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Ten years of Migration Advisory Service for Adult Immigrants (MBE) ,
Research Report 25 addresses the results of a telephone survey that was carried out in 2014 among 1,254 MBE counselling clients regarding their experience with the advisory service offered within the MBE system. Additionally, twelve qualitative expert interviews were carried out with MBE counsellors to complement the results.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the welfare agencies providing the Migration Advisory Service for Adult Immigrants (MBE) on-site supported an accompanying research carried out on MBE. The core of the project is a survey that was carried out among 1,254 former and current MBE counselling clients regarding their experience with the advice offered within the MBE system, the "BAMF MBE client survey 2014". In order to complement the results, twelve additional qualitative expert interviews were carried out with MBE counsellors.
The MBE reaches people from a large number of countries of origin
The respondent MBE counselling clients come from 98 countries of origin, focussing on Turkey (16 percent), the Russian Federation (18 percent) and other CIS States (20 percent).
Available skills and qualifications (e.g. schooling) are frequently inadequately applied on the labour market: A majority of people who have vocational training as well as academics are also working in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations.
Highly multifaceted consulting practice
There’s a wide variety concerning the range of consulting topics, the languages spoken within the consultations and the forms of consulting. The consulting topic “Assistance in forms/bureaucratic contacts” comes to notice here, which caused 47 percent of respondents to seek advice.
The respondents are shown to have accessed MBE rather quickly (62 percent took up the advisory service within the first three years of residence in Germany), frequently discovering the service via informal information channels.
MBE is used very much in line with individual needs. Longer periods during which it is taken up do not necessarily indicate that it was used intensively, however.
Highly positive evaluation of MBE
Structural conditions such as opening hours and waiting times, as well as the duration of the counselling units, are rated positively in the vast majority of cases. At the same time, proposals with regard to expanding resources constitute the second most common category in which the respondent clients suggested that improvements be made.
Linguistic communication is evaluated as “very good” by 66 percent of respondents, this primarily applying to clients in non-mother-tongue advisory settings. This indicates a pronounced intercultural openness within the MBE.
The use of written individual promotion plans within case management is a positive experience for (the small numbers of) those concerned: A structuring (72 percent) and motivating (64 percent) impact of the instrument is confirmed by a majority, and a potentially greater burden in terms of time was not regarded as a disturbance. Comparable effects as to satisfaction with the advisory service and its success can however also be demonstrated among those respondents who concluded less formal agreed goals with their counsellors.
High relevance of the advisory service
The success of the advice is positively rated by the clients: A pronounced improvement of the initial problems was reported in 88 percent of counselling cases, the contribution made by MBE towards solving the problems being considered as high. The advice furthermore improves knowledge of the institutions and authorities involved.
81 percent of respondents state with hindsight that they could (probably) not have solved their problem without the support of MBE. More than half unrestrictedly confirm the statement that MBE helps to ensure that immigrants feel welcome in Germany.
Opportunities for improvement
The overwhelmingly positive evaluations of the quality of the advice given and its success result in a high overall satisfaction rate. These high satisfaction levels among respondents with regard to the service offered by MBE do not rule out tensions and challenges in advisory services. The study identifies opportunities for improvement that could be made. Fundamentally, the name recognition of the acronym MBE could be increased.Furthermore, some of the respondent MBE counselling clients suggested that the multi-lingual advice service should be expanded. Improved cooperation with basic services and administration is favoured by counsellors and clients alike.
The report ist only available in German
The Research Report was drawn up by: Lisa Brandt, Rebekka Risch and Susanne Lochner