Evaluation of migration counseling for adults

With approximately 500,000 people reached each year and 1,107 full-time positions funded across seven associations, the Migration Counseling for Adults (MBE) is a large federal program. The program is designed to target primarily migrants over the age of 27 who have been in Germany for less than three years. In 2020, however, about 75% of all those receiving counseling had been in Germany for more than three years. Against this background, the project evaluates the impact of MBE. The primary aim is to clarify whether the program reaches its target group, how effective the counseling is, and whether significant counseling needs were overlooked in the program planning. It will be examined how the program can be improved in order to support foreigners in the first and particularly important years in Germany. In addition, the need for counseling of foreigners who have been in Germany for more than three years will be identified.

The evaluation draws on three different data sources. On the one hand, process data will be used to illustrate the providers, the scope of counseling, and the composition of those receiving counseling. On the other hand, former counselors will be interviewed online to gain a better understanding of the counselors. As a control group, at least for the subgroup of refugees, respondents from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) will be used. In addition, qualitative interviews will be conducted with counselors, providers and counselors.

The MBE has existed since 2005 and is regularly monitored through its controlling system. A comprehensive process and impact evaluation was nevertheless missing, apart from one earlier study. The existing research relies largely on a single data source and addresses above all how well known the MBE is and how immigrants use it – not the question of what the counselling achieves.

The project set out to clarify what resources the MBE has at its disposal, who uses the service, how its work processes are organised and what effects the counselling achieves. From these findings, recommendations for the future design of the service were developed.

The evaluation is designed as a mixed-methods study and draws on three equally weighted, simultaneously applied approaches: the administrative process and outcome data from the MBE controlling system for 2013 to 2022; an online survey of clients in spring 2024, in which 1,751 people took part; and 16 qualitative interviews with counsellors between February and April 2024.

An attempt was also made to link the newly collected data with the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey of refugees in order to estimate the causal effect of the MBE. Because of the differing survey dates, a reliable estimate was not possible; instead, the report sets out how such an estimate could be achieved in future.

The MBE achieves short- to medium-term effects. It is well suited to solving immediate problems, and clients are satisfied with the counselling and how it is delivered. The counselling promotes independent action, reliably refers people into integration and language courses, and improves precarious economic, health-related, family and psychosocial situations. The controlling data suggest that the share of clients in employment rises over the course of the counselling. Intensive counselling, an individually prepared support plan and help in dealing with public authorities are particularly effective.

The medium-term goal of transferring clients into mainstream services, by contrast, is only partly achieved: mainstream services and authorities frequently refer people back to the MBE, and language barriers and unresolved problems reinforce clients' dependence on the counselling.

On resources, a contradiction emerges. Staff positions, funding volume and caseload have all grown over ten years, yet counsellors consistently report that resources are becoming scarcer and workloads heavier. Compounding this, the funding procedure offers no security for the continuation of posts and thus works against building sustainable structures.

Most clients are advised within the intended first three years, but they are not a homogeneous group: the timing of access and the duration of counselling vary with individual and structural factors.

The MBE should be provided with sufficient staffing and funding as well as practice-oriented framework conditions, so that needs-based counselling is possible without further increases in workload. This includes clarifying the MBE's remit.

The intercultural opening of mainstream services must be accelerated by the federal states and municipalities. As long as it has not taken place, time limits cannot always be implemented without jeopardising the effect of counselling already provided. Limiting the MBE in time or in scope therefore also requires investment by states, municipalities and the employment administration in follow-on services.

High-quality language mediation should be available nationwide, and the training and supervision available to counsellors should be expanded.

The MBE does not resolve every issue itself. A central part of its work is directing clients to the responsible body – the job centre, the immigration office, a debt advice service or a qualification recognition office. For this to work, stable cooperation arrangements and direct contact persons are needed.

Mainstream services are the institutions open to everyone: job centres, advice services, public offices, health services. Intercultural opening means that these bodies are genuinely usable by immigrants as well – through plain language, available language mediation and staff able to deal with migration biographies. Where this is lacking, clients remain dependent on specialised services such as the MBE.

• Berndt, S.; Güngör, B.; Harder, N.; Mocek, A. (2025): Evaluation der Migrationsberatung für erwachsene Zugewanderte (MBE) 2024: Ergebnisbericht des Deutschen Zentrums für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung. Berlin: DeZIM.