German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS): Methodology and Data Manual of the Baseline Survey (Wave 1)

International migration between economically highly developed countries is a central component of global migration flows. Still, surprisingly little is known about the international mobility of the populations of these affluent societies. The aim of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) is to collect data to analyse the individual consequences of international migration as well as the consequences for the country of origin. GERPS is based on an origin-based multistage probability sample using the German population registers as a sampling frame. The realised net sample includes more than 11,000 persons who recently moved abroad from Germany and persons returning to Germany after having lived abroad. The study follows a multi-destination country design and allows comparative analyses of migrants and non-migrants who stayed in the country of origin. GERPS is a panel study with at least four waves during a period of at least 24 months. This documentation, however, presents the methodology and the data for the first wave providing the baseline survey. Detailed information is provided to invite external researchers to apply the new data infrastructure to their own research and to disseminate the innovative research design to construct migrant samples

German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS): Methodology and Data Manual of the Baseline Survey (Wave 1)

International migration between economically highly developed countries is a central component of global migration flows. Still, surprisingly little is known about the international mobility of the populations of these affluent societies. The aim of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) is to collect data to analyse the individual consequences of international migration as well as the consequences for the country of origin. GERPS is based on an origin-based multistage probability sample using the German population registers as a sampling frame. The realised net sample includes more than 11,000 persons who recently moved abroad from Germany and persons returning to Germany after having lived abroad. The study follows a multi-destination country design and allows comparative analyses of migrants and non-migrants who stayed in the country of origin. GERPS is a panel study with at least four waves during a period of at least 24 months. This documentation, however, presents the methodology and the data for the first wave providing the baseline survey. Detailed information is provided to invite external researchers to apply the new data infrastructure to their own research and to disseminate the innovative research design to construct migrant samples

Emigration, Friends, and Social Integration: The Determinants and Development of Friendship Network Size After Arrival

Friendships can be interpreted as voluntary relationships between individuals and characterised as relatively amorphous bond. Since migration usually diversifies people’s social bonds, it can be suggested that in this context friendships have to be reconfigured. Even though friendships are important for societal integration and related to individual well-being, migration research has treated friendships as a side issue. This chapter aims to narrow this gap by answering three questions: Are there significant differences between emigrants and non-mobiles in their number of close friends? What are important factors influencing emigrants’ number of close friends abroad? How does this number develop during the first years after emigration? Based on data from the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study and the German Socio-Economic Panel, the results show that emigrants have more friends than non-mobiles. Additionally, we find that individual characteristics and cultural distance between emigrant and host society or the intension to stay in the emigration country are significantly related to emigrants’ friendship network size. Furthermore, we find that identification with the emigration country is the most influential factor on the size of the friendship networks during the first 2 years after arrival. Our results also provide some evidence that there is an optimal size of the close-friendship-network