To date, it has been difficult to gauge and compare the effects of different operationalizations of immigrant origins in the German context. The 2005 microcensus provides an unprecedented opportunity to address this issue. In this paper, we first take a look at the typical operationalization of immigrant origins and generation status. Subsequently, we show that differing proportions of the total population can be identified as immigrants and their descendants depending on the operationalization used, whereby the greatest discrepancies are found in the younger age groups. Divergent findings also emerge when information on group membership is combined with information on generation status. Similar effects of different types of operationalization can be identified in multivariate analyses of educational attainment. Once ethnic German repatriates from Central and Eastern Europe (the so-called Spätaussiedler) are identified separately in the records, we observe changes in the findings for the remaining respondents from Russia and Poland. Generation status turns out to be important as well, since it reveals the contrasting educational patterns of the first and second generation. At the same time, one of the key messages of previous research is not affected by different types of operationalization: when considering characteristics of social background immigrants' educational disadvantages disappear and sometimes initial disadvantages even turn into benefits. © Lucius & Lucius Verlag Stuttgart.

Countries of origin immigrants German Microcensus Educational inequality Social inequality Secondary education

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