What is the REFUGEES in GERMANY study about?
The REFUGEES in GERMANY study is a research project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs under the title of “Supporting evaluation of labour market integration measures for refugees.”
The aim of the study is to find out which measures and factors support or hinder the integration of refugees into the job market. The study’s investigative focus here is not only on short-term and medium-term effects, but also forward-looking factors for long-term successful participation in the labour market and society.
A central component of this project is a survey of refugees, conducted in two rounds of interviews. First, between July 2018 and June 2019, around 10,000 adults were interviewed who had fled to Germany since 2015. The random-based selection of participants was obtained from the register held by the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit).
At the end of the first interview, all respondents were asked if we could interview them again on this topic after several months. Participants were also asked if they would consent to the linking of data held at the register of the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) with the interview responses for the purposes of scientific analysis. This has the advantage of enabling long-term measures and impact to be integrated into the analysis beyond the time of the interview.
The second round of interviews will be held from early to mid-2020. During this second round, it will be very important for as many people as possible who were previously interviewed to take part in the survey again. The results and recommendations will be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) by the end of 2020.