SOEP-Core v35 - Biographical Information in the Meta File PPATH (Month of Birth, Immigration Variables, Living in East or West Germany in 1989)

Kara, Selin; Schacht, Diana; Schmitt, Christian; Scherz, Antonia; Ulrich, Luisa Research Report SOEP-Core v35 - Biographical Information in the Meta File PPATH (Month of Birth, Immigration Variables, Living in East or West Germany in 1989) SOEP Survey Papers, No. 894 Provided in Cooperation with: German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) Suggested Citation: Kara, Selin; Schacht, Diana; Schmitt, Christian; Scherz, Antonia; Ulrich, Luisa (2020) : SOEP-Core v35 - Biographical Information in the Meta File PPATH (Month of Birth, Immigration Variables, Living in East or West Germany in 1989), SOEP Survey Papers, No. 894, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/226798 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ SOEP Survey Papers Series D – Variable Descriptions and Coding SOEP-Core v35 – Biographical Information in the Meta File PPATH (Month of Birth, Immigration Variables, Living in East or West Germany in 1989) 894 SOEP — The German Socio-Economic Panel at DIW Berlin 2020 Selin Kara, Diana Schacht, Christian Schmitt, Antonia Scherz, Luisa Ulrich, and SOEP Group Selin Kara, Diana Schacht, Christian Schmitt, Antonia Scherz, Luisa Ulrich, and SOEP Group Biographical Information in the Meta File PPATH (Month of Birth, Immigration Variables, Living in East or West Germany in 1989)1 By Selin Kara, Diana Schacht, Christian Schmitt, Antonia Scherz, and Lisa Ulrich The files PPFAD, PPATH and PPATHL include—aside from other, primarily survey-relevant variables such as response status—important demographic information on every person who has ever participated in at least one wave of the SOEP study. These variables are of two types: first, longitudinally checked data on month of birth (GEBMONAT), and, second, generated demographic variables on the country of origin (GERMBORN, CORIGIN), year of last immigration to Germany (IMMIYEAR), migration background (MIGBACK), as well as the region in which a person lived prior to German unification (LOC1989). In the following section, the construction of these generated variables will be explained briefly. 1 Month of Birth in the PPFAD / PPATH data set 1.1 Introduction From Wave T on (2003), the data set PPFAD contains not only the year of birth but also the month of birth (GEBMONAT). This new variable is accompanied by the supplementary variable GEBMOVAL, which indicates the data source for the month of birth. GEBMONAT and GEBMOVAL may have the following characteristics: - GEBMONAT: Month of birth; 1 (January) to 12 (December) - GEBMOVAL: Month of birth — data source 1 Generated 2 Info stored in PPFAD 3 Info derived from data set $KIND 4 Info derived from data set SP (self-reported) 5 Derived from data set $LELA (self-reported) 6 Derived from BIOAGE01 (mother-child questionnaire) (NEW with Wave W / survey year 2006) 7 Derived from Youth Questionnaire (self-reported) (NEW with Wave Z / survey year 2009) The month of birth was surveyed in Wave S in the individual questionnaire (SP). Furthermore, the month of birth was surveyed in the biography questionnaire starting with Wave T ($LELA, file not included in the SOEP data release). Additionally, for all children, the month of birth is available in the file $KIND (starting with Wave T). Starting with Wave W, additional sources of information are considered in the generation of the month of birth. The data is based on biographical information on 1 Based on earlier work by Joachim R. Frick, Olaf Groh-Samberg, and Florian Henkel. SOEP Survey Papers 894 1 v35 children obtained from the mother-child questionnaire (completed by mothers of newborns, $MUKI), along with a number of additional biographical questionnaires in which parents report on their children's development at different age intervals ($MUKI2, $MUKI3, $MUKI5, $elt, $SCHOOL, $SCHOOL2, and the consolidated child biography BIOAGEL). All these biographical questionnaires ask for the child’s age in years and months. Furthermore, information from the Youth Questionnaires (selfresponse, age 17) is also considered. Priority is given to self-reporting in the Youth Questionnaire over parent proxy information. All these sources of information are used to derive the month of birth, and valid information is used to replace missing data in one or more of the sources mentioned. This procedure has been successful in providing the relevant information for most of the current panel members. The information remains missing for individuals who lack any of the above information. This applies mainly to temporary dropouts or respondents who exited in a previous wave, before providing data in any of the questionnaires mentioned above. For some of these individuals, the month of birth could be reconstructed (this refers primarily to newborns, for whom the month of entry into the household is considered as a proxy if no other reliable information is available). This reconstruction remains an approximation and might differ from the true month of birth in individual cases. The variable GEBMOVAL displays an ordinal scaling of the level of reliability, where an individual’s own response on date of birth is given preference over information derived from other sources, and parent responses are considered more reliable for younger children. 1.2 Construction of variables The month of birth is constructed in a hierarchical order from the files: - Generated (basis: $P, $PBRUTTO $KIND) - $KIND - SP - $LELA - Child-related biography files, including $MUKI, $MUKI2, $MUKI3, $MUKI5, $elt, $SCHOOL, $SCHOOL2, BIOAGEL - Youth Questionnaire ($PAGE17) whereby each subsequent file overrides the previous one. This means the generated information will only be utilized if no further questionnaire-based information for the month of birth is available. The generated month of birth could only be constructed for people who were born while their parents were members of the SOEP. The information was derived from two sources: - For newborn children, the month of entry into the household was used as an approximation of the real month of birth (relevant file $PBRUTTO). - For parents who reported a birth in a certain month, a link to the child was established and the month of birth was assigned to the child (relevant file $P). The generated data has been tested and adjusted in several steps. The results show that—in the cases in which the generated data was also collected by SP, $LELA, $KIND, $Jugend, and BIOAGEL—the generated data is almost always consistent with the collected data and is therefore reliable. SOEP Survey Papers 894 2 v35 Table 1: GEBMONAT Month of Birth distribution Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Valid -5 Not Present in Version of Questionnaire 17,243 12.12 12.12 -3 Answer improbable 1 0 12.12 -1 No Answer 23,841 16.75 28.87 1 January 11,325 7.96 36.83 2 February 8,147 5.72 42.55 3 March 9,040 6.35 48.91 4 April 8,189 5.75 54.66 5 May 8,531 5.99 60.66 6 June 8,017 5.63 66.29 7 July 8,617 6.06 72.34 8 August 8,294 5.83 78.17 9 September 8,355 5.87 84.04 10 October 7,967 5.60 89.64 11 November 7,265 5.11 94.75 12 December 7,476 5.25 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. Table 2: GEBMOVAL Month of Birth, Data Source distribution Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Valid -5 Not Present in Version of Questionnaire 17,243 12.12 12.12 -3 Not Valid 1 0.00 12.12 -1 No Answer 23,841 16.75 28.87 1 Generated, newborn’s entry into household 1,698 1.19 30.06 3 $KIND, Info from mother 6,436 4.52 34.59 4 Info from SP 21,851 15.35 49.94 5 Info from $LELA 47,480 33.36 83.31 6 Info from bioage[n] 14,376 10.10 93.41 7 Info from $PAGE17 9,382 6.59 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. SOEP Survey Papers 894 3 v35 2 Immigration information 2.1 Introduction The SOEP data comprises a sizeable number of immigrants to Germany and their descendants. Several user-friendly variables identify these groups (GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR, MIGBACK) and thus give information on the migration background of all persons who have ever been a part of a SOEP household (i.e., the population from PPFAD, PPATH or PPATHL). In detail, GERMBORN and CORIGIN give information on the country of birth, with the exception of persons who immigrated to Germany before 1950 who are considered to have been born in Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949). IMMIYEAR specifies the last year of immigration to the Federal Republic of Germany for all persons considered not born in Germany, and MIGBACK is useful to identify immigrant descendants by combining information on respondents and their (grand-)parents. In addition, GERMBORNINFO, CORIGININFO, IMMIYEARINFO, and MIGINFO indicate the quality of information given in GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR and MIGBACK, respectively. All SOEP samples include immigrants to Germany and their descendants. The shares vary, however, across samples depending on the target population covered. Naturally, samples covering the entire residential population in Germany (Sample A, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L1, L2, L3 and N) or specific groups such as persons from the former GDR (Sample C) contain a smaller number of immigrants and their descendants than the samples of foreigners and migrants (Sample B, D, M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5)2 or the sample of households in urban areas (Sample O). Graph 1 illustrates the share of persons who immigrated to Germany since 1950. Information for GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR and MIGBACK and the respective INFO variables (GERMBORNINFO, CORIGININFO, IMMIYEARINFO and MIGINFO) is collected primarily from the individual questionnaires (dataset PL) or the variations of the “biography / life history” questionnaires (integrated biographical data files and life-course information in dataset (dataset BIOL) and from the additional youth questionnaire for 16-17-year-olds, in use since 2000 (dataset JUGENDL). In addition, information from the electronic household protocol for M1 (2013) and the retrospective survey (2012) of early childhood in the context of war (dataset BCBFK) was used (both datasets are not included in the standard data distribution). Table 3 lists information used for generating GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR, and MIGBACK and the respective SOEP source files. In the following sections, the variables GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR, and MIGBACK and their generation process are described in detail. Special attention is given to the filtering function of GERMBORN for CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR, and MIGBACK. 2 For more information, see: Liebau, E. and Tucci, I. (2015) Migrationsund Integrationsforschung mit dem SOEP von 1984 bis 2012: Erhebung, Indikatoren und Potenziale. DIW Berlin: SOEP Survey Papers 270: Series C. Nebelin, J. and Petrenz, M. and Wenzig, K. (2019) Wegweiser zur Datenanalyse der IAB-SOEP Migrationsstichproben (M1, M2) und der IAB-BAMF-SOEP Stichproben von Geflüchteten (M3-M5). DIW Berlin: SOEP Survey Papers 600: Series G. SOEP Survey Papers 894 4 v35 Graph 1: Distribution of foreign-born survey participants across SOEP samples (A to O) Source: All survey participants (n=142,308); row percentages, SOEP v35. Table 3: Information used for GERMBORN, CORIGIN, IMMIYEAR and MIGBACK Information used Dataset (long format) Main indicators Born in Germany (yes/no) BIOL / PL / JUGENDL / Electronic household protocol M1 / BCBFK Country of birth BIOL / PL / JUGENDL / PBRUTTO / BCBFK Year of immigration to Germany BIOL / PL / MIGSPELL / REFUGSPELL / JUGENDL / Electronic household protocol M1 / BCBFK East German, Ethnic German or migrated before 1949 Immigration group (Emigrant of German descent from Eastern Europe, German who lived abroad, EU citizen, asylum seeker, other) BIOIMMIG Area of origin (GDR, FRG, former German territory, Europe, other) BIOL / PL / PBRUTTO Displaced person between 1945 and 1950 (yes/no) BIOL / BCBFK Citizenship and legal status Citizenship BIOL / KIDLONG / PBRUTTO / INFRATEST INFORMATION German citizenship (yes/no) BIOL / PL / JUGENDL Current citizenship BIOL / PL / JUGENDL Previous citizenship BIOL / PL / JUGENDL Dual citizenship BIOL / PL / JUGENDL / PBRUTTO Citizenship: former GDR PL Naturalization BIOL / PL / JUGENDL SOEP Survey Papers 894 5 v35 Table 9: Variations of the SOEP questions regarding respondents’ year of immigration (main indicators for IMMIYEAR and IMMIYEARINFO) Category Question Dataset (long format) Sample Years Respondent information First What year did you move to the Federal Republic of Germany (including West Berlin) for the first time? PL B 1984-1990 1992-1993 First In which year did you move to Germany for the first time? PL B 1991 Unspecific Since when have you lived in the area of today´s FRG or West Berlin? If after 1949, since when? PL A 1990 Unspecific Since when have you lived in the area of the former FRG or West Berlin? If after 1949, since when? PL A 1991-1993 Unspecific Since when have you lived in the area of the former GDR or East Berlin? If after 1949, since when? PL C 1992-1993 Unspecific What year did you move to the Federal Republic of Germany (including West Berlin) for the first time? BIOL B, D 1994 Unspecific When did you move to the Federal Republic of Germany? BIOL B, D 1995 Unspecific Since when have you lived in the area of the former FRG or West Berlin? If after 1949, since when? BIOL A 1994-1995 Unspecific When did you move to the Federal Republic of Germany? BIOL A-L3 1996-2012 Unspecific When did you move to Germany? BIOL A-H, J-L2 2013 Last When did you move to Germany? If you have moved to Germany several times during your life, please refer to your most recent move to Germany. BIOL A-H, J-L3, N-O 2014-2018 First First of all we would like to know when you first moved away from your country of birth? BIOL M1-M2 2013-2018 First Which country did you move to? BIOL M1-M2 2013-2018 First & Last Did you move away from Germany again after that? BIOL M1-M2 2013-2018 First & Last When did you move to Germany? BIOL M1-M2 2013-2018 First First of all we would like to know when you first moved away from your country of birth? BIOL M3-M5 2016-2018 First Was Germany the first country you moved to, or was it another country? BIOL M3-M5 2016-2018 First & Last Did you move away from Germany again after that? BIOL M3-M5 2016-2018 First & Last When did you move to Germany in this case? BIOL M3-M5 2016-2018 Unspecific When did you arrive in Germany? BIOL M3-M5 2016-2018 Unspecific When did you move to the Federal Republic of Germany? JUGENDL A-H, J-O 2000-2018 Unspecific When did you move to Germany? BCBFK A-J 2012 Third party information Unspecific Member of household: Moved into household from abroad. PBRUTTO all samples of SOEP 1985-2018 Unspecific Did <first name> move to Germany? (reported by the anchor respondent) ELECTR. HH. PROTOCOL M1 2013 Unspecific When did your father move to Germany? BIOL M1-M5 2013-2018 Unspecific When did your mother move to Germany? BIOL M1-M5 2013-2018 Source: SOEP v35. SOEP Survey Papers 894 12 v35 If the year of immigration was still missing after this procedure, IMMIYEAR was coded “(-1) don’t know”. IMMIYEAR includes more missing values than GERMBORN and CORIGIN due to cases in which it was not possible to determine a respondent’s year of immigration. Table 10: IMMIYEAR “Year of Immigration to Germany” distribution Value Value Label Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent -2 does not apply 105,403 74 74 -1 no answer / don’t know 4,417 3 77 1950 18 0 77 … 2018 182 0 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. However, users should be aware that the wording of questions on the year of immigration vary rather drastically over the course of the SOEP survey. Table 9 gives an overview of the respective phrasings of the year of immigration questions. The column “category” gives an indication whether the question asked for the first or most recent year of immigration or whether the phrasing of the question did not specify which specific year of immigration may have been meant. 2.5 MIGBACK “Migration background” and MIGINFO MIGBACK contains information on respondents' migration background for all persons who have ever been a part of a SOEP household (i.e., the population from PPFAD, PPATH or PPATHL). In comparison to GERMBORN, the variable MIGBACK is useful to identify immigrants’ descendants by combining information on respondents’ country of birth (see GERMBORN) and (grand-)parental information such as their country of birth and their citizenship. The information for this variable comes predominantly from PPATH (GERMBORN), auxiliary citizenship variables (for more information, see Table 3 under subheading “citizenship and legal status” and sub-heading “family information”), and the relevant biographical data sets (dataset BIOIMMIG). The variables were also updated using information from the wave-specific individual questionnaires (dataset PL), the variations of the “biography / life history” questionnaires (dataset BIOL), and the additional questionnaire for 16-17-year-olds in use since 2000 (dataset JUGENDL). Respondents were assigned to the MIGBACK categories based on country of birth (see GERMBORN): Being born in another country than Germany indicates, by definition, a direct migration background (2), while respondents born in Germany may have either no (1) or an indirect (3) migration background. Respondents whose parents had no migration background were assigned the code “(1) no migration background”, while respondents whose father or mother had a migration background were assigned the code “(3) indirect migration background”. Grandparental information were additionally used if information on mothers’ and fathers’ migration background were missing. Please note that any updates in related variables may also lead to an update of the MIGBACK variable. For instance, a respondent who never stated his or her citizenship but later states having a foreign citizenship will be classified as having a migration background of some form. This retrospective perspective may lead to updates of the migration background variable with every new wave. Table 11 displays the MIGBACK distribution of persons in the latest PPATH version. SOEP Survey Papers 894 13 v35 Table 11: MIGBACK “Migration background” distribution Value Value Label Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent 1 No migration background 88,720 62 62 2 Direct migration background 36,905 26 88 3 Indirect migration background 16,683 12 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. To provide the highest level of transparency possible, we include a variable for the sources used to create the migration background variable: MIGINFO. MIGINFO indicates the quality of information given in MIGBACK. MIGINFO provides information about the usage of (grand-)parents’ migration histories in the SOEP. Overall, MIGINFO can take on two different codes: “(1) No (grand-)parental information” or “(2) At least 1 (grand-)parental information available”. The (grand-)parental information refers to any information on the migration background of the respondents’ mother, father or grandparents. This includes information on the country of birth (for more information, see Table 3 under sub-heading “family information”) and auxiliary citizenship variables (for more information, see Table 3 under subheading “citizenship and legal status” and sub-heading “family information”). Please note that the MIGINFO coding from 2015 (v32) is further differentiated between the availability of direct and proxy information on respondents. We changed the MIGINFO coding due to the introduction of the GERMBORNINFO variable in 2016 (v33). The quality of information given in MIGBACK can thus only be assessed by combining the GERMBORNINFO and MIGINFO variables. MIGBACK information is considered to be highly reliable in cases coded (2) “At least 1 (grand-)parental information available” on MIGINFO and (1) “Consistent information” on GERMBORNINFO (around 48% of the PPFAD / PPATH cases). In contrast, the quality of information given on MIGBACK is considered relatively uncertain in cases where parental information ((1) “No (grand-)parental information” on MIGINFO) and respondents’ information were missing ((3) “No information” on GERMBORNINFO)). In a few cases, “(1) no (grand-)parental information” (see MIGINFO) was available but we were nonetheless able to identify respondents with an “(2) indirect migration background” (see MIGBACK). In these cases, respondents were born in Germany but further variables (for more information, see Table 3 under sub-heading “citizenship and legal status” and sub-heading ”East German, Ethnic German, or migrated before 1949”) suggested that there was a migration background (e.g., ethnic Germans). MIGBACK may slightly underestimate the number of persons having an “(3) indirect migration background”, since some of the respondents born in Germany with missing (grand-)parental information and for whom no further indicators were available may be the descendants of immigrants. Table 12: MIGINFO “MIGBACK: Quality of information” distribution Value Value Label Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent 1 No (grand-)parental information 40,820 29 29 2 At least 1 (grand-)parental information available 101,488 71 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. SOEP Survey Papers 894 14 v35 2.6 LOC1989 “Where did you live in 1989?” and LOCINFO The variable LOC1989 in the meta-file PPFAD / PPATH provides information about a person’s residence prior to German reunification, distinguishing among “(1) German Democratic Republic [GDR]”, “(2) Federal Republic of Germany [FRG] (including West Berlin)”, and “(3) abroad”. Respondents born after 1989 (GEBJAHR in PPATH) were coded as “(-2) does not apply” on LOC1989. This information has been generated for all individuals who were ever a member of a SOEP household (i.e., the population from PPFAD, PPATH or PPATHL). LOC1989 combines information from two main sources: In 2003, the individual questionnaire included information on the place of residence before German reunification (dataset TP). Since 2004, this question has been included in the biography questionnaires (dataset BIOL). Along with these sources, the following indicators were used to code the variable LOC1989 (with descending priority): - $HHNR in PPATH: Place of residence in the former FRG before German reunification - IMMIYEAR in PPATH: Respondents who first immigrated to Germany after 1989 were coded as living “[3] abroad” in 1989 - IMMIYEAR, CORIGIN in PPATH: Respondents from countries holding agreements on labor recruitment with the FRG who immigrated to Germany before 1990 were assumed to have been living in the “(2) Federal Republic of Germany [FRG] (including West Berlin)” in 1989 - IMMIYEAR, CORIGIN in PPATH: Respondents from countries holding agreements on labor recruitment with the GDR who immigrated to Germany before 1990 were assumed to have been living in the “(1) German Democratic Republic [GDR]” in 1989 - PSAMPLE in PPATH: Respondent’s sample affiliation in 1990, differentiating between members of the former West samples (A, B) and the former East sample (C) - $SAMPREG in PPATH & BRMOVEIN and SYEAR in BIORESID: Respondents who moved into their current dwelling in the former FRG or GDR before 1989 - GSAMPREG in PPATH: Respondent living in the West or East sample region in 1990 The vast majority of information given in LOC1989 is based on information from these sources. For the remaining respondents, indirect information is derived from the following proxies to code their place of residence in 1989: - $PZUG in $PBRUTTO: New entrants to the SOEP who previously lived in East Germany or abroad - BSSCHEND and BSSCHWO in BIOSOC: Place and year of the last school attended - LPGRUPPE in LPBRUTTO: Place of birth that was asked in 1995 - $P: Country of origin GDR - KPNAT in KPBRUTTO: Citizens of (former) GDR - $P: Place of residence in 1984 - BIOPAREN and PPATH: Parental residence in 1989 for individuals younger than 18 in 1989 SOEP Survey Papers 894 15 v35 Table 13: LOC1989 “Where did you live in 1989?” distribution Value Value Label Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Precent -2 Does not apply 46,607 33 33 -1 No answer / don’t know 15,309 11 44 1 German Democratic Republic [GDR] 15,984 11 55 2 Federal Republic of Germany [FRG] (including West Berlin) 50,035 35 90 3 Abroad 14,373 10 100 Total 142,599 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35. The variable LOCINFO indicates the quality of information given in LOC1989, differentiating between direct and indirect information. LOCINFO provides information about the use of proxy information in the process of generating LOC1989 due to missing values in respondents’ and their parents’ residence in 1989 in the SOEP. Overall, LOCINFO can take on three different codes: either “(1) direct” or “(2) indirect information” is available on respondents or they were “(0) born after 1989”. Table 14 illustrates which variables were used to generate LOC1989 and their respective LOCINFO coding. Table 14: LOCINFO "Loc1989: Source / quality of information" distribution Value Value Label Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent -1 No answer / don’t know 15,177 11 11 0 Respondent born after 1989 46,261 32 43 1 Direct information 79,005 55 98 2 Indirect information 1,865 1 100 Total 142,308 100 Source: PPFAD / PPATH, SOEP v35 SOEP Survey Papers 894 16 v35