Do Austrian Programmes Facilitate Labour Market Integration of Refugees?

This study examines two programmes aimed at integrating refugees into the Austrian labour market: a short-term Skills Assessment and a longer-term Integration Year that includes an internship and training. The theoretical framework draws on the concepts of social field and forms of capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu. Using data from a large-scale refugee survey in early 2019, we find that Austria’s short-term Skills Assessment fails to increase refugees’ employment chances. The Integration Year positively helps employment, but this outcome is limited to refugee women. We conclude that integration programmes only help if they provide refugees with both cultural and social capital. Implications for research and practice are dis- cussed

Gleichheit oder Differenz? Eine methodenkritische Perspektive auf Geschlechtsunterschiede am Beispiel Geschlecht und Aggression. Diploma Thesis. University of Vienna

When examining gender differences and similarities a number of biases concerning methods can occur that can inflate gender differences. Based on the finding that women and men are similar on most psychological and social variables, the question whether the commonly found gender difference in aggression is an artefact (whether the difference diminishes or disappears when applying a critical methodological and social constructivist approach) is addressed. The gender variable is questioned from the perspective of Gender Studies and a critical feminist approach is taken. The hypotheses are tested through a secondary data analysis on panel data from students (ages 13-16) in Duisburg (Germany). The results show that many methodological issues are confirmed. The established gender difference that boys exceed girls in physical aggressive behaviour can be found in the present data as well, but the difference is small to medium in size. Primarily attitudes towards violence and aggressive offences, as well as prevalence and incidence of aggressive offences during the last year were analysed. In 80% of the cases the difference was significant and boys were more aggressive. However, the sexes were more similar than different in all cases and gender only accounts for a small percentage of explained variance. In the multivariate analysis direct effects of gender on aggression decrease but do not disappear when controlled for other variables. Aggression is stable over time and gender differences increase as the students grow older. Altogether the relevance of methodological issues is confirmed and the risks of an inflated difference perspective are discussed.status: publishe

Modelled gridded population estimates for the Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, Ituri, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Lomami and Sud-Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, version 3.0.

These data consist of modelled gridded population estimates produced at a spatial resolution of approximately 100m across the Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, Ituri, Kasa&iuml;, Kasa&iuml;-Oriental, Lomami and Sud-Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The estimates comprise total population counts and relative breakdowns in 40 age and sex groups. The main input data were derived from a dedicated microcensus carried out in the targeted provinces throughout March and April 2021. The microcensus was led by the Flowminder Foundation, the &Eacute;cole de Sant&eacute; Publique de Kinshasa, the WorldPop Research Group at the University of Southampton and the Bureau Central du Recensement, which is part of the Institut National de la Statistique of the DRC. Other essential input data were originated from building footprints automatically delineated by Ecopia.AI in 2021 using satellite imagery collected by Maxar Technologies between 2010 and 2021.</span

Flowminder standards in producing mobility and population estimates from call details records in low- and middle-income countries

Extracting the population mobility information contained in Call Detail Records (CDRs) is of critical importance in data poor contexts such as in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where it can support humanitarian and human development efforts. Such contexts however present additional challenges compared to high-income countries (HICs) for mobility analysis from mobile operator data: often only CDRs are available and they are sparser over time and space, mobile networks are more unstable, particular in crises, which are often more frequent, and the geographic coordinates of cells are sometimes missing and erroneous. Further, the proportion of the general population using mobile phones is significantly lower in LMICs (e.g. 47% of households on average in 7 provinces of the DRC, down to 35% in the more rural provinces) and therefore differences in the mobility of phone users and non users have a larger impact on the representativity and applicability of CDR-derived statistics. At Flowminder, we have specialised in addressing such challenges and we present here an overview of our live systems, from ingestion and automated quality assurance (QA) checks of pseudonymised CDR data and cell data, to the extraction of mobility information from CDRs and bias correction using survey data, resulting in the semi-automated production of a set of standard indicators, ready to be disseminated to decision makers in LMICs through dashboards, standard reports or as data sheets. We present the standards we've produced, and recommend using, when producing population mobility and distribution estimates from CDR data, to reduce biases inherent to the data, and ensure robustness of estimates