In times of demographic change in Germany to enhance the educational participation rate of ethnic minorities and working class children does not only promise to solve the lack of qualified personnel but also helps to reduce educational inequalities. One educational policy which is directed at tackling educational disadvantage and participation is the reform of the secondary school system and school choice policy in Berlin. Starting with the academic year 2010/11 the former multi-tier secondary school system was reduced to only two school types which both lead to the highest academic school certificate. This increases educational opportunities since all schools are a possible choice option for parents with high educational aspiration. Along with free school choice both policies shall reduce the social injustice that the early selection of students in Germany produced (Klieme et al., 2010). The experience from other European countries who already liberalized their school system show us that especially school choice is linked to residential segregation and urban change (see Karsten et al., 2006; Bunar, 2011; Harris, 2011).

Especially in marginalized urban areas, which are characterized by poverty, unemployment and ethnic segregation, the story about school choice and its segregational effects is told out of the perspective of the middle classes. Middle classes either flee to the suburbs, intensify the competition for the ‘acceptable middle class’ schools and/or colonize the neighbourhood schools and shift the schools’ attention on their requests (Reay et al., 2011). Either way, they seem to prevail over the contested school places. Those “left behind” are assumed to make inferior school choice decisions because they are left with schools that are not fitting the ideal of the middle class school. In rational choice theory those choices are explained by their lack of resources (information, money, educational status) or their choice is characterized as passive (Kristen, 2005).

However, in a school choice program where choice is not an option but a necessity we need to explore further the local educational market of marginalized urban areas and how families in those areas choose their school. Little is yet known about how marginalized groups perceive their local educational market and what they perceive as good schools (see Bunar, 2010). If we assume complex decision-making processes on the demand-side of school choice, we also need to address the supply side. Schools in urban marginalized areas need to compete for students. They may either be schools’ “of the neighbourhood” where the students intake consists of local students. Those schools try to find answers to the problems caused by poverty and language deficiencies. Or they are schools who are just “in the neighbourhood”, trying to compete for the few middle class students and thrive an intake that goes beyond the students available in their area.

Only if we know how parents and their children as well as schools place themselves in their educational market in contrast to the other member of their alleged group and schools we might be able to pin down segregational causes that exceed the notion of white flight.

BUNAR, N. (2010) The Geographies of Education and Relationships in a Multicultural City:. Enrolling in High-Poverty, Low-Performing Urban Schools and Choosing to Stay There. Acta Sociologica, 53, pp. 141–159. BUNAR, N. (2011) Segregation, education and urban policy in Sweden, in: J. BAKKER, E. DENESSEN, T. PETERS & G. WALRAVEN (Eds) International perspectives on countering school segregation (Antwerpen/Apeldoors : Garant). HARRIS, R. (2011) Segregation by Choice? Social and ethnic differences between English schools, in: J. BAKKER, E. DENESSEN, T. PETERS & G. WALRAVEN (Eds) International perspectives on countering school segregation (Antwerpen/Apeldoors : Garant). KARSTEN, S., FELIX, C., LEDOUX, G., MEIHNEN, W., ROELEVELD, J. & VAN SCHOOTEN, E. (2006) Choosing Segregation or Integration? :. The Extent and Effects of Ethnic Segregation in Dutch Cities. Education and Urban Society, 38, pp. 228–247. KLIEME, E., ARTELT, C., HARTIG JOHANNES, JUDE, N., KÖLLER, O., PRENZEL, M., SCHNEIDER, W. & STANAT, P. (Eds) (2010) PISA 2009. Bilanz nach einem Jahrzehnt (Münster, Westf, Waxmann). KRISTEN, C. (2005) School choice and ethnic school segregation. Primary school selection in Germany (Münster, Waxmann). REAY, D., CROZIER, G. & JAMES, D. (2011) White middle-class identities and urban schooling (Basingstoke [u.a.], Palgrave Macm