Parents’ German language skills help determine children’s success at school
If parents in foreign-language families lack good German language skills, the children have significant disadvantages at school. As the “Living in Germany” study shows, only 15.5 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds from such families attended a high school in 2019. If, on the other hand, the parents have a good knowledge of German, the likelihood of their children attending a high school between the ages of 13 and 15 is almost the same as in families without an immigrant background. This is shown by an analysis of data from the “Living in Germany” study conducted by Wido Geis-Thöne of IW Cologne. He recommends that children be introduced to the German language in early childhood and preschool.
Further information
Geis-Thöne, Wido. 2022. Kinder mit nicht deutschsprechenden Eltern. Eine Analyse auf Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP). In: IW-Trends, 49 (1). 111-132.
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