SOEP Research: Migration and Integration

The Education of Recently Arrived Refugees in Germany: Conditions, Processes, and Outcomes

Around the world, the number of refugees is at a record high. Although most forciblydisplaced persons seek refuge within their home country or in a neighboringstate (UNHCR, 2020), a large number of refugees have reached Europe in recentyears, and many of them have settled in Germany (Eurostat, 2020).1As many refugees were children and adolescents when they arrived in Germany(Bundesamt für Migration ...

Comparing the Risk Attitudes of Internationally Mobile and Non-Mobile Germans

The Challenged Sense of Belonging Scale (Csbs): A Validation Study in English, Arabic, and Farsi/Dari among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Germany

This study introduces and investigates the validity of a brief scale measuring a challenged sense of belonging. The sense of belonging as well as challenges to this sense are important, albeit neglected aspects of social integration and of significance to migration and refugee studies as well as to virtually all other social science contexts. Assessing a challenged or eroded sense of belonging provides ...

Using a Mobile App When Surveying Highly Mobile Populations: Panel Attrition, Consent, and Interviewer Effects in a Survey of Refugees

Panel attrition poses major threats to the survey quality of panel studies. Many features have been introduced to keep panel attrition as low as possible. Based on a random sample of refugees, a highly mobile population, we investigate whether using a mobile phone application improves address quality and response behavior. Various features, including geo-tracking, collecting email addresses and adress ...

Women on the Move – Current Perspectives on Female Migration

Today, half of the world’s migrants are female, amounting to 114 million individuals in 2017. The intersection between migration and gender has profound consequences for individuals: gender affects, amongst others migration motifs, selection into migration, as well as decisions on destination countries. Further, the experiences in the host country are gender-specific and especially so when...

Migrants’ Missing Votes

Emigrants are less likely to participate in elections in their home country. They are also selfselected in terms of education, gender, age, and political preferences, changing the structure of the origin population. High emigration rates can therefore have a systematic influence on election results. Using administrative migration and voting data, we show that counties in Poland that have experienced ...

Household Income and Wealth among People with a Migration Background: A Comparison of Switzerland and Germany

Agents of Socialization and Female Migrants’ Employment: The Influence of Mothers and the Country Context

Women around the world are on the move but find it difficult to secure jobs. Employment is vital for migrant integration as it affords financial security, autonomy in the family and helps to establish social contacts. Besides human capital, previous research has looked into ethnic origin and specific source country aspects as drivers of female migrant employment. By contrast, ideas of adolescence as ...

First Time Around: Local Conditions and Multi-dimensional Integration of Refugees

We study the causal effect of local labor market conditions and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes (economic, linguistic, navigational, political, psychological, and social). Using a unique dataset on refugees, we leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were exogenously assigned to live in specific counties. ...

Mentoring Programs Support the Integration of Refugees

Over a million people sought asylum in Germany between 2014 and 2016. During this time, many Germans began volunteering in various ways to help refugees and mentorship pro- grams in particular gained significance. As this report shows, participating in a mentorship program has a positive impact on refugees: They improve their language skills and become more socially active. Mentors experience the relationship ...