SOEP Research: Migration and Integration

Perceived Discrimination Among Migrants in Germany: Does Social Capital Moderate Harmful Effects on Mental Health?

Background The harmful mental health effects of perceived discrimination for migrant populations are well established. The potential buffering effect of regional-level social capital, however, has not previously been explored. Methods Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP; 2009–2018) we apply multilevel models to assess the effect of frequent or infrequent perceived discrimination on ...

Immigration, Segregation, and Attitudes Toward Immigrants: A Longitudinal Multiscalar Analysis across Egohoods

Evidence on how proximity to ethnic outgroups shapes attitudes toward immigration remains inconclusive. We suggest this may be driven, in part, by the fact that studies rarely account for the role of residential segregation. We argue that how the minority-share in an environment affects majority-group attitudes will depend on how segregated groups are from one another. To explore this, we undertake ...

Bridging Distance: Transnational and Local Family Ties in Refugees’ Social Support Networks

This study examines the familial ties in the social support network of refugees in Germany. It investigates whether distance to family plays a role in the provision of emotional and informational support and how this relationship is moderated by social network services (SNS). Using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (N = 5237), the paper provides evidence for a family-centred network. Increasing ...

Proximity to Refugee Accommodations Does not Affect Locals’ Attitudes toward Refugees: Evidence from Germany

With the so-called 'long summer of migration' of 2015, there was an urgent need to accommodate many refugees in Germany. This situation was framed as a 'refugee reception crisis', and it revealed diametrically opposed stances within German society. Within this debate, anti-refugee sentiment is often explained with the placement of nearby refugee reception facilities. Conclusive evidence of this claim ...

DECIPHE – Demographic Change and the Intergenerational Persistence in Homeownership in Europe

DECIPHE is the first project to comprehensively study whether and how profound demographic changes in Europe impact the intergenerational persistence of homeownership, considering variations across countries, regions, and birth cohorts. It adopts a life course framework on housing tenure, in which individuals’ homeownership is shaped by their household members’ preferences and resources and...

Why Do Migrants Stay Unexpectedly? Misperceptions and Implications for Integration

Empirical evidence suggests that the majority of immigrants who initially planned a temporary stay end up staying permanently in the host country. Since beliefs about the duration of stay are a strong determinant of integration, many long-term migrants may end up less than optimally integrated. We theoretically model migrants with potential misperceptions about their future utility and wage prospects ...

Housing and Health: A Multidimensional, Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences of Asylum Seekers and Refugees Living in German Reception Centres

Objectives Housing is an important social determinant of health, but the perspectives of asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) in large, centralised reception centres remain under-researched. We therefore sought to examine which housing aspects in reception centres are deemed relevant for health by ASR in Germany.MethodsBased on 47 interviews with 42 ASR in Germany originating from three different studies, ...

Restricted healthcare puts a strain on refugees and society

Establishing a Probability Sample in a Crisis Context: The Example of Ukrainian Refugees in Germany in 2022

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, more than one million refugees have arrived in Germany. These Ukrainian refugees differ in many aspects from Germany’s past forced migration experiences and there exists an urgent need for sound data and information for politics, practitioners, and academics. In response, the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP study was established to provide high-quality ...

Effect of Area-Level Socioeconomic Deprivation on Mental and Physical Health: A Longitudinal Natural Experiment among Refugees in Germany

Existing studies on contextual health effects struggle to account for compositional bias, limiting causal interpretation. We use refugee dispersal in Germany as a natural experiment to study the effect of area-level socioeconomic deprivation on mental and physical health, while considering the potential mediating role of neighbourhood characteristics. Refugees subject to dispersal (n = 1466) are selected ...