Institutional trust of refugees in Germany , Date: 2024.05.23, format: brief analysis, area: Authority

The BAMF Brief Analysis 2|2024 examines the trust in the central German institutions among refugees who came to Germany between 2013 and 2019 compared to immigrants without refugee experience and people without a migration background.

The analyses are based on data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, the IAB-SOEP migration sample and the Socio-Economic Panel from 2021. The study examines the extent to which refugees trust the police, the legal system, the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament), politicians and political parties in Germany. Their institutional trust is compared with that of immigrants without refugee experience and people without a migration background. The study also analyses which characteristics are related to institutional trust and to what extent they can explain the higher level of trust among refugees.

Key findings

Refugees trust German institutions significantly more than the comparison groups

It can be seen that refugees place significantly more trust in German institutions than immigrants without refugee experience and people without a migration background. A consistent pattern can be observed across the groups, with the police and the legal system being trusted the most, followed by the Bundestag. Politicians and political parties, on the other hand, are trusted substantially less.

Various individual characteristics are related to institutional trust, but cannot explain differences

Refugees' trust in institutions is linked to demographic and socio-economic characteristics, satisfaction with their own income and their political interest, among other things. In addition, concerns about xenophobia in Germany appear to have the potential to diminish their trust. However, the differences in institutional trust between refugees and the other groups are not due to different compositions in terms of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics, satisfaction with various areas of their own lives and political attitudes under consideration.

Democratic situation in the country of origin apparently serves as a frame of reference for the evaluation of German institutions

In the case of migration and integration-related characteristics, there is a clear correlation with the democratic conditions in the country of origin: the less democratic the respective country was in the year before immigrating to Germany, the higher the level of trust in German institutions. The country of origin is presumably used as a frame of reference for evaluating the institutions in Germany. They are then judged particularly favourably in comparison to the institutions in undemocratic or less democratic countries. Taking into account the conditions in the country of origin can also explain the differences between immigrants with and without refugee experience.

The Brief Analysis was written by: Dr. Amrei Maddox

This download is available in other languages, too.

• Institutionenvertrauen Geflüchteter in Deutschland (German)