Inequality research beyond migration background?

For years, there has been debate in academia, politics, and public administration about whether the category “migration background” is still appropriate. It was originally introduced to make migration-related inequalities visible in official statistics and social science research. However, it is now often considered too broad, insufficiently precise, and in some cases stigmatizing. Increasingly, there are calls to replace it with more differentiated indicators—such as citizenship, place of birth, or migration generation.

The project “Inequality Research Beyond Migration Background?” investigates the consequences such a shift in categories would have for empirical inequality research. It asks how research findings, empirical patterns, and political narratives change when the category “migration background” disappears or is redefined. The aim is to empirically analyze and theoretically contextualize the consequences for measuring and representing social inequalities.

To this end, existing datasets from social science surveys are analyzed. The project compares how key indicators—such as educational attainment, income, or political attitudes—change when different definitions of migration-related groups are applied. In addition, conceptual reflections are developed on the social meaning and political effects of categorizations.

The project thus contributes to the further development of empirical inequality research and to a scientifically grounded debate on new, differentiated survey and analytical concepts for a post-migrant society.

The project examines the scientific and practical consequences of a possible replacement of the category “migration background” in empirical inequality research. At its core is the question of how social inequalities can be described and interpreted when, instead of migration background, other characteristics—such as citizenship, place of birth, or family migration history—are used. The object of study therefore encompasses both the conceptual foundations of categorizations in social research and their empirical effects on statistical findings and societal interpretive patterns.

The aim of the project is to make visible the consequences of a possible replacement of the category “migration background” for research, statistics, and public debates. The study seeks to show how the measurement and interpretation of social inequalities change when different definitions of migration-related groups are applied. Moreover, the project aims to contribute to the development of more differentiated, theoretically grounded, and discrimination-sensitive classifications that capture migration-related diversity more precisely without reproducing stigmatizing boundaries.

The project combines conceptual and empirical analyses. First, the theoretical foundations and political functions of the category “migration background” in research and official statistics are examined. Building on this, various alternatives—such as citizenship, country of birth, migration generation, family migration history, and self-identification—are systematically compared. Using secondary analyses of large-scale social science datasets, the project assesses how key indicators of social inequality (e.g., education, income, political participation) change when different classifications are applied.

Replacing the category of migration background—whether with citizenship or self-identification—would have no substantial effect on average differences with regard to key inequality dimensions such as income or education.

However, self-identification allows processes of belonging and stigmatization to be captured more effectively in quantitative surveys.

• Nesterko, Yuriy; Jacobsen, Jannes; Köhler, Jonas; Glaesmer, Heide (2024): Der Zusammenhang zwischen objektiven und subjektiven Zuschreibungen eines Migrationshintergrundes mit wahrgenommener Diskriminierung und Rassismus. Psychotherapy Psychosom Med Psychol 74 (6), 214-223. DOI: 10.1055/a-2305-7890.