Content and Objectives

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Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has led to a continuous and rapidly increasing influx of Ukrainian refugees to Germany since the beginning of 2022. Comprehensive knowledge about the socio-demographics of refugees from Ukraine is essential in order to overcome the challenges of receiving and (temporarily) integrating the largest refugee migration to Germany in the past seventy years. Against this background, the panel survey "Refugees from Ukraine in Germany" was developed. This has created a special social science database that makes it possible, on the one hand, to provide policymakers with information about refugees from Ukraine who have fled to Germany on the basis of valid data. On the other hand, it also creates an infrastructure that enables scientifically sound research into this type of migration and integration and a comparison with other migration and integration processes. The project, which was launched in 2022 with other partners, aims to investigate the individual consequences of flight for family structures, health, well-being and the labour market situation, among other things. In particular, the needs and problems associated with refugee migration are to be mapped on the basis of high-quality data and also made analysable at the level of individual life courses. Against the background of the specific socio-demographics of Ukrainian refugees, the use of childcare and other educational programmes for children and young people also plays a special role.

The project also focuses on the refugees' intentions to stay in Germany and their return migration processes to Ukraine. This also includes the emergence of circular and transnational exchange and migration processes between Ukraine and Germany. In addition, children and young people who have fled Ukraine with their parents will be interviewed for the first time in 2024. The project is being carried out in cooperation between several research groups at the institute, creating a variety of synergy effects between the different disciplines and research groups at the BiB.

After the first waves were conducted with three co-operation partners, the third survey wave was conducted by the BiB alone. For an interim survey in 2023, a cooperation was entered into with the Paris School of Economics (PSE), the Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI) in Mannheim and the World Bank. The focus is on mental health. Corresponding data can be analysed in 2024 and presented to the specialist public.