Multi-Layered Roles of Religion among Refugees Arriving in Austria around 2015

Violent conflicts and social unrest in the Middle East, in Central Asia, and in Africa have led to growing numbers of persons seeking refuge in Europe since 2011. The phenomenon culminated in 2015. In that year, with 88,300 new asylum applications, Austria was the 4th largest receiver of asylum seekers in the EU, thereby increasing visibly religious diversity in the country. Using two social surveys carried out in 2015 and in 2017 among asylum seekers and refugees, we study religious affiliation, religiosity, and attitudes as well as participation in religious groups. By focusing on the time span shortly after arriving in Austria, we aim to shed light on first steps in the host society and the multi-layered roles of religion for participation and integration. We provide a comparison with the host society in terms of religious affiliation and religiosity, and discuss recent qualitative research on refugees and religiosity. Insights into the engagement of refugees in several activities related to religion or not are valuable to shed light on the multi-layered characteristics of the recent inflow of forced migrants in Austria

Vulnerability of families with children: experts’ opinions about the future and what families think about it

Building upon results of prior focus group research, the present study employs online surveys about possible future developments of the vulnerability of families with children in Europe. In addition, respondents assessed the relevance of societal factors influencing future family well-being and the effectiveness of ten selected policy measures in preventing the intergenerational transfer of vulnerability. One survey was directed at scientists and practitioners who are family experts (N=175). Another survey aimed at exploring the thoughts of parents themselves (N=1,343). Results show that experts are rather pessimistic and even expect vulnerability to increase in the future. In their opinion, the most relevant forces driving future vulnerability seem to be economic development—manifesting itself in unemployment and earnings inequality—and family policy. As for policy measures, childcare availability, early childhood education, assistance for children with special needs and raising awareness of employers for work–family reconciliation were ranked highly for mitigating the reproduction of vulnerability. While parents largely share the opinions of experts with regard to forces relevant for future family well-being, they evaluate some of the policy measures differently: the main disparities concern the assessment of support for stay-at-home mothers and the weight given to education for children after school and during holidays

A Social Survey on Asylum Seekers in and around Vienna in Fall 2015: Methodological Approach and Field Observations

In late 2015, a survey called DiPAS (Displaced persons in Austria survey) was carried out in and around Vienna to study the socio-demographic characteristics, values and attitudes of asylum seekers arriving in Austria in 2015. In that year, the number of persons seeking refuge in Europe was substantially high, with Austria being the fourth largest receiving country of asylum seekers in Europe. This data collection is the first of its kind in Austria and to our knowledge the first in Europe focusing on the recent arrivals of Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan asylum seekers. First results on human capital and attitudes of DiPAS respondents have been published recently. The current paper presents the methodological approach of collecting these data, experiences from survey preparation, and insights from the field phase. Findings address four key challenges faced by surveys of the highly mobile and vulnerable group of asylum seekers, namely (1) representativity, (2) language barriers, (3) ethical considerations, and (4) cultural diversity. We discuss concrete solutions and recommendations for similar (inter)national, cross-cultural surveys, and provide insights for planning longitudinal studies on displaced persons who recently arrived in Europe

Immigrants' educational attainment: A mixed picture, but often higher than the average in their country of origin

The immigrants living in France and the refugees who arrived in Austria are more educated than most of the population in their country of origin. By comparison with the population in the host country, the picture is more mixed: some groups, such as immigrants from Portugal living in France, are relatively low educated, while others, such as Romanians, have more frequently completed higher education than people born in France

High self-selection of Ukrainian refugees into Europe: Evidence from Kraków and Vienna

Almost eight million Ukrainians have fled their country to escape the Russian full-scale invasion. To provide empirical evidence on how beneficiaries of temporary protection who reside in the immediate proximity of Ukraine differ from those who went further and reside in Western European countries, two large-scale rapid-response surveys were conducted in Kraków, Poland, and Vienna, Austria, in spring 2022. Data include information on socio-demographic characteristics, human capital, and return intentions of 472 and 1,094 adult Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Austria, respectively. Contributing to the growing empirical evidence on consistent assortative patterns in refugee inflows into Europe, our findings show that regularities in patterns of self-selection also occur in forced migration contexts where legal routes to safety apply. According to the analysed convenience sample, a tentative conclusion is that the further Ukrainian refugees moved to the West, the more self-selected they tend to be in the key dimensions of formal educational attainment, previous employment, language skills, and urbanity. Results indicate that willingness to stay in Kraków is significantly lower than willingness to remain in Vienna. This suggests that public financial support and living conditions, rather than diaspora networks, are decisive factors in shaping the decision to stay, move to another location or return to Ukraine. The aim to start a new life elsewhere may drive the motivation to choose a more distant destination instead of a neighboring country that allows to return rather quickly. Host countries should be aware of these specific characteristics of their refugee populations and adapt their integration policies accordingly

Evaluation of some validation measures for Gaussian process emulation: a case study with an agent-based model

status: publishe

A Social Survey on Refugees in and Around Vienna in Fall 2015: Methodological Approach and Field Observations

In late 2015, a survey called DiPAS (Displaced persons in Austria survey) was carried out in and around Vienna to study the socio-demographic characteristics, values and attitudes of asylum seekers arriving in Austria in 2015. In that year, the number of persons seeking refuge in Europe was substantially high, with Austria being the fourth largest receiving country of asylum seekers in Europe. This data collection is the first of its kind in Austria and to our knowledge the first in Europe focusing on the recent arrivals of Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan asylum seekers. First results on human capital and attitudes of DiPAS respondents have been published recently. The current paper presents the methodological approach of collecting these data, experiences from survey preparation, and insights from the field phase. Findings address four key challenges faced by surveys of the highly mobile and vulnerable group of asylum seekers, namely (1) representativity, (2) language barriers, (3) ethical considerations, and (4) cultural diversity. We discuss concrete solutions and recommendations for similar (inter)national, cross-cultural surveys, and provide insights for planning longitudinal studies on displaced persons who recently arrived in Europe

Extending Gaussian process emulation using cluster analysis and artificial neural networks to fit big training sets

© 2018 Operational Research Society Gaussian process (GP) emulation is a relatively recent statistical technique that provides a fast-running approximation to a complex computer model, given training data generated by the considered model. Despite its sound theoretical foundation, GP emulation falls short in practical applications where the training dataset is very large, due to numerical instabilities in inverting the correlation matrix. We show how GP emulation can be extended to handle large training sets by first dividing the training set into smaller subsets using cluster analysis, then training an emulator for each subset, and finally combining the emulators using an artificial neural network (ANN). Our work has also conceptual relevance, as it shows how to solve a big data problem by introducing a local level in input space, where each emulator specialises in a certain subregion, and a global level, where the identified local features of the computer model are combined into a global view.epub ahead of printstatus: Published onlin