Dealing with Diverse Diversities: Defining and Comparing Minority Groups

In this chapter we use the CILS4EU data to investigate the precise generational status and the origin countries of the adolescent population in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. We describe the ethnic diversity in the study’s samples in more detail and show that it is very large in each of these countries. In addition, the composition of origin groups varies greatly across the four. This is a challenge for straight-forward comparisons between the countries, which is further complicated by the fact that generational status and origin countries are confounded. The chapter discusses the opportunities and limitations for the empirical analyses in the rest of the book. Basically, we argue for a strategy that regards country and group differences as phenomena of interest rather than of nuisance. They should be seen as descriptive facts and starting points of a search for explaining mechanisms.