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Survey Guidelines

The measurement of migrants' educational attainment in surveys

Since the highest level of education achieved is usually captured in German surveys by specific German school-leaving and training qualifications, the corresponding questionnaire items are often difficult to answer for persons with foreign qualifications. This guideline provides an overview of different approaches to measuring education among persons with foreign educational qualifications, especially immigrants, and their suitability for different survey contexts. First, the coding of educational variables is discussed. This is based either on the German education system or on classifications developed for international comparison. The derivation of years of education is another way to code the data in a comparable way. Then, different survey instruments are presented that try to solve the problem in different ways: the use of German standard items, the use of generic response categories, the use of country-of-origin specific response categories, and the use of a database-based tool. The solutions developed in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) are presented in detail. Finally, existing interpretation problems and limitations are further discussed, including the fit of the "highest educational attainment" indicator for different theoretical concepts among migrants.

 

Schneider, S., Chincarini, E., Liebau E., Ortmanns, V., Pagel, L., & Schönmoser, C. (2023). Die Messung von Bildung bei Migrantinnen und Migranten in Umfragen. Mannheim, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (SDM – Survey Guidelines). DOI: 10.15465/gesis-sg_040  

  • Briceno-Rosas, R., Liebau, E., Ortmanns, V., Pagel, L., & Schneider, S. L. (2018). Documentation on ISCED generation using the CAMCES tool in the IAB-SOEP Migration Samples M1/M2 (Series D – Variable Descriptions and Coding Nr. 579; SOEP Survey Papers). Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW).
  • Kroh, Martin, Brücker, H., Kühne, S., Liebau, E., Schupp, J., Siegert, M., & Trübswetter, P. (2016). Das Studiendesign der IAB-BAMF-SOEP-Befragung von Geflüchteten (Series C – Data Documentation Nr. 365; SOEP Survey Papers). Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW). http://hdl.handle.net/10419/203673
  • Liebau, E., & Tucci, I. (2015). Migrations- und Integrationsforschung mit dem SOEP von 1984 bis 2012: Erhebung, Indikatoren und Potenziale. SOEP Survey Papers 270: Series C. Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW).
  • Liebau, Elisabeth, Ortmanns, V., Pagel, L., Schikora, F., & Schneider, S. L. (2020). Documentation of ISCED generation based on the CAMCES tool in the IAB-SOEP Migration Samples M1/M2 and IAB- BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees M3/M4 until 2017 (Nr. 907; SOEP Survey Papers). Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW). http://hdl.handle.net/10419/226801
  • Liebau, Elisabeth, & Pagel, L. (2021). Documentation of ISCED generation based on the CAMCES tool in the IAB-SOEP Migration Samples M1/M2 and IAB- BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees M3/M4/M5 until 2019 (Series D – Variable Descriptions and Coding Nr. 941; SOEP Survey Papers, S. 56). Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW). https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.812495.de/diw_ssp0941.pdf
  • Schneider, S. L. (Hrsg.). (2008). The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-97). An evaluation of content and criterion validity for 15 European countries. MZES. http://www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/publications/books/isced97.html
  • Schneider, S. L. (2013). The International Standard Classification of Education 2011. In G. E. Birkelund (Hrsg.), Class and Stratification Analysis (Bd. 30, S. 365–379). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-6310(2013)0000030017
  • Schneider, S. L. (2015). Die Konzeptualisierung, Erhebung und Codierung von Bildung in nationalen und internationalen Umfragen. GESIS Survey Guidelines. https://doi.org/10.15465/10.15465/gesis-sg_020
  • Schneider, S. L. (2022). The classification of education in surveys: A generalized framework for ex-post harmonization. Quality & Quantity, 56, 1829–1866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01101-1
  • Schneider, S. L., Briceno-Rosas, R., Ortmanns, V., & Herzing, J. (2018). Measuring migrants’ educational attainment: The CAMCES tool in the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample. In D. Behr (Hrsg.), Surveying the migrant population: Consideration of linguistic and cultural issues (S. 43–74). GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.
  • Schneider, S. L., & Ortmanns, V. (2019). Database of educational attainment, with explanatory note. Deliverable 8.8 of the SERISS project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme GA No: 654221 (2.0) [Computer software]. GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. https://www.surveycodings.org/sites/default/files/content_files/SERISS%20Deliverables%20D8.8%20Database%20of%20educational%20attainment_20190830_final_edit20190920.pdf
  • Schneider, S. L., & Ortmanns, V. (2021). Measuring migrants’ homeland education: A validation study of competing measures. In T. Wolbring, H. Leitgöb, & F. Faulbaum (Hrsg.), Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenerhebung im digitalen Zeitalter (S. 141–169). Springer VS. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34396-5