How Do Second-Generation Immigrant Students Access Higher Education? The Importance of Vocational Routes to Higher Education in Switzerland, France, and Germany

Abstract

We analyse the access to different institutional pathways to higher education for second-generation students, focusing on youths that hold a higher-education entrance certificate. The alternative vocational pathway appears to compensate to some degree, compared to the traditional academic one, for North-African and Southern-European youths in France, those from Turkey in Germany, and to a lesser degree those from Portugal, Turkey, Ex-Yugoslavia, Albania/Kosovo in Switzerland. This is not the case in Switzerland for Western-European, Italian, and Spanish youths who indeed access higher education via the academic pathway more often than Swiss youths. Using youth panel and survey data, multinomial models are applied to analyse these pathway choices.

TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment): A Swiss multi-cohort survey

“…It also allows for cross-national comparative studies with datasets of other countries that have done the same (for examples of comparative analyses, see Picot & Hou, 2013;Murdoch et al 2016). …”

“…In addition, international comparative research could be further developed to study the impact of economic, institutional or social policy as well as other contexts on individual life courses (see, e.g. Buchmann, Kriesi, Koomen, Imdorf & Basler, 2016;Imdorf, Helbling & Inui, forthcoming;Imdorf & Hupka-Brunner, 2015;Kamanzi, Guégnard, Imdorf, Koomen & Murdoch, 2014;Murdoch, Guégnard, Griga, Koomen & Imdorf, 2016;Murdoch et al, 2017;Picot & Hou, 2013). To date, around 270 researchers and students from national and international institutions across a multitude of disciplines have been working with the TREE1 data.…”

Modes of Grouping Students, Segregation and Educational Inequalities. A Longitudinal Analysis of a Cohort of Students in Switzerland

“…In Switzerland, students who follow a vocational track in secondary 2 education can obtain a Federal Vocational Baccalaureate which then gives access to universities of applied science. Research has shown that it is an important pathway to tertiary education, especially for students with a migrant background (for Albanian/Kosovan, former Yugoslavs, Portuguese and Turks in particular) (Murdoch et al, 2016). It would therefore be relevant to examine how the modes of grouping in secondary 1 education influence the orientation towards a vocational track.…”

Devenir enseignant. Carrières de vie et insertion professionnelle des enseignants diplômés en Suisse romande

“…Des recherches sur l'accès à la formation supérieure (Murdoch, Guégnard, Griga, Koomen & Imdorf, 2016 ;Murdoch, Guégnard, Koomen, Imdorf & Hupka-Brunner, 2014) ont montré notamment que les jeunes migrants de deuxième génération développaient avant tout des stratégies d'accès à la formation tertiaire distinctes de celles des jeunes Suisses. Pour eux, l'enseignement est plus souvent le produit d'une réorientation professionnelle, souvent la conséquence d'une première expérience d'insertion insatisfaisante sur un marché de l'emploi plutôt discriminant, notamment pour les femmes qualifiées (Riaño & Baghdadi, 2007).…”