IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v13y2025a9559.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Refugee Women’s Transition to VET in Germany: Examining the Role of Gender Norms and Human Capital Endowments

Author

Listed:
  • Franziska Meyer

    (Institute for Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle‐Wittenberg, Germany)

Abstract

The article examines the extent to which gender roles as well as the human capital resources acquired in the country of origin are associated with refugee women’s chances of taking up vocational education and training (VET) in Germany. It follows the assumption that traditional gender roles, which assign women to the domestic sphere, can affect refugee women’s behavior either directly or through social contacts who impose these roles upon them. Additionally, it argues that the human capital that refugee women acquired in their country of origin can affect the trainers’ decision to hire them as trainees. The focus of the investigation is women between the ages of 18 and 30 who applied for asylum in Germany between 2015 and 2019 and mainly originate from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran ( N = 945). By applying a piecewise constant exponential model to monthly data from the IAB‐BAMF‐SOEP Survey of Refugees, the analysis shows that neither the women’s endowment with human capital acquired in their country of origin (i.e., level of education and work experience) nor their own gender role attitudes, having children, or the frequency of contact with persons from the same country of origin are significantly associated with their chances of transitioning to VET. Having a partner is, however, associated with almost 60% lower chances of refugee women entering VET.

Suggested Citation

  • Franziska Meyer, 2025. "Refugee Women’s Transition to VET in Germany: Examining the Role of Gender Norms and Human Capital Endowments," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 13.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v13:y:2025:a:9559
    DOI: 10.17645/si.9559
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9559
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/si.9559?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v13:y:2025:a:9559. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.