Migration background for Jugendl and Biopupil datasets

FDZ SOEP
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Dear SOEP-Team,

We are interested in using variables from the Jugendl and Biopupil datasets to run analyses by migration background and NUTS3 region. We have the following questions:

  1. Why are most of the questions in Jugendl that would help identify the nationality and migration background of the respondent (e.g., German nationality of the respondent, German nationality of the mother) either marked as “not part of this year’s survey” or flagged as “does not apply”?

  2. Would it be correct to retrieve the migration background of respondents by merging Jugendl with Bioparen and using, for example, the mother’s nationality (mnat) to flag whether the 17-year-old respondent has a migration background?

  3. While option 2 seems a viable approach for retrieving the migration background of respondents in the Jugendl dataset, this does not appear feasible for Biopupil, as the merge with Bioparen is successful only in some cases. How can we retrieve the migration background of respondents for the Biopupil dataset?

Thank you for your support!

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  1. I suspect that the problem here are questions that were only asked in specific waves. Once a questionnaire item changes, a new variable will be generated. We try, wherever possible, to harmonize the results. You can find those variables with the subscript VARIABLE_h and the individual variables with _v1, _v2, … We are aware that this is especially complicated for the nationality.
  2. Not necessarily, this would be an assumption you make.
  3. –

A better approach could be to look for pgnation (ISO3) in pgen.dta, and I would also suggest to check biol.dta and youthl.dta. If you are not interested in the country of origin but migration background more broadly, I would suggest you use migback in ppathl.dta.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable about the topic from my team will get back to you later. All the best.

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