Ethnic capital and educational outcomes

Does Ethnic Capital Contribute to the Educational Outcomes of Individuals with Turkish Background in Europe? is a chapter in The Young and Elderly at Risk, a book of empirical studies reflecting on when and why the young and the elderly are at risk in European countries.

2000 Families co-researcher, Sait Bayrakdar investigates how ethnic capital, calculated here as the percentage of parent’s friends and colleagues who are from the same ethnic background and the language spoken between parents and children, shapes the educational outcomes of the study’s participants in Germany, the Netherlands and France.

The findings show that where parents have a high percentage of co-ethnic colleagues, this has no clear effect on educational outcomes of their children, while having a high number of co-ethnic friends and speaking the language of the sending country at home decrease the children’s chances of higher educational outcomes. The effect is most noticeable in Germany where late starting age of schooling and early age of tracking are two main features of the educational system.