Determinants of social inequality: socioeconomic status

SES of the respondents of this project it was not appropriate to use this index because of little overlap of these three factors. First of all, the school education systems of the four countries are not easy to compare and the applied question about school education was not appropriate for the satisfying comparison. Secondly, professional status of the Russian participants in Germany often did not correspond to the level of their Russian education. Furthermore a lot of the Russian respondents did not work in Germany because they did not find a job or already received old pension. Lastly, the Turkish data about household income was not reliable (Buchcik at al. 2012), so only individual income could be used for statistical analysis.

That is why the components of SES were evaluated separately.

8.1.2.1 Educational level

The first component investigated was the level of education. The majority of the Russian participants have a high secondary and tertiary education. Nearly three quarters of the Russian participants received a tertiary education at a special institute or at university, one quarter of them finished a technical or other professional school or received vocational training. Only a small percentage of the Russian interviewees have no professional degree.

Compared to the other Sağlik participants, the Russian respondents have the highest percentage of the people with higher education. The lowest educational level have the Turkish participants: three fifths of the participants of the Turkish group have no professional degree.

It is known that poor education, job with low qualification requirements, and low income are associated with poor health (Mielck 2000, 2005, Razum at al. 2008). In this study the association between the level of education of the Russian participants and the subjective state of health on the other hand did not attain significance. The reason for it could be the fact that the majority of the Russian respondents have a high educational level. A bigger sample size could help to investigate this relationship in a future research.

8.1.2.2 Professional level

The second component investigated was the professional level. The majority of the Russian respondents are pensioners, most of them because of old age. Only about one quarter of the Russian participants are employed. It was found that in comparison to the Russian men who are not working, the employed Russian men have a significantly better subjective state of health. This agrees to the results that can be found in the literature (Mielck 2000, 2005,

Razum at al. 2008). This association for the Russian women, however, was not significant.

The reason may be the small sample size.

It was also found, that all Russian participants with a higher tertiary education, who did not work in Germany, had in the former USSR jobs with higher qualification requirements. In the former USSR they worked according to their education in the following branches:

production, public health, education. This group was not investigated further.

Only 26.7% of the Russian participants with a higher education, who worked or still work now in Germany, had a job with higher qualification requirements. And the others had or have jobs with lower or middle qualification requirements: this is a significant difference between educational level and professional level in Germany. In Germany the Russian women worked or work now as office-cleaner, low qualified office staff, and housemaids, whereas the men worked or work now as common labor: unskilled workmen, technical workers: electrician, metalworker, welder, joiner, drivers. Only very few of the Russian participants worked or work now in Germany according to their higher education (as programmer, physicist, musician, artist). This discrepancy between their education from Russia and the working place in Germany can only to a small degree be ascribed to the fact that they came to Germany when they were already old and did not have sufficient knowledge of German. Mostly it is due to the fact, that their Russian certificates often are not accepted by German authorities. This fact can also confirm the finding, that high education of the Russian respondents was not associated with high income: there was no significant difference between the Russian participants without higher education and the participants with higher education concerning their income.

Having a job with higher qualification requirements is accompanied by a better subjective state of health for the Russian women: there is a significant moderate correlation between their professional level and subjective state of health. For the Russian men the correlation was not found. The reason could be a small number of people who have a job with higher qualification requirements.

Especially the Russian participants with high education who have or had a job with lower qualification requirements, have a poorer subjective state of health than those who work in a job with higher qualification requirements, but the difference was statistically not significant.

The reason probably is the very small number of the high educated Russian participants who

have a job with higher qualification requirements. That is why a sufficiently big sample size can help to investigate this question in the future.

In contrast to the professional level of the Russian respondents, the professional level of the other Sağlik participants mainly corresponds to their educational level: the Turkish, Polish and German participants who have low, middle and high education have corresponding job with low, middle and high qualification requirements in Germany.

8.1.2.3 Individual income

The third component of SES is the income. The individual income of the Russian participants is very low and noticeably lower than that of the other Sağlik respondents: the majority of the Russian participants earn less than 500 euros per month. The majority of the other Sağlik respondents have an individual income between 500 and 1500 euros, about two fifths of the Polish and German men earn even more than 1500 euros per month. But the interpretation of this information can not be very reliable because some people of the Russian group did not include the social benefits (for instance, housing benefits) in their individual income. The higher income is usually associated with better state of health (Mielck 2000, 2005, Razum at al. 2008). Compatibly to that, the Russian women with an income less 500 euros per month have significantly poor subjective state of health than those who earn 500 euros and more.

The association between income and subjective state of health of the Russian men was not significant. The reason could be the generally low income and a relatively small sample size.

For further research the household equivalent income should be calculated based on the number of persons in the household.

8.1.2.4 Resume for the Russian group

Generally, it was noticed that the components of SES of the Russian elderly men is similar to that of the Russian elderly women: high educational level, professional level in former USSR according to their educational level and in Germany not according to their educational level, and low individual income. This reveals an internal social discrepancy within the Russian group. The components of SES of the participants with Russian background in Hamburg are noticeably different from those of the other Sağlik respondents.