How Vocational Training Matters for Social Mobility and Why Children of Immigrants Are Losing Out

Abstract

We show that vocational training is a key driver of social mobility for sons of locals, but less so for sons of immigrants in Denmark. To understand why, we examine whether access barriers can explain sons of immigrants' underrepresentation in traditional, high-return vocational fields. We develop a stylized theoretical model in which students choose between two vocational tracks: old traditional and new digital tracks, facing group-specific search frictions. When traditional sectors are harder to access for immigrant youth, our model predicts earlier switching into new digital tracks and potential welfare losses from misallocation…