IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nonpfo/v13y2022i2p161-174n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Civic Engagement and Social Integration of Refugees in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Barreto César

    (Institute for Employment Research, Nurnberg, Bayern, Germany)

  • Berbée Paul
  • Gallegos Torres Katia
  • Lange Martin
  • Sommerfeld Katrin

    (ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany)

Abstract

Civil society has played an important role in meeting the challenges of refugee migration in recent years. This commentary documents the importance of civic engagement for the integration of refugees by linking individual survey data on refugees to a regional measure of civic engagement in Germany. Using the density of newly established civic associations at the county level as a measure of civic engagement, we exploit regional differences in civic engagement in order to estimate its association with refugee integration outcomes. We find that in regions with particularly high levels of civic engagement, refugees have significantly more frequent contact to Germans, higher life satisfaction, and better German language skills. This correlation is robust to regional contextual factors such as the local population structure, economic strength, and the state of the labor market. In terms of language acquisition, women and refugees with a low level of education benefit the most from high civic engagement. Moreover, refugees with university degrees find significantly better-paying jobs in areas with higher civic engagement. However, no direct correlation could be established between civic engagement and the likelihood that refugees are employed. Nonetheless, the results suggest that support from civil society translates into improved access to government benefits. Our findings highlight that local civic engagement is an important complement to public assistance services and policy makers should give a high priority to partnering with the civil society to improve refugees’ integration outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Barreto César & Berbée Paul & Gallegos Torres Katia & Lange Martin & Sommerfeld Katrin, 2022. "The Civic Engagement and Social Integration of Refugees in Germany," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 161-174, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:13:y:2022:i:2:p:161-174:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/npf-2022-0015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2022-0015
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/npf-2022-0015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brücker, Herbert & Fendel, Tanja & Guichard, Lucas & Gundacker, Lidwina & Jaschke, Philipp & Keita, Sekou & Kosyakova, Yuliya & Vallizadeh, Ehsan, 2020. "Fünf Jahre "Wir schaffen das" - Eine Bilanz aus der Perspektive des Arbeitsmarktes," IAB-Forschungsbericht 202011, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Berbée & Jan Stuhler, 2023. "The Integration of Migrants in the German Labor Market: Evidence over 50 Years," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2315, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    2. Richard Ondicho Otiso, 2023. "Religion and Immigrant Occupational Attainment across Social Integration Contexts in Finland," Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences, Eurasian Publications, vol. 11(1), pages 12-25.
    3. Strachwitz Rupert Graf & Toepler Stefan, 2022. "Contested Civic Spaces in Liberal Democracies," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 179-193, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brücker, Herbert & Gundacker, Lidwina & Hauptmann, Andreas & Jaschke, Philipp, 2021. "Arbeitsmarktwirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie: Stabile Beschäftigung, aber steigende Arbeitslosigkeit von Migrantinnen und Migranten (Labor Market Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Robust Employment, bu," IAB-Kurzbericht 202109, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Lange, Martin & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2024. "Do refugees impact crime? Causal evidence from large-scale refugee immigration to Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Bernhard, Sarah & Bernhard, Stefan & Helbig, Laura, 2021. "Erfahrungen von Geflüchteten beim Deutschlernen: Langer Weg mit Stolpersteinen (Refugees‘ second language acquisition processes: A long way with many obstacles)," IAB-Kurzbericht 202126, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Gundert, Stefanie & Kosyakova, Yuliya & Fendel, Tanja, 2020. "Migrantinnen und Migranten am deutschen Arbeitsmarkt: Qualität der Arbeitsplätze als wichtiger Gradmesser einer gelungenen Integration (Migrants in the German labour market: job quality as an importan," IAB-Kurzbericht 202025, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Kosyakova, Yuliya & Gundacker, Lidwina & Salikutluk, Zerrin & Trübswetter, Parvati, 2021. "Arbeitsmarktintegration in Deutschland: Geflüchtete Frauen müssen viele Hindernisse überwinden (Labor market integration in Germany: Refugee women have to overcome many obstacles)," IAB-Kurzbericht 202108, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Brücker, Herbert & Gundacker, Lidwina & Hauptmann, Andreas & Jaschke, Philipp, 2021. "Die Arbeitsmarktwirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf Geflüchtete und andere Migrantinnen und Migranten," IAB-Forschungsbericht 202105, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Brücker, Herbert & Deuster, Christoph & Fendel, Tanja & Jaschke, Philipp & Keita, Sekou & Freitas Monteiro, Teresa, 2021. "Nach der Machtübernahme der Taliban in Afghanistan: Erfahrungen aus der Vergangenheit und erste Einschätzungen der Folgen für Migration und Integration," IAB-Forschungsbericht 202109, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    8. Goßner, Laura & Kosyakova, Yuliya, 2021. "Integrationshemmnisse geflüchteter Frauen und mögliche Handlungsansätze – eine Übersicht bisheriger Erkenntnisse," IAB-Forschungsbericht 202108, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:13:y:2022:i:2:p:161-174:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.