Upwardly Mobile Through STEM? STEM Competences, Participation and Returns Among Ethnic Minority Women and Men in Germany (STEMobile)

The project investigated patterns of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) performance at school, determinants of STEM enrolment in higher education, and labour market returns to STEM qualifications. Specifically, it focussed on the dimensions of gender, migration background, and ethnic origin as well as interactions between them, synthesising theoretical ideas related to economic incentives, sociocultural factors, and contextual influences at the level of the country of origin. 

We used Germany-wide individual data sources, including the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the National Assessment Study conducted by the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the German Microcensus, enriched with contextual data on immigrants’ countries of origin.

Our findings show that immigrants who entered Germany with STEM qualifications achieve better labour market outcomes than those without, thus narrowing the gap between them and natives. Male immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, benefit most from STEM capital. Among women, those with STEM qualifications who come from Turkey or MENA countries are the most successful, albeit still less successful than men. Unexpectedly, characteristics of immigrants’ country of origin (e.g., share of female STEM graduates) contribute little to explaining these differences. 

As for the factor of socioeconomic status, we found that immigrant parents pass on their STEM capital just as effectively as native families but that their children still underperform compared to native children. Especially among students of Turkish origin, girls perform worse than boys in standardised tests in mathematics in school. Yet, at similar competence levels, boys of Turkish origin and both girls and boys of MENA origin achieve better math grades than their native peers. Net of school performance and parental education, immigrant women, particularly from Turkey and MENA countries, are more likely to choose gender-atypical STEM fields in higher education.

In sum, STEM qualifications facilitate upward social mobility for immigrants. The gender gap in STEM participation at the tertiary level tends to be smaller for immigrant women than for native-born women. Furthermore, lower performance in STEM is not an obstacle for studying STEM, neither for girls nor for immigrants.