Migration, integration and quality of life in Germany

German Society has seen an enourmous inflow of immigrants in recent decades, which has changed the social structure, but also economic and cultural life in Germany considerably. Currently one fifth of the population does have a migration background in one way or the other. Although issues of integration are thus of eminent importance, a thorough and evidence based debate addressing the problems, successes and failures concerning the integration of immigrants has emerged only recently.

Our paper aims to assess how well immigrants or people with some sort of migration background are currently integrated into the German society using selected social indicators for different life domains. The selection of indicators is based on two different notions and conceptualizations of integration. Based on the concept of structural integration, immigrants are supposed to be the better integrated, the less their living conditions and quality of life differ from the indigenous population. This notion of integration is supplemented by indicators addressing issues of cultural, social and identificative integration, which are used as measures of the identification with or distance towards the German society. The analysis systematically compares immigrants and their offspring with native Germans and differentiates within the immigrant population by countries of origin. The empirical analyses are based on data from the German Micro Census and the German Socio-economic Panel Study.