Refugee Immigrants Research Articles

The Long-Term Growth Impact of Refugee Migration in Europe: A Case Study

Many questions have been raised about the political and economic consequences of the recent surge in refugee immigration in Europe. Can refugee immigration promote long-term per capita growth? How are the drivers of per capita growth influenced by immigration? What are the policy implications of refugee immigration? Using an adjusted Cobb-Douglas production function, with labour divided into two complementary groups, this article attempts to provide some answers. By applying the model to current immigration data from Germany, this study finds that refugee immigration can lead to long-term per capita growth in the host country and that the growth is higher if refugee immigrants are relatively young and have sufficiently high qualifications. Further, capital inflows are a prerequisite for boosting per capita growth. These findings can inform policymakers of countries that continue to grapple with refugee immigration.

Content and Language Integrated Learning in Vocational Preparation Courses for Refugees

The recent immigration of refugees poses a major challenge for vocational education and training. In order to integrate refugees into the labour market, group-specific concepts with language training in German were developed in vocational orientation and preparation courses. In many of them, language and content learning is integrated. Depending on the learning structure of the courses, the implementation of language and content learning is very different. With the transition of refugees to dual training, concepts for the teaching of language skills are once again needed. Concepts and experiences from vocational orientation and preparation courses can provide impulses for vocational training.

Economic Outcomes of Immigrants with Different Migration Motives: The Role of Labour Market Policies

Abstract This paper studies the role of labour market policies for economic outcomes of immigrants with different migration motives. Using two recent European Union Labour Force Surveys ad hoc modules and applying country fixed-effects models, we examine if labour market policies can alleviate the economic disadvantage of family reunification and refugee immigrants in comparison to economic immigrants. In line with previous studies, we find that even after controlling for differences in human capital and socio-demographic characteristics, family reunification, and particularly refugee immigrants have considerably lower labour force participation and employment rates, and when employed, work fewer hours and have a lower occupational status than economic immigrants. However, we also find that the economic disadvantage of family reunification and refugee immigrants is significantly smaller in countries with more extensive labour market policies. These findings hold for the overall labour market mobility index as well as its specific sub-dimensions: general and targeted support and workers’ rights.

Migrating natives and foreign immigration: Is there a preference for ethnic residential homogeneity?

We study the migration behavior of the native Swedish population following refugee immigration, with a particular focus on examining whether there is support for an ethnically based migration response. Using rich geo-coded Swedish data, we account for possible endogeneity problems by combining policy-induced initial immigrant settlements with exogenous contemporaneous immigration as captured by refugee shocks. We find the same flight among all natives, irrespective of their parental foreign background. This suggests that “ethnic distance” to the new immigrants is not the dominant channel causing natives’ flight behavior. Instead, refugee immigration seems to lead to more socio-economically segregated neighborhoods.

Complicating ‘Victimhood’ In Diaspora Studies: The Saga of Tamils In Exile

As an interdisciplinary field, Diaspora Studies has drawn from many disciplines, including sociology, especially from its debates on migration, structure and agency. This lecture draws on my ethnographic fieldwork on the Sri Lankan Tamils in Germany. It analyses their transition following the civil war in Sri Lanka, from being refugee immigrants to becoming a successful diaspora, well integrated economically, yet holding a powerful identity as Tamil nationalists. Fuelled by political commitment and digital connectivity, their innovative strategies as a diaspora have contributed to the propagation of the Tamil cause. Their example extends and complicates the classic notion of ‘victim diaspora’, demonstrating the simultaneity of victimhood and agency.

Differences in psychiatric care utilization between refugees, non-refugee migrants and Swedish-born youth.

The study aimed to examine differences in, and characteristics of psychiatric care utilization in young refugees who came to Sweden as unaccompanied or accompanied minors, compared with that of their non-refugee immigrant and Swedish-born peers. This register-linkage cohort study included 746 688 individuals between 19 and 25 years of age in 2009, whereof 32 481 were refugees (2896 unaccompanied and 29 585 accompanied) and 32 151 non-refugee immigrants. Crude and multivariate Cox regression models yielding hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were conducted to investigate subsequent psychiatric care utilization for specific disorders, duration of residence and age at migration. The adjusted HRs for psychiatric care utilization due to any mental disorder was significantly lower in both non-refugee and refugee immigrants when compared to Swedish-born [aHR: 0.78 (95% CI 0.76-0.81) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.72-0.77, respectively)]. Within the refugee group, unaccompanied had slightly lower adjusted risk estimates than accompanied. This pattern was similar for all specific mental disorders except for higher rates in schizophrenia, reaction to severe stress/adjustment disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric health care utilization was also higher in immigrants with more than 10 years of residency in Sweden entering the country being younger than 6 years of age. For most mental disorders, psychiatric health care utilization in young refugees and non-refugee immigrants was lower than in their Swedish-born peers; exceptions are schizophrenia and stress-related disorders. Arrival in Sweden before the age of 6 years was associated with higher rates of overall psychiatric care utilization.

Enfranchisement as a Tool for Integration: The 1975 Extension of Voting Rights to Resident Aliens in Sweden

ABSTRACT In 1975, Sweden extended voting rights in local elections to immigrants without Swedish citizenship (resident aliens). In this essay, motives behind the reform are analysed and it is argued that these were based on a wish to speed up the integration of immigrants rather than on normative ideas about the nature of democracy. In fact, the reform was seen as a part of the emerging Swedish integration policy of the 1970s. The discursive construction of ‘the immigrant’ was another important factor. Most immigrants at the time came from other Nordic countries, and politicians saw them as culturally similar to Swedes. However, this would change after the reform was enacted as Nordic labour immigration was superseded by non-European refugee immigration and the new asylum seekers were seen as more or less ‘different’ to Swedes. Domestic political arguments such as these, rather than philosophical arguments, shaped the outcome of the Swedish decisions regarding voting rights for resident aliens.

The Representation of the Refugee Crisis since 2015 in German Young Adult Literature: A Study in Manfred Theisen’s novel Checkpoint Europe

This article deals with the topic of flight and migration as well as the metaphorical conceptualizations of the “refugee crisis” from 2015 onwards in German youth literature. The central question of the introductory part of this work is the significance of the topic of the “refugee crisis” from 2015 onwards in youth literature. The focus of this study is the novel Checkpoint Europa, which represents an empirical model of a multicultural approach. Within this framework, the selected text takes into account the most important internal and external elements of the text and, in addition, sheds light on and analyses its intercultural specifications. I chose Manfred Theisen’s novel Checkpoint Europe because the novel depicts the story of refugees fleeing from the Syrian civil war. With reference to the “refugee crisis”, Checkpoint Europe presents a living example of the situation in Germany after the strong immigration of refugees since 2015. In this novel, Theisen, who is a good connoisseur of the Middle East and North Africa, has taken up the fates of numerous refugees and woven them into characters. A further question of this work concerns the metaphorical conceptualizations of the “refugee crisis” in the novel Checkpoint Europe. The metaphors used by Manfred Theisen are divided into five metaphorical concepts which refer to the metaphorical theory of Lakoff and Johnson.

Psychological Antecedents of Refugee Integration (PARI)

The successful management of refugee immigration, including refugee integration in host societies, requires a sound understanding of underlying psychological processes. We propose the psychological antecedents of refugee integration (PARI) model, highlighting perceived forcedness (i.e., coercion and loss of control from “push” factors) and ensuing perils (risks and potential suffering during migration) as distinctive factors of refugee (vs. voluntary) migration. According to our model, perceptions and subjective representations of forcedness and associated perils activate specific psychological processes relevant to refugee integration and thus moderate responses to the demands and stressors of the immigration situation. We conceptualize these distinctive influences for integration-relevant processes in both refugees and in residents. By pinpointing the unique features of refugee migration, PARI generates novel and specific hypotheses about psychological processes predicting refugee integration. For instance, refugees’ memories of forcedness and associated perils should lead to a high level of preoccupation with the restoration of basic needs after arrival in a receiving country that interferes with integration-related activities. Conversely, residents’ perceptions of forcedness and related perils may enhance empathy with refugees but may also magnify feelings of anxiety and threat. Implications for refugee integration are discussed for the domains of occupational work, education, and mental health.

Arab American Novel: Development and Issues

The novel in the Arab-American literature is absolutely considered a modern writing in its existence and styles except The Book of Khalid (1911) which was written in the first decade of the twentieth century. It becomes the main genre in the body of Arab-American literature and the large numbers of Arab-American novels have been published as a result of the considerable efforts made after the eighties of 20th century. Arab-American novels generally tackle issues such as the problem of identity, anti-Arab racism, marginalization, immigration and situations of refugees, nostalgia, and exile. They also foreground social problems Arab-American communities face as heterogeneity, generational differences, oppression, stereotype, social injustice and anti-assimilationist discourses. Moreover, the Arab-American novels try to create reconciliation between the Western and oriented cultures and reconciliation between the culture and values of the West and the East, the displacement of Palestinians, war and poverty in the Middle East, and so forth. This paper aims at providing an overview of the development of Arab-American novel as well as exploring the most common issues and themes discussed by this kind of genre in the Arab-American literature. It also tries to investigate in detail the concept of identity as a debatable issue in the contemporary Arab-American literature.

Should Germany have built a new wall? Macroeconomic lessons from the 2015-18 refugee wave

In 2015–2016 Germany experienced a wave of predominantly low-skilled refugee immigration. We evaluate its macroeconomic and distributional effects using a quantitative overlapping generations model calibrated using German micro data to replicate education and productivity differentials between foreign born and native workers. Workers are modelled as imperfect substitutes in aggregate production leading to endogenous wage differentials. We simulate the dynamic effects of this refugee wave, with specific focus on the welfare impact on low skilled natives. Our results indicate that the small losses this group suffers can be compensated by welfare gains of other parts of the native population.

How Well Can the Migration Component of Regional Population Change be Predicted? A Machine Learning Approach Applied to German Municipalities

For several decades, demographic forecasts had predicted that the majority of Germany’s cities and rural areas would experience population decline in the early 21st century. Instead, recent trends show a growing population size in three out of every four German districts. As a result, there are currently severe shortages of housing and childcare in regions that were projected to decline but have instead grown in recent years. Other regions, by contrast, continue to lose young people in particular. Most of these differences between regions stem from within-country as well as international migration. An important question for both regional demographic research as well as local policy-makers is thus how well net migration rates in cities and rural districts can be predicted several years into the future. In this study, we develop models that predict migration (both within-country as well as international migration) at the level of municipalities for two demographic groups, namely young people aged 18 to 24 years, and families (people aged 30 to 49 years and underage children). We collect data on economic, demographic and other characteristics such as distances to large cities or universities for around 3,000 German municipalities (Gemeinden). The model is trained on a subset of these data from the period 2005-2009 and predicts net migration rates among young people on an unseen test dataset in the future (i.e. for the period 2011-2015). The results show that the model can predict future net migration by young people aged 18 to 24 years reasonably well (R² > 0.5), although there were quite significant changes during the period under study, for example refugee immigration to Germany. Family migration, on the other hand, cannot be predicted equally well (R² = 0.25). Some important lessons emerge concerning the predictability of regional and international migration and the usefulness of demographic forecasts for local policy-makers.

Association of Immigrant and Refugee Status With Risk Factors for Exposure to Violent Assault Among Youths and Young Adults in Canada

Immigrant populations continue to grow across Western countries. Such populations may face vulnerabilities that contribute to the risk of experiencing violent injury. Youths are at disproportionate risk compared with other age groups, and such violence may be preventable with appropriately targeted injury prevention strategies. To examine the association of immigrant or refugee status and immigration-related factors with the experience of assault. This population-based cohort study used linked health and administrative databases in Ontario, Canada, where health services are funded through a universal, single-payer health insurance plan. All youths and young adults aged 10 to 24 years (hereafter referred to as youths) residing in Ontario from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2016, were eligible to participate. Data were analyzed from April 13, 2017, to January 6, 2020. The main exposure was immigrant status. Secondary exposures were immigration-related factors, including visa class, time since immigration, and region and country of origin. The main outcome consisted of violent injuries requiring acute care (emergency department visit or hospitalization) or causing death. Poisson regression models were used to estimate rate ratios for injuries. A total of 22 969 443 person-years were included in the analysis (51.3% male and 48.7% female participants). Compared with nonimmigrants, a greater proportion of immigrants lived in the lowest neighborhood income quintile (30.5% vs 18.2%) and urban areas (98.9% vs 87.7%). Among immigrants, 17.9% were refugees. Rates of violent injuries experienced were 549.0 (95% CI, 545.7-552.2) per 100 000 person-years in nonimmigrant youth, 225.0 (95% CI, 219.4-230.7) per 100 000 person-years in nonrefugee immigrant youth, and 525.4 (95% CI, 507.2-544.1) per 100 000 person-years in refugee immigrant youth. The rates of violent injury among nonrefugee and refugee immigrants were lower than among nonimmigrants (nonrefugee adjusted rate ratio [aRR], 0.41 [95% CI, 0.38-0.43]; refugee aRR, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.76-0.89]). Older age (oldest vs youngest aRR, 6.90 [95% CI, 6.53-7.29]), male sex (aRR, 2.60 [95% CI, 2.52-2.68]), and low neighborhood income (aRR, 2.42 [95% CI, 2.32-2.53]) were associated with violent injury risk. Rates of experiencing assault were lowest among South Asian (aRR, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.30-0.37]) and East Asian (aRR, 0.23 [95% CI, 0.19-0.26]) immigrants. Only Somali immigrants experienced higher assault rates (712.0 [95% CI, 639.3-805.3] per 100 000 person-years) compared with nonimmigrants. Most injuries (79.9%) were from being struck, followed by being cut (5.9%). The low rates of assault experienced by immigrants, including refugees, compared with nonimmigrants suggests that Canadian immigrant settlement supports and cultural factors may be protective against the risk of experiencing assault.

Migration, Stress and the Challenges of Accessing Food: An Exploratory Study of the Experience of Recent Afghan Women Refugees in Adelaide, Australia.

This study explored the migration and food experiences of Afghani women refugees residing in Adelaide, South Australia for 2 years or less. In-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 women between May and September 2017. The data were thematically analysed, and the Social Determinants of Health Framework was used to discuss the findings. Five key themes emerged from the data. In the transition country (Iran/Pakistan), respondents experienced (i) trauma, discrimination and exclusion and (ii) familiar food culture, but food stress. In the destination country (Adelaide, Australia) respondents experienced (iii) a sense of precariousness, (iv) unfamiliar food culture and (v) challenges in accessing halal food. Afghani refugees experienced considerable stressors both in the transition and the final destination country but for different reasons. In the transition country, stresses related to the lack of social services and support, discrimination, racism and poverty seemed to have affected their ability to afford food. In Australia stressors pertaining to socioeconomic, housing and employment precariousness, as well as difficulties in accessing halal foods were identified as challenges. Furthermore, food stress in Australia was associated with the cultural appropriateness of food, the complexity of the food system, and the women’s lack of skills and experiences in navigating the food system. With increasing refugee and immigration flows globally, it is necessary to acknowledge how food and social determinants intersect for refugee immigrants to ensure positive health outcomes.

Has there been a “refugee crisis”? New insights on the recent refugee arrivals in Germany and their integration prospects

Approximately 1.2 million refugees arrived in Germany between 2015 and 2016. The national and international public discourse surrounding the arrival of these refugees covers the full spectrum of opinions. These opinions range from sceptical assessments regarding the 2015 influx as a “refugee crisis” to optimistic appraisals considering the immigration of refugees to be a solution to demographic change and labour shortages. These views are often driven by ideology and emotions rather than grounded in evidence. In this paper, we use data from a unique, nationally representative household survey of refugees who came to Germany between 2013 and 2016 to describe who these refugees are, focusing particularly on demographic and skill characteristics relevant for their successful and sustainable economic integration. We also discuss German public policies and institutional environments to promote refugees’ integration. Our descriptive analysis shows that the processing of asylum applications and the overall provision of accommodations, safety-nets, and integration programs by German authorities have advanced the refugees’ integration process, although the initial shortcomings have been widespread. Over the years, German institutions have generally been open to helping refugees and other immigrants gain ground in Germany. However, there are still challenges for policymakers. One such issue is the gender gap that is reflected in the support for female refugees with childcare obligations, which delays their language acquisition and slows their integration. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence has - contrary to the expectations - given no indications that the influx of refugees in 2015 led to a “refugee crisis” in Germany.

Education of Refugee Adolescents at the End of Secondary School: The Role of Educational Policies, Individual and Family Resources

In the recent wave of refugee immigration to Germany, many children and adolescents were among the migrants. Their integration into the German educational system will be a major challenge for the years and decades to come. The paper’s aim is to examine both general and refugee-specific mechanisms that likely explain ethnic and social inequality in education among refugee adolescents. The study is based on ReGES (Refugees in the German Educational System) data collected in five German federal states. Our results show that refugee adolescents attend lower grade levels and lower school types than the general pupil population in Germany. We further posit that established mechanisms to explain social and ethnic inequality are also applicable to refugee adolescents. Among refugee-specific aspects, we identify factors at the federal state level that influence the school placement of young refugees. Furthermore, at the individual level, post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with differences in educational achievement among refugee students.

Should Germany Have Built a New Wall? Macroeconomic Lessons from the 2015-18 Refugee Wave

In 2015-2016 Germany experienced a wave of predominantly low-skilled refugee immigration. We evaluate its macroeconomic and distributional effects using a quantitative overlapping generations model calibrated using German micro data to replicate education and productivity differentials between foreign born and native workers. Workers are modelled as imperfect substitutes in aggregate production leading to endogenous wage differentials. We simulate the dynamic effects of this refugee wave, with specific focus on the welfare impact on low skilled natives. Our results indicate that the small losses this group suffers can be compensated by welfare gains of other parts of the native population. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Migration – Germany’s past and present. Thoughts and figures

In this article, the history of emigration from Germany and the immigration to Germany especially in relation to its changing borders in the 20th century is discussed. After 1945 Germany was confronted with the integration of a million German refugees. Starting in the 1950s, Germany intentionally attracted foreign workers, and integrated them fairly well. The article analyses the current discussions in Germany in relation to the impact of massive immigration of refugees from non-European areas around 2015. It concludes with a position that in the time of globalisation migration needs a society-focussed and political learning process which has not yet ended and will require more learning. But countries with a declining population are well advised to see immigration as an opportunity for future growth and social diversity.

“We will Manage It” – Did Chancellor Merkel's Dictum Increase or Even Cause the Refugee Movement in 2015?

AbstractIn public and scientific debates about the dynamics of the so‐called refugee crisis of 2015, there are highly controversial positions concerning the statement on August 2015 by Chancellor Merkel: “We will manage it” Did this dictum actually increase or even unleash the refugee migration towards Europe in 2015? Was Germany's governmental policy against the legal European and national frame? Based on an analysis of legal documents and public statements, the article first reconstructs the development of refugee immigration into the EU, especially to Germany, in 2015 and reviews whether the German government violated law and opened one‐sided borders. Based on survey data of 4,500 refugees in 2016, it then analyses whether the Merkel dictum significantly changed the volume and the reasons why refugees decided to flee to Germany. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.

The fiscal aspect of the refugee crisis

An important part of the resistance to higher refugee immigration in rich countries is due to the fear of the negative fiscal consequences. Yet this article shows that the fiscal consequences even of substantially increased refugee immigration are likely to be quite modest. According to the estimates, if the European Union received all refugees currently in Asia and Africa, the implied average annual fiscal cost over the lifetime of these refugees would be at most 0.6% of the union’s GDP. If other rich countries also shared the burden, the cost per country would be even lower.