It is a well-known finding that the "classic" labor migrants and their descendants in Germany have fewer employment chances than native Germans. Less studied, however, are changes over time and structural factors in the labor market as they are represented by different class positions. Analyses of the Scientific Use Files of the German Microcensus 1976 and 2008 indicate that migrants from the former "recruitment countries" continue to be over-represented in lower-class positions. However, the second generation of migrants is generally more successful in economic terms than the first generation. In the social space of class positions, access to self-employment and to lower technical positions turn out to be generally open, while opportunities for migrants to enter intermediate (white-collar) occupations and salaried service class positions (salariat) continue to be underrepresented. For 2008, we no longer find evidence of a general disadvantage of migrants of Turkish origin. © 2012 Lucius and Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.

immigrants German Microcensus Labor market Social inequality Social change

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