What conditions promote the integration of refugees into our society? For young refugees, integration into the German educational system is of great importance. This is the subject of the ReGES study “Refugees in the German Educational System,” which infas has been conducting on behalf of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Progress (LIfBi) since 2017 and is expected to continue until 2026. The research project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, focuses on two key stages of education: early childhood education and the transition from lower secondary school to the education system. To this end, a panel of two refugee cohorts is being established. The first cohort includes preschool-aged children from age 4, and the second cohort includes boys and girls from age 14 in lower secondary education. The diversity of the German education system presents different institutional conditions, which are taken into account by including several federal states. The surveys are conducted in the federal states of Bavaria, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony.
Method
Until 2020, there will be up to two CAPI and CASI surveys per year among families on site in refugee shelters or private accommodation. Written surveys with context persons such as staff in municipalities and group accommodations as well as with facility managers and pedagogical staff in kindergartens and schools complete the study design. The surveys are conducted in German, English, French, Arabic, Kurdish, Pashto, Dari and Tigrinja. In both cohorts, a total of about 4,800 children are to be included in the initial survey, which will start in fall 2017. In the first cohort of preschoolers, parents will be surveyed in particular, while in the second cohort of students aged 14 and older, adolescents will be surveyed as well as parents. In addition to the surveys, there will be a survey of competency measures on German language skills that will take place directly with the children and adolescents in both cohorts.
