Inclusion and belonging of young residents with a precarious status on the move? Evidence on their unequal vocational participation opportunities in Germany

Education and training are often cited as key factors for opportunities in life. Although the international human rights framework recognizes an universal right to education independent on a person’s resident status, nation-states either directly or indirectly limit access to the corresponding institutions for non-citizens as part of their internal migration control policies. While minors with a precarious status find it easier to access education, their older counterparts have traditionally been excluded to a great extent from a central element of the secondary education system in Germany: the dual system of vocational training. Being based on education at school and in companies, dual apprenticeships touch upon a highly sensible field in migration control policies, namely labour market participation.

Due to the impending shortage of skilled workers in Germany, legal changes at the federal level have been introduced in 2008. They are to reduce vocational training boundaries for a specific group of young precarious residents and opening up new legal avenues to transit to a legal migration status in the aftermath. This marks a sweeping novelty in German migration and asylum policy that mainly focused on the deterrence and marginalisation of this group. The question emerges in how far this policy change can be transformed into practice.

Empirical evidence from our ongoing qualitative-explorative research project reveals a very heterogeneous situation across Germany. In our presentation we would like to touch upon the following questions: How differently is the policy change being implemented on the local level? How do these differences come into being? What does this mean for the educational and life opportunities of the target group? To answer these questions, we outline the current legal framework and present central findings of our comparative regional case studies that are based on document analyses, semi-structured individual interviews and group discussions with experts.