European Societies
8(1) 2006: 141 /167
– 2006
Taylor & Francis
ISSN
1461-6696 print
1469-8307 online
THE POSITIONING OF
TRANSNATIONALLY MOBILE
EUROPEANS IN THE GERMAN LABOUR
MARKET
An analysis of its causes and effects
Roland Verwiebe
University Hamburg, Institute of Sociology, Social Science Research Methods, Allende-Platz 1, 20146
Hamburg, Germany
Klaus Eder
Humboldt-University Berlin, Department of Social Sciences, Comparative Structural Analysis, Unter den
Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
ABSTRACT: This article analyses the economic integration of transnationally
mobile Europeans into the German labour market. The measure used for the
degree of integration is their relative income. Specifically, the article
attempts to answer the question, whether and to which degree the
integration of transnationally mobile Europeans into the labour market
depends on their national origins or on their social origins. Based on the
concept of transnational social mobility which goes beyond classical
migration research, we will point out the factors that position mobile
Europeans in the labour market and the feedback effects on national class
systems. The results show that it is not national origin but social-structural
characteristics that explains the positioning of EU-transnationals. The
empirical basis of this article is primary data on Berlin’s labour market
gathered in the beginning of 2002.
1. Europeanisation and intra-European mobility
The European integration has fundamentally altered all member states of
the European Union over the past decades. Although academic research has
covered a large number of issues, the main body of the conceptual and
empirical work on Europeanisation derives from comparative politics,
international law, government policy or international relations (e.g., Neal
and Barbezat 1997; Watkin 1998; Scharpf 1999; Knill et al. 2001; Ladeur
DOI: 10.1080/14616690500491456
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
2002; Kohler-Koch 2002; Trenz and Eder 2004). In sociology, the European
Union is a much neglected topic, despite its prominence in other fields of
the social sciences (Walby 1999; Bach 2000; Heidenreich 2003; Delhey
2004). There is specifically little knowledge about the consequences of
European integration for national class systems, even though research on
social structures is considered to be a core discipline of sociology. This
article attempts to reduce this gap in research. Our goal is to investigate the
integration of transnationally mobile Europeans in this case, French,
Italian, British, Polish and Danish groups into the German labour market.
In doing so, we attempt in the final instance to determine the effects of
transnational mobility on the class system of post-industrial societies.
In order to address this question one has to discuss the term
‘transnational mobility’ in the context of the Europeanisation. To this
day, mobility within Europe is subject to specific institutional regulations,
which influence the selection of people who are mobile across boundaries.
At the beginning of the European integration process the movement of
people in Europe was based on economic reasons: Following the Treaties of
Rome intra-European migration increased (from the South to the North),
institutionalised by bilateral agreements between member states of the
European Community, in order to meet the need for cheap labour in
countries such as Germany or France (Rist 1978; Castles 1986). Since the
middle of the 1990s (Maastricht Treaty) all citizens of member states are
entitled to the freedom of movement. Given this new legal context, intraEuropean mobility has changed its character: It is no longer primarily
(bilateral) labour market migration. It is rather an extended form of
mobility within an emerging European social space. That raises the
question whether the concepts of the migration research the most
established approach to the study of the geographic movement of people in
the social space still are suitable or whether new theoretical ground has to
be found in order to conceptualise the intra-European movements of
people. We plead for a re-conceptualisation of the intra-European movement of people in terms of a model of ‘transnational mobility’ instead of the
classic model of intra-European migration or transnational migration
(Castles 1986; Bade 1987; Pries 1999; Glick-Schiller and Wimmer 2003;
Portes 2003). We do so, because we are not only interested in the movement
itself, but in the social-structural effects of intra-European mobility in the
context of ongoing Europeanisation.1
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/
1. Transnational mobility is not a broadly established concept in the research. Recently,
the term is used at the interface between labour market research and migration research.
Jordan and Düvell (2002) or Fassmann (2003) for example conceptualise migration as
transnational mobility because they perceive migration as one form of transnational
labour market mobility or as a special mode of inner-European migration, respectively.
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VERWIEBE & EDER
2. Intra-European mobility and class system
It can be assumed that, in the course of time, transnational European
mobility has influenced national social structures in different ways.
With regard to the labour migration of the 1960s and 1970s, it is usually
argued that migration led to an underclass in the social stratification
systems of more industrialized nations such as Germany or France, which
was above all attributable to the welfare disparity between the underdeveloped southern and the prosperous northern Europe (Granier and
Marciano 1975; Krane 1979; Johnson 1980; Castles 1986; Bade 1987;
Fassmann and Münz 1994). This was especially assumed in the case of
‘ethnically’ defined labour markets, such as that of the Gastarbeiter
(foreign workers) in Germany. Thus, the ‘classic’ research on migration
was based on the consensus that social-structural effects of social and
geographic movements only go in one direction (‘sub-stratification
thesis’).
The process of European integration makes such one-dimensional
assumptions increasingly questionable. There are several reasons for
this. As mentioned above, the institutional regulations of transnational
mobility changed as a result of the Maastricht Treaties. Moreover,
transnationally mobile Europeans no longer come exclusively from lower
classes and no longer only provide cheap labour for the prosperous
industry of affluent European nations. Transnationally mobile Europeans
increasingly derive from diverse social classes and possess education
and work experience in varying degrees (Verwiebe 2004). This assumption
corresponds with the findings of researchers who study the migration
of elites (Salt and Findlay 1989; Morokvasic and Rudolph 1996; Cheng
and Yang 1998; Peixoto 2001; Martin and Lowell 2002). Finally,
the formation of an ethnic underclass of labour migrants (‘sub-stratification’) can be questioned since the premises of the ‘classic’ push pull
model are not given for the European Union: The differences in general
economic wealth and individual living standards and transnational
mobility across national boundaries initiated by those differences are
rather low.
The ‘sub-stratification thesis’ describes only one possible side of the
emerging social structure. It is equally theoretically conceivable that some
nationalities, understood as a homogenous national groups that move within
Europe, place themselves at the top end of the class system for example
French people, who all have degrees in higher education (compare Scheme
1). This other effect of Europeanisation would be ‘super-stratification’ or
/
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
SCHEME 1.
Positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in national class systems.
Super-stratification
National
origin
Social
status
Standard inclusion
Ethnic upper class
Specific social
groups occupy elite
positions
Sub-stratification
Ethnic underclass
No effects of national origin;
positioning is based on social
characteristics
Specific social groups
occupy subordinate positions
the formation of an ethnic upper class.2 Although such a development is
empirically not very likely, it would be the ‘counter scenario’ to the classical
intra-European labour migration of the 1960s and 1970s.
A different sort of theoretical expectations can be formulated based on
the assumption that intra-European mobility no longer is a phenomenon
dealing with a homogenous class of mobile people. Following this line of
argument, it could be expected that the intra-European mobility of
specific social groups results in both superimposition and subimposition
effects in national social structures. This would be the case when British
construction workers as one group among other British groups increasingly enter the German labour market, accepting lower payments
than German construction workers. That would result in a ‘substratification’ of the German social structure. However, parallel to this
development, also a ‘super-stratification’ of German social structure could
be observed when a group of younger British professionals which is elite
mobility enters the German labour market.
Transnational mobility may have yet another effect on the German class
system, which we call ‘standard inclusion’ (Verwiebe et al. 2003). Standard
inclusion means that transnationally mobile Europeans experience neither
a deterioration nor an improvement of their social status in their arrival
country. Traditionally, foreign national origin (e.g., Turkish) led to a
placement at the lower end of the German social structure, but that does
no longer have to be the case. We expect this to change because
educational degrees in the member countries of the European Union are
mutually recognized since the Maastricht Treaty. At least Europeans with
transparent educational degrees are placed under the same conditions in
the German social structure as German graduates with comparable
/
/
/
/
2. Super-Stratification is not a widely used sociological term. In historical research
super-stratification refers to invasions that installed a ruling class in high civilizations
(Allsen 1987). We believe that the notion of super-stratification (i.e., the installation of
a (ethnic) upper class ‘on top’ of the existing class structure) applies quite well to our
conceptualisation of the possible effects of transnational mobility on national class
systems.
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The positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in the German labour market
VERWIEBE & EDER
educational degrees. Such effects should apply particularly to university
graduates, since the tertiary educational systems in Europe resemble each
other more strongly than the secondary educational systems (Müller and
Shavit 1997; Mytzek and Schömann 2004). Also the age pattern of
mobility processes in the European societies speaks for ‘standard
inclusion’. Entrance into the job market is characterized by risks for the
younger age cohorts, upward mobility processes are typical for middle age
cohorts (Esping-Andersen 1993; Allmendinger and Hinz 1998; Mayer
2001; DiPrete 2002). Finally, it could be argued that disadvantages for
women on the job market are a European standard (Esping-Andersen
1993; Duncan and Pfau-Effinger 2000; Orloff 2002). Therefore it is not
unlikely that transnationally mobile women and German women realise
similar incomes in the German job market.
Thus, we can distinguish different variants of how transnationally
mobile Europeans might occupy a position in the German class system. A
corresponding model for the explanation of the effect of transnational
mobility on national social structures would identify on the output-side
effects of ‘super-stratification’, ‘sub-stratification’, and ‘standard inclusion’. On the input-side two different explanatory variables can be
specified: national origin and/or social-structural characteristics (social
status). We assume that national origin is not sufficient for an explanation
per se and that a more detailed consideration, including the social status of
transnationally mobile Europeans, is more appropriate for such an
explanation.
For the empirical examination of such a model, we have chosen
transnationally mobile Europeans from countries that allow us to take into
account the political-cultural diversity of Europe, the varying traditions of
migration and the different welfare regimes that exist in Europe (EspingAndersen 1990; Fassmann and Münz 1994; Mayer 2001). The first
country is Denmark, a Scandinavian country that directly borders
Germany. Italy exemplifies the classical intra-European migration of the
1960s and 1970s. As an accession country, Poland represents a specifically
Eastern European tradition of linkage to the German labour market.3
France and England each represent independent welfare and migration
models. The intra-European mobility of the French and the British is a
relatively new phenomenon that noticeably increased for the first time in
the 1990s. For those countries the active student exchange and the
stationing of military in Germany play an important role as well. In this
3. The mobility of Polish is regarded as a special ‘reference case’. Poland did not belong
to the EU at the time of the survey. However, it is a full member now. In addition,
Poland and Germany are connected by mobility streams since the immigration of
Polish workers into the mining fields of the Ruhr District in the nineteenth Century.
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
way, we can compare several ‘national’ samples with one another.
Therefore, we can investigate to what extent integration in the German
labour market varies with land of origin and/or with individual social
status.4
3. Data, hypothesis, variables
The data basis is a standardized, postal survey of 2043 EU citizens (from
Italy, France, Great Britain, Denmark and Poland) and a German control
group in Berlin, 1408 of them were in gainful employment at the time of
the survey.5 The survey covered the educational and occupational careers
of those groups. The questionnaires were distributed to 10,500 people who
were randomly selected from the records of the state census bureau and
who are representative with regard to age and gender for the examined
groups. The survey was carried out between January and March of 2002
with a return rate of approximately 20 per cent. The total design method
(Dillman 2000) was used for the survey.6 Controlling the socialdemographic variables age and gender with regard to the base population
of our study, the following picture emerges: Our sample had 53 per cent
women and 47 per cent men, all between the ages of 21 and 65, ages at
which people typically engage in employment. Women are slightly overrepresented, especially in the Polish and Danish samples. We have
compensated for this distortion with a weighting variable. The age
4. Based on the thesis of the importance of national origin (which derived from the
‘classical’ migration research) one would assume that individuals, depending on their
national origin, have varying degrees of success in integrating themselves into the
German labour market (e.g., French integrate with better results than Italians). Our
theoretical model claims that rather social status influences the course of integration
of transnationally mobile Europeans. As the empirical results will show, these effects
of social status develop in different ways.
5. The empirical results are based on a ‘pilot study’ in Berlin. For the next step it is
planned to extend the research to other metropolitan areas in Germany in order to be
able to depict the different regional labour markets in a more sufficient manner. The
sample of the survey is comprised of 501 people from the German control group, 409
Britons, 426 French, 344 Italians, 263 Poles and 100 Danes. In order to reach a good
return rate, a questionnaire in German and in the native language was sent to all
interviewees. The address sample had a volume of 11,200 individuals. The net sample
of 10,500 individuals was smaller because of address errors.
6. It is assumed that postal surveys have advantages and disadvantages, like other survey
techniques do. However, a comparison between postal surveys and telephone or faceto-face surveys shows that mail surveys have specific qualities and are unjustly
underrated in sociological research (Dillman 2000).
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VERWIEBE & EDER
structure largely corresponds to the marginal distributions that we could
ascertain from available statistical information.7
In order to assess and compare the labour market integration of
transnationally mobile French, British, Italian, Polish, Danish and a
(German) non-mobile group in the German labour market, we will focus
on the income people achieve. This procedure is widely used in research
since an individual’s income is a solid indicator of integration into the
labour market and therefore of the individual social position. From our
survey income is available as the categorized personal net monthly income,
based on an income question, which had a high answering rate of 93 per
cent. The descriptive analysis and the ordered-probit analysis (Greene
2000) use this variable.8 For the calculation of Gini coefficients the
categorized variable was converted into a continuous variable whereby the
average values of each original category were selected (Rosenfeld and
Kalleberg 1990). With regard to the interpretation of the ordered-probit
analysis, there are some limitations because distortions resulting from
taxation and social transfers are not taken into consideration.9
3.1. Hypothesis and independent variables
Risks and chances of transnational mobility will very likely vary with
national origin and social status. According to the ‘classical’ migration
research, one would expect national origin to be a central variable. This can
be attributed to specific traditions migration, but also to the degree of
actual institutional and cultural integration into the EU (Krane 1979;
Bade 1987; Fassmann and Münz 1994). Accordingly, we expect a negative
income effect in the case of transnationally mobile Polish, primarily
because Poland was at the time of the data collection not a member of the
EU. This has the effect that, among other things, Polish educational
degrees are not recognized in Germany. In the case of transnationally
7. A further examination of the data quality, e.g., with regard to education, is not
possible, for none of the usual comparison methods (census data, official statistics) are
available for the investigated ‘national groups’.
8. The operationalisation and description of all variables can be found in the Appendix.
9. One could also have chosen a linear regression model (which would have produced
results similar to an ordered-probit model) based on a conversion of the original
categorised variable into a continuous variable of hourly wage plus using a natural
logarithm (Petersen 1989; Rosenfeld and Kalleberg 1990). Such an income conversion
corresponds to the procedures in this type of research and is justified by the unequal
distribution of earned income and by the interpretability of the coefficients as
percentage effects (Petersen 1989). We preferred an ordered-probit model, mainly to
be able to apply to the categorised character of the available income variable.
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
mobile Italians, one could expect a negative income effect due to the
‘classical’ Italian labour migration of the 1960s, which presumably placed
many Italians in poorly paid jobs (Bender and Seifert 1998; Del Boca and
Venturini 2003). The British, French and Danish should be able to
integrate themselves into the German labour market more successfully,
since these groups mostly started to move within Europe after the end of
the ‘classical’ intra-European labour migration and could therefore benefit
from the modification of the European institutional framework (freedom
of movement). Presumably, there will be income differences between the
different countries. However, the critical point is whether these effects are
still significant when we control for the effects of criteria such as
education, gender or age.
The gender gap in wages is usually attributed to the disparity between
men and women regarding the levels of human capital, to the small
number of women in executive positions and in labour market segments
with higher wages, to the attribution of ‘soft skills’ to women and ‘hard
skills’ to men as well as to the fewer working hours worked by women
(Bernhardt et al. 1995; Schubert 1997; Tomaskovic-Devey and Skaggs
2001; Cohen and Huffman 2003). In our analysis, even when we control
for the influence of other variable on income, we expect a wage
disadvantage for transnationally mobile women and women of the German
control group. The gender effect for transnationally mobile women could
be stronger if, for instance, transnationally mobile women worked more
frequently in poorly paid, typical female occupations. However, one could
also assume that women who have chosen to move to another country are
particularly confident, striving for a career and therefore overcome
gender-specific barriers and practices.10
Sociological research already showed in the 1960s that social origin is a
major factor of one’s individual welfare. Most of all Blau and Duncan
(1967) raised the question to what extent the circumstances of socialisation
condition subsequent status; ever since it is a much discussed topic in the
research to what extent social origin influences individual educational and
occupational success (Featherman and Hauser 1978; Goldthorpe 1996;
Breen and Goldthorpe 1998). In recent work, sociologists found out that
social origin is of high importance especially for the early stages of one’s
occupational career and that it loses some influence on labour market
success in the course of the life cycle (Konietzka 1999). In correspondence
with the main findings of the research, we assume that social origin will be
part of the explanation of the income distribution among Germans and
10. However, contradicting this second assumption is the fact that the women surveyed
indicated relatively frequently that they followed their male partner to the new
country (Verwiebe 2004).
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VERWIEBE & EDER
transnationally mobile Europeans. Whether the effect of social origin is
stronger for transnationally mobile Europeans than that for Germans will
be determined empirically.
According to the human capital theory, investments in education, in the
form of qualifications, increase the productivity of a supplier of labour,
which affects his/her income (Mincer 1962; Becker 1964). Correspondingly, in comparative international research it is argued that especially the
German labour market is hierarchically structured according to educational titles (Müller and Shavit 1997; Allmendinger and Hinz 1998;
DiPrete 2002). Thus, in the cases of the transnationally mobile workers
and the German control group, qualification should be a decisive factor in
explaining one’s position in the income hierarchy. For Polish people,
educational degrees should have a distinct importance. Contrary to the
human capital theory, effects of education on the incomes of Poles should
not develop in the same direction as those effects on the incomes of the
other people studied, since Polish educational degrees are, in practice, not
recognized by German law (Cyrus and Vogel 2003).
Income inequality between different familial types has gained attention
in the sociology of inequality only within the last few years, although these
income disparities are of a similar magnitude as those between different
occupational groups (Blackburn and Bloom 1994; Cyrus and Jiang 1997;
Burtless 1999; Christopher et al. 2000; Sigle-Rushton and Waldfogel
2004). Due to the composition of our dependent variable, we use the
available information of the familial status and children to control for the
influence of taxation and social transfers on these structural factors. We
expect that being married and having children has a positive effect on the
net level of income. Whether the effect of familial status on income is
more accentuated for EU citizens than for Germans can only be answered
sociologically because ‘national’ differences are not to be expected from an
economic point of view. From a sociological point of view, being married
and having children indicates a specific form of social integration. As the
data also show, this is often integration because of the marriage to a
German partner (Verwiebe 2004). If this notion is accurate, then being
married and having children, should also serve as an indirect measure for
success in the labour market. In this respect, the effect of familial status on
income could be stronger for transnationally mobile Europeans than for
Germans.
We assume that the Europeanisation of labour markets with the
Maastricht process creates a different type of transnational mobility
than that of classical labour migration; ergo, the time of mobility should be
a decisive factor for the labour market integration of transnationally
mobile Europeans. While Gastarbeiter primarily work in the industrial
sector and in low-qualified service jobs (Rist 1978; Johnson 1980; Castles
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
1986; Bade 1987; Bender and Seifert 1998), the ‘new’ migrants, who have
a broader range of qualifications, have access to the better-paid segments
of the labour market (Verwiebe 2004). Accordingly, it can be expected that
those EU citizens who have come to Berlin in the last decade will integrate
themselves more fully into the labour. In our analysis, we compare those
who moved to Berlin before 1990 with those who moved to Berlin in 1990
or later. Given the radical change that Berlin experienced with the
reunification of Germany in 1989 1990, this time period distinction
seems justified. We do not mean to assert that this new type of mobile EU
citizens first came into existence in 1990, but the disappearance of
mobility barriers with the implementation of the Maastricht Treaties
suggests an increase in migration movements in the qualified segments of
the labour market.
According to Mincer (1974), income is a function of training, work
experience, work experience squared and an unobservable residual. In our
analysis, work experience is additionally squared, because a concave income
curve over the course of one’s working life is expected. Consequently, we
can predict a positive influence of work experience and a negative
influence of squared work experience on the wages of the transnationally
mobile Europeans and of the German control group. Additionally, we
assume that the Europeanisation of the labour markets in the 1990s
created new opportunities, in particular for young, highly qualified
workers. If there should actually be a high number of young and highly
paid transnationally mobile Europeans (the elite migration phenomenon),
then a different work-experience pay curve for the transnationally mobile
workers in comparison to the Germans should be expected.
Economic as well as occupational factors should also have a part in the
explanation of the income situation of Germans and transnationally
mobile Europeans. From the perspective of the sociology of inequality, a
negative income effect for labourers is to be expected because labourers in
modern society are losers in the process of tertiary restructuring (EspingAndersen 1993; DiPrete 1999; Katz and Autor 2000; Goldthorpe 2001;
Weeden 2002). The efficiency wage theory (Akerlof 1984; Weiss 1991)
argues that negative income effects for labourers are also plausible because
there is no control deficit for employers as is the case with bureaucratic
occupations. We assume that more highly qualified blue-collar jobs, which
are obtained primarily through company-specific qualifications, are less
open to transnationally mobile workers than to Germans. Therefore, a
particularly clear connection between being classified as a labourer and
one’s income-level should emerge in the case of the transnationally mobile
Europeans. Furthermore, one’s position in the company hierarchy should
have a positive effect on the compensation for work performed, according
to the efficiency-wage theory (Calvo and Wellisz 1986; Malcomson 1986).
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Therefore, wage increase can be expected for those transnationally mobile
Europeans and Germans who have occupational authority. Income effects
should be found more frequently in the case of transnationally mobile
workers with high positions in the command structures of firms than in
the case of Germans with similar positions, due to the increase in intraEuropean migration of highly qualified people and the growing value
placed upon those types of migration (Morokvasic and Rudolph 1996).
It is widely accepted that income varies between different economic
branches (Kalleberg 1988; Scharpf 1990; Card and Krueger 1994;
Granovetter 1994). Specifically, salaries are low in some parts of the
service industry, such as retail service, medical attendance or personal
services. In contrast, wages are much higher in the industrial production
and in those parts of the service industry, which are associated with
knowledge production and business services (e.g., consulting, finance, real
estate, IT, media). Thus, in the cases of transnationally mobile European
and Germans, the industry affiliation should be a factor for income
distribution. There is consensus in social-structural research that
disparities in earnings and disposable income reflect not only institutional
structures (educational system, productivity, occupational structure) but
also differences in labour force participation and individual working hours
(Andersen and Schmidt-Sørensen 1988; Petersen 1989; Rosenfeld and
Kalleberg 1990). For example, the comparatively high incomes in the
United States and Great Britain are explained with, among other factors,
the long average working hours (Anxo and Flood 1999). Based on those
findings it can be assumed that there is a strong relation between the
realised working hours and payment also in the case of the surveyed
‘national groups’. Whether the income effects of industry affiliation and
working hours on income are stronger for transnationally mobile
Europeans than for Germans, is then to be decided on empirical grounds.
An additional factor in the explanation of income disparities is company
size. Large companies generally pay higher wages than small companies.
This is primarily explained within the context of the efficiency wage
theory (Weiss 1991). Because of greater control deficits and a higher level
of productivity in larger companies, it is necessary and possible to provide
performance incentives in the form of higher wages there. At the same
time, this can minimize the transaction costs, which are related to
fluctuation (Williamson 1985; Gerlach and Hübler 1998). In the debate
about the service society, it is also pointed out that the employees of small
production firms and service businesses were put at a disadvantage by the
process of tertiarisation. That is, they are frequently employed in poorly
paid and precarious jobs. Because of this vertical structuring feature of
modern societies, we expect a negative income effect of employment in
small companies for transnationally mobile Europeans as well as for the
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
German control group. This effect could be especially recognisable among
Italians, who are often employed in the restaurant industry.
4. Results
4.1. Descriptive analyses
First, we want to examine the average income levels according to national
origin. These results are displayed in Table 1. Taking the British, French,
Italians, Danish and Polish as one group and comparing them with the
Germans shows that Europeans ‘occupy’ much more often the two lower
income categories and the highest income category. A second look at the
table reveals that low income is mainly common among Italians and Polish,
while Danish and Britons very often work in very well paid jobs (more
than DM7000 (t3570) income). The proportion of Danish and Britons is
twice as high as the proportion of Germans in that income class. Polish
individuals are very unlikely to be found in the higher income categories.
The differences in the distribution of income according to national origin
are less pronounced in the middle income categories. Nevertheless, it can
be seen that the share of the Germans in the income category of
DM3000 3999 (t1530 2040) is above average among the groups
surveyed. All in all, one could argue that people from Denmark and
those from Poland mark the endpoints of ‘successful’ and ‘problematic’
labour market integration, respectively. The Gini coefficients point in a
similar direction and show that income inequality in the German control
group is significantly lower than in the case of the Danish, British, French,
Italian and Polish workers, for small changes in the Gini index signify
relatively large changes in the income structure. The highest degree of
income inequality exists in the case of the Italians, for whom the Gini
coefficient is 0.326. The other nationalities show equal degrees of
inequality.
Already at this early stage, the analysis has produced an interesting
finding: transnationally mobile Europeans do not automatically occupy
positions in the lower classes of the German social structure, as the
research on migration would suggest. An analysis of the income
distribution reveals, on one hand, that Europeans accentuate the vertical
structuring of the German social structure some at the lower end
(Polish, Italians) and some at the top end (Danish, British). On the other
hand, some transnationally mobile Europeans (French) do not change the
structures of the German class system in a noticeable way.
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152
Income distribution and Gini coefficient by national origin (in per cent)
Below 1000 DM
10001999 DM
20002999 DM
30003999 DM
40004999 DM
50005999 DM
60006999 DM
Over 7000 DM
Gini
German
British
French
Italian
Danish
Polish
Non-German
Total
3.3
14.5
29.9
26.0
10.7
6.2
4.1
5.3
0.268
5.4
14.3
28.9
18.7
9.2
7.1
3.1
13.3
0.304
6.3
16.2
26.2
19.6
10.3
7.0
5.5
8.9
0.299
7.7
25.0
22.3
21.4
8.2
6.4
1.8
7.3
0.326
5.8
5.8
27.5
13.0
11.6
10.1
7.2
18.8
0.303
12.1
28.6
27.9
21.4
5.0
1.4
1.4
2.1
0.300
7.2
18.6
26.4
19.5
9.0
6.3
3.4
9.6
0.317
6.2
17.6
27.3
21.2
9.3
6.3
3.7
8.5
0.304
Source: BSTME 2002, own calculation.
The positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in the German labour market
TABLE 1.
VERWIEBE & EDER
153
EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
4.2. Multivariate analyses
The following multivariate analyses serve the purpose of checking whether
these findings can stand up further tests. To do so, we specify several
ordered-probit models. The independent variables are gender (1), familial
status (2), social origin (3), education (4), time of mobility (5), work
experience (6), occupational position (7), position in the command
structure (8), branch (9), working hours (10), and company size (11).
The results of the analyses can be examined in Table 2. The first model
contains only the effects of national origin; the category of reference is the
German control group. As we can see by looking at the coefficients, the
incomes of Poles (b 0.553), Italians (b 0.209), and Danes (b
0.369) differ significantly from the income of the German reference group
at the time of investigation. The anticipated negative effects for those
countries with a participation in traditional labour migration (Italy) and
for those who did not belong to the EU at the time of the data collection
(Poland) can be confirmed. The fit of this first model (pseudo R2 0.021)
indicates that the weight of national differences is, on the whole, relatively
small.
In the second model, the social-structural variables and the labour
market variables are included in the analysis. The fit of the model
improves significantly. The effects of national origin remain for the
Italians, Polish and Danish. The main effects of gender (0.380), familial
status (0.245), social origin ((service class) 0.173), education (0.213; 0.777),
work experience, occupational position ( 0.284), supervision (0.448), branch
(0.436; 0.195), working hours (0.047), and company size ( 0.286) are
significant, mostly at a high level. For the time of mobility significant main
effects can not be shown. In accordance with our assumption regarding the
consequences of the opening of the European labour markets, a positive
effect of a move to Berlin after 1990 was to be expected for EU-foreigners,
though not for Germans. Accordingly, the lack of a significant main effect
is not particularly surprising. Nevertheless, for one of the ‘national
groups’, an effect of this kind can be found in the third model.
In the complete model the interaction effects are included in the
analysis.11 The goodness of fit improves slightly. The effects of national
origin are no longer significant. In contrast, the effects of social status, i.e.,
social-structural effects, labour market effects and some interaction
effects, are highly significant. In other words: the inequality of income
between the observed nationalities, e.g., the labour market integration, is
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/
11. We only report the significant interaction effects. The complete tables are available
upon request.
154
The positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in the German labour market
TABLE 2.
VERWIEBE & EDER
Ordered-probit-analysis of income
Regr. coefficient
(z value)
Germans
Polish
/0.553 ( /5.20)***
Italian
/0.209 ( /2.34)**
British
0.015 (1.02)
French
0.082 (0.19)
Danish
0.369 (2.48)**
Gender (men /1)
Familial status (married with children /1)
Social origin: Manual labourer
Social origin: Manual superv. and skilled manual
Social origin: Self employed
Social origin: Routine non-manual
Social origin: Service class
Without vocational training
Vocational training
University/College degree
Time of mobility (after 1990 /1)
Work experience
Squared work experience
Occupational position (labourer/1)
Supervision (supervisors /1)
Personal, retail, wholesale, medical service
Business service
Industry, construction, distribution
Working hours
Firm Size (small company /1)
Polish*Familial status
British*Familial status
French*Familial status
British*Social origin (service class)
French*Social origin (service class)
Polish*Vocational training
Polish*University/College degree
French*Work experience
French*Squared work experience
Danish*Time of mobility
British*Working hours
Polish*Business service
Polish*Firm size
Italian*Firm size
French*Firm size
Pseudo R2
0.021
N
1310
Regr. coefficient
(z value)
Regr. coefficient
(z value)
/0.405
/0.204
0.063
0.008
0.356
0.380
0.245
( /3.38)***
( /1.99)**
(0.70)
(0.10)
(2.37)**
(5.70)***
(3.61)***
0.813
/0.410
/0.724
/0.811
0.256
0.275
/0.008
(0.96)
(/0.56)
(/1.16)
(/1.29)
(0.23)
(2.09)**
(/0.07)
0.074
/0.019
0.171
0.173
(0.67)
( /0.13)
(1.60)
(1.79)*
/0.024
/0.264
0.184
/0.092
(/0.12)
(/0.78)
(1.09)
(/0.57)
0.213
0.777
0.003
0.070
/0.001
/0.284
0.448
(2.24)**
(7.52)***
(0.04)
(5.85)***
( /5.07)***
( /2.86)***
(6.66)***
0.440
1.207
/0.107
0.073
/0.001
/0.194
0.440
(2.19)**
(5.42)***
(/0.55)
(3.21)***
(/2.86)***
(/1.71)*
(3.61)***
0.436
0.195
0.047
/0.286
(5.73)***
(1.98)**
(11.33)***
( /2.97)***
0.627 (4.56)***
0.276 (1.44)
0.038 (5.30)***
0.133 (0.68)
0.478 (2.04)**
0.423 (2.09)**
0.377 (1.95)*
0.625 (2.18)**
0.342 (1.80)*
/0.696 (/2.24)**
/1.060 (/3.02)***
0.060 (1.76)*
/0.002 (/2.02)
0.790 (1.83)*
0.021 (1.78)*
/0.562 (/2.13)**
/0.624 (/1.90)*
/0.724 (/2.39)**
/0.462 (/1.69)*
0.200
1310
0.173
1310
Source: BSTME 2002, own calculation. Level of significance: *significant on 10 per cent level,
**significant on 5 per cent level, *** significant on 1 per cent level.
m1
m2
m3
m4
m5
m6
m7
Model 1
1.629
0.847
0.756
0.574
0.318
0.248
0.210
Model 2
1.679
1.164
1.039
0.810
0.450
0.387
0.291
Model 3
1.429
1.223
1.080
0.858
0.484
0.413
0.307
155
EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
primarily to be attributed to the social-structural composition of the
‘national groups’ studied.
The causal direction of the main effects corresponds mainly with our
hypotheses: (1) For transnationally mobile and German men (0.275), the
income is significantly higher than that of women, as already shown in
many other studies (i.e., Rosenfeld and Kalleberg 1990; Bernhardt et al.
1995; Schubert 1997; Tomaskovic-Devey and Skaggs 2001). (2) With
increasing working experience, transnationally mobile and German workers
earn more money. Squared working experience has the expected negative
influence on income (Mincer 1974). (3) Education proves to be a very
important factor for the explanation of income inequality (Mincer 1962;
Becker 1964). The analysis predicts that, compared to those without
professional training, those with a university/college degree (1.207) and
those with a vocational training (0.440) will have higher incomes. (4) The
effects of the labour market variables correspond to our hypotheses: an
occupational position as a labourer ( 0.194) has a negative effect on one’s
achievable income. For those surveyed who have the task of supervising
other employees, expected income is higher (0.440). Both results are
consistent with common research findings (Akerlof 1984; Calvo and
Wellisz 1986; Malcomson 1986; Esping-Andersen 1993; Weeden 2002).
Europeans and Germans who work in business services (0.627) and in
industry, construction and distribution earn a higher income than the
reference group of employees in personal and consumer services, which is
an outcome that corresponds quite well with the literature (Scharpf 1990;
Card and Krueger 1994), although only the effect for affiliation with
business services is significant. (5) The main effects for social origin,
familial status, time of mobility and working in a small company are not
significant in the final model. Even though we could not verify the
corresponding hypothesis with our general model, such effects are
observable at least for certain ‘national groups’ (see below).
Nevertheless, what are the particularities for the different ‘national
groups’ regarding the examined labour market integration? The hypothesis that a family-supported integration into German society also has a
positive effect on the labour market integration, can be confirmed for
familial status of the British (0.423), French (0.377) and Poles (0.478).
Interestingly, the interaction model shows that there are specific effects of
social origin for the British (0.625) and the French group (0.342). In Great
Britain and France, class differences are relatively high, at least in
comparison to Germany (Allmendinger and Hinz 1998; Mayer 2001).
This apparently has an impact on the labour market integration of
individuals from those countries who derive from the highest social class
(taking the Erikson-Goldthorpe class scheme) and helps them gain higher
incomes in Germany. For the case of transnationally mobile Poles the
/
156
The positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in the German labour market
VERWIEBE & EDER
hypothesis that education plays a distinct role in the explanation of income
differences can be confirmed. In particular, negative interaction effects for
Poles with university/college degree ( 1.060) or vocational training
( 0.696) can be found in the analysis. This proves the theoretically
predicted income situation of Polish people, which is based on the fact that
educational degrees from accession countries are, in practise, not
recognized (Cyrus and Vogel 2003). There is a significant interaction
effect of work experience in the case of the French, the interaction model
reveals a positive influence of the work experience (0.060) and a negative
effect of the squared work experience ( 0.002) in addition to the main
effects. This indicates that the curvature of the income curve is
particularly strong in the French case, resulting in a higher income yield
at the beginning of professional careers and a lower income yield at the
end of professional careers, and confirms for the French our hypothesis
that intra-European mobility is increasingly a phenomenon of young,
highly qualified and well paid individuals (Verwiebe 2004). Somewhat in
correspondence with those findings, the ordered-probit analysis indicates
a higher income for the Danish who moved to Berlin after 1990. This is
another indication that intra-European mobility is increasingly a phenomenon of the movement of well paid elites which no longer leads to a substratification of the German social structure time of mobility matters.
According to our results, income increases with the hours worked for
British people (0.021) and decreases with an enrolment in the business
service for Polish people ( 0.562), actually, the economic sector with the
best paid jobs. The latter is again an indication for the specific conditions
of intra-European mobility for people from accession countries. In
contrast to our assumption, it no effect was found for the occupational
position as a labourer among the transnationally mobile Europeans.
However, a significantly negative effect of company size appears in the
cases of the Poles ( 0.624), Italians ( 0.724), and French ( 0.462).
The questions as to whether or not this concerns small companies within
the context of an ethnic economy (Light and Gold 2000), like Italian food
businesses, and to what extent illegal employment exists cannot be
answered on the basis of our data. At least in the Italian part of the survey,
several of those surveyed complain about having to participate in illegal
labour.
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5. Conclusion
In this contribution, based on a pilot study of the Berlin labour market as a
case of transnational mobility to Germany, we took up one of the central
questions of sociological research on Europe: what are the social-structural
157
EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
consequences of Europeanisation? Specifically, we studied the integration
of transnationally mobile Europeans in comparison to the integration of
Germans in the German labour market. With this research question, we
have distanced ourselves from recent sociological research on migration,
which, under the heading of transnational migration, focuses on
migrational movements in transnational social spaces. Interest in a
comparable subject associates us with sociological migration research.
The specific research methods, however, are more influenced by the
research tradition on social mobility.
The theoretical starting point of the empirical analyses has been the
thesis that national origin as well as social-structural characteristics
influence the social and economic integration of transnationally mobile
Europeans. Empirically, we could demonstrate that income differences
between nationalities are mainly attributable to social-structural differences like gender, education or position in the occupational structure. The
effects of national origin, which could be predicted on the basis of theory,
proved in the end to be less important than social-structural variables. The
original hypothesis, postulating the significance of national background,
must therefore be dismissed. The differences in income (based on national
origin) that could be observed initially are primarily due to the socialstructural composition of the ‘national groups’. Discrimination with
regard to national background scarcely exists in labour market integration.
This is very likely the main characteristic of intra-European mobility, as we
studied it, and the critical difference from the labour migration of the
1960s and 1970s.
Regarding social-structural characteristics like age, work experience,
gender, education or occupational position, we can differentiate two
different kinds of social-structural effects. Firstly, some effects that exist in
all ‘national samples’ have been found: the educated and those individuals
entrusted with command positions earn above-average incomes; work
experience pays off as well, while labourers, women and employees in
personal, retail, wholesale, medical service, regardless of their national
backgrounds, are disadvantaged in the labour market. These are the effects
of ‘standard inclusion’, as described in the theoretical part of the article. In
this form of intra-European mobility and its individual consequences, we
see an indication of a specific form of the Europeanisation of social
structures. The fact that a number of parallel effects exist for all
Europeans substantiates the idea that European social structures are
similarly constructed and characterized by comparable principles of
operation (Rokkan 1999; Kaelble 2002). Perhaps this is even a first
indication of an emerging transnational European labour market, for such
a labour market theoretically should be structured according to these
‘European principles’ of operation.
158
The positioning of transnationally mobile Europeans in the German labour market
VERWIEBE & EDER
Secondly, our results also provide evidence that intra-European mobility
leads to the phenomenon of a particularly well-off group of Europeans
within the German social structure. The Gini coefficients indicate a greater
polarisation within the non-German groups than within the German
control group. Correspondingly, the results of the multivariate analysis
indicate that there are certain groups of transnationally mobile Europeans
who earn particularly high incomes. Interestingly, French and British
people from higher social origins are able to materialize their background in
higher incomes in the German labour market. For the French, a
significantly different variance in income with work experience has been
shown which indicates that there is a group of young, well-qualified,
transnationally mobile individuals for whom the Europeanisation of the
labour market provides new opportunities. Signs of a post-1990 change in
the mobile populations were also found, indicating an increased mobility of
elites. These have produced effects of ‘super-stratification’ by specific social
groups, who occupy elite positions. On the other hand, non-Germans are,
to a large extent, affected by the particularly precarious employment
conditions in small businesses. This is an effect of ‘sub-stratification’ by
specific social groups, who occupy subordinate positions. In short,
transnational mobility creates new career chances in the upper segments
of the labour market, but, on the other hand, also increases the risks of
having to integrate oneself into the lower end of the income hierarchy.
Based on our results, the European integration proves itself to be a
process in which institutionalized political will is no longer the only point
of importance. Increasingly, we have to take into account the socialstructural consequences of this political will. We cannot discern clear
indications for a polarisation of the German social structure or even of a
polarized European social structure, although some of the results point in
that direction. However, hypotheses of levelling-out tendencies in the
course of Europeanisation can be ruled out. Finally, as to whether our
results for Berlin’s labour market can be generalized for the European
level must be shown by future analyses with more extensive data. But they
already have given us an empirical indication of the social-structural
dynamics working in Europe.
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EUROPEAN SOCIETIES
Appendix
Description of variables used in the analysis
Net-income
Could you please indicate approximately how much you currently earn per month after the
deduction of taxes and social security contributions: (1) less than 1000 DM, (2) 1000 to
1999 DM, (3) 2000 to 2999 DM (4) 3000 to 3999 DM, (5) 4000 to 4999 DM, (6) 5000 to
5999 DM, (7) 6000 to 6999 DM, (8) more than 7000 DM.
Independent variables
Polish
Dummy-code (1/Polish; 0/all others)
Italians
Dummy-code (1/Italians; 0 /all others)
British
Dummy-code (1/British; 0 /all others)
French
Dummy-code (1/French; 0 /all others)
Danish
Dummy-code (1/Danish; 0 /all others)
Gender
Dummy-code (1/men; 0 /women)
Familial status
Dummy-code (1/married with children; 0 /all others)
Social origin: Highest position of family of origin (father or mother) on collapsed EriksonGoldthorpe Five-class scheme
Social origin: Manual supervisors and skilled manual
Dummy-code (1/manual supervisors and skilled manual workers; 0 /all others)
Social origin: Self employed
Dummy-code (1/self employed, petty bourgeoisie with and without employees; 0 /all
others)
Social origin: Routine non-manual
Dummy-code (1/routine non-manual workers; 0/all others)
Social origin: Service class
Dummy-code (1/service class, higher and lower controllers service; 0/all others)
Vocational training
Dummy-code (1/skilled worker, journeyman’s certificate, master craftsman’s certificate;
0 /all others)
University/College degree
Dummy-code (1/college or university degree/BA, diplom, MA or PhD; 0 /all others)
Work experience
Age of interviewees, in years, on 01/01/2002 minus years of schooling, professional
training and the first 6 years in life
Time of mobility
Dummy-code (1/move to Berlin in 1990 and afterward; 0 /all others)
Occupational position
Dummy-code (1/labourer; 0/all others)
Position in the command structure: Supervision
Dummy-code (1/supervision of other people; 0 /all others)
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VERWIEBE & EDER
Business service
Dummy-code (1/business service, consulting, insurance, finance, real estate, IT, media,
0 /all others)
Industry, construction, distribution
Dummy-code (1/industry, construction, distribution; 0 /all others)
Working hours
Actual working time in hours per month
Firm size
Dummy-code (1/job in company with fewer than five employees; 0 /all others)
Roland Verwiebe is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Sociology at the
University Hamburg. His research interests cover comparative mobility
and labour market research, migration, life course analysis, and the
processes of Europeanisation. Recent publication: ‘Transnationale
Mobilität innerhalb Europas. Eine Studie zu den sozialstrukturellen
Effekten der Europäisierung’, Berlin: Edition Sigma (2004).
Klaus Eder is Full Professor for Comparative Structural Analysis in the
Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt-University Berlin. His research
interests cover the public sphere and democracy in the EU as well as
aspects of social (re-)structuring in the process of Europeanisation.
Recent publications: ‘European Citizenship Between National Legacies
and Postnational Projects’, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2001, with B.
Giesen); ‘Collective Identities in Action. A sociological approach to
ethnicity’, Aldershot: Ashgate (2002, with B. Giesen, O. Schmidtke, D.
Tambini).
Address for correspondence: Dr Roland Verwiebe, University Hamburg,
Institute of Sociology, Social Science Research Methods, Allende-Platz
1, 20146 Hamburg, Germany. Tel.: 49 40 42838-3234; Fax: 49 40 428382499;
E-mail: [email protected]
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