Migrants, Refugees, and “Diversity” at German Universities: A Grounded Theory Analysis Author: Lisa Unangst Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108789 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2020 Copyright is held by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0). Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education Higher Education Program MIGRANTS, REFUGEES, AND “DIVERSITY” AT GERMAN UNIVERSITIES: A GROUNDED THEORY ANALYSIS Dissertation by LISA UNANGST submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2020 Copyright 2020 Lisa Unangst Advisor: Hans de Wit Readers: Karen Arnold, Thomas M. Crea Abstract The current displacement crisis in the German context has focused scholarly attention on refugee student access to higher education. However, much less research has attended to supports at higher education institutions (HEIs) for enrolled migrant and refugee students. In fact, education research in the German setting rarely focuses on students from any migrant background, though these students comprise between 20-25% of all German tertiary enrollment. This study uses Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) and a postcolonial lens to analyze “equal opportunity” plans and programs at 32 German HEIs across all 16 federal states. Data sources include the “equal opportunity plan” unique to each HEI (Gleichstellungsplan) and interviews with “equal opportunity office” (Gleichstellungsbüro) faculty and staff. Key findings include a bureaucratization and numerification of diversity in the German case, as well as an almost exclusive focus on diversity as gender. This dissertation offers a potentially transferable theoretical model, which may be relevant in national settings with increasingly diverse student populations, histories of colonial possession or fantasy, or primarily public higher education systems (Bhabha, 1994; El-Tayeb, 2016; Kilomba, 2008; Said, 1979). i Acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the support of my family, mentors, colleagues, and friends. To Hans de Wit, my mentor and advisor, thank you for your guidance, perspective, and unfailing sense of humor. To Tom Crea and Karen Arnold, dissertation readers and mentors, I am so appreciative of your time, insight, and expertise. To Georgiana Mihut, Ayenachew Woldegiyorgis, Edward Choi, Nicole Barone, Ishara Casellas Connors, Andrew Croft, Kerri Evans, Corey Kelley, Araz Khajarian, and Adam Krueckeberg, thank you for being the most wonderful colleagues, friends, and collaborators. I also owe an enormous thank you to the faculty and staff of the Center for International Higher Education, the Lynch School, and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice who have offered kind advice and wisdom in hallways, office hours, emails and classes: Ana Martínez-Alemán, Laura Rumbley, Heather Rowan-Kenyon, Jon Wargo, Andrés Castro Samayoa, Gracie Trotman, Dan Kanstroom, Gabi Oliveira, Phil Altbach, Brinton Lykes, Salina Kopellas, Betty Leask, and Rebecca Schendel. This dissertation was made possible [in part] by financial assistance from the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund, a program of The Reed Foundation. Finally, I am very grateful to the equal opportunity officers who shared their experiences with me during the course of this study. I look forward to continued collaboration! ii Table of Contents TABLES AND FIGURES .........................................................................................................................vii CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................................... 4 Regional and state-based differences .................................................................................................... 6 Internationalization of HEIs .................................................................................................................. 7 Institutional Types: the research university and the fachhochschule .................................................... 8 Increased Differentiation ...................................................................................................................... 9 The “Equal Opportunity” Office ........................................................................................................... 9 Research Questions ................................................................................................................................. 10 Possible Outcomes .................................................................................................................................. 11 Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................................... 11 Coloniality and Higher Education ...................................................................................................... 12 Meritocracy ......................................................................................................................................... 13 Student Groups ................................................................................................................................... 15 Racism ................................................................................................................................................ 16 Internationalization ............................................................................................................................. 17 German Colonialism and Coloniality...................................................................................................... 18 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................................................ 21 Overview of Research Design ................................................................................................................. 23 Limitations of the Study and Researcher Positionality ........................................................................... 23 Interpretation ....................................................................................................................................... 24 Generalizability vs. Transferability .................................................................................................... 24 Overview of the Study ............................................................................................................................ 26 CHAPTER TWO ...................................................................................................................................... 27 History and Structure of German Universities ........................................................................................ 28 Overview of System Development to 1945 ....................................................................................... 28 German Unification ...................................................................................................................... 28 World War I and the Weimar Republic ........................................................................................ 29 The Second World War ................................................................................................................ 29 System development from 1945-1990 ............................................................................................... 30 Post-war reconstruction ................................................................................................................ 30 Approaches in the Allied sector .................................................................................................... 31 University sector expansion in West ............................................................................................ 32 The Soviet sector .......................................................................................................................... 33 iii System development from 1990-present ........................................................................................... 35 Reunification of East and West Germany .................................................................................... 35 PISA shock and tracking issues ................................................................................................... 35 Contemporary access and equity issues ............................................................................................. 37 Current enrollment ....................................................................................................................... 37 Numerus clausus admissions system ........................................................................................... 38 The Excellence Initiative ............................................................................................................. 40 The Bologna Process ...................................................................................................................