Concluding Remarks

Between the previously described pathways, the circumstances that gradually pre-vent or support the second generation’s access to skilled employment differ strongly.

Nonetheless, it should be emphasized that both types of educational pathways are associated with barriers to highly skilled employment. First, overcoming a minority situation without dropping out or over-identifying in reactive ways was the main challenge those in the upper educational track were confronted with. Second, successive levels of educational achievement, combined with a strategy of finding the orientation needed, were the elements of the cultural capital that characterizes those who successfully pursued the indirect path to university. In brief, it has to be stated that the interconnectedness of circumstances in the career trajectories of highly skilled members of the second generation rarely showed effects constantly going in the same direction. The upper educational tracks, although characterized by continuous formal integration, show social risks or at least changing modes of inclusion at the informal level of peer relationships. Second chance careers, even though starting in the lower educational tracks can provide a compensation for disadvantages during the early selective processes, and delays may be compensated for if future transitions are shaped by favourable circumstances.

To conclude, it is worth asking to which extent the presented findings are typical of the second generation’s career trajectories or if they can also be applied to other young adults in similar educational tracks. The early selective processes in the German educational system disadvantage all children who are not provided with the appropriate cultural capital in their families. Those with immigrant backgrounds, especially descendants of labour migrants, are not the only ones but make a high percentage among those concerned. Whereas second chance careers are linked with specific detours for any young adults following this track, members of the second generation are among those who are more likely to embark as one of the few possibilities to get higher education. Finally, specific features are evident at the level of peer networks. It is only on the pathways starting in lower school tracks that members of the second generation avoid being isolated. On the higher school tracks in Germany they are still in a minority position, being one of a few students coming from immigrant families. Given the fact that in prejudicial environments they still face processes of ‘othering’ or being labelled with stigmatizing attributes, the numerical disadvantages can be linked with further impacts upon their future trajectories.

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Integration Trajectories: A Mixed Method