Regine Schmidt

// DISSERTATION PROJECT

Educational Selectivity and Immigrants' Labor Market Performance in Western Europe

My dissertation project deals with the labor market integration of immigrants in Western Europe. I am particularly interested in the role of educational selectivity. That describes that the educational attainment of immigrants is not only compared to the educational distribution in the destination country, but instead to the educational distribution of the country of birth. I assume that for a sending country in which the average level of education is lower, a medium educational degree is relatively more valuable than in a context in which the average level of education is higher and where most individuals complete at least a medium degree. This might affect labor market outcomes over and above the educational attainment itself, for example via a difference in motivation, skills and competences or (cultural) resources. Suchlike processes have received little empirical attention so far. My dissertation thus aims to address these patterns. One the one hand I am going to describe the extent of educational selectivity for different migrant groups. One the other hand - and far more important – I am going to investigate the effect of educational selectivity on the labor market integration in Western European destination countries. Thereby, I will focus on the processes through which selective immigration effects the labor market success. To address these issues, I will exploit data from the European Social Survey (ESS Round 1-7), which covers immigrants in a variety of destination countries. I will combine this individual data with information on the educational distribution in the country of origin for the relevant age groups with the Barro-Lee dataset (Barro/Lee 2010). Creating such a measurement enables me to assess how a positive educational selection affects the labor market success.

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// ACADEMIC BACKGROUND    

Since 04/2016
Doctoral Fellowship, Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences

10/2013 - 03/2016
Master in Sociology (M.A.) at University of Bamberg, Germany

10/2010 - 09/2013
Bachelor in Sociology (B.A.) at University of Bamberg, Germany


Scholarships

06/2017 – ongoing
Doctoral Scholarship awarded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

04/2016 – 05/2017
Starter Scholarship awarded by the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Science

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// CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

2017
ECSR 2017 Conference 'Institutions, Inequality and Social Dynamics'. Presentation "Origins matter: Educational selectivity and immigrants’ labor market performance” Milan/Italy. September 2017.

Workshop ‘Cross-national comparative research on migration using longitudinal studies’ at University of Essex (organized by Understanding Society and SOEP) Colchester/ United Kingdom. July 2017

Joint doctoral workshop Trento - Bamberg - Tilburg – Milan, University of Trento. Presentation "Origins matter: Educational selectivity and immigrants’ labor market performance” Trento/Italy. March 2017.

2016
Immigration and Integration in Cross-National Comparison/Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (mzes). Presentation:"Educational selectivity and immigrants' labor market performance", Mannheim/Germany. November 2016.

Economic inequalities, deprivation, and poverty/ISA RC28 Annual Summer Conference 2016. Poster presentation: "Origins matter: Educational selectivity and immigrants' labor market performance", Bern/Switzerland. August 2016.

2013
Krisen Prozesse Potentiale. 4th Students Conference of Sociology. Arbeitskreis Soziologie e.V. Presentation: "The effect of inter- and co-ethnic friendships on the occupational status of new immigrants in Germany". Bamberg/Germany. October 2013.

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// EXPERIENCE

Research and teaching experience

10/2016 - 12/2016
Research Stay at the Trinity Migration and Employment Research Center (TMERC), Trinity College Dublin, Irland, Prof. Dr. Peter Muhlau

05/2016 – 06/2016
Research Stay at the Trinity Migration and Employment Research Center (TMERC), Trinity College Dublin, Irland, Prof. Dr. Peter Muhlau

10/2013 – 03/2016
Research Assistant, Chair of Sociology and the Analysis of Social Structures, University of Bamberg, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Kristen

04/2014 – 07/2014
Teaching Assistant, Chair of Sociology and the Analysis of Social Structures, University of Bamberg, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Kristen, Analysis of Social Structure I and II

04/2012 – 09/2013
Research Assistant, Project: “Socio-cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe” (SCIP), University of Bamberg, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Kristen

12/2010 – 03/2012
Research Assistant, Chair of Statistics and Econometrics, University of Bamberg, Prof. Dr. Susanne Rässler

05/2010 – 06/2010
Internship, Presidential Department, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Prof. Dr. Jutta Allmendinger

Training

50th Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, course ‘Longitudinal Data Analysis’, Prof. Anja Neundorf. Colchester/United Kingdom. July 2017.


Committees

Doctoral Student Council of the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Science (May 2017 – ongoing).
Member of the Selection Committee for Student Scholarships at Studenstiftung des deutschen Volkes (November 2017).


Memberships

International Sociological Association, Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility
Akademie für Soziologie

Image Credits: © Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences