The poverty risk of East and South-East Asian migrant households in Germany: The role of human capital, employment, and intermarriage

Poverty is on the rise in Germany. Though there are studies on immigrant earnings and poverty in Germany as separate topics, Little attention has been paid to determining the factors that contribute to the poverty of immigrant households. In this paper we focus on the socioeconomic situation of Asian households in Germany. Using a 1% sample of the population in Germany – the German Microcensus Scientific Use File for 2012 to 2019 – we document the patterns of household poverty for households shared by at least one immigrant from East and South-East Asia. As compared to migrants from Vietnam, households with immigrants from other Asian countries have a markedly lower poverty rate. Furthermore, our results show support for the hypotheses developed from the equal earner model, but not from the breadwinner model. In particular, our analysis underlines the role of female employment for hedging poverty risks. In addition, intermarriage with native partners and their domestic human capital endowments play an important role for individual poverty risks of immigrants from East and South-East Asia. Implications of the findings are discussed, in particular in relation to educational attainment, dual-earner households, and female labor market participation.