition method based on RIF regression, we analyse the increase in happiness inequality observed in Germany between 1992 and 2007, using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) database, deriving the following findings. First, trends in happiness inequality are mainly driven by composition effects, while coefficient effects are negligible. Second, among composition effects, education has an inequality-reducing impact, while the increase in unemployment contributes to the rise in happiness inequality. Third, increase in average income is associated to a decrease in happiness inequality, while the rise in income inequality cannot be considered as a driver of happiness inequality trends. A clear-cut policy implication is that policies enhancing education and economic performance contribute to reduce happiness inequality and the potential social tensions arising from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of an intensive counseling program to promote college access of students who are eligible for college. Using data from an experimental panel study, we examine the average effect on university enrollment directly after high school graduation and the effect heterogeneity by educational background. No positive effect of participation is found. We discuss these results in relation to the potential of reducing inequalities by individual counseling in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish that contributions to regional theory advanced by Gunnar Myrdal exhibit high levels of explanatory power when clarifying challenges facing Germany's eastern region since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Myrdal's evolutionary institutionalist contribution is contrasted with the "convergence hypothesis" advanced by R. Barro and X. Sala.i-Martin. Challenged is their prediction that Germany's eastern region would experience relatively higher annual rates of per capita output growth, and that levels of per capita output would converge between the eastern and western regions over time. Myrdal's approach is argued superior as it allows for considering backwash and spread effects within a framework of circular and cumulative causation, emerging between Germany's western and eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somatic symptoms are common in a wide range of medical conditions. In severe cases, they are associated with high individual and economic burden. To explore social inequalities in somatic symptom severity (SSS) and to identify social groups with highest SSS, we applied an intersectional research approach. Analyses are based on cross-sectional data of the adult population living in Germany (N = 2413). SSS was assessed with the Somatic Symptom Scale-8. A multiple linear regression model with three-way interaction of gender, income and history of migration and post-hoc pairwise comparison of estimated marginal means was conducted. Analyses revealed intersectional inequalities in SSS along the axis of gender, income, and history of migration. Highest SSS was found in males with low income whose parent(s) immigrated, females with low income who immigrated themselves, and females with low income and no history of migration. Intersectional approaches contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of health disparities. To reduce disparities in SSS, proportionate universal interventions combining universal screening and targeted treatment seem promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision of the German regional court in Cologne on 26 June 2012 to prohibit the circumcision of minors is important insofar as it recognises the qualitative similarities between the practice and other prohibited invasive rites, such as female genital cutting. However, recognition of similarity poses serious questions with regard to liberal public policy, specifically with regard to the exceptionalist treatment demanded by certain circumcising groups. In this paper, I seek to advance egalitarian means of dealing with invasive rites which take seriously cultural diversity, minimise harm and place responsibility for the burdens and consequences of beliefs upon those who promote practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ongoing debate on immigrant integration policies, the Sinus study on migrant milieus has attracted much attention for its clear stance as a proponent of a multicultural society. Brushing aside arguments about an ethnic-religious divide in the German social fabric, the study argues that social milieus constitute much stronger markers of difference than ethnicity. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the postethnic vision articulated by Sinus. However, it also raises some methodological issues concerning the collection and analysis of data on immigrant populations. The concluding section discusses the limits of a politics of difference based on milieus. It questions the potential of the Sinus study to move the German immigration debate forward towards a more democratic vision of citizenship, given its de-emphasis of social inequalities rooted in relations of gender, 'race' and class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lien Social et Politiques is the property of Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Compared to the well-established concept "vulnerability", there has been less research on "social vulnerability", particularly with respect to highly developed welfare states. Conducting an in-depth study on the consequences of the 2002 Elbe flood in three German communities, the paper tests the applicability of the concept of social vulnerability in a European context. The research was based on the assumption that it is an expression of social inequality. Yet, socially vulnerable groups were not clearly distinguishable. This does not suggest, however, that social vulnerability is not relevant in the European context. Rather, it is the outcome of a complex web of drivers that are of both social and contextual origin. Three implications are outlined for future studies: the need to integrate top-down and bottom-up oriented approaches to assess social vulnerability, to embed our understanding of social vulnerability better in overall societal transformation processes, and to consider existing governance and management systems and their inter-relations as well as their consequences for social vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief overview of elite change and continuity in East Germany as a post-socialist society. To do so, at first, some peculiarities of the former cadre system and elites in Socialist East Germany, i.e. the late German Democratic Republic, are addressed with regard to social structure development and the arrangement of generations. Selected empirical evidence is based on cross-sectoral, longitudinal and cohort analyses and the inspection of prosopographic elite data compiled until the end of the 1980s which deconstruct the myth of a levelled egalitarian Socialist society. In the second part of the paper, elite change and continuity after the political change of 1989/90 is discussed in the context of the transformation of institutions. Inspired by Bourdieu's analytic paradigm, one central thesis on the career survivals, take-offs, and breakdowns of East German elites is the continued validity and efficacy of social and cultural capital obtained before the fall of the Wall, most of all formal qualification. Dimensions of vertical social inequality under Socialist rule, such as gender and class background, remain to be decisive until today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses affirmative action policies in Germany. After German reunification, women from both east and west had hoped for a new codification of their rights, including positive obligations on the state to promote gender equality. However, the amendments to the Basic Law in November 1994 did not clearly endorse this approach. Opinions still differ as to whether Articles 3(2) and 3(3) of the Constitution allow for affirmative action with regard to women's employment. In 2001 quotas for the public employment sector were finally introduced, but the use of quotas for private sector employment still faces serious opposition. Nevertheless, the concept of affirmative action is not new to the German legal system: since the eighteenth century, quota schemes have been used to ensure the employment of (war-) disabled persons. This article examines the different approaches to employment quotas for women and disabled persons, and critically evaluates the reasons for divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper we compare public views regarding the equality of rights foreigners deserve in Germany and Israel using data from two national representative samples (ALLBUS in Germany, 1996 and Attitudes Towards Minorities Survey in Israel, 1999). The data reveal that anti-immigrant sentiments (as expressed by the denial to grant rights to foreign workers) are more pronounced in Israel than in Germany. These findings hold even after controlling for individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics and differential levels of threat. In both countries, support for foreigners' rights tend to increase with level of education and to decline with age. In Germany, support for rights is also affected by income (positively), right-wing orientation (negatively), and residence in East Germany (negatively). In both countries, the most important determinant of support for foreigners' rights is the perception of threat. The greater the threat the more likely citizens are to deny rights to labour migrants. It should be noted, however, that the impact of threat on attitudes towards foreigners' rights as well as the impact of political orientation (right-wing) is more pronounced in Germany than in Israel. While threat is the more important determinant of anti-foreigner sentiments in both societies, it only partially intervenes between individual characteristics and attitudes toward foreigners' rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Although public stigma imposes a great burden on those affected with manifold negative consequence there is not much known about public stigma related to fatigue. Therefore, this study addresses the following research questions: (1) What is the magnitude of public stigma toward individuals with fatigue? (2) Are there differences in public stigma depending on the social characteristics of the affected person (sex, occupation, and migration)? Methods: Analyses are based on a national telephone survey in Germany (N = 1,209). A vignette describing a person with symptoms of fatigue was presented to the respondents. Vignettes were varied according to sex, occupational status, and migration status. Stigma toward the person presented in the vignette was measured by stereotypes and negative emotional reactions (anger). Results: Of the stereotypes under study, "hypersensitive" was most frequently endorsed by the respondents (35.7%), followed by "weak will" (27.2%). About 15-20% of the respondents agreed that they react with anger, annoyance or incomprehension. There were considerable differences in fatigue stigma according to the social characteristics of the affected person. In two social groups public stigma was particularly pronounced: (1) male persons with a low occupational status and a migration background; (2) female persons with a high occupational status and without a migration status. In contrast, women with a low occupational status and a migration background were less stigmatized. Conclusion: Individuals suffering from fatigue symptoms are confronted with stereotypes and negative emotional reactions by the public. Magnitude of public stigma considerably varies according to social characteristics of the afflicted person. Future studies should consider applying an intersectional approach to identify groups that are at risk of multiple stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares recent developments in income inequality in Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition to describing cross-national variation in changes in income inequality, the paper examines different explanatory factors for these recent developments. The findings reported indicate that there is substantial cross-national variation, not only with regard to the level of inequality, but furthermore with regard to changes in inequality. The results indicate that the equalizing effect of welfare state redistribution did not decrease in all countries. By contrast, in all countries there was a universal tendency towards increased inequality in the pre-tax and transfer distribution, although the magnitude of the change differs from country to country. Even though a polarization of the earnings distribution is reported, the results still give no support to cross-national convergence with regard to income inequality during the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE A comprehensive and thorough investigation of the key trends in family patterns in Western Germany. METHODS Descriptive analyses of educational differences in marital status, cohabitation, partnerlessness, and children in the household in Western Germany from 1976 to 2019. We analyze unique data from the German Microcensus with information from more than 1.7 million individuals. RESULTS In the 1970s, men with higher education were moderately more likely to live with a partner and be married, and less likely to be divorced. The reverse was mainly the case for women. Over time, higher education levels for men and women became increasingly associated with living with a partner, being married, and living with children; lower levels of education became increasingly associated with divorce, partnerlessness, and single parenthood. Today, men with lower levels of education are least likely to live with a partner, be married, or have children in the household. Women with lower education levels are most likely to be single parents. CONCLUSIONS Education is turning more and more into a generalized life resource: those with higher education are not only the winners in the labor market but are also increasingly more likely to achieve those partnership and family outcomes to which the majority of young people aspire - a stable partnership and children. CONTRIBUTION This 'big picture' analysis deepens our understanding of changes in family-related social inequalities in Germany. Analyses based on high-quality data have not been available for Germany and can serve as bases for future research at the granular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of work factors, health, and work ability to social inequalities in early exit from employment among older employees in Germany. Methods Longitudinal data from the representative German lidA Cohort study was linked with employment register data to obtain maximum information on exit routes out of paid employment. Information of N=2438 respondents, aged 46 and 52 at baseline, were obtained for a follow-up of six years (2011–2017). Causal mediation analysis with inverse odds weighting was conducted using discrete-time survival outcomes and baseline measurements of the socioeconomic status (SES: education), work factors, health, and work ability. Results Older employees with low SES were at an increased risk of exiting employment early by receiving disability pension and through long-term unemployment but not through an unspecified labor market exit when compared to those with high and moderate SES. Low work ability accounted for up to 38% of the social inequalities in work exits into disability pension. Less-than-good physical health accounted for up to 59% of inequalities in work exits into long-term unemployment. Work factors contributed considerably to inequalities in exits through unemployment but not disability pension. Conclusions This study finds social inequalities in early exits through disability pension and long-term unemployment among older employees in Germany, predominantly attributable to differences in work ability (disability pension) and physical health (unemployment). Investments in work ability and promotion of physical health may constitute promising approaches to counteract an increase of these inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Time trends in health inequalities have scarcely been studied in Germany as only few national data have been available. In this paper, we explore trends in socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of chronic illness using Germany-wide data from four cross-sectional health surveys conducted between 2003 and 2012 (n = 54,197; ages 25–69 years). We thereby expand a prior analysis on post-millennial inequality trends in behavioural risk factors by turning the focus to chronic illness as the outcome measure. The regression-based slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated to estimate the extent of absolute and relative socioeconomic inequalities in chronic illness, respectively. Results: The results for men revealed a significant increase in the extent of socioeconomic inequalities in chronic illness between 2003 and 2012 on both the absolute and relative scales (SII2003 = 0.06, SII2012 = 0.17, p-trend = 0.013; RII2003 = 1.18, RII2012 = 1.57, p-trend = 0.013). In women, similar increases in socioeconomic inequalities in chronic illness were found (SII2003 = 0.05, SII2012 = 0.14, p-trend = 0.022; RII2003 = 1.14, RII2012 = 1.40, p-trend = 0.021). Whereas in men this trend was driven by an increasing prevalence of chronic illness in the low socioeconomic group, the trend in women was predominantly the result of a declining prevalence in the high socioeconomic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Filosofía UIS is the property of Universidad Industrial de Santander and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Functional elites of the GDR, the so-called cadres, formed a rather large and inhomogeneous stratum of the socialist society. Empirical evidence based on quantitative analyses of large prosopographical and biographical datasets unveils paradoxical patterns of social inequality underlying the processes of recruitment and career mobility of cadres. Hereditary aspects had a greater impact on the allocation of social status than expected and thwarted the socialist project. Not only did a New Class or "socialist intelligentsia" emerge, increasing social closure also reverberated a distinguishably "bourgeois" tradition. In the 1980s, workers and cooperative farmers belonged to the most disadvantaged social strata in the "Workers' and Peasants' State". While this could be observed for different sectors of the GDR society, economy in particular gave an instructive example. Factories and large industrial combines (Kombinate) were led by businessmen who often did not even have a documented worker's origin. Instead, and in the first place, they boasted required aspects of high cultural capital, such as academic and special vocational training, and were politically reliable with regard to SED state party alignment and honorary functions. Thus, even the descendents of "capitalist" entrepreneurs, persons with a National Socialist family background or persons with a personal NS past had fairly good prospects to embark on careers in the GDR economy. The paper briefly discusses statistical analyses of data on higher executive personnel such as director generals (CEOs), branch directors, and heads of department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Discourse: Journal of Childhood & Adolescense Research / Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous research has shown that low-income households bear a higher exposure to environmental pollution than high-income households. Some scholars have argued that selective siting of industrial facilities accounts for such environmental inequality, while others have argued that those citizens who can afford to move out of polluted regions do so, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged are sorted into polluted areas. Yet empirical evidence regarding the processes of environmental inequality is not conclusive. We build on an original data set that includes annual georeferenced data of 6,570 highly polluting industrial facilities in Germany from 2008 to 2017 and validate the fluctuation in facilities with geographical land-use data. We then connect the facilities to income and demographic data for 4,455 municipalities and investigate sociodemographic changes before and after the appearance of new facilities. Spatial models are employed to measure local relative changes, and fixed-effects individual slopes estimators are used to account for selection on economic trajectories. Results provide only limited support for the selective siting thesis but show that an area's average income decreases after the appearance of new industrial facilities, thereby resonating with the selective migration hypothesis. In contrast, facility closure does not attract, or reattract, more affluent households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial educational inequalities have been documented in Germany for decades. In this article, we examine whether educational inequalities among children have increased or remained the same since the school closures of spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our perspective is longitudinal: We compare the amount of time children in secondary schools spent on school-related activities at home before the pandemic, during school closures, and immediately after returning to in-person learning. We operationalize family socio-economic status using the highest parental educational attainment. Based on the theoretical assumption that the pandemic affected everyone equally, we formulate a hypothesis of equalization during the first period of school closures. For the period thereafter, however, we assume that parents with a low level of education had more difficulties bearing the additional burden of supervising and supporting their children's learning activities. Thus, for that period, we postulate an increase in educational inequality. To study our hypotheses, we use data from the 2019 wave of the SOEP and the SOEP-CoV study, both of which are probability samples. The SOEP-CoV study provides a unique database, as it was conducted during the lockdown of spring 2020 and in the following month. For statistical analysis, we use probit regressions at three measurement points (in 2019, in 2020 during the school closures, and in the month after closures). The comparison of these three time points makes our analysis and findings unique in the research on education during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular with regard to Germany-wide comparisons. Our results confirm the hypothesis of equalization during the first school closures and the hypothesis of an increase in educational in the subsequent period. Our findings have direct policy implications regarding the need to further expand support systems for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English language teaching (ELT) plays a vital role in promoting social equality and societal transformation. Thus, social justice education has been given attention as one of ELT purposes. Textbooks, as the most significant teaching materials of English teachers, pose significant effects on English learners' awareness of social justice issues that touch upon their daily lives. However, there is little empirical research investigating integrated social justice topics in ELT textbooks. This study addressed the gap through identifying and comparing social justice topics of grade 10 English textbooks used in Chinese and German high school classrooms. Results of this study revealed that German English textbooks encompassed a much more diversity of social justice topics than Chinese English textbooks. Besides, this study offered a significant capacity for English textbooks to stimulate English learners' social responsibility and awareness of social justice. This study has implications for improving social justice education in the ELT classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany has experienced sharply rising earnings inequalities, both between and within workplaces. Working from prior literature on rising employment dualization and the fissuring of workplaces into high and low wage employers, we explore a set of organizational explanations for rising between and within workplace inequality focusing on the role of employment dualization, skill segregation/complexity, and firm fissuring. We describe and model these hypothesized processes with administrative data on a large random sample panel of German workplaces. We find that rising inequalities are associated with polarization in industrial wage rates and the birth of new low wage workplaces, as well as increased establishment skill specialization and the growth of part-time jobs in workplace divisions of labor. We conclude with recommendations for future research that directly examines more proximate mechanisms and their relative importance in different institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, we draw on social reproduction theories to explain the increase in the use of "shadow education" (SE) in Germany over the last two decades as a status-based, gender-specific investment strategy of families. Thus, we ask whether investing in private tutoring for both girls and boys alike serves to maintain or improve their status position, or whether gender-specific investment strategies exist. Our hypotheses are quantitatively tested by means of logistic regression using data of the 2012 German Life Courses into Early Adulthood (LifE) study. In contrast to prominent beliefs, our results show that SE in Germany does not function as a tool to promote social inequality. Instead, SE is used largely independent of social origin to achieve higher educational credentials. We found that particularly boys from non-academic but high-income families use SE, whereas girls seem unaffected by social origin entirely. Our findings call for further strengthening the gender dimension in existing inequality theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subnational regional mortality inequalities are large and appear to be mostly increasing within industrialized countries, although comparative studies across high-income countries are scarce. Germany is an important country to examine because it continues to experience considerable economic disparities between its federal states, in part resulting from its former division.Methods: We analyse state-level mortality in Germany utilizing data from a newly constructed regional database based on the methodology of the Human Mortality Database. We compare time trends (1991-2015) in the German state-level standard deviation in life expectancy to that of other large, wealthy countries and examine the association between mortality and economic inequalities at the regional level. Finally, using contour-decomposition methods, we investigate the degree to which age patterns of mortality are converging across German federal states.Results: Regional inequalities in life expectancy in Germany are comparatively low internationally, particularly among women, despite high state-level inequalities in economic conditions. These low regional mortality inequalities emerged 5-10 years after reunification. Mortality is converging over most ages between the longest- and shortest-living German state populations and across the former East-West political border, with the exception of an emerging East-West divergence in mortality among working-aged men.Conclusions: The German example shows that large regional economic inequalities are not necessarily paralleled with large regional mortality disparities. Future research should investigate the factors that fostered the emergence of this unusual pattern in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: About 2000 children and adolescents under the age of 18 are diagnosed with cancer each year in Germany. Because of current medical treatment methods, a high survival rate can be reached for many types of the disease. Nevertheless, patients face a number of long-term effects related to the treatment. As a result, physical and psychological consequences have increasingly become the focus of research in recent years. Social dimensions of health have received little attention in health services research in oncology so far. Yet, there are no robust results that allow an estimation of whether and to what extent the disease and treatment impair the participation of children and adolescents and which factors mediate this effect. Social participation is of great importance especially because interactions with peers and experiences in different areas of life are essential for the development of children and adolescents.Methods: Data are collected in a longitudinal, prospective, observational multicenter study. For this purpose, all patients and their parents who are being treated for cancer in one of the participating clinics throughout Germany will be interviewed within the first month after diagnosis (t1), after completion of intensive treatment (t2) and half a year after the end of intensive treatment (t3) using standardized questionnaires. Analysis will be done by descriptive and multivariate methods.Discussion: The results can be used to identify children and adolescents in high-risk situations at an early stage in order to be able to initiate interventions tailored to the needs. Such tailored interventions will finally reduce the risk of impairments in the participation of children and adolescents and increase quality of life.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04101123. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can the rise of populism be explained by the growing chasm between rich and poor? With regard to Germany, such a causal relationship must be rejected. Income distribution in Germany has been very stable since 2005, and people's knowledge on actual inequality and economic development is limited: inequality and unemployment are massively overestimated. At the same time, a persistently isolationist and xenophobic group with diverse concerns and preferences has emerged within the middle classes of society that riggers support for populist parties. This mood is based on welfare chauvinism against immigration rather than on a general criticism of distribution. Since the immigration of recent years will inevitably affect the relevant indicators concerning distribution, an open, cautious but less heated approach is needed in the debate on the future of the welfare state. In order to address and take the local concerns of citizens seriously, an increased exchange with public officials on the ground is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal for Labour Market Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal for Labour Market Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal for Labour Market Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Géneros: Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies is the property of Generos: Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article probes the consequences of Germany's 1999 citizenship reform as it pertains to the incorporation of immigrants. We maintain that the law's principled rejection of dual citizenship and related stipulation that children born into German nationality via the law's revolutionary jus soli provision choose between their German citizenship or that of their non-German parents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three is unfair, potentially unconstitutional, and likely unworkable in administrative terms. We also argue that the decline in naturalization rates in Germany since 2000 is due to a combination of legal, administrative, and symbolic barriers in the law, as well as a lack of incentives for naturalization for immigrants from European Union member states and other rich industrialized countries. We believe that progress in the area of incorporation will require a shift in outlooks on the part of German political elites, such that immigrants are seen as potential members of a diverse community of free and equal citizens rather than untrustworthy and threatening outsiders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For scholars of social stratification one of the key questions regarding educational expansion is whether it diminishes or magnifies existing inequalities in educational attainment. The effect of expansion on educational inequality in tertiary education is of particular importance, as tertiary education has become increasingly relevant for labour market prospects and life course opportunities. Our article studies the access to tertiary education of students with different social origins in light of educational expansion in Germany. First, we examine inequalities in access to four vertical alternatives of postsecondary education by means of multinomial regression with national data from four school-leaver surveys from 1983, 1990, 1994, and 1999. Second, for those students who enrol at a tertiary institution, effects of social origin on horizontal choices of fields of study are analysed. Results show that unequal opportunities to access postsecondary and tertiary institutions remain constant at a high level. Likewise, social background effects have not changed over time for the choice of field of study. Thus, students from different social backgrounds did not change their educational strategies irrespective of the ongoing expansion of secondary and tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Germans are inordinately preoccupied with the question of national integration. From the Kulturkampf to the Weimar Republic to the separation of East and West, social fractiousness is deeply ingrained in German history, giving rise to a desire to unify the "incomplete nation." Yet, the impulse to integrate German society has long been ambivalent. Between Bismarck and the Nazi interregnum, top-down efforts to force Germans to integrate threatened to erase valued differences. The twentieth anniversary of German reunification is the occasion to assess the reality of and ambivalence towards social integration in contemporary Germany. A review of economic and social measures of East-West, immigrant, and Muslim integration provides many indications of progress. Nevertheless, social cleavages persist despite political integration. Indeed, in some aspects, including in the party system, fragmentation is greater now than it was two decades ago. Yet successful social integration is a two-way street, requiring newcomers and oldtimers to interact. Integration of the European Union to some extent has followed this German path, with subsidiarity ensuring a decentralized social model and limited cohesion. German ambivalence about social integration is a major reason for the continuing social fragmentation of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate indices of polarization are constructed to measure effects of non-income attributes like wealth and education. Polarization is considered as the presence of groups which are internally homogeneous, externally heterogeneous, and of similar size. We propose a class of polarization indices which is built from measures of relative groups size and from decomposable indices of socio-economic inequality. For the latter, we employ the special inequality indices of Maasoumi (Econometrica 54:991–997, ), Tsui (J Econ Theory 67:251–265, ; Soc Choice Welf 16:145–157, ) and Koshevoy and Mosler (J Multivar Anal 60:252–276, ). Then, postulates for multidimensional polarization measurement are stated and discussed. The approach is illustrated by an empirical application to the population of the East and West Germany with polarization defined on income and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is there so much alleged electoral fraud in new democracies? Most scholarship focuses on the proximate cause of electoral competition. This article proposes a different answer by constructing and analyzing an original data set drawn from the German parliament's own voluminous record of election disputes for every parliamentary election in the life of Imperial Germany (1871-1912) after its adoption of universal male suffrage in 1871. The article analyzes the election of over 5,000 parliamentary seats to identify where and why elections were disputed as a result of "election misconduct." The empirical analysis demonstrates that electoral fraud's incidence is significantly related to a society's level of inequality in landholding, a major source of wealth, power, and prestige in this period. After weighing the importance of two different causal mechanisms, the article concludes that socioeconomic inequality, by making elections endogenous to preexisting social power, can be a major and underappreciated barrier to the long-term process of democratization even after the "choice" of formally democratic rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the selection hypothesis as well as the life course hypothesis, as children get older, the influences of social origins decrease progressively at educational branching points. Other approaches discuss the idea that some parental characteristics lose their impact during the educational career, while others gain importance like financial resources because of the increasing opportunity costs. This empirical analysis concentrates on Germany and especially on the drop-out process in 'Gymnasium', as this school track starts at a very early age and opens the way to an academic career. The database is the German Socio Economic Panel study (SOEP). First, we estimate the probability that a child will attend the 'Gymnasium' immediately after primary school. In a second step, we model dropping-out of 'Gymnasium' in the following years. Students are more likely to quit if their previous probability of entering the 'Gymnasium' was low. In accordance with the selection hypothesis, the influence of social origins seems to be weaker here than during the decision to enter this school type. We also find some evidence that parents become less important for the drop-out process as children come of age, while the rising educational costs do not seem to be a relevant factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we investigate whether early retirement patterns vary between countries with distinct early retirement systems. By choosing countries that differ not only with respect to the coverage and generosity of publicly provided pensions but also with respect to the extent to which the state interferes in the non-public pillars of pension provision, we analyse to what extent such issues have an effect on individual early retirement behaviour. Selectivity effects are expected to be stronger in countries with highly fragmented public systems or private early retirement schemes. By pursuing a shift to more private pension provisions, governments might unintentionally create more inequality in early retirement opportunities among the population. For the analysis we use longitudinal data, i.e. British Household Panel Study (BHPS) 1991-2004 (the United Kingdom), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) 1990-2005 (Germany, and the Socia-Economics Panel (SEP) 1990-2001 (Netherlands) and a discrete-time competing-risks model. The results suggest that pursuing a shift from public to private early retirement schemes can lower the incidence of early retirement. Yet, at the same time, early retirement can get more selective in that only the higher paid are able to afford it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present project assembles and analyzes health systems data for small areas in contiguous regions of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland in 1988. The data were collected and maintained by the Communist central governments of East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and by the voivodships in Poland during the command system era. Analyses of these regions are compared to contemporary data from U.S. regions. Instead of assuming a common goal for each region, the data are studied to ascertain whether they reflect an identifiable, defacto goal. The key findings are that coefficients of variation of health care resource availability are somewhat larger in the command systems; and coefficients of variation in mortality rates are smaller in two of the command systems, suggesting a de facto emphasis on health status equality. The U. S. regions' data appear to be more consistent with an implicit goal of regional health status maximization. Discussions explain the relationships between the alternative goals and suggest which systems succeed in achieving a particular goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]