Young immigrants' low participation in the German vocational training system: how local actors in Munich and Frankfurt/Main try to make a difference

The vast majority of migration to Western Europe since the 1950s has been to cities (Messina 2007: 27; Van der Gaag, Van Wissen, Salt, Lynus & Clark 2001: 5–16). Manufacturing sector companies were located in these cities and provided the newcomers with a workplace, an income and a perspective on the future. However, the post-industrial urban centres at present are characterised, by a general decline of their blue-collar workforce and a small job market for low-skilled workers. In combination with cutbacks in social budgets in most European countries, these developments initiated stratification processes within the urban communities that created a new underclass characterised by, among other features, ethnic origin and/or migratory background. Persistent differences in educational outcomes between young natives and immigrants ¹ have led to a duplication of this stratification. This chapter focuses on one of the important thresholds where this achievement gap occurs in Germany: the transition from school to vocational training.