So close and yet so far away?

How are East Germans and people with immigrant backgrounds represented in Germany’s elite circles? Researchers from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, together with colleagues from Berlin and Leipzig, have published a new study.

At the end of March 2024, the volume “Distant Elites—The Underrepresentation of East Germans and People with an Immigrant Background” was published by Springer VS.

This volume presents the detailed findings of the research project “Social Integration Without Elites?”, which was conducted from 2018 to 2021, now in book form. The nine chapters examine, from a social science perspective, to what extent and why the elites of the Federal Republic of Germany seem distant to many East Germans and people with a migrant background.

On the one hand, the study addresses the underrepresentation of these two population groups within the elites and their limited individual opportunities for upward mobility. To this end, the professional biographies of approximately 2,800 members of the elite were collected and analyzed. Second, the book raises the question of the connection between the underrepresentation of these two groups in the elite and their attitudes toward society and the political institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany, and provides an initial answer based on a population survey. Finally, the volume formulates recommendations for action regarding how to address the identified underrepresentation in future sociopolitical discourse.

In addition to researchers from the University of Leipzig (led by Dr. Lars Vogel) and the German Center for Migration and Integration Studies (DeZIM, Berlin, led by Prof. Dr. Sabrina Zajak), researchers from the TRAWOS Institute at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences were also involved: Prof. Dr. Raj Kollmorgen as project director of the subproject at HSZG and co-editor of the volume, Susanne Lerche (MA) as a research assistant and author, and Jan Schaller (MA) as a research associate and author.

The project and its findings are currently being continued and expanded upon in a follow-up project (“Elitenmonitor”) funded by the Federal Chancellery (Commissioner for Eastern Germany), in which researchers from the TRAWOS Institute are also participating.

Book presentations and talks on the publication and the project findings will take place in the region shortly. The dates will be published on the TRAWOS Institute’s website.