Refugee Women and Families (GeFF)

DeZIM Research Community

Project team

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Herbert Brücker (BIM, IAB)

Project team members: Dorina Kalkum (BIM), Hannah Sophia Aalders (SHK, BIM), Lidwina Gundacker (IAB), Laura Goßner (SHK, IAB), Vincent Mustafa Goricnik (SHK, IAB)

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Project description:

From January 2015 to the end of 2016, around 1.2 million refugees arrived in Germany. Despite declining immigration figures in the following years, the integration of the new arrivals remains a social and economic task. Refugee women and families face particular challenges. However, political proposals for solutions and public debates are not sufficiently oriented towards the needs of this specific group - not least due to a lack of well-founded information.

Against this background, this research project investigated the processes of flight and integration of women and families. How do families and couples make migration decisions? What selection mechanisms underlie flight migration, i.e. what factors determine who takes flight? And what particular risks does flight entail for women and families joining them? The circumstances of the flight are also relevant for the later social participation and structural integration of refugee women and families. This aspect formed the second focus of the research project. Do women participate in language courses and other measures just as often as men? Are male refugees more frequently found in education and training programmes? What about integration into the labour market? What role do childcare facilities play? And how do refugee children and young people participate in education? The project was carried out by the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM) and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in cooperation.

Participating partners: Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

Funding: Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)