2019-10-03, Diehl, Claudia

In “Origins and Destinations”, Luthra, Soehl and Waldinger aim at “extending the canon” in research on immigrant integration. They do so by studying group and individual level characteristics across a large number of origin groups, thereby replacing group labels with theoretically relevant variables at the group level. In this review, three challenges in this endeavour are discussed: First of all, the analyses do not allow to disentangle the impact of group and individual level characteristics for all variables alike. Secondly, a primary data collection more tailored to the specifics of their conceptual framework is needed. This would many conclusions about how contexts of emigration and immigration truly matter above and beyond individual characteristic on a more solid ground. And third, the authors’ aim to abandon the use of origin group categories in empirical research on immigrant integration may come at a price.

2018, Fegert, Jörg M., Diehl, Claudia, Leyendecker, Birgit, Hahlweg, Kurt, Prayon-Blum, Valeria

This article is an abridged version of a report by an advisory council to the German government on the psychosocial problems facing refugee families from war zones who have settled in Germany. It omits the detailed information contained in the report about matters that are specific to the German health system and asylum laws, and includes just those insights and strategies that may be applicable to assisting refugees in other host countries as well. The focus is on understanding the developmental risks faced by refugee children when they or family members are suffering from trauma-related psychological disorders, and on identifying measures that can be taken to address these risks. The following recommendations are made: recognizing the high level of psychosocial problems present in these families, providing family-friendly living accommodations, teaching positive parenting skills, initiating culture-sensitive interventions, establishing training programs to support those who work with refugees, expanding the availability of trained interpreters, facilitating access to education and health care, and identifying intervention requirements through screening and other measures.

2017, Diehl, Claudia, Katsarova, Sonya, Maué, Elisabeth, Schumann, Stephan

2016-04-03, Diehl, Claudia, Lubbers, Marcel, Mühlau, Peter, Platt, Lucinda

Migration trends are highly dynamic and the recent period has seen a transformation of migration to Europe. Studies of existing migrant stocks provide only limited information on these new migration flows and their implications for receiving societies. In the Norface-funded SCIP project (‘Socio-cultural integration processes among New Immigrants in Europe’), about 8000 recent migrants to four European destinations were surveyed soon after their arrival with many re-interviewed about 1.5 years later. The goal of the project was to obtain a more complete picture of integration processes in Europe and of the role of individual traits, group characteristics and reception contexts. SCIP data shed light on a highly dynamic phase in migrants’ integration that has important implications for what happens later in the adaptation process. Furthermore, these data reveal the extent to which differences in integration patterns are apparent from the very beginning of migrants’ stay or evolve over time. The SCIP project is comparative on the group and country level and thus helps to clarify whether country-specific integration patterns reflect characteristics of host country institutions and their ethnic boundaries – or can be attributed to the particularities of the immigrants these countries attract. This special issue demonstrates the potential of the data for addressing such questions, fundamental to our understanding of current and future migrant integration by bringing together six articles that tackle migrants' early adaptation, for example their language acquisition, the role of religiosity in finding a job, group differences in identification and acculturation, and experiences of discrimination across contexts. It also gives an insight into some limitations of the data set, describes the methodological challenges and possibilities in using it, and aims to inspire further research based on this unique data source.

2018, Diehl, Claudia, Hinz, Thomas, Auspurg, Katrin

The paper analyses the role of economic and cultural threat in exploring support for immigration control in Switzerland. A factorial survey experiment enables us to look into different migrant characteristics. Results show more support for immigration control for Eastern Europeans and low-skilled migrants. However, German migrants do not gain acceptance due to being highly skilled, and their willingness to adapt culturally is crucial for native Swiss with a high level of national pride.

2018, Lubbers, Marcel, Diehl, Claudia, Kuhn, Theresa, Larsen, Christian Albrekt

This contribution describes differences between 10 migrant groups and natives in their attitudes towards government spending in three residence countries: Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. Previous research provided evidence that “migrants” as a catch‐all category of people from different origins are in favor of more government spending on social welfare. We study to what extent support for government spending can be explained by self‐interest explanations of welfare state attitudes as well as by differences in ideological position. The contribution employs data from the Migrants' Welfare State Attitudes project, including migrant groups from similar origins in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. The study moves beyond the larger migrant groups of Turks and Poles that received attention in previous research as well, and includes a greater variety of groups that differ in terms of their skill levels. The overall finding is that migrants' welfare state spending preferences are, as in the case of natives, significantly related to socio‐demographic differences and standard ideology measures of attitudes to regulation of the economy and family values. However, even with these standard variables included, spending preferences differ strongly between migrant groups, residence countries, and welfare spending domain. A comparison between country of origin and residence country provisions seems to be a promising path for further understanding migrant group differences in welfare state spending attitudes. The study challenges the idea that all migrants are supportive of extended welfare state arrangements.

2017, Diehl, Claudia, Gresser, Anne

2018, Diehl, Claudia, Fick, Patrick, Koenig, Matthias

2017, Ohlendorf, David, Koenig, Matthias, Diehl, Claudia

Angesichts des steigenden Interesses an der Bedeutung des religiösen Hintergrundes von Zugewanderten und ihren Nachkommen für Integrationsprozesse wird in diesem Beitrag der Frage nachgegangen, ob und inwieweit Religion den Bildungserfolg von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit Migrationshintergrund beeinflusst. Er bietet zunächst einen Überblick über vorhandene Befunde und spezifiziert theoretische Argumente über mögliche Einflüsse religiöser Zugehörigkeit, Überzeugungen und Praktiken auf den Bildungserfolg von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden zentrale Argumente mittels einer Sekundäranalyse zum Zusammenhang von Religion und Bildungserfolg unter 14-jährigen Schülerinnen und Schülern mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund geprüft. Grundlage ist die erste Welle des deutschen Teildatensatzes von CILS4EU aus den Jahren 2010/11. Im Vergleich verschiedener religiöser Gruppen bestätigt sich, dass Muslime einen deutlich geringeren Bildungserfolg aufweisen. Dass sie etwa deutlich seltener das Gymnasium besuchen, wird aber auch in dieser Studie weitgehend durch ihren sozialen Hintergrund erklärt und ist unabhängig von ihrer individuellen Religiosität. Auffällig ist hingegen der deutlich positive Effekt der individuellen Religiosität auf den Bildungserfolg evangelischer Schülerinnen und Schüler mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund.

2016-04-03, Diehl, Claudia, Fischer-Neumann, Marion, Mühlau, Peter

We describe migrants' early patterns of identification with the receiving society and explain why these differ by migrants' origins. Using longitudinal data from a novel survey among recent immigrants from Poland and Turkey in Germany enables us to analyse the nexus between social assimilation, ethnic boundaries and identification more directly than previous studies. Theoretically, we start out from assimilation theory and its assumption that migrants' identification with the receiving country is a consequence of their preceding social and cognitive assimilation and from the literature on ethnic boundaries. Results suggest that Turkish new migrants start out with higher levels of identification with Germany than Poles. Over time, however, their national identification decreases while it increases for Poles. This is partly explained by the fact that Turkish migrants' social assimilation stagnates; more importantly, only Turks perceive more rather than less discrimination and value incompatibility over time. While both groups' identificational integration with the receiving country thus starts out from different conditions, they do not show a fundamentally dissimilar pattern with respect to the consequences of assimilation and discrimination for their national identification. Yet, the negative impact of the latter is stronger for Turks than for Poles, reflecting the greater salience of ethnic boundaries for this group.