Apprenticeships: Origin beats performance

If a "Lukas Becker" applies for an apprenticeship at a medium-sized company, he will receive a response in two out of three cases. By contrast, the mailbox of a "Yusuf Kaya" or a "Habiba Mahmoud" tends to remain empty because companies fear additional work for people with a history of migration. Researchers at the University of Siegen found this out in a representative study.

"We can't afford to waste potential," warns Professor Dr. Ekkehard Köhler. "This is particularly problematic in the skilled trades, which are suffering from a shortage of young talent." The Siegen economist Dilara Wiemann, research assistant at the Center for Economic Education at the University of Siegen, says: "For the disadvantaged applicants, the results are a disaster, because even significantly better school grades or social commitment do not change the fact that origin beats performance." Involvement in the national "Jugend forscht" competition does not increase their chances either.

According to the study, for the first time, a ranking of disadvantage can be determined in the case of a suspected migration background. Applicants with German-sounding names such as "Lukas Becker" received an average of 67 responses to 100 applications in the field test. People with non-German-sounding names fared significantly worse: "Ivan Smirnov" (Russian) received 56 responses, "Ariel Rubinstein" (Hebrew) 54, "Yusuf Kaya" (Turkish) 52, and "Habiba Mahmoud" (Arabic) brought up the rear with just 36 responses. As all applicants stated that they were still at school, the study shows how difficult it is for certain groups of people to gain access to the training market at all.

The companies cited fears of suspected language barriers, cultural distance, lack of residence permits and the feared additional work involved in dealing with authorities and additional bureaucracy as reasons for a possible disadvantage.

For the field study, a research group from the University of Siegen sent more than 50,000 email inquiries to companies that had advertised a training position and reported this to the Federal Employment Agency. The group then interviewed around 700 companies about their experiences with applicants from a migrant background.