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The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees ,
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The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees is a study in which participants are interviewed annually. The target participants are persons who entered Germany between January 2013 and the end of August 2022 and who applied for asylum. Since 2023, Ukrainian nationals who have come to Germany as a result of the Russian war of aggression are also being interviewed as part of this study. Additional to the target participants, also all other household members are interviewed.
The study is carried out by the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FZ) in cooperation with the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at DIW Berlin.
Contact
The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees aims to obtain reliable information about the life situation of people who have sought protection in Germany since 2013. For this purpose, among other things, information on schooling, on vocational education and training as well as on the refugees' current work situation is collected. Language skills, housing and family situation, social participation, as well as the nature and extent of social contacts are further central topics of the study. Furthermore, the study focuses on the impact of the legal and institutional conditions on the respondents' situation and the effectiveness of various support programmes. As part of the longitudinal study, people who applied for asylum or temporary protection in Germany between 2013 and September 2022 are interviewed annually, regardless of whether their application was successful. In addition, the respective household members are interviewed as well. The aim is to survey the same persons each year. The total sample in 2022 comprises around 27,000 people who were surveyed at least once and up to seven times.
Contact
Since the eighth survey wave in 2023, Ukrainian refugees who have come to Germany since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine as well as their household members are also being interviewed. For this purpose, a part of the respondents from the study "Refugees from Ukraine in Germany" (IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP-Survey) were transferred to the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees and complemented by a further sample of Ukrainian refugees who came to Germany between June and the end of August 2022. The surveys are carried out by specially trained interviewers of the survey institute infas (Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft/Institute of Applied Social Science).
Random sample from the Central Register of Foreigners
Contact
The participants were selected from the Central Register of Foreigners (AZR) using a random sampling procedure. Participation in the study is voluntary. The data protection regulations are fully complied with in the survey. The survey serves research purposes only. This also means that the information that is provided in the interviews does not have any effect on the asylum procedure, also not retroactively.
Connection with other studies and linkage with information from public statistics
The study is closely connected to the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). More than 20.000 people of the German resident population take part in this longitudinal study, which has been ongoing since 1984. Since 2013, the IAB-SOEP Migration Samples have also been a part of SOEP. The integration of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees into the data inventory of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) makes comparisons between refugees and other migrant groups in Germany as well as with people without a migration background possible.
Finally, provided that the respondents give their permission, the survey data is linked to the IAB's Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) as well as to the data of the BAMF's Integration Business File (InGe). Linking the survey to the IEB enables to exactly retrace the employment biographies of refugees living in Germany. The link to the InGe data further allows for detailed studies on the participation in integration courses and on the potential effects of their attendance.
Additional surveys during the coronavirus pandemic 2020-2022
Contact
From July to August 2020, a short Covid-19 complementary telephone survey was conducted as part of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey of refugees. One person per household member was interviewed.
As part of the RKI-SOEP-2 study, respondents of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample and the SOEP-Core were asked between November 2021 and February 2022 to take a small blood sample (five drops of blood from a fingertip – so-called self-administrated dry blood test) and to complete a short questionnaire. The blood samples provided were tested in a laboratory of the Robert-Koch Institute for the presence of antibodies against the Corona virus (SARS-CoV-2). See the joint press release (only in German) for more information on the RKI-SOEP-2 study. The study data is available to external researchers for their own analyses since 2024. Data access is possible via the SOEP Research Data Center.
Results from the study
The BAMF Research Centre has compiled publications on various topics on the basis of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees. These are available under "Downloads". Among them are the following recent publications:
Research Report 51 published jointly with the cooperation partners IAB and SOEP, provides an overview of the living situation and participation of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
Research Report 50 examines the prevalence and development of social isolation and loneliness among refugees in Germany.
The development of naturalization processes of refugees as well as their political interest are addressed in the Brief Analysis 7|2024.
The Brief Analysis 3|2024 deals with the effects of the legal decision to suspend deportation, the so-called "toleration" (Duldung) in Germany, on the life situation and life satisfaction. The study is based on the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey of refugees from 2016 to 2020.
The Brief Analysis 2|2024 addresses the institutional trust of refugees in the survey year 2021 in comparison to immigrants without refugee experience and people without migration background. The Brief Analysis 1|2024 examines the development of refugees' German language skills in comparison between men and women. The focus here is on the reasons for the weaker German language skills of female refugees.
Outlook and data access for researchers
The data from the surveys from 2016 to 2022 are available to external researchers for their own analyses and can be obtained via the SOEP Research Data Centre and the IAB Research Data Centre.
The ninth survey wave ran from May 2024 to November 2024. This data is currently being prepared for research and will be made available to external researchers from the end of 2025 onwards.
We would very much like to thank the survey participants for their cooperation and for supporting our studies!