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A joint research project • 24.08.2022Refugees from Ukraine
More than 950,000 refugees from Ukraine have been seeking protection in Germany since the Russian war of aggression began on 24 February 2022. With the research project "Refugees from Ukraine in Germany", which has now been launched, four partner organisations are establishing the first comprehensive, representative social science follow-up survey on this group: the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FZ) and the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).
Many Ukrainians come to neighbouring countries and to easily reachable states in the European Union (EU) to seek protection – in part because of the geographical proximity. Fleeing to EU states is also facilitated by visa-free entry and temporary admission without asylum procedures. Many refugees – currently mainly women, children and older people – can contact relatives and friends of the same origin who are already living in Germany. Due to these special conditions, scientific findings from analyses of earlier refugee movements can only be partially transferred to the current situation. Here, the planned study closes a research gap: For the first time, it will provide a representative scientific database on the flight and integration of refugees from Ukraine – and by means of reliable statements, it will offer a path-breaking basis for political decision-making processes and related research.
A representative survey of 6,000 Ukrainian citizens
The social science panel survey that has just been launched is based on a random sample. For this purpose, approximately 100 municipalities in Germany were chosen from the Central Register of Foreigners, in which many Ukrainian refugees are registered. From these municipalities, refugees were randomly selected on the basis of data from the population registers and asked to participate in the survey. The surveys themselves are conducted by the Institute for Applied Social Science (infas) via an online questionnaire; alternatively, a paper questionnaire can be submitted. In the first phase of the project, two waves of interviews with approximately 6,000 refugees of Ukrainian citizenship aged between 18 and 70 years are planned (August 2022 and January 2023).
Results expected by the end of the year
The study is connected to the "IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees", which has been carried out since 2016, and FReDA – The German Family Demography Panel Study, which is affiliated with BiB. The project partners plan to introduce the first scientific findings from the first wave of the survey by the end of 2022. Interested researchers will be able to access the survey data in the future via the SOEP Research Data Centre (SOEP-FDZ), the IAB and FReDA.
Further information can be obtained from the project websites of the participating project partners.