Wishes and realities: on the relation of social background, migration and educational aspirations

Abstract

Educational aspirations depend on social background and influence educational careers. Therefore, they play an important role in the reproduction of social inequality. Children of parents in higher social positions have higher educational aspirations. Furthermore, many studies prove that aspirations of migrants are higher than those of native born. So far, however, the relation between social position and aspirations of migrants and their descendants has not been studied in detail. Based on quantitative online-survey data collected in the last grades of lower secondary schools in Vienna (Austria) in 2018 (n = 2850), we show that the migrants’ generation affects how educational background influences idealistic educational aspirations. Furthermore, we reveal that in contrast to idealistic aspirations, realistic aspirations are not influenced by migration background. We conclude that in the context of migration, specific mechanisms of reproduction of social inequality become relevant. These need to be investigated theoretically and empirically in further research.