Mentoring as a grassroots effort for integrating refugees – evidence from a randomised field experiment

Figures & data

Table 1. Local mentor characteristics.

	Mean	N
Female	0.72	72
Age	32.61	71
School degree: Still in school	0.08	71
Secondary school	0.04	71
Advanced technical college (‘Fachhochschule’) entrance qualification	0.03	71
Abitur: University entrance qualification	0.85	71
German citizenship	0.93	71
Employed	0.68	71
Married	0.21	71
Children	0.15	72

Data: Mentoring of Refugees (MORE) Local Survey, wave 1.

Figure 1. Flow diagram of intervention implementation.

Table 2. Duration of treatment in days.

	Mean	Median	SD	Min	Max	N
ITT	392	376	76	260	561	135
Matched	348	368	92	155	529	51
Actually treated	340	313	100	155	495	25

Data: IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (2020) and SwaF process data.

Note: Duration calculated as (i) interview day in 2018 – interview day in 2017 for ITT group and (ii) interview day in 2018 – matching day for matched and actually treated groups. SD = Standard deviation.

Table 3. Classification of outcome indicators.

Ager and Strang’s (2008) Integration Framework	Operationalisation in our study
Markers and Means
Employment	Currently employed, including internships and apprenticeships Satisfaction with housing Visiting educational institutions since arrival Life satisfaction
Housing
Education
Health
Social Connection
Social Bridges	Emotional social support from non-family network Composition of social network: Interactions with Germans relative to non-German persons Participation in integration course since arrival Social participation along leisure and cultural activities
Social Bonds
Social Links
Facilitators
Language and Cultural Knowledge	Speaking German language Worries about xenophobia in Germany
Safety and Stability
Foundation
Rights and Citizenship	(not analysed; most refugees in our study have a valid residence title)

Note: Information on psychological health is not available both before and after the mentoring intervention in our data. We use life satisfaction as an overall measure of well-being that has previously been used in the mentoring literature and is closely related to health (Benyamini, Leventhal, and Leventhal 2004).

Figure 2. Pre-treatment balancing (univariate), unweighted. Data: IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (2020). Notes: The squares show the differences in means between the treatment and control groups (treatment – control). The bars represent the 95% confidence intervals. ITT = Intention-to-Treat. In panel (A), the sample also includes respondents who do not participate in the follow-up survey in 2018, at the time of the evaluation of the tandems, due to panel attrition. Table 4 and Tables S3–S5 in the Appendix present the information in tabular form.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics at baseline.

	Control	ITT	Difference
Variable	Mean	Mean	Mean	(SE)	N
Weighting variables:
Age	32.70	32.56	−0.14	(0.97)	465
Female	0.34	0.38	0.04	(0.04)	465
Country of origin: Afghanistan	0.16	0.21	0.05	(0.04)	465
Iraq	0.13	0.14	0.01	(0.03)	465
Syria	0.46	0.41	−0.05	(0.05)	465
Other	0.25	0.24	−0.00	(0.04)	465
Children	0.56	0.53	−0.03	(0.05)	465
Married	0.60	0.59	−0.01	(0.05)	463
Education, pre-treatment: Primary	0.44	0.40	−0.04	(0.05)	422
Secondary	0.36	0.45	0.09*	(0.05)	422
Tertiary	0.20	0.15	−0.05	(0.04)	422
Years since arrival in Germany	2.29	2.45	0.16*	(0.09)	463
Asylum status: Approved	0.69	0.75	0.06	(0.04)	451
Rejected	0.15	0.13	−0.02	(0.03)	451
No decision	0.13	0.10	−0.03	(0.03)	451
No asylum procedure (resettlement)	0.03	0.01	−0.01	(0.01)	451
Outcome variables:
Employed	0.16	0.15	−0.01	(0.03)	465
Housing satisfaction (0–10): high (> 5)	0.60	0.54	−0.06	(0.05)	464
In education since arrival in Germany (school, voc. training, university)	0.13	0.18	0.05	(0.03)	465
Life satisfaction (0–10): high (> 5)	0.79	0.76	−0.03	(0.04)	463
Social network (1 ‘never’–6 ‘daily’): German / Non-German	1.11	1.24	0.13	(0.09)	463
Emotional social support, at least 1 person outside family	0.15	0.19	0.04	(0.04)	460
Social participation (1 ‘never’–5 ‘daily’)	1.78	1.79	0.01	(0.06)	464
Integration course participation	0.53	0.50	−0.03	(0.05)	465
Speaking German language, (1–5): at least medium (>2)	0.58	0.62	0.04	(0.05)	464
Xenophobic worries (1 ‘none’–3 ‘high’)	1.29	1.29	0.00	(0.05)	460
Total N in control and ITT group after randomisation	231	234			465

Data: IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (2020).

Notes: *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01 in two-sided t-test. SE = Standard Error. ITT = Intention-to-Treat. Sample also includes respondents who do not participate in the follow-up survey in 2018, at the time of the evaluation of the tandems, due to panel attrition. Differences in the number of observations are due to missing values, see Table S2 in the Appendix.

Figure 3. Treatment effects across integration indicators. Data: IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (2020). Notes: The bars in each box represent the 95% confidence intervals of weighted univariate regressions using our preferred weights. All treatment effects are stated relative to the control group.

Ager, Alastair, and Alison Strang. 2008. “Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework.” Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (2): 166–191. doi:10.1093/jrs/fen016.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Benyamini, Yael, Howard Leventhal, and Elaine A. Leventhal. 2004. “Self-Rated Oral Health as an Independent Predictor of Self-Rated General Health, Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction.” Social Science and Medicine 59 (5): 1109–1116. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.12.021.

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Data availability statement

All data on refugee participants, including the outcome measures, are based on secondary analyses of completely anonymised survey data that is publically available (as part of version 36 of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP 2021). These data can only be accessed for research purposes and after contractual agreement with the Research Data Centers of the DIW-Berlin or the IAB. All data is delivered with detailed documentation as part of the comprehensive and well-established documentation of the general SOEP Survey. Further information on accessing SOEP-data can be obtained here: https://www.diw.de/en/diw_02.c.222829.en/access_and_ordering.html.