Master Thesis : Newly arrived young migrants in vocational preparation classes : a qualitive study of experiences of disadvantage in Hamburg's AvM-Dual classes

Abstract

This thesis examines the experiences of disadvantage of newly arrived young migrants in Hamburg's Vocational Preparation Classes for Migrants (AvM-Dual). Drawing on 13 qualitative, semi-structured interviews and a theoretical framework of institutional discrimination, the study addresses two research questions: what disadvantages and structural challenges do young people in AvM classes perceive, and how do they interpret and evaluate these experiences, including to what extent they identify them as discrimination? The findings show that AvM classes function as an institutionally structured transitional space that channels educational pathways through school assignment logics, limited permeability, information asymmetries, a strong vocational training orientation, and the formal equal treatment of heterogeneous learning prerequisites. At the interactional level, low teacher expectations further undermine students' educational aspirations. These mechanisms are consistent with the logic of institutional discrimination: they are not rooted in individual intentions but in organizational routines and structural conditions that systematically disadvantage newly arrived young migrants. With regard to the interpretation of these experiences, the study shows that disadvantage is not necessarily named as discrimination — not due to a lack of awareness, but because narrow conceptual understandings, internalized performance norms, and the absence of comparative standards structurally impede recognition. The separation structure of AvM classes itself contributes to this invisibility.