Educational Achievement and Opportunities among Turkish Migrant Youth in Germany

Using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), this study provides a quantitative overview of educational achievement and opportunities among Turkish youth in Germany. The findings show that students with a Turkish background are the most disadvantaged group at the fifth and ninth grade level in the fields of German and mathematics. Moreover, proportionally, they are the least-represented group among academic high school track students; the track provides opportunities for admission to universities and universities of applied sciences. Fifty years after the first migration from Turkey to Germany began, Turkish youth have had problems regarding using German in everyday life, friendship networks, and residential segregation. According to the segmented assimilationist perspective, different immigrant groups experience different levels of accommodation in destination countries. In the German context, data show that other immigrant communities gradually adapt to German society one way or another, whereas the problems of Turkish accommodation are passed on to younger generations