Research Interests:
- Social Inequality and Stratification
- Migration
- Family
- Quantitative Methods
Current Research Projects:
Educational systems and ethnic educational inequalities (funded by the DFG)
Short summary: Integrating growing immigrant populations is a challenge for receiving countries. A key to societal integration is the successful educational attainment of immigrants. According to previous research, the educational success of immigrants differs substantially across receiving societies. As education systems and their characteristics shape learning opportunities, one can assume that differences between education systems account for some of the disparities in immigrant’s educational success across countries. Since education systems are malleable and can be adapted to the needs of immigrant students, it is of particular interest to understand how these systems and institutions impact on education inequalities. The project has two objectives: (1) It will use causal analytical methods to investigate the extent to which institutional characteristics of educational systems influence achievement gaps between students with and without a migration background on an international comparative basis for the period from 1995 to 2018. (2) It will harmonize and cumulate data from the most important international school achievement studies (PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS) and make available the necessary routines to the scientific community for replication and further research.
Pretty Integrated? Perceptions of immigrants’ physical attractiveness and consequences for integration outcomes (funded by the DFG)
The project examines the causes and consequences of perceptions of physical attractiveness in the context of immigrant integration. Physical attractiveness has been shown to be a key determinant of life chances in various domains, as attractive people are generally treated favorably. However, everyday perceptions of physical attractiveness may be influenced by cultural distance, ethnic boundaries, and interaction frequency. This may therefore influence what members of different groups perceive as physically attractive. Since physical attractiveness is, on the one hand, a possible factor explaining variation in integration success and, on the other hand, is itself subject to social construction, this project examines the relationship between immigrants' perceived physical attractiveness and their economic integration.
