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Female refugees in Germany , , Leisure habits and social contacts
BAMF Brief Analysis 2|2021 examines the everyday lives of female refugees and their social integration.
The study focuses on the question of how the everyday life and social participation of refugee women differs from that of male refugees and women with and without a migration background. It is based on data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Survey from 2018 and the previous years.
The most important results at a glance
Different starting conditions for female and male refugees
Despite all the heterogeneity within the groups, a comparison of female and male refugees reveals differences with regard to the social preconditions for participation: Women have a lower average level of education, are less likely to be employed, and have a less well developed knowledge of German. This means that their structural, cultural and social integration is not yet as advanced as that of male refugees.
A majority of women are closely involved in the family context
Female refugees predominantly arrive within a family setting, and also live in that context in Germany: They are more likely to live with (small) children, are more likely to be married, and invest a large proportion of their daily time in childcare and doing household chores. This means that they are more closely involved in the family context than male refugees are, but also more than women with other backgrounds and those without a migration background.
Less participation in leisure activities
In comparison with male refugees, female refugees are less likely to attend sports and/or cultural events, and are less likely to engage in sports themselves. Similar gender differences in these activity areas are also found among women with other backgrounds and those without a migration background. All in all, however, female refugees showed a slight increase in activities compared to the previous year 2017.
Children promote social participation
Female refugees maintain less frequent contact with Germans than male refugees do. Multivariate analyses however show that their different socio-structural circumstances, such as lower employment rate or poorer German language skills, are the decisive influencing factors in this regard, and not gender per se.
The presence of children in the household, on the other hand, proves to be a positive factor for establishing contact with people from the host society. Children could enable refugees to come into contact with Germans more frequently by meeting Germans in the children's environment, for example in the playground or at school. Furthermore, women more often live in private accommodations and no longer in shared accommodations as is still more frequently the case for men with a refugee background. This in turn could lead to more encounters in everyday life, for example when shopping, and have a positive effect on social integration.
The Brief Analysis was written by: Cristina de Paiva Lareiro