Background and motivation

Poverty in Germany is no longer seen by many to affect only a small group of persons on the margin of society. Widespread public concern is reflected in front-page newspaper reports about worsening social indicators and the high incidence of social assistance receipt. These are complemented by descriptions of German society which use concepts such as ‘new poverty’ and a ‘two thirds, one thirds society’ of haves and have-nots – themes which have re-emerged from the sociological literature of the 1980s. At the same time this concern about poverty is not equally shared amongst Germans: a frequently encountered response is one of denial or apathy. Indeed, the former Conservative minister for the family (Frau C. Nolte) has stated that recipients of means-tested social assistance cannot be regarded as being poor – so poverty must be all but absent in Germany.

How do such soundbites square with the facts? Quite a lot is now known about poverty in the population at large, but child poverty and poverty dynamics have received only a little attention. This chapter seeks to redress some of this deficit. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel data for the years 1983 to 1995, I go beyond an analysis of child poverty snapshots and examine the motion picture of children moving into and out of poverty. I also compare the poverty incidence and persistence of children living in households headed by native Germans and by foreigners, and compare the experience in the East with that in the West.