Quota Refugees Research Articles

Migrant Networks and Labor Market Integration of Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Germany

Migrant networks are usually regarded as helpful for the labor market integration of recently arrived immigrants. From a general assimilation perspective, however, it has been questioned whether they are really the right sort of ties to help immigrants succeed in the host society, or whether, instead, they constitute some sort of mobility trap. Empirical evidence from available studies is mixed, and a reference to more general social capital theory suggests that the effect might be contingent on the institutional context of the receiving country, the specific immigrant groups involved, and the particular types of jobs. In this paper, we study the impact of migrant networks on the labor market integration of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Germany. This turns out to be a strategic test case, for both theoretical and methodological reasons. Relying on longitudinal data and using discrete event history models, we show that the findings are different for two distinguishable groups involved, Ethnic Germans and Jewish Quota Refugees, and that whether the effects are positive or negative further depends on whether or not these groups seek entry to higher-status jobs in the professional, managerial, or technical occupations.

Issues for interpreters and professionals working in refugee settings

Many countries around the world become recipient societies for refugees from a number of international ‘hotspots’. The current paper examines problems facing interpreters in refugee settings in both the New Zealand and Australian contexts. New Zealand receives 750 quota refugees each year, all of whom spend the first six weeks after arrival at the Refugee Resettlement Centre in Mangere, Auckland. Several studies have shown that inadequate communication between healthcare providers and patients with limited English not only limits their ability to access services but also affects the quality of the services received (Minas et al. 2001). In theory, this issue could be alleviated by the use of interpreters; however, the latter may not always find it easy to carry out their task, especially when interpreting in refugee settings. Research instruments in this study included an online survey for interpreters and separate focus discussion groups involving interpreters and professionals working with interpreters in refugee settings. Responses indicated that refugee mental health interpreting, in particular, often involves unexpected challenges for both interpreters and professionals, which may be difficult to address. An examination of issues is followed by recommendations for ways of addressing these issues.

Refugee Resettlement and Parenting in a Different Context

This article discusses the family dynamics of South Sudanese parents who arrived in New Zealand as quota refugees. It investigates how they experience parenting in relation to language barriers, gender roles, and cultural differences in raising children. The article reports on in-depth interviews with four solo mothers and two married fathers during which participants commonly expressed tensions between finding a workable relationship between traditional parenting and current expectations in New Zealand. This study identifies some potential pathways for working with refugee families who are raising children in resettlement contexts and highlights several key considerations concerning settlement support and gender.

Social esteem in the narratives of refugees living in Finland

In this article, it is asked how social esteem or lack of it is told in refugees’ narratives. The data consists of interviews with 13 quota refugees living in Finland. Those persons – who are resettled in Finland by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – are called quota refugees. The data was collected using a method of episodic interviews, a format containing elements of both focused and narrative interviewing. This study shows that the concept of social esteem is relevant to the refugee receiving work because the resettlement affects refugees’ lives so that they have to reshape their already existed relations and get esteem in the new official and unofficial settings. Social esteem means that one can contribute to the common good in the community and society. A refugee’s own background and possibility to have a new start is a driving force; first, for willingness to contribute to the new society and to build contributing relations to its agents. It is essential that the nature of these relationships is reciprocal. Second, they would like to contribute to the society of origin and participate in the peace building and reconciliation process of that society. Third, the integrated refugees would like to help newcomers from their own ethnic and cultural background. Many refugees lose their skills as head of the family or in managing everyday life and at the same time they lose social and self-esteem. Besides the importance of getting esteem as a parent, family, life is an important arena to get esteem because of its reproductive task.

Rahmenbedingungen von Zuwanderung und interkulturellem Zusammenleben in den ostdeutschen Bundesländern – eine Bestandsaufnahme

It is not only the case that new immigration and transit countries have emerged in recent years within Europe. Also within states with existing migration histories, target regions have become differentiated and migrants have reached places that previously have had but little experience of inter-cultural living. Discussion of the issues related to growing ethnic-cultural diversity in Germany focuses primarily on the western federal states, and particularly on large cities within them. Nonetheless, in recent years new clusters of international immigration have emerged in the eastern German states, even if they appear small in comparison to the traditional target regions. The majority of these clusters are established by the deliberate distribution throughout the country of new immigrants, particularly of asylum seekers and, especially in the past, of ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Europe and of Jewish quota refugees. The patterns of immigration, integration and social-spatial segregation differ not only from those in the western federal states but are also themselves extremely diverse. Against the background of the substantial neglect of East German states in migration research and political concepts about inter-cultural living, this paper aims to provide a summarising overview of the results of existing studies.

The hopes of West African refugees during resettlement in northern Sweden: a 6-year prospective qualitative study of pathways and agency thoughts

BackgroundLittle is known about how positive phenomena can support resettlement of refugees in a new country. The aim of this study was to examine the hopeful thinking in a group of West African quota refugees at arrival and after 6 years in Sweden and compare these thoughts to the views of resettlement support professionals.MethodThe primary study population comprised 56 adult refugees and 13 resettlement professionals. Qualitative data were collected from the refugees by questionnaires on arrival and 6 years later. Data were collected from the resettlement professionals by interview about 3 years after arrival of the refugees. Snyder's cognitive model of hope was used to inform the comparative data analyses.ResultsHopes regarding education were in focus for the refugees shortly after arrival, but thoughts on family reunion were central later in the resettlement process. During the later stages of the resettlement process, the unresponsiveness of the support organization to the family reunion problem became as issue for the refugees. The professionals reported a complex mix of "silent agency thoughts" underlying the local resettlement process as a contributing reason for this unresponsiveness.ConclusionHopes regarding education and family reunion were central in the resettlement of West African refugees in Sweden. These thoughts were not systematically followed up by the support organization; possibly the resources for refugees were not fully released. More studies are needed to further investigate the motivational factors underpinning host community support of refugees' hopes and plans.

‘Quota Refugees’: The Dutch Contribution to Global ‘Burden Sharing’ by Means of Resettlement of Refugees

The international refugee law regime that was created in the wake of the Second World War does not comprise distributive principles as a result of which geographical proximity functions as the primary distributive mechanism. Consequently, the distribution of refugees is unevenly shared among states, understandably giving rise to calls for burden sharing. Rather than states, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (hereafter: UNHCR) is charged with resettlement of refugees and it depends on the discretion of (too few) states to offer resettlement places. One of those states is the Netherlands, which has set an annual quota of 500 refugees (including their relatives) for resettlement. Dutch practice with respect to its ‘quota refugees’ appears to be illustrative of the current use of ‘resettlement’ as neither a form of burden sharing nor necessarily a durable solution for the problem of refugees. It invites to revisit the solution of ‘resettlement’ against the background of legal developments, state and UNHCR practice, using fuzzy logic as an analytical tool.

Community, Memory, and Shifting Jewish Identities in Germany Since 1989: The Case of Munich

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The influx of Jewish emigres from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) since 1990 has altered the shape of Jewish life in Germany, and profoundly influenced the 105 Jewish communities of the Federal Republic. Between 1990 and 2005, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) had admitted 219,604 Jewish emigres from the FSU, and could boast that it has the fastest-growing Jewish population in the world. The restriction of the flow of Jewish emigres from the FSU in 2005 as a direct result of new German immigration laws radically changed this situation. The intense immigration of Jews from the former Soviet States between 1990 and 2005 followed by a rather abrupt reversal in immigration policy reshaped the sense of Jewish community, memory, and identity in Germany. These shifts have placed pressure on both German-Jewish relations and relations within the Jewish communities. Certain basic assumptions concerning German-Jewish relations have been called into question on an unprecedented scale: the overwhelmingly positive view of Germany as an immigration destination for Jews; what it means to be Jewish in Germany; the very idea of a singular unitary Jewish community (Einheitsgemeinde) under the umbrella of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany) in post-Wall Germany; and, perhaps most significantly, the absolute, and hitherto unquestioned centrality of the Nazi Judeocide for the self-understanding of German Jews. Recent developments threaten both the unity of the Jewish communities themselves as well as the tremendous gains made in the ongoing, genuine public discussion of and confrontation with the Nazi past since the 1980s. In this article, I suggest the sociocultural construction of a new Jewish identity or culture within the Jewish community in Germany and what might be referred to as a sense of community, memory, and cultural identity within the Russian Jewish community, one that finds a powerful resonance in contemporary German culture more generally. The Jewish Museum of Munich, which was founded to be a museum of Jewish life in Munich and specifically not a Holocaust museum, is an example of precisely this sense of identity formation and memory. The museum to be built in Cologne—scheduled to open in 2011 and designed by the same architects who designed Munich's museum, Wandel Hoefer Lorch & Hirsch—is another case in point. The simultaneous emergence of a new Russian Jewish emigre majority culture within the Jewish minority of Germany, and what I refer to as a post-Holocaust sensibility, coincides with a broader marginalization and fragmentation of Jewish identity in Germany despite the growth in sheer numbers over the past two decades. The approximately 10,000 Jews of Munich serve as both an exemplary model and as a demonstrative case-study of shifting Jewish identities in contemporary Germany. Like other Russian Jewish emigres within Germany, they have their own complex histories and collective memories forged by years of repression and persecution under Stalinism and post-Soviet discrimination. In Munich, these emigres have the additional task of becoming part of a Jewish community that has been especially challenged by historical precedents and recent developments within the community itself. Munich is a city of particularly conflicted postwar memory. Russian Jewish emigres comprise approximately 75% of the Jewish population of Munich, and their integration into German society and the existing Jewish community is decisive if the Jewish community is to survive and grow. The official, stated intention at the outset of the programs enacted in 1991—the HumHAG (humanitarer Hilfsaktionen aufgenommene Fluchtlinge or Refugees Accepted as part of a Humanitarian Aid Program) and the so-called Kontingentfluchtlingsgesetz (Quota Refugees Act), which first made possible the mass immigration of Jews from the FSU into Germany—was ostensibly to rescue the Russian Jews from an oppressive situation, but the subtext was clearly to strengthen Germany's diminishing Jewish community of 28,000. This study was conducted in the spring of 2007 with the assistance of advanced undergraduates fluent in German in the German Studies Program at the College of William and Mary as well as various members of the Jewish community very close to the situation: Rabbi Steven Langnas, Professor Michael...

Good outcome in HIV‐infected refugees after resettlement in New Zealand: population study

The aims of this study were to determine the clinical characteristics on arrival and the subsequent clinical outcome of HIV-infected UN quota refugees who settled in New Zealand during the last 11 years and to estimate their rate of HIV transmission. A population study was conducted. Data were provided by the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, the infectious disease physicians caring for the subjects, the New Zealand AIDS Epidemiology Group and laboratories carrying out HIV viral load assays. One hundred of 7732 (1.3%) UN quota refugees were HIV positive; mean age 30 years, 56% were men, median initial CD4 count was 320 (range 20-1358). HIV infection was most commonly acquired by heterosexual intercourse (74%). The median follow up was 5.0 years (range 1 month to 9.7 years). Five died and 15 subjects had 16 AIDS-defining illnesses, most commonly tuberculosis (n = 10). Sixty subjects commenced highly active antiretroviral therapy of whom 36/59 (61%) had an undetectable HIV viral load after 1 year of treatment. None of the six children born to HIV-infected women in New Zealand were infected. There were two known cases of horizontal transmission of HIV infection. Although HIV-infected quota refugees often have to overcome severe social, cultural and financial handicaps, their clinical outcome is generally very good, with response rates to highly active antiretroviral therapy that are similar to other patient groups. Furthermore, they have not been a significant source of transmission of HIV infection after resettlement in New Zealand.

Immigration, Integration, and Anxiety in Germany

These volumes represent the cumulative findings of two American scholars who have visited, resided in, and conducted research in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) at regular intervals since the 1980s. Although some chapters of both books are updated versions of articles originally published up to twenty years ago, in their current configuration they offer a longitudinal analysis of more than fifty years of immigration to a state that, until 2005, stubbornly insisted that it was a non-immigration country. Joyce Marie Mushaben and Ruth Mandel approach the issues around immigration and minority integration in Germany through the lenses of their respective disciplines— political science and cultural anthropology—but they share many central concerns and viewpoints. Both focus on the Turkish guest-workers and their families and descendents, analyzing the politics and culture surrounding their arrival and eventual settlement in Germany in the context of the larger waves of flight, resettlement, and labor recruitment that have brought 20 million newcomers to stay on in Germany since the end of World War II. They present Germany’s Turkish population of nearly 2 million as victims of the FRG’s arcane politics of immigration and citizenship. And they describe how, over three generations, in the face of inadequate German policies to integrate them, these guest-workers have begun to integrate themselves, in the process changing their own political culture as well as that of the larger society around them. Both books point to the very different and changing conditions that have shaped the trajectories in the FRG of expellees, co-ethnic resettlers, late resettlers, guest-workers, refugees, and quota refugees, among others. Both scholars underscore the lack of articulation between federal and more local, community-based incorporation policies, which has complicated the processes of settling in for many of Germany’s immigrant groups.

From Refugee Camp to Solitary Confinement: Illiterate adults learn Swedish as a second language

This is a study, based upon 22 interviews, of the factors that govern immigrants' acquisition of a second language. Half of the interviewees are illiterate quota refugees from a Kurdish refugee camp and the other half are immigrants with at least six years of school education. The interpretation framework consists of theories of language and language learning with the emphasis on the acquisition of literacy and theories of motivation. The interviewees from the refugee camp have lived under very difficult conditions. It has been difficult to meet their basic needs. The social needs cannot be provided in Sweden because the refugees become isolated, without any contact with Swedes. They lack the contact with speakers of the target language that is necessary for them to acquire the language. The lack of integration into Swedish society leads to their marginalisation. The pedagogic conclusions that can be drawn from this study relate mainly to measures for increasing motivation. In this respect the most important measure is to achieve greater contact with target language speakers.

Exploration of the life histories and future of war‐wounded Salvadoran and Iranian Kurd quota refugees in Sweden: a qualitative approach

This study explores the life histories of ten Salvadoran and twelve Iranian Kurd refugees. Both groups came to Sweden as war‐wounded quota refugees and their migration was forced. They had spent many years in guerilla movements and were experienced soldiers despite their youth. They were interviewed during hospitalisation shortly after arrival in Sweden, and followed‐up after two years. The findings suggest that repatriation is a recurrent theme in the future plans of these refugees. The reconstruction of identity may take many forms due to a background as youth soldiers as well as their different experiences of the culture in the host country. Longitudinal studies of how refugees rebuild their lives are needed, and comprehensive analysis from different theoretical perspectives is a necessary complement to general adaptation models.

Systemic Racism: Refugee, Resettlement, and Education Policy in New Zealand

Public policy in New Zealand increasingly makes reference to “inclusion of diversity,” “equality,” and “equity.” Yet refugees resettling in New Zealand continue to experience systemic racism based on the application of ostensibly neutral rules and universal standards to unequal situations. This paper draws attention to the way in which poorly formulated refugee and resettlement policy has resulted in quota refugees being favoured over others and in assumptions that refugees have needs similar to those of general migrants. The way in which such racism has been translated into general policy arenas, such as education, is also explored.

Lessons Learned? A Critical Review of the Government Program to Resettle Bosnian Quota Refugees in the United Kingdom

This study critically evaluates the government program put in place to manage the reception and resettlement of Bosnian quota refugees who arrived in the United Kingdom between November 1992 and August 1995. It outlines the organizational structure put in place to administer the program, the objectives of the program, and the scale of funding allocated to it. It describes how the program was then implemented and critically appraises the outcomes. Particular attention is paid to how the government sought to engineer a desired spatial pattern of resettlement (clustering), how it attempted to steer Bosnians away from settlement in London, and how it tried to create stable and rooted local communities of Bosnians. We conclude that the program was far more successful than previous programs of its type in the United Kingdom, but that further lessons can be learned from it, which could be incorporated in future attempts to resettle large groups of asylum seekers or refugees.

Lessons Learned? A Critical Review of the Government Program to Resettle Bosnian Quota Refugees in the United Kingdom

Lessons Learned? A Critical Review of the Government Program to Resettle Bosnian Quota Refugees in the United Kingdom

War‐wounded refugees: labor market integration after two years in Sweden

This study investigated labor market integration in a group of war‐wounded refugees after two years in Sweden. The study group consisted of 54 war‐wounded asylum applicants (n=25) and quota refugees (n=29) who arrived in Sweden in the late 1980s. They were consecutively investigated during hospitalization, shortly after arrival, and followed up two years later. After two years, 24% were at work or were occupied in vocational training courses. The degree of disability was not related to labor market integration. Length of time spent in the municipality was directly associated with labor market integration. Present well‐being, Swedish language skill and education were factors related to integration. However, these factors differed in their relation to labor market integration when the length of time spent in the municipality was considered. With respect to the first two years in Sweden, the war‐wounded group seemed to follow well an ideal labor market integration process for refugees. A short wait for a municipality to reside in and a careful introduction into the municipality might have been available for this group more than for other refugees.

The Well-being of War-wounded Asylum Applicants and Quota Refugees Following Arrival in Sweden

The well-being of war-wounded asylum applicants and quota refugees following arrival in Sweden

Realities of life and future prospects within two cultures: unaccompanied minor refugees from South East Asia in the Federal Republic of Germany.

From August 1979 on, more than 30,000 refugees from South East Asia were accepted in the Federal Republic of Germany as quota refugees in a special program; among them were 1600 unaccompanied minor refugees. About 1500 were accompanied Vietnamese children and youths who had fled their home country as 'boat people' across the South China Sea. Unaccompanied minor refugees have, like all other recognized refugees, a legal claim to family reunion in the Federal Republic. Today, only parents can join their children and vice versa, and spouses their spouses. The 1st phase of socialization in the lives of the unaccompanied minor refugees evolved in the cultural traditions of their South East Asian country of origin up to the age of 10 to 15 years. In the 2nd phase of socialization--the enculturation--the child establishes its culturally specific emotionality, language, mentality, and patterns of behavior through interaction and verbal communication with the people nearest him. The 3rd phase of socialization begins at school age and reaches full significance at the age of starting to work, with the accompanying expectations of society. Most of the minor unaccompanied refugees from South Asia had already completed their enculturation--the establishment of their cultural identity. The realities of life the young single refugees as foreigners in German society are determined by 4 special factors: 1) the great cultural differences between their country of originin South East Asia and the resettlement country, 2) the young people left their homes as refugees and their resettlement in the Federal Repulic was determined by chance events, 3) they have to live there alone and without the emotional support of their families in a situation of cultural change, and 4) because of their Asian physiognomy they will always appear as foreigners even if they have integrated well. The future prospects of the young South East Asian refugees in German society will be determined primarily by to what extent they will be able to find a satisfactory place within both cultures.