Newsarchiv: News

New publication on refugees’ vocational choices in occupations with vacancy problems

16.04.2026: Young refugees in Germany are less likely to enter vocational training than non-migrants or migrants without a refugee background. A new study examines whether refugees are more likely to choose vocational training occupations with vacancy problems and how legal asylum conditions influence this transition.

Christ, Alexander & Oliver Winkler (2026): Are young refugees more likely to enter training places with vacancy problems? Comparisons between immigrant youths in Germany. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), Vol. 13, Issue 3, 443–473, DOI: 10.13152/IJRVET.13.3.6   

New article on key success factors in young refugees’ transition from school to vocational training

26.03.2026: An article by Oliver Winkler on the factors that are influencing the transition of young refugees from school to vocational training has been published on the FluchtForschungsBlog. The overview shows that German language skills, targeted support measures, and adjustments to the legal framework are important. DOI: 10.59350/z2cwp-vwz53   

Research Stay by Melanie Olczyk at Keio University (Tokyo)

27.02.2026: In March 2026, Dr. Melanie Olczyk will undertake a research stay at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. On 18 March 2026, she will give a presentation there on the educational situation of refugee children and adolescents in Germany. The focus will be on the role of institutional frameworks in shaping competence development and opportunities for participation.

Oliver Winkler at the KAIB Meeting in the Saxon State Parliament

26.02.2026: On 4 June 2026, Oliver Winkler will hold a presentation at the meeting of the Municipal Commissioners for Foreigners and Integration (KAIB) at the Sächsischer Landtag in Dresden.
The focus of the meeting will be on the topic of “Education.”

EDIREG at GEBF 2026

19.02.2026: At the 13th GEBF Congress    at the Technische Universität München from March 16-18, EDIREG will be represented with several contributions. On March 17, Hannah Glinka and Oliver Winkler will present their paper “German reading and listening competencies of refugee students in 2022.” On March 18, Franziska Meyer and Oliver Winkler will organize the symposium “Transitions and placement of refugee adolescents and young adults in the German VET system”. As part of this symposium, they will also present their papers “The placement of young refugees in Germany’s vertically segmented VET system: Career prospects and the role of resource inequality” and “Insecure status, secure training? Young refugees in apprenticeships with recruitment shortages.” In parallel, Melanie Olczyk is represented with the paper “The association between students’ educational aspirations and those of their female friends depending on migration background.”

EDIREG at the Section Conference “Social Inequality and Social Structure Analysis”

19.01.2026: At the Spring Conference    of the Section “Social Inequality and Social Structure Analysis,” Franziska Meyer and Oliver Winkler will present “The placement of young refugees in Germany’s vertically segmented VET system” on March 4, 2026, at the University of Potsdam.

New publication on the relevance of social contacts for young refugees’ transition to VET in Germany

16.12.2025: A new study uses data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees to examine the relationship between the frequency of contact with members of the majority population and the ethnic origin group, and young refugees’ chances of transitioning to vocational education and training (VET) in Germany.

Meyer, Franziska & Oliver Winkler (2025): Die Bedeutung sozialer Kontakte für den Übergang junger Geflüchteter in die Berufsausbildung. Berufsbildung: Zeitschrift für Theorie-Praxis-Dialog, 79(4). DOI: 10.3278/BB2504W   

Final status group seminar of the junior research groups

17.11.2025: On November 6 and 7, the junior research groups of the Empirical Educational Research program of the BMBFSFJ met in Regensburg for the last time before the end of the project term. The focus of the conference was science communication and knowledge transfer. Hannah Glinka attended on behalf of the EDIREG team and presented her talk “From Science to Fiction – Science as a Short Story.”

New Publication on the placement of refugee men and women in the vertically segmented VET system in Germany

26.09.2025: The new study examines how the training occupations pursued by refugee men and women differ from those of the majority population in terms of future income prospects and employment stability, and to what extent these differences are mediated by school-leaving qualifications, job search and application strategies, as well as network resources.

Meyer, Franziska & Winkler, Oliver (2025): Refugee men and women in the segmented VET market in Germany: on their career prospects and the role of resource inequality. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training 17, 22. DOI: 10.1186/s40461-025-00197-1   

EDIREG at the 42nd DGS Congress in Duisburg

23.09.2025: The EDIREG-Team consisting of Oliver Winkler, Melanie Olczyk and Hannah Glinka are taking part in the DGS Congress in Duisburg from the 23rd to the 26th of September 2025. Following presentations are held:

On 23.09.2025: Oliver Winkler presents "Regional Inequalities and Institutional Framework Conditions for the Educational Integration of Young Refugees".

On 26.09.2025: Together with two others, Melanie Olczyk will present "Institutional conditions for the deferral of school enrolment and the attendance of new immigrant classes for refugee children".

Hannah Glinka and Melanie Olczyk will present "Performance-related signals and their significance for parental educational expectations at the end of primary school in immigrant families: A comparison taking into account institutional differences".

EDIREG at the ECSR in Cologne

03.09.2025: At the ECSR    in Cologne on September 3, 2025 Oliver Winkler presents "Are young refugees more likely to enter training places with vacancy  problems? Comparisons between immigrant youths in Germany".

The university's press releases report on an EDIREG study.

12.08.2025: The university`s press releases report on a recently published EDIREG study. "Unclear benefit: Welcome classes do not improve refugees` German language skills enough"

Young refugees improve their German language skills most when they are integrated into regular school classes at an early stage. The evaluation of data from over 1,000 young people also shows that welcome classes do not compensate for a lack of language skills as hoped. The results were published in "Acta Sociologica".

Winkler O. & Carwehl A.-K. Institutional conditions and acquisition of language skills among young refugees: Investigating the German context. Acta Sociologica (2025). doi: 10.1177/00016993251351531