Health and Resilience of Refugee Children in Germany Following the 2015 Migration Crisis

• In Event: Individual Differences in Risk and Resilience in Refugee Children

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the Syrian exodus and ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Somalia, Europe has seen a sharp increase in the number of asylum applications lodged in its member states in recent years. Germany is a particularly important case because it received the largest number of refugees in Europe, with more than 1.5 million asylum requests since 2015. The countries of origin as well as the reasons for flight are diverse, and the great influx of refugees creates entirely new post-migration challenges for host societies and refugees alike. However, studies on refugees’ health in this setting have often focused on adults or only had access to children from non-random samples of the refugee population.
Methods: We use data (as distributed in version v.35) from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to estimate the health and possible resilience factors of children of refugees in Germany. The survey is a random sample of the German population with recent booster samples for migrants and refugees. Notably, the IAB-BAMF-SOEP refugee-survey within the larger SOEP is harmonized with the other samples and allows for analysis of a large number of cases of refugees who arrived to Germany between 2013 and 2016. The data used here was collected in 2016. This sampling and survey approach allows a comparison of responses for refugee children with children of regular migrants and the host population. The SOEP draws the refugee samples from the Central Registry of Foreigners (Ausländerzentralregister). Hence, the refugee survey is a stratified random sample from a clearly defined population, which is a rare advantage when using refugee data. In total we observe 2994 children, stratified over the ages 0-1, 2-3, 4-5, 8-9, and 10-11.
Results: We find no substantial differences in birth weight, but refugee mothers report that they are concerned about their children’s health more often than migrant and host mothers (23.47 percentage points [95%-CI: 18.44 PP; 28.49 PP]). For children aged 2-3, refugee mothers still report higher levels of concern, although the difference to the host population is smaller than in the first year after birth (10.41 PP [95%-CI: 5.68; 15.13]). At the same time, they report far fewer (32.98 PP [95%-CI: 38.42; 27.53]) diagnosed illnesses and impairments (middle-ear infection, neurodermatitis, croup syndrome, vision, hearing, motor, or nutritional impairments). To which degree this is due to undiagnosed illnesses is difficult to assess without additional medical examinations of the children. It may also be partially explained by differences in reporting behaviour. Regardless, this highlights a powerful discrepancy in health status between refugee children and migrant and host-country children. In future analyses, the reports for older children will be added to investigate whether this discrepancy between reports of objective diagnoses and subjective concerns also pertains to higher ages. Additionally, we will look at potential predictors of resilience and investigate whether these vary between refugees, migrants, and the host population.

Author

• Hannes Kröger, German Institue for Economic Research (DIW)
  Presenting Author