Recent Trends of Assimilation in Germany

This study investigates whether the life circumstances of immigrants and natives in Germany have converged within the last decades. Theoretically, the idea of social production functions is suggested as a general framework to integrate different assimilation approaches. Empirically, a method is used that combines the multivariate regression approach with common measures of segregation. This technique allows an easy assessment of assimilation trends taking into account relevant structural changes, in our case altering demographic compositions and the educational expansion. Immigrants and Germans are compared regarding central typologies of education, work, family, and place of residence through analyzing population censuses of 1970, 1989, and 1996. In spite of the fact that the educational gap has clearly widened over the years under observation, it will turn out that in respect of the other aspects of life the general trend appears to be towards assimilation, especially for the second generation of the ‘classical’ labor migrants