DOI: 10.5684/soep.iab-bamf-soep-mig.2023.1
Summary
The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany is a representative longitudinal survey conducted jointly by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, the Research Centre on Migration, Integration, and Asylum of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FZ) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the DIW Berlin. The first wave of the survey was carried out in 2016, where interviews were sought with 4,465 persons who have arrived in Germany since 2013. A refreshment sample of 2,252 persons was added in 2017, to consider asylum-seekers and refugees who moved in by 31.12.2016 and were registered by 1.1.2017. An additional refreshment sample of 1,216 persons was carried out in 2020, including asylum-seekers and refugees who arrived in Germany between January 2017 and June 2019. In total, 2,216 persons in 1,407 households were interviewed in 2022.
In 2023, the overall sample was expanded to include two additional groups: First, refugees from Ukraine were integrated into the regular questionnaire of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey of refugees. A portion of the Ukrainian respondents from the study "Refugees from Ukraine in Germany" (IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP survey) were included in this survey. Additionally, a sample of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Germany between the beginning of June and the end of August 2022 was drawn. Second, the group of non-European refugees was supplemented by a refresher sample. In total, 5,837 households (9,207 individuals) were surveyed in 2023, with 61 percent of respondents being non-European refugees and 39 percent being Ukrainian refugees. The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees provides a database which permits to gain new insights about living conditions of individuals who sought protection in Germany in recent years. Please find more detailed information on the dataset in the outline.
In addition, the data product SOEP-CMI-ADIAB, in which the survey data were linked with administrative data from the IAB, is available via the FDZ of the BA at the IAB.
Dataset Descriptions and Questionnaires
German
- Introduction into the sample: Herbert Brücker, Nina Rother, Jürgen Schupp. 2017. IAB-BAMF-SOEP Befragung von Geflüchteten 2016. Studiendesign, Feldergebnisse sowie Analysen zu schulischer wie beruflicher Qualifikation, Sprachkenntnissen sowie kognitiven Potenzialen. IAB Forschungsbericht 13/2017Opens in a new window (pdf)
- Fragebögen, Welle 1-8
English
Questionnaires, wave 1-3
Further information and working tools about the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees can be found at the websites of SOEP at DIW Berlin and at the BAMF.
Quality Control in the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees
Information on the quality control in the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees can be found in this info sheet (pdf).
More detailed information on the method of identifying interviewer falsification in the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees are available in the FDZ-Methodenreport 02/19 (pdf).
Data Access
Data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees are available at the FDZ of SOEP.
Citation
Researchers working with the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees are obligated to acknowledge the data base and its documentation within their publications, including the DOI, by using the following reference:
Data:
Brücker, Kosyakova, Rother, Zinn, Eckhard, Maddox, Niehues, Schwanhäuser, Siegert, Tanis, Trübswetter, Goebel, Grabka, Schröder, Bartels, Beckmannshagen, Franken, Gerike, Griese, Halbmeier, Kara, Krause, Liebau, Nebelin, Petrenz, Satilmis, Siegers, Steinhauer, Wenzig, Zimmermann (2025): "IAB-BAMF-SOEP-Befragung Geflüchteter – Version 1623 v1". DOI: 10.5684/soep.iab-bamf-soep-mig.2023.1 oder - wenn genutzt - 10.5684/soep.core.v40.1eu
Data documentation:
Brücker, Herbert; Rother, Nina; Schupp, Jürgen (2017): IAB-BAMF-SOEP Befragung von Geflüchteten 2016. Studiendesign, Feldergebnisse sowie Analysen zu schulischer wie beruflicher Qualifikation, Sprachkenntnissen sowie kognitiven Potenzialen. IAB Forschungsbericht 13/2017 (de), Nuremberg (only in german).
Brücker, Herbert; Kosyakova, Yuliya; Rother, Nina; Zinn, Sabine; Liebau, Elisabeth; Gider, Wenke; Schwanhäuser, Silvia; Siegert, Manuel (2025): Exploring Integration and Migration Dynamics: The Research Potentials of a Large-Scale Longitudinal Household Study of Refugees in Germany. European Sociological Review (online first). DOI: 10.1093/esr/jcaf032.
Data Versions
>> Further information on other versions of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees dataset.