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Social Contacts of Refugees ,
The BAMF brief analysis 4|2019 addresses the social integration of refugees in Germany.
Social contacts in the host country play an important role for refugees as they settle into their new environment. Refugees' social integration is therefore to be examined on the basis of the data from the first two waves of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Survey in 2016 and 2017.
In 2017, almost half of the refugees often spent time with Germans, with the proportion having gone up since 2016.
Almost half of the refugees stated in 2017 that they spent time with Germans between several times a week and every day; one-fifth never spent time with Germans. In particular, the workplace or training facility seems to offer favourable opportunity structures for contacts between refugees and Germans. The proportion of refugees who frequently spent time with Germans increased between 2016 and 2017.
Refugees rarely or only sometimes feel socially isolated
Contact
Refugees have roughly two people close to them with whom they can share personal thoughts and feelings, but approximately 14 percent have no one. The people close to them are family members in most instances. Germans are comparatively seldom represented among the people close to them.
Refugees rarely or only sometimes feel socially isolated on the whole. Amongst other things, spending time with Germans, knowledge of German, a feeling of being welcome in Germany, and the feeling of not being discriminated against because of their origins, reduce the feeling of social isolation.
There are differences between the sexes.
There are differences between the sexes, and these are pronounced in some cases: Refugee women more rarely spend time with Germans than refugee men do, but have somewhat more close relationships and are slightly less likely to feel socially isolated.
The Brief analysis was drawn up by: Manuel Siegert