Volume 42, Issue 2

Due to globalization, skills such as foreign language proficiency and intercultural competence, here referred to as transnational human capital, are becoming increasingly important. A study-abroad program during schooling is one of the most efficient ways to acquire transnational human capital. Until now, class-specific access to transnational capital has remained largely unexplored. With recourse to the literature on the sociology of education and to the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we have developed hypotheses and tested them using German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) data. The findings indicate that the likelihood of studying abroad is determined a) by the capital available to the parents, b) by the cultural capital and the commitment of the child, c) by the opportunity structure, and d) by family conflicts. Attendance of a ‘Gymnasium’ has a crucial filtering function. Overall, the probability of acquiring transnational human capital through study abroad differs significantly according to the economic capital of the child’s parents. Zusammenfassung Im Kontext von Globalisierungsprozessen werden Fertigkeiten wie Fremdsprachenkenntnisse und interkulturelle Kompetenzen, hier zusammenfassend als transnationales Humankapital bezeichnet, immer wichtiger. Ein Auslandsaufenthalt während der Schulzeit ist eine effektive Variante, solches Kapital zu erwerben. Der klassenspezifische Zugang zu transnationalem Kapital ist weitgehend unerforscht. Im Rückgriff auf die bildungssoziologische Literatur und die Arbeiten Pierre Bourdieus entwickeln wir hierzu Hypothesen und prüfen diese mit einer Sekundäranalyse der Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP). Die Befunde zeigen, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Auslandsaufenthaltes a) von der Kapitalausstattung des Elternhauses, b) vom kulturellen Kapital und dem Engagement des Kindes, c) der Gelegenheitsstruktur sowie d) von familiären Konflikten bestimmt wird. Dabei kommt dem Besuch des Gymnasiums eine entscheidende Filterfunktion zu. Insgesamt wird die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines schulischen Auslandsaufenthalts stark von der materiellen Ausstattung des Elternhauses bestimmt.

Despite growing educational participation less privileged groups are still underrepresented at universities. Several studies indicate that patterns of social inequality have changed in the course of educational expansion. While these changes have been widely discussed from a theoretical point of view, empirical evidence for the described pattern of changing mechanisms is lacking. With respect to the transition to higher education this article focuses on the question whether increasing educational participation is associated with a diversion of less privileged groups into less prestigious colleges of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen). Results indicate that with the expansion of vocational pathways to higher education children of less privileged groups more often attain upper secondary education. These changes have consequences on subsequent educational opportunities in the transition to higher education. For this reason social differences in the decision to enter on academic studies at a university have increased in the past thirty years. However, the reason for these growing differences cannot be attributed to processes of diversion, distinction, or heterogenization of ability; rather, they can rather be found in biographical differences and an increasing cost-sensitivity on the part of women from less privileged groups.

Economic and sociological theories of family suggest that women are more geographically constrained in choices of residence and commuting distances than men. According to search theories, this leads to a reduction in job offers and, in turn, wage levels. Hence, women’s shorter commuting distances may contribute to the gender wage gap. These hypotheses are tested using longitudinal analyses of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP, panel waves 2001 to 2009). First, the often observed shorter commutes of women are examined. There are indications that women, motivated by family context, are somewhat more geographically constrained than men and there is evidence that these constraints lead to lower wages. However, these effects are very weak and can only explain a small fraction of differences in pay. Finally, we demonstrate that commonly used cross-section analyses are strongly biased by unobserved heterogeneity, which leads to a considerable overestimation of the wages gained by longer commuting distances.

Non-standard employment relationships are not a homogeneous category and fulfill diverging functions for employers. On these grounds the present contribution argues that different types of contract offer their own specific opportunity structures and thus career prospects for employees. This is an outcome of the structural location of different employment relationships in the labor market rather than personal qualities or self-selection. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) this investigation finds a higher probability of atypical employees entering regular employment if they are fixed-term employees rather than part-timers or temporary agency workers; marginal employment yields the lowest chances for upward mobility. These results cannot be fully explained either by differences in observed characteristics or by preferences of part-time employees for shorter working-hours, albeit a strong effect of the latter for employment transitions is visible. These findings document an independent structural influence of the type of contract on careers. Furthermore, heterogeneous effects on qualification levels and workplace context are examined.