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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Human Capital, Values, and Attitudes of
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
Isabella Buber-Ennser
1
*, Judith Kohlenberger
2
, Bernhard Rengs
1
, Zakarya Al Zalak
3
,
Anne Goujon
1,3
, Erich Striessnig
1,3
, Michaela Potančokova
´
1,3
, Richard Gisser
1
, Maria
Rita Testa
1,2
, Wolfgang Lutz
1,2,3
1Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, 2Department for
Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria, 3World Population
Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria
*Isabella.Buber@oeaw.ac.at
Abstract
Since its inception in 2010, the Arab Spring has evolved into a situation of violent conflict in
many countries, leading to high levels of migration from the affected region. Given the
social impact of the large number of individuals applying for asylum across Europe in 2015,
it is important to study who these persons are in terms of their skills, motivations, and inten-
tions. DiPAS (Displaced Persons in Austria Survey) aims to uncover the socio-demo-
graphic characteristics of the persons seeking refuge who arrived in Austria in 2015, mainly
originating from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Particular focus is on human capital, attitudes
and values. This survey, the first of its kind in Austria and possibly in Europe, was carried
out among adult displaced persons, mostly residing in Vienna, yielding 514 completed inter-
views. Information gathered on spouses and children allows for the analysis of 972 persons
living in Austria, and of further 419 partners and children abroad. Results indicate that the
surveyed population comprised mainly young families with children, particularly those com-
ing from Syria and Iraq. Their educational level is high compared with the average level in
their country of origin. A vast majority of respondents are Muslims, rating their religiosity at
medium levels. Judging from stated attitudes towards gender equity, interviewed men
seem to have more liberal attitudes than their compatriots. The majority of respondents do
not intend to return to their home countries, mostly because of the perception of permanent
threat. DiPAS provides data for political decision-making and the on-going societal dia-
logue. Its findings can help to inform assessments about the integration potential of the dis-
placed population into the host society. In addition, the applied methodological technique
and experiences during the fieldwork provide valuable insights on sampling asylum seekers
and refugees in the current European context.
Introduction
Since its start in 2010, the Arab Spring has evolved into a situation of civil wars in many coun-
tries in the Middle East and North Africa region,most notably in Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 1 / 29
a11111
OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Buber-Ennser I, Kohlenberger J, Rengs B,
Al Zalak Z, Goujon A, Striessnig E, et al. (2016)
Human Capital, Values, and Attitudes of Persons
Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015. PLoS ONE 11
(9): e0163481. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481
Editor: Ignacio Correa-Velez, Queensland
University of Technology, AUSTRALIA
Received: May 15, 2016
Accepted: September 9, 2016
Published: September 23, 2016
Copyright: ©2016 Buber-Ennser et al. This is an
open access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
within the Supporting Information File S1_Data.zip.
Funding: This work was supported by the Austrian
Science Fund (AT) Z171-G11, Prof. Wolfgang Lutz;
Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian
Academy of Sciences.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
Syria, with the whole region now appearing to be unstable. The turmoil has led to waves of peo-
ple seeking refuge, in a way unprecedented since World War II. While most of the displaced
persons fled within their home country (7 million in Syria) or to neighbouring countries, e.g.
from Syria to Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey (4 million), some have been making their way to
Europe [1], amounting to more than 1 million by the end of December 2015 [2]. Refuge-seek-
ing persons from Middle Eastern countries have been joined by those of other nationalities,
such as Eritreans and Afghans, who have acted upon the de facto liberalisationof policies
regarding refugee flows in many European countries.
Austria–a country in Central Europe–traditionally receives high numbers of asylum seekers,
due to its geographical location,the historical legacy of the Habsburg Empire and the historical
political turmoil in the neighbouring Eastern European countries (e.g. Hungary, Former
Czechoslovakia, Former Yugoslavia) [3–6]. During recent decades, Austria was considered as
“a preferable refuge and a friendly host” ([4], p. 529), even though its policies regarding asylum
and access to the labour market have always been quite restrictive [7]. While in 2015 the vast
majority of the persons seeking refuge in Europe aimed to apply for asylum in Germany
(which received almost half a million asylum applications in 2015 [8]), a substantial share also
came to Austria in that year. In total, 88,098 individuals applied for asylum in Austria in 2015
[9]. This number corresponds to about 1% of the Austrian population and almost 7% of all asy-
lum applicants in the EU in 2015, which made it the 4
th
biggest receiver of asylum seekers in
that year [10]. The inflow of displaced persons was highest in summer and autumn, with
roughly 60,000 asylum applications filed between July and December (S1 File).
The citizenship of asylum seekers varies both temporally and regionally within European
countries [1,9,11–14]. Most asylum applicants in Austria in 2015 were Syrians, Afghans and
Iraqis (71%). The share of these three citizenships was large also in countries such as Germany,
Sweden, Netherlands, Finland and Norway that witnessed heavy inflows of displaced persons
in 2015 [9,11,13,14].
The present study addresses an important research gap that stems from the general scarcity
of quantitative data and studies on forced migration and displaced persons (e.g. [15]), along
with a particularly acute lack of data about the recent arrivals of persons seeking refuge in
Europe. This scarcity arises partly due to the difficulties in sampling forced migrants, owing
mostly to the volatility of their status and their protection. Notable exceptions are surveys
among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon [16] and among Syrian refugees in Turkey [17].
Displaced persons resultingfrom forced migration, according to the definition of the Inter-
national Organization for Migration (IOM), leave their countries to escape man-made or natu-
ral situations that endanger their lives, freedom or livelihood. They encompass several
categories: Refugees (persons who are recognized as such under the term of the 1951 Refugee
Convention), subsidiary protected persons (who are granted temporally restricted humanitar-
ian protection), asylum seekers (persons displaced outside of their national borders who have
formally applied for international protection but whose claim has not yet been determined by
the receiving state) and internally displaced persons (who are displaced within their own
nation states).
Both the needs of displaced persons and the challengesof the receiving societies have been
studied, often using interdisciplinary approaches [18–23]. Several themes are recurrent in the
research on forced migration, such as: Vulnerable groups (e.g. women and children), individual
differences in cultural identity, opportunities of displaced persons to fully participate in their
host communities,inclusion in the host society, politics and policies of reception, as well as
intention to return home [1,4,7,15,18,24–29].
These studies employ various methodologicalapproaches, both qualitative and quantitative.
Whereas researchers typically apply methods used within their academic discipline [30],
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 2 / 29
sampling techniques used in qualitative research (like snowballing) have been suggested as an
appropriate methodology in quantitative research when working with difficult-to-access popu-
lations [31,32]. Typically, research conducted on refugees is within one community or within
one locality and cooperation with NGOs is frequently necessary [31,33–36].
A recent reviewof surveys of refugee populations concludes that “[t]he paucity of statistics
on refugees and related categories derived from sample surveys, [sic] is striking” ([37], p. 2),
especially when one considers the last fifteen years. There are few studies focusingon the char-
acteristics of displaced persons coming to Europe in recent years. A study by UNHCR [35] on
Syrians arrivingin Greece between April and September 2015 and seekingrefuge (either in
Greece or other European countries) revealed high levels of education (86% with a secondary
or university education level).
Given the heavy inflows, the economic consequencesfor the receiving countries are increas-
ingly studied in the European context [38]. Regarding asylum seekers’ potential contributions
to the host country’s economy and labour market, scholars examined macroeconomic effects
of the refugee influx for the EU [23] as well as for Turkey [39]. An OECD study discussed the
difficulties faced by refugees and persons who have been granted some sort of protection when
entering the host society’s labour market and educational system [27]. The authors conclude
that integration efforts need to be customised because refugee populations are increasingly
diverse in terms of family context, education, professional qualifications, and nationalities.
This has been also addressed recently on national levels [38,40,41].
Further studiesin the European context focusedon the choice of countryof refuge and
return to the home country. A study carried out in Norway explored the dynamics of asylum
movements and sought to answer the question of how refugees choose asylum destinations
[42]. Some other studies address refugees’ potential to return to their countries of origin after
the situation of crisis has stabilised [43,44].
The latest wave of displaced persons into Europe has resulted in a new migration situation.
In order to learn more about the displaced persons’ characteristics and also to identify their
integration potential, several surveys are currently in preparation. A survey on refugees in Ger-
many will be carried out in 2016, headed by the German Institute for Economic Research in
conjunction with the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which will focus on the living
conditions of refugees in Germany [45]. Recently the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen
announced the launch of a study on the diversity of asylum seekers in Germany [46]. More-
over, data collection in Italy and Greece has been commissioned by the World Bank, in parallel
with work in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Dueto the varied backgroundsand structure of asy-
lum seekers in individual countries, all of these studies are highly relevant to address country-
specific challenges, with the current study offering the first insights for Austria.
This survey, called DiPAS (Displaced Persons in Austria Survey) explicitly focused on dis-
placed persons with Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan citizenship due to the reasons stated above. The
fieldwork was carried out in November and December 2015, aiming to uncover the socio-
demographic characteristics of the persons seeking refuge who arrived in Austria in 2015.
Given the societal relevance of the latest migration flows in the EU, it is of the utmost impor-
tance to not only determine how many individuals are seeking asylum, but also to investigate
who these individuals are by studying their socio-economic characteristics. In other words, not
simply counting heads but also revealing what these heads contain in terms of aspirations, val-
ues, identities, and skills, and what they can offer in terms of human capital and integration
potential for the host country’s society, in turn to better inform policymakers. At the individual
level, education is found to be the most crucial factor in enhancing one’s capability to deter-
mine one’s own life, for example lifestyle, norms, behaviours, and attitudes, but it also relates to
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 3 / 29
better skills and labour market opportunities, which subsequently leads to observable positive
macroeconomic effects in the host country [47].
Material and Methods
Given the complexity of surveys on displaced persons, the preparation, sampling and data col-
lection for DiPAS are described in detail. Within the literature on displaced persons, scholars
are increasingly addressing ethical and methodological aspects of the collection of data [30,48,
49]. On top of the usual difficultiesin surveyingany trait in any particularpopulation, dis-
placed persons are in a situation of emergency and their management by local governmental
and non-governmental organizations, very often on an ad hoc basis, renders sampling difficult
[25,32,50,51].
When considering central methodological issues that emerge when carrying out surveys
with refugees, Bloch [49] stresses three main factors, which are true for displaced persons in
general: “First, refugees are for the purposes of research a hidden group. Secondly refugees are
not identifiable in official statistics. Thirdly, government ministries will not provide researchers
with information to locate refugees for reasons of confidentiality.” ([49], p. 139). Representa-
tiveness and possible biases have to be addressed within the context of any survey and scholars
have pointed out that sampling respondents is one of the main challenges faced when carrying
out surveys with refugees [30,48]. Some go as far as concluding that “representativity is an
unachievable ideal in survey research on refugee populations” ([52], p. 110). Due to the paucity
of data on refugees and asylum seekers from which to sample, surveys are usually based on
non-probability techniques and mostly rely on access to refugees through community-based
organizations or larger refugee NGOs [30]. It is argued that research on displaced persons
always involves a degree of compromise [36,53].
2.1 Study Design
Scholars underline that prior knowledge of the target group is central, especially when no sam-
pling frames are available [30,49]. Accordingly, in-depth exploratory work on allocation of dis-
placed persons to residences in Austria in the context of the large inflows in 2015 was carried
out prior to the actual DiPAS survey. Basic data on the number of asylum applications are typi-
cally collected by official institutions and government-related agencies. Monthly statistics show
that the autumn of 2015 was the season with the highestnumbers of asylum applications (S1
File). Due to the high numbers of refuge-seeking persons in 2015 in Austria, large emergency
quarters were established to accommodate them, as well as to provide basic assistance to those
transiting through Austria on their journey from the Hungarian and Slovenian borders to
other destinations (mainly Germany and the Nordic countries). Transiting displaced persons
were partly accommodated over a short period of time in special transit quarters and were not
captured in the current survey by design.
The assignment to emergency quarters by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior was
random, especially in terms of individual characteristics including citizenship and human capi-
tal. A large share of the asylum seekers was first accommodated in Vienna, Austria’s capital
and largest city by far (located in the East of the country close to the Hungarian border, from
where most asylum seekers were arriving), before being assigned to more permanent housing
facilities all over the country, including rural areas. In Vienna, the high concentration of asy-
lum seekers in emergency quarters is indicatedby the fact that by the endof November 2015,
when the fieldwork was conducted, one-third of all displaced persons receiving basic assistance
were residing in such accommodations. (In Austria, displaced persons receive basic assistance
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 4 / 29
while their asylum application is pending, as well as for a transition period of four months fol-
lowing the approval of their application.)
For reasons of financial and logistical feasibility, our strategy was to focus on newly arrived
displaced persons residing in these large emergency quarters. The survey was conducted in
seven NGO-run refugee housing facilities in and around Vienna, among them four large emer-
gency quarters and three smaller locations (in Austria, only a small number of care centres for
displaced persons are managed directly by the federal state–the vast majority are operated by
NGOs on behalf of the federal provinces.) Within each accommodation, interviewers
approached individuals to ask for participation. Additionally, in the large emergency quarters
we benefitted from indirect snowball effects, as those who gave an interview approached others
within their accommodation and told them about the survey. The fieldwork was carried out
during November and December 2015. Approval was obtained from the Ethical Committee of
the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Participants provided their verbal informed consent to par-
ticipate in the study; the interviewerread out the introductory text to the questionnaire and the
participant verbally agreed to participate. Written consent was not obtained to ensure anonym-
ity of the participants. We did not document participant consent, as only the participants giv-
ing their consent were interviewed. The ethics committee approved our procedure.
2.2 Data Collection
The questionnaire was based on the LFS (Labour Force Survey), WVS (World Value Survey),
SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) and GGS (Generations and Gen-
der Survey) [54–56]. Moreover, specific questions to investigate potential inclusion in the
labour market were added. The questionnaire (S2 File; Arabic and Farsi/Dari questionnaires
available upon request) was organised around five main themes:
1. Demography: Age, gender, country of origin, ethnicity, marital status, former place of
residence;
2. Human capital: Highest educational attainment (ISCED97 classification), type of schooling,
occupational trainings, language competence;
3. Employment: Former participation in the labour market, type of employment (NACE and
ISCO classification), number of hours worked;
4. Health: Self-perceived health, grip strength, limitation in activities of daily living;
5. Attitudes and values: Religion, democracy, gender equity, division of household work. Data
were collected using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) techniques.
2.3 Recruitment and Training of Interviewers
The interviews were carried out by volunteers and students. Interview languages were Arabic,
Farsi/Dari and English, to ensure that the majority of respondents could be addressed in their
native language or a lingua franca. This strategy aimed to avoid a bias towards more highly
educated respondents that would be the result of only offeringthe questionnaire in English, or
requiring basic literacy, as is the case with paper and pencil questionnaires. Interviews in Ara-
bic and Farsi/Dari were carried out by native speakers residing in Austria, many of whom had
a refugee background. Although the participation of refugees in data collection and research
has to be critically assessed from ethical and methodological perspectives [57], the inclusion of
refugees as biculturalaides in the development of the survey and as interviewersturned out to
be crucial. All interviewers received extensive training, including intercultural competence
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 5 / 29
training focusing on diverging cultural backgrounds between the interviewers and respondents.
After the fieldwork, interviewers were offered a psychological supervision meeting by a clinical
psychologist.
2.4 Pre-Tests and Adaption of Questionnaire
Prior to the fieldwork, an intensive pre-test phase with 52 interviews was conducted, which
consisted of multiple small-scale pre-tests and statistically analysed interviews.
This phase was crucial for identifying questions that would prove too sensitive, controversial
or otherwise difficult and could result in the termination of the interviewby the interviewee.
Both in the development of the questionnaire and its adaptation based on pre-tests, aspects of
access, trust, vulnerability and fear were considered [30,58]. Additionally, the pre-test phase
was necessary for technicaltests of interview equipment, and to identify the legaland actual
feasibility of conducting interviews in different interview situations and facilities. Insights
gained during the pilot phase are potentially valuable to other social science disciplines and can
be further analysed and triangulated with other qualitative and quantitative research studies on
displaced persons.
2.5 Fieldwork Observations
The use of native Arabic- and Farsi/Dari-speaking interviewers and interpreters helped to
establish trust and ensure that the sections explaining the survey’s purpose were truly under-
stood (for research on the participation of refugeesin the research process we refer to [57]).
Respondents were repeatedly reassured of the purely scientific purpose of DiPAS in the course
of each interview. Interviewers systematically emphasised that the survey waspart of an inde-
pendent academic research project, not related to government institutions, and would not
affect respondents’ asylum application or status (S2 File). Furthermore information sheets in
English, Arabic, and Farsi/Dari were distributed at all facilities prior to the actual interview
dates, to introduce the team of researchers, and to explain the purpose of the survey. Taking all
these measures into account, the DiPAS team judges that respondents were made sufficiently
aware of the purpose of their participation in the survey, a particularly pertinent question for
studies in whichinterviewers and respondents have divergingnational and cultural back-
grounds [42].
According to the UNHCR, “[i]n research involving interviewing refugees it must be borne
in mind that ethical considerations are relevant. Not only may experiences of trauma and inse-
curity have characterised an individual refugee’s flight and journey, but such experiences often
continue into the settlementcontext and may influence the individual’s ability and desire to
integrate. These experiences may also affect refugees’ willingness and ability to participate in
research” ([25], p. 23). Others have raised the issue of trust and mistrustboth of and towards
refugees [53,58,59], as the experiences of displaced persons in their country of origin and–if
externally displaced–on their way to the country where seeking protection, might create their
mistrust at various levels. Throughout the project, these restrictions and special conditions for
interviewing recent refugees in Austria were taken into consideration and, if applicable,
addressed in all stages of survey design, implementation, and analysis.
2.6 Sample Size
In total, 528 complete interviews were conducted, with the average time for one interview
being 20 minutes. Another 22 interviews were started, but aborted by the respondents for vari-
ous reasons (e.g.one person did not want to speakabout the family, some had to leave for lan-
guage courses). Almost two-thirds of the interviews were mainly carried out in Arabic, 20% in
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 6 / 29
Farsi/Dari, and 11% in English. In total, 47% of the interviews were completely conducted by a
native speaking interviewer, 32% were mainly interpreted by native speakers, 5% were partially
interpreted by native speakers and 16% were supported by writtentranslations only. Of the 528
interviews, 37% were conducted by male and 63% by female interviewers. A substantial num-
ber (33%) of those interviews carried out by female interviewers were conducted in English and
assisted by male Arabic-, Farsi- or Pashto-speaking bicultural aids.
Restricting the sample to adult persons arriving in 2015 leads to a final sample of 514 inter-
views. Among these, 81% arrived in Austria between September and November 2015, showing
that the sample captures particularly those who arrived in large numbers in autumn 2015. The
final sample comprises 38% of respondents withIraqi citizenship, 36% with Syrian,16% with
Afghan, and 10% with other citizenship (S1 Table). Therefore, almost three in four respondents
were Iraqi or Syrian citizens. The 514 records include information on partners and children so
that in total 1,391 individuals are captured in the survey, 972 of them living in Austria at the
time of the interview and 419 living abroad (S2 Table). We are aware that information on fam-
ily members might include bias in reporting.
2.7 Sample Validation
We calculated the participation rates in the different locations of interviews. To validate the
DiPAS sample for representativeness, we compared it to several existing statistics on the popu-
lation of refugees/asylumseekers in Austria and Vienna, in terms of numbers,age, and
citizenship.
Participation rates in the different housing locations were calculated for the locations where
the numbers of adult residents were provided. In the largest emergency quarters participation
rates amount to 28% and 44% respectively, and in two of the smaller quartersthey were as high
as 64% and 77%. Unfortunately, participation rates cannot be calculated for all seven locations
due to the incompleteness of provided lists or data confidentiality issues in some locations.
The DiPAS sample is first compared with the number of asylumseekers in Austria. The size
of the DiPAS sample corresponds to 1.2% of persons seekingasylum in Austria in 2015. Since
all of the respondents arrived before December 2015, the size of the sample increases to 1.4% of
those arriving in the first eleven months. Available aggregated data allow a differentiation by
citizenship and broad age groups. A comparison of all asylum seekers in Austria in 2015
(excluding unaccompanied minors) with the 972 asylum-seeking individuals living in Austria
captured in the sample reveals an almost identical distribution in terms of age.
Further specification by citizenship shows that among Afghans, the proportion of children
included in the DiPAS sample is higher than in the general refugee population (41% versus
35%), which might be explained by the fact that the comparably small group of Afghan respon-
dents includes several persons with particularly large families (4 to 6 children). Among Syrian
asylum seekers captured in the DiPAS sample, the share of children below the age of 18 is
smaller (25% versus 34%), whereasmore Syrians were aged 18 to 45 years (65% versus 59%) or
46 to 60 years (9% versus 6%).Deviations in the distributionby large age groups among Iraqis
are very small and for those with other citizenships the distribution in the DiPAS sample is
almost identical to the one for the whole of Austria. To summarise, the comparison with the
total of roughly 80,000 asylum seekers (not including unaccompanied minors) by age group
and citizenship indicated no evidence of a substantial bias in the DiPAS sample.
Next, our sample was compared with available official data on individuals residing in emer-
gency quarters and receiving basic assistance in Vienna. The sample (including respondents,
their spouse, and children if living in Austria) represents 15% of individuals residing in emer-
gency quarters in Vienna at the time of the fieldwork. The proportion is high for Syrian and
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
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Iraqis (19% and 28% respectively), meaning that the current survey captures a substantial
share of Iraqi and Syrian asylum seekers living in Vienna. However, the proportions of Afghans
and other citizenshipsare low. Given this low share on the one hand, and theoverall low num-
ber of Afghans in the DiPAS sample on the other hand, the results for Afghan asylum seekers
should be considered with caution. Nevertheless, they provide valuable insights into this
population.
Results
We explore below the themes covered by the DiPAS questionnaire in terms of the demographic
characteristics, educational attainment, language knowledge, skills and competences, health,
religion and attitudes.
3.1 Demography
As shown in S1 Table, the majority of respondents were men (82%). More than 50% of men
were below age 30, while the proportion was around 36% for women. Conversely, there are
more women than men above the age of 40 years (27% versus 17%). Three in four interviewees
were seeking asylum in Austria, while for some the country of application was still unclear
(16%). Given that most respondents had just arrived, only a few held refugee status at the time
of the interview and were thus holding a Convention Travel Document. The sur vey captured
the large inflows in fall 2015 as seven in ten of the interviewed displacedpersons arrived in
Austria in September or October 2015.
Thirty-eight percentof respondents had Iraqi citizenship, 36% had Syrian, 16% had Afghan,
and 10% had other citizenship (S1 Table). Iraqi respondents came mainly from Baghdad, Nine-
veh, and Basra, Syrians mainly from the governorate of Aleppo, Damascus and Homs.
Before fleeing to Austria, eight in ten respondents were living in their own home or in their
family’s home, while only two in ten were living in rented accommodation. Property ownership
was common among Syrian (87%) and Iraqi (76%) respondents, and to a somewhatlesser
extent among Afghans (67%). Almost all respondents travelled to Europe through Turkey.
Roughly one in four estimated their per-person travel costs to Austria to be less than US$2,000,
and about one in four paid US$2,000to US$2,999. About 20% paid US$3,000 to US$3,999, and
30% mentioned costs of US$4,000 or more per person (S1 Table). If we consider that per capita
income per year amounted to about US$300 in Syria in 2011, such costs correspond to an aver-
age income of ten years in pre-war times in Syria [60]. Families travelling together had to pay a
multiple thereof. Given the fact that exchange rates have seen drastic changes between 2011
and 2015, the average costs of travel found by DiPAS (in 2015) indicate a much higher financial
burden in real terms.
Taking into consideration the interviewed displaced persons, their spouses, and children liv-
ing in Austria leads to a number of 972 individuals included in the survey (S2 Table). In the
overall sample of individuals living inAustria, two-thirds were aged 16 to 45 years, about one
in four were childrenbelow the age of 16, and a small share (7%) were over the age of 45.
Among Afghans, the share of children belowthe age of 16 was larger (37%), Syrians were more
often over the age of 45, although this share remains below 10% in the current survey.
Information on thefamily members still abroad is important in order to assess thenumber
and characteristics of individuals who may later join the current asylum seekers through family
unification if/after they have been granted asylum in Austria. In addition to the 972 individuals
already living in Austria, a further 419 close family members (i.e. spouses or children) were
abroad at the time of the interview. Further specification shows that the population eligible for
family reunification(373 individuals) consists of children under theage of 18 and spouses.
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 8 / 29
When this number is related to the 972 adults already living in Austria, the estimated potential
for family reunificationcan be given as 38 individuals per 100 asylum seekers in our sample
(14 spouses and 24 minor children, see S2 Table). Children over the age of 18 represent a
smaller group and are furthermore not eligible for formal family reunion. An age pyramid for
displaced persons captured in DiPAS living in Austria and abroad is shown below (Fig 1).
The family status of the individuals captured in the survey who were living in Austria at the
time of the interviewwas as follows: 39% were married,3% divorced or widowed, 23% were
single, and further 5% were adult children travelling with their parent(s), whereas 30% were
minors below the age of 18. The composition varied to some extent per subgroup, with the pro-
portion of married individualsbeing highest among Syrians (42%) and lowest among Iraqis
(36%). Men in their twenties represented the largest group of unmarried individuals (S1 Fig).
3.2 Educational Attainment
The potential for inclusion in the labour market of the refugee population is comprised of two
main components: Their education and their professional skills [61]. The positive selection of
migrants with greater education and skills has been widely documentedand although it is not
universal, the theory that migrants tend to have higher than average skills compared to the gen-
eral population of theircountry of origin tends to hold in the study of migration streams to EU
and OECD countries [62]. While refugees and asylum seekers differ from economic migrants,
one might nevertheless expect that those individuals crossing multiple borders by paying their
passage to smugglers would usually come from the medium economic strata of the population,
and therefore have had access to education. The poorest, and presumably least educated, would
Fig 1. Family structure of displaced persons captured in the survey, by gender and age. Source: DiPAS, n = 1,391 individuals captured in
the survey.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481.g001
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 9 / 29
not be able to afford to make the journey and would therefore be displaced within theircountry
of origin or to neighbouring countries instead. Also, the less well-educated might be more
inclined to join the armed forces than those with more education who have access to other
opportunities, including draft dodging, which has become prevalent in Syria in the years since
the beginning of the civil war.
In this section, the analysis concentrates on the educational attainment of the displaced per-
sons in the DiPAS sample (including the adult children and the spouses of respondents who
are already in Austria). Furthermore, the educational level of the persons in DiPAS is compared
to that of the general populationin the country of origin (Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan), and in
the country of destination (Austria), to gain important informationon the selectiveness and
comparability of thesample. The analysis does not control for the quality of education of the
different populations and simply focuses on the quantity, which could form a potential caveat.
However, preliminary analysis by the AMS (Public Employment Service Austria) [63] shows
that refugees’ levels of competence and skills are largely in line with their levels of education
and/or occupation, which would increase their potential for integration in the host country’s
labour market.
The share of the respondents who have received no formal education at all, or just spent a
few years in primary school without completing the final grade is very low in the sample. It is
around 15% for allrespondents (including spousesand adult children in Austria), but much
lower among the Syrians (7%) and Iraqis (9%) than among the Afghans (25%) (Fig 2). Con-
versely, the large majority of displaced persons who arrived in Austria in 2015 have achieved at
least compulsory education; 70% of the sample including the respondent’s spouse and adult
children. (Compulsory education inSyria and Afghanistan consists of six years of primary
Fig 2. Educational attainment of respondents, spouses and adult children in Austria (saturated colours) and abroad (pale colours),
20–59 age group. Source: DiPAS. Remark: The count of Afghans living abroad is too low in the sample to be represented (n = 22).
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481.g002
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education and three years of lower secondaryeducation. In Iraq, only the completion of pri-
mary education is compulsory.) We did not find a statistically significant difference between
men and women (not shown in the figure).
At the highest levels of the education scale, Fig 2 shows that 47% of the respondents in the
sample have at least an upper secondary education and 26% have a higher education (post-sec-
ondary education, encompassing tertiary education e.g. bachelor degree as well as shorter post-
secondary courses). The share that reported higher education is as high as 31% in Iraqi respon-
dents and 27% in those from Syria. When distinguishing between college/bachelor’s and mas-
ter’s degree, the overwhelming majority of the population with a post-secondary education
hold a college/bachelor’s degree (87%). Some Syrian male respondents mentioned during the
interview that they did not complete university studies to avoid recruitment in the Syrian
army. Many young respondents expressed the wish to finish their studies in Austria (see also
section 3.3). The difference in levels of education between the three main nationalities is pro-
nounced: While 53% of the Syrians and 46% of the Iraqis have at least an upper secondary edu-
cation, this share is below 30% among the Afghans.
The figures presented above do not change radically whether considering the sample of 618
adults present in Austria or the 780 persons including the population abroad. Although informa-
tion on partners and children are proxies only and might be biased, looking at people left behind
is important, since a large share of those might reach Austria through family reunification in the
coming years (especially from Syria) once refugee claims are accepted. It is noticeable that the
respondents who arrived from January to August 2015 were to some extent less well-educated
than those who came after August: 37% of the early-2015-arrivers had an upper secondary or
higher education, compared with 49% among those who arrived in the three months after August.
Moreover, there were also more individuals with at most primary schooling among those who
arrived from January to August (39% compared to 29% among those who arrived later).
The comparison to the Austrian working age population shows that the share of highly edu-
cated native residents is comparable with the share in the refugeepopulation, in particular Syr-
ian and Iraqi respondents (29% compared with 28% in the Austrian population) (Fig 3).
Fig 3. Educational attainment of the Austrian population and DiPAS respondents, spouses and adult
children in Austria, age 20–59. Source: Register data for 2013, Statistics Austria and DiPAS.
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Almost half of the respondents from Syria and Iraq have completed at least an upper secondary
education. However, the total share of respondents in the sample who have completed an
upper secondary education (21%) is less than half that of the Austrians (53%). Conversely, the
share of respondents with at most primary education is much higher among the respondents
from the DiPAS sample (30%) than among the Austrians (Fig 3).
Gender differentials in the levels of educational attainment reported are quite low. The dif-
ference is only clearly visible for thosewho have not received any formal education, where the
share for women is higherthan that for men: 10% and 4%, respectively. This finding is in line
with most studies about the gender gap.
The share of persons with at most some primary education is higher among the older age
group in bothmen and women, and the share of those with secondaryor higher education is
lower for both genders.Those aged 20–29 years (the most numerous 10-year age group in the
sample) are more educated than those aged 30–59 years: 55% of thosein the 20–29 age group
have an upper secondary education or more, compared with 41% in the 30–59 age group. The
general pattern stays the same but the differences are pronounced between the Syrian and Iraqi
respondents and other citizens (mostly Afghans).
Our conclusions on the general levels of educationalattainment of the respondents appears
to corroborate the findingsof the survey on the competences of 898 refugees implemented
between August and December by the AMS [63]. The levels of education observed at the level
of each country of citizenship is very similar: 55% of the Syrianshave attained an upper sec-
ondary or higher educationaccording to the AMS, and 53% according to DiPAS. For the Iraqis,
the corresponding shares are 55% and 46%, and for the Afghans, 24% and 29%. It is worth not-
ing that the main difference is among the samples of Iraqi citizens, where the AMS sample is
more limited (40 persons compared to 240 persons in the DiPAS sample). This difference
stems from the gender differentials, where Syrian women interviewed by the AMS tend to have
attained higher levels of education compared to men in the AMS sample, and also compared to
both men and women in the DiPAS sample.
When capturing education in DiPAS, we did not ask for certificates as it would have compli-
cated or disrupted the interview. As respondents had only recently arrived in Austria, they
might not have had time for formal translation or accreditation by Austrian authorities. Addi-
tionally, they might not have been able to provide certificates at all, having them left behind or
lost them during their journey to Austria. The competence checks conductedby the AMS to
some extent try to verify missing certificates [64]. For similar reasons, the Austrian government
recently passed a law on the recognition and assessment of qualifications to support immi-
grants in receiving quicker accreditation of foreign degrees and documents acquired abroad
(see also [64]).
As previously mentioned, one might expect that displaced persons would be more educated
than the general population in their country of origin. The comparison betweenthe two groups
is not easy due to data availability issues. However, by looking at the high share of refugees
with post-secondary education, it becomes clear that the forced migrants differ greatly from
the general population. The simple comparison shown in Fig 4 illustrates that the interviewed
Syrian and Afghan displaced persons are much more highly educated than the general popula-
tion. For Syrians, this comparison is based on the last reliable data from the 2004 census. As
individuals in the country of origin are on average older than persons included in DiPAS, we
restricted–for Syria–the comparison to the age group 25–45 and found similar results (Fig 4,
right part).
Although Afghan displaced persons have much lower education levels compared to Syrians
and Iraqis, theyare much more highly educated than the adultsof working age in Afghanistan.
The lower general education level of the Afghans stems from the severe conditions that affected
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the education system in Afghanistan for many decades, due to war, for example after theSoviet
invasion in 1979, and also due to regimes that oppose schooling such as the Taliban regime in
the late 1990s.
As shown earlier, Iraqi respondents have the highest levels of education, with as many as
31% post-secondary educated. This indicates that they are also a very strongly self-selected
group and not representative of the general Iraqi population, which, according to the latest
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) survey conducted by UNICEF [66], has a majority
with primary education or less (51% among household heads and 57% among women).
Within a broader perspectiveof education and human capital, we briefly refer to language
competence and knowledgeof the language of the receiving country, as these certainly help the
displaced individuals to adapt to their new setting and culture, and are important for integration
into the society as well as in the labourmarket. It turns out that 52% of the persons interviewed
in DiPAS spoke another language in addition to their mother tongue (54% of Syrian, 49% of
Iraqi, and 41% of Afghanrespondents spoke another language). As many as half of those who
spoke another languagespoke Turkish, Kurdish or another local language,while 37% spoke
English and an additional 13% another European language, including German (2%). These num-
bers clearly show the needfor language courses to be provided to forced migrants in Austria.
3.3 Employment
While access to the labour market is highly restricted for asylum seekers in Austria and other
European countries (cf. [67]), refugees and people under subsidiary protection who enter the
Fig 4. Educational attainment of the general population in the country of citizenship and DiPAS respondents, spouses and
adult children in Austria, aged 20+ years. Sources: DiPAS, Central Bureau of Statistics (2004) for Syria, Central Statistics
Organisation [65] for Afghanistan. Notes: No recent representative survey is available for the Iraqi population. Age ranges reflect
availability of data.
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workforce, despite language barriers and frequent loss of qualification certificates and other
documentation, have a higher likelihood of being overqualified for the positions they work in
[25]. This has also recently been confirmed for the German labour market, which shares many
of its characteristics with the Austrian one [40]. Further challenges include issues of poor men-
tal and physical health and difficultiesin the translation and transfer of educational and profes-
sional certificates [7,21,22,68]. Hence, forced migrants typically face more difficulties when
searching for a job in the host country than regular migrants [69–71]. Conversely, studies have
shown that refugees are highly motivated to catch up with the success of other migrant groups,
partly due to a lack of return options [72], and that they have more often been self-employed
than the population in the host country, which suggests a pronounced entrepreneurial spirit
among displaced persons [73].
Regarding the previous work experience of respondents, an overwhelming majority (72%)
of refugees have already participated in the labour market in their home country at some point
in the past. Since a lack of work experiencein the host society has been shown to be one of the
main reasons for refugees’ difficulties when searching for a job [74], extensive work experience
in the country of origin must be evaluated as a positive starting condition. Perhaps unsurpris-
ingly, we found a clear gender differentiation between men’s (90%) and women’s (42%) levels
of previous work experience. Many women in the DiPAS sample had young children, which
may offer one explanation of their lack of participation in paid-work activities, along with
other explanations such as a scarcity of jobs, security challenges in conflict-ridden areas, and
cultural preferences. However, 75% of women with a post-secondary education reported previ-
ous work experience, compared to 35% among those with primary or secondary education.
Education levels did not make a large difference to job experience among men as they are gen-
erally expected to be the main breadwinners. Notably, male respondents’ female spouses who
had not yet arrived in Austria had a considerably lower likelihood (30%) of having actively par-
ticipated in the labour market than female respondents or spouses who were already in Austria
(51%).
Looking at the actual occupational fields in which respondents had gained work experience,
once again a clear gender bias was detected. Overall, there are two main areas of occupation
dominant among female respondents: Education (26%) and “other service activities” (20%).
This trend correlates well with the distribution of female labour market participants in Austria
[75]. Furthermore, about 11% of female respondents had been working in “human health and
social work activities”, a sector which is widely regarded as having considerable growth poten-
tial due to Europe’s aging population and the rising demand in care workers for the elderly.
This distribution may cautiously be assessed as favourable for the Austrian labour market and
civil society, although such integration successes also strongly depend on which region in the
host society refugees will eventually be settled in [71], especially if one considers Austria’s pro-
nounced urban-rural divide.
A stronger contrast between the Austrian and the DiPAS sample populations can be found
among respondents indicating work experience in “professional, scientific and technical activi-
ties”, a branch which represents 6% of the Austrian female labour force and 4% of the male one
[75]. In the DiPAS sample, however, 10% of female and male respondents with previous work
experience indicated that theyhad previously workedin this field. Given thefact that many
available occupations within this category typically require upper secondary to tertiary educa-
tion, it remains to be seen how far language barriers and lack of qualification documentation
(such as work certificates and educational degrees) affect both male and female refugees’ entry
into this particular sector of the Austrian labour market (see also [64]). Recent national policy
initiatives, such as professional mentoring for refugees and persons under subsidiary protection
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and support for companies who provide language coursesfor such employees [76], may help to
address these difficulties.
Besides questions on previous economic activity and occupation, respondents were asked
about their plans, intentions and expectations for life in Austria, including possible plans for
employment or further education (school, university, college). Fig 5 shows the distribution of
all respondents with previous labourmarket experience, with the options “search for a job”
and “continue school/studying” scoring the highest percentages (67% and 30% respectively).
Regarding the question on their future plans in Austria, the majority of respondents chose
“search for a job”, but the option “continue school/studying” was predominant among younger
respondents (Fig 5). In the relevant age groups of 15–19 years and 20–24 years, 71% and 46%
respectively indicated that they wish to continue/complete their education in the host country
after having been granted asylum or subsidiary protection. In comparison, only 25% and 52%
respectively in these age groups intend to search for a job and enter the workforce straight
away (Fig 5).
3.4 Health
The healthy immigrant theory [77,78] states that there is a self-selection bias present among
immigrants so that they are typically healthier than their compatriots who have not chosen to
leave their country of origin, and also healthierthan natives of the country into which theyare
trying to immigrate. Kohls [79] found that victims of civil war and asylum seekers fleeing vio-
lence and political instability will be less likely to fit this pattern because the motivations for
fleeing violence and civil war are very different from those that prompt standard economic
immigration, and are even likely to increase the number of unhealthy migrants within the pop-
ulation. Nevertheless, respondents included in the DiPAS sample appear to be in very good
health: Most of them reported “good” or “very good” health (85%), no chronic health problems
(84%) and not having been unable to work in the last six months due to a health related issues
(83%).
Fig 5. Intention to work and/or study after having received official asylum status in Austria, by age groups.
Source: DiPAS, n = 437 individuals with previous labour market experience captured in the survey, living in Austria.
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In general, women report their health as being worse than that of men, with only 69% com-
pared to 89% of men self-assessing their health as “good” or “very good”. This gender differ-
ence is observed not only in migrant populations but also in autochthonous populations [80].
In interpreting this gender difference it has to be taken into consideration that women in the
DiPAS sample are on average almost three years older than men (the mean age is 33.3 years for
women and 30.5 years for men), and that the small sample size could also affect the statistics.
In comparison to Austrians [81] it would appear that displaced persons’ health status is polar-
ised by gender, with males reporting better health (89% compared with 81% of Austrian males)
and women reporting worse health (69% compared with 77% of Austrian females) than in the
host country’s population.
The survey captures some basic background information on the respondents’ journey to
Austria, including the question of whether individuals had spent some time in a nation other
than their home country (e.g. refugee camps in Lebanon). There is also evidence of an inverse
relationship between having moved away from one’s nation of birth and willingness to return
home once ill. Those respondents who had not moved to another nation before leaving their
homes as asylum seekers are more likely to be willing to consider returning home (although
absolute numbers related to the earlier movers are here very low, suggesting caution in reading
such a result). Thisresult suggests that there couldbe a “homing instinct” among some individ-
uals, but that those whohave already moved away from home are less likely to wish to return
to their country of origin.
3.5 Religion and Attitudes
Another important area of refugee integration about which little is known regards their values
and attitudes. An often-voiced concernis that migrants and refugees, particularlyMuslims,
would reject Western values altogether and resist integration [82,83]. Evidence from the
World Values Survey (WVS) suggests the existence of a deep cultural divide between Islamic
and Western societies and that the “true clash of civilisations” is not about democracy, but
rather attitudes towards issues such as divorce, abortion, gender equality, and gay rights [84,
85], all of which can (but do not have to) be justified through a religious lens.
The religious identity of persons seekingrefuge became part of the political and mediadis-
course at a very early stage of the “refugee crisis” (e.g. [86,87]). This is not surprising, since in
most of the receiving countries, negative, mostly discriminatory and hostile attitudes toward
Muslims prevail (e.g. [88] in France). While destination countries such as Austria often lag
behind others in areas such as equal pay for equal work, or the gender distribution of childcare
and work in the informal economy [89,90], there is also broad evidence of “acculturation”
among immigrants: Over time, immigrants tend to adapt their gender ideology to the stan-
dards of their country of residence, without necessarily ceasing to follow their own religious
beliefs [91]. Norris and Inglehart ([92], p. 230) even go so far as to quantify this diminishing
cultural distance, stating that “the basic values of Muslims living in Western societies fall
roughly halfway between the dominant values prevailing within their countries of destination
and origin.” It is unclear though whether this is equally true for people that did not migrate vol-
untarily but were forced to leave their countries of origin. To assess this “cultural distance”, as
well as religiosity and how these two factors interact for the displaced persons arriving in Aus-
tria in 2015, respondents to DiPAS, who are evidently at the beginning of their journey towards
integration, were asked to respond to questions about their attitudes toward gender equality,
abortion, religious education in school, and religious intensity.
In DiPAS, respondents were asked about their own religious affiliation, but not about the
religion of theirspouse or children. As expected, the vast majority of the Iraqi, Syrian,and
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Afghan populations in the DiPAS sample are Muslim: 95% across the threenationalities and
88% in the overall sample including other nationalities (S1 Table). The difference is mostly due
to the larger share of other religions, particularly Christianity, among Iranian respondents.
This could be linked to the fact that migrants of the Iranian diaspora often seek to reject the rig-
orous Islamic identity imposed by the Iranian state [93]. Among Iraqis, Syrians, and Afghans
only about 2–3% of were Christians. The share of Christians among the Syrian displaced per-
sons is below the estimates of the actual size of Christian communities in Syria before the con-
flict. Potential reasons for this low number of Christians include that (1) Christians have
tended to support the Bashar al-Assad regime and are less targeted by the attacks that are par-
ticularly aimed at densely Sunni-populated areas and (2) that Christians were more present in
earlier waves, or went to other, non-EU countries in the Middle East or elsewhere,or (3) arrive
through informal networks such as diaspora Syrian Christians already in Austria, and are thus
not located in emergency quarters, but elsewhere. The share of respondents who declared no
religion was negligible, especially among Iraqis and Syrians (0.5%).
The respondents were also asked to rate their religiosity, meaning the intensity of their religious
practice and/or belief, on a scale from 1 (not religious at all) to 10 (very religious). Many found it
problematic to quantify their religiosity and a large share of the respondents (40%) chose 5, the
median value. It has to be mentioned that caution is neededwith interpretation of the results on
religiosity due to interviewer bias, as results differ for the respondents interviewed in their native
language versus in English, with reported religiosity being lower among the latter group.
In accordance withthe literature, women tend to bemore religious compared to men [94]
and the percentage of people identifying as very religious declines with increasing education
[95]. When looking at the upper and the lower end of the distribution in Fig 6, the results
Fig 6. Percentage of respondents with very high or low values of self-assessedreligiosity. Source:
Displaced Persons in Austria Survey (DiPAS). Remark: Values in square brackets are the mean values reported
by the given subgroup.
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indicate that more displaced persons report not being religious (20% who answered 1 or 2)
than being very religious (11% who answered 9 or 10). Asked about their tolerance of other
religions, a large majority of respondents to DiPAS (68%) would not mind if his/her child(ren)
were taught in school about otherreligious traditions, as is the case in Austrian public schools.
The acculturation mentioned above in terms of attitudes about gender roles also has a
strong effect on the ability of immigrant women to integrate into a host country’s labour mar-
ket [96,97], as immigrant groups from countries with less egalitarian gender roles tend to have
lower female labour market participation and higher fertility rates [98]. These effects can per-
sist into subsequent generations as gender roles are transmitted between generations and can
lead to significant inter-ethnic gender wage gaps [99].
The first statement that respondents were asked to agree or disagree with was: “When jobs
are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women”. Differences between the values
subscribed to by men and women in DiPAS are rather small, with roughly 50% of both men
and women responding in the affirmative (Fig 7, left chart). Women appear to be more decided
and chose both “agree” and “disagree” more frequently, avoiding the neutral option, although
the total number of female respondents is low. Nevertheless, comparison with the Iraqi WVS
shows that the DiPAS results are very similar for female respondents, whereas men tend to be
far less traditional in the DiPAS sample (Fig 7, left chart).
Responses to DiPAS more closely resemble the Iraqi results than the Austrian or German
responses. In the two neighbouring German-speaking countries, which are not only in geo-
graphical proximity and share a common cultural history, but largely coincided in their initial
political response to the refugee crisis, disagreement with the statement “When jobs are scarce,
men should have more rights to a job than women” exceeded 60% alreadyin 2008 among both
men and women. However, men in the DiPAS sample disagree with the statement more often
Fig 7. "When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.” Agreement in the Displaced Persons in Austria
Survey (DiPAS) and in the European and World Values Survey. Sources: WVS; own calculations; Displaced Persons in Austria Survey
(DiPAS). Remark: “Arab respondents” include people from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481.g007
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than Arab or Iraqi men in the WVS sample. On the one hand, this could be the continuation of
an on-going trend towards a greaterawareness of issues of genderequality in the Arab world,
as suggested by the pooled results from nine countries in the region where the surveywas con-
ducted in 2013 and 2014 (Fig 7, left chart, middle columns). On the other hand, it could also
mean that male adults who more strongly support women’s rights at home and at the work
place tend to leave their country of origin more frequently than their more traditionally ori-
ented peers. This perspective is supported by the evidence that conservative attitudes in general
are associated with lower levels of education(results available on request).
Since the majority of the interviewerswere female, whereas the interviewees were predomi-
nantly male, there is a risk of interviewer effects, particularly when they are asking questions
about gender attitudes [100,101]. However, when looking at the differences in response behav-
iour of the male respondents (only 35 women were interviewed by male interviewers), despite
the small number of respondents, it appears that their behaviour hardly differs by the gender of
the interviewer.
When asked about the role of women in the workplace,a vast majority of both women
(85%) and men (68%) agreedthat “Having a job is the best way for a woman to be an indepen-
dent person”. This result stands in stark contrast to widespread expectations that people fleeing
from predominantly Muslim countries would adhere to a traditional, exclusively-male-bread-
winner model and is confirmed by responses to three other statements regarding the role of
women in the workplace and society more broadly. While religion is an important influence on
the attitudes included in DiPAS, particularly with regard to women working outside the family,
even among the more religious male respondents predominantly gender-egalitarian views pre-
vail (results available on request). Thus, the results based on DiPAS seem to dismiss the popu-
lar stereotype, described by Read [102] in the US context, of Arab women being Islamic
traditionalists–veiled and secluded within the home.
DiPAS allows analysis not only of the respondents’ attitudes, but also their behaviours and
decisions, by asking about household decision-making in everyday situations, such as shop-
ping, childcare or the distribution of housework. Household chores are regarded traditionally
as belonging to women, financial decisions to men. Among those currently or previously part-
nered, it is not necessarily the man who takes the decisionsand the woman who is exclusively
in charge of the household chores while not having any say in financial matters. In fact, deci-
sions regarding thehousehold finances were mostly handled jointly by the couple. It might be
concluded that traditional gender roles are intact insofar as we found that very few (formerly)
married men would take the larger share of the intrafamilial care or housework. However, a
large percentage of female respondents confirmed that their husbands do at least help with
these tasks.
3.6 Plans to Return Home
Considerations about the situation in the respondents’ home country are important for the
nature and degree of integration of migrants, hence their permanent or casual assessment of
political, security, socioeconomic, family, and kinship situations may play crucial roles in refu-
gees’ decisions to stay in the host country or eventually return to their countries of origin [43,
44,103]. These may have specific relevance to the victims of persecution, war refugees, dis-
placed persons, or forced migrants in general. It is clear, however, that in a concrete decision-
making process, both successful and failed (or deficient) integration may result in the decision
to either stay or return, although with different probabilities.
The recently arrived displaced persons as interviewed in the DiPAS were evidently not in a
position to decide about their long-term future. Having escaped the life-threatening situation
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at home, they were still waiting to be officially acknowledged as refugees by the Austrian
authorities. It has to be noted that in the prevailing “welcome culture” of autumn 2015, respon-
dents did not notice a hostile atmosphere within the host country. Hence, asking respondents
about their inclination to stay or return could only be hypothetical. Nevertheless, the answers
can be regarded as proxies or indicators for integration. The question used to test this intention
reads as follows: “Would you consider to return to Syria/Iraq/your home country after the situ-
ation has stabilised?”, possible answers were (1) Yes, (2) No and (3) Don’t know.
Those replying “no” or “don’t know” were further asked about the reasons or conditions
under which they could imagine returning. Two in three (67%) said that they would not be
willing to return to their home country even after stabilisation. The remaining third was split
between those who considered return (22%) and those who responded “don’t know” (11%) (S1
Table). The latter group had obviously not yet considered such an option. If the majority of
those who are currently undecided end up deciding not to return, three out of four respondents
would prefer to stay in Austria.
In a breakdown by citizenship, Syrian respondents showed the strongest ties with their
home country: The proportion intending to return (32%) was 10 percentage points higher than
the average (S1 Table). Syrians also had the highest share of undecided respondents (16%), but
nonetheless the majority (52%) were not consideringtheir return. Among Iraqis (77%) and
Afghans (75%) as well as the other nationalities combined (69%) the proportion not consider-
ing returning to their home country was even higher. Interestingly, 42% of those reporting
their most recent prior residence in their country of birth were willing to consider returning
home compared to only 17% of those who reported their most recent prior residencein a coun-
try other than that of their country of birth. This echoes the DiPAS findings on health (section
3.4).
Both men and womenwere in favour of staying, witha slightly larger majority among men
(68%) than among women (60%). A combination of worse health and slightly higher average
age may be responsible for female respondents beingmore willing to return home than male
respondents. Furthermore, there are no differences between single and married individuals,
but in line with their worse self-perception of their health, divorced and widowed respondents
were more willingto return home (29% and 40% respectively)than single and married respon-
dents (24%). Finally, no consistent pattern according to the level of education was observed; in
each education group those considering return were outnumbered. This is to some extent in
contrast to a study that identified educational differences in voluntary return among displaced
persons in Turkey, where better-educated individuals more often returned to their ancestral
communities [103]. However, the latter focused on internally displaced Kurds and their effec-
tive return home after prolonged displacement,while the current study captured the intention
of voluntary return of externally displaced persons. Their effective return to their home coun-
try can only be assessed with longitudinal data. Nevertheless, there is an observable trend for
those with less education to be surerof their decision, as we observethe percentage of respon-
dents who are uncertainfalls with their level of education(results available on request).
The most important obstacle to return is to be found in the perceptionof permanent threat
in the home country. Seven in ten agreed with the statement “I don’t think that the personal
safety of my family and me would be guaranteed, even if the general situation stabilises”. The
safety issue was given more weight than the political one, captured by “I don’t think that the
general political situation will stabilise within the next years” (58% agreement). Economic rea-
sons were rated less important, both at the macro level (“I don’t think that the economic situa-
tion will stabilise within the next years”) with 23% agreement and at the micro level (“I don’t
think that I will be able to make a living in my home country, even if the situation stabilises”)
with 16% agreement. Almost all denied financial reasons (“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t afford
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 20 / 29
to return”). Reasons of a more personalnature played also a very minor role: Only 8% found
they would have “nowhere/no one to return to” and 7% that they had no more emotional
attachment to their home country.
Discussion
This project seeks to contribute to the evidence-based social debate on forced migrants, and
their inclusion in society. The empirical basis established by our data is intended to assist
national efforts in appraising refugees’ and asylum seekers’ potential for integration in the host
society, particularly as concerns respondents’ general demographics, educational levels, and
professional experience.Rather than merely “counting heads”, we aimed to uncover what these
heads can offer in terms of human capital for the labour market of the host country and society
at large.
The DiPAS project proves to be innovative in several aspects. First and foremost, it is the
first survey of its kind focusing onthe recent arrivals of Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan refuge-seek-
ing persons in Austria, and to our knowledge in Europe. Second, the focus of the DiPAS study,
i.e. an informed assessment of the human capital and family context of displaced persons, is of
particular significance in demographic research. Finally, the survey allowed the team members
to carry out cutting-edge research and thus obtain unique expertise in a research field that will
gain increasing relevance in the years to come. We hope that the pioneering DiPAS study will
provide valuableinput on further fields of inquiry, the design of suitable questionnaires, practi-
cal and ethical guidance for dealing with respondents with a refugee background, and useful
general information on fieldwork management to prove helpful for similar surveys in other
European countries affected by the large inflows of refuge-seekingpersons in the last year.
The main findings of DiPAS concern human capital, family structure, value systems, and
return intentions of the newly arrived refuge-seeking persons in Eastern Austria, particularly in
its capital Vienna. In particular, Syrian and Iraqi respondents who have arrived since summer
2015 display consistently high levels of education, which partly refutes commonly-held public
assumptions about asylum seekers’ and refugees’ lowor non-existent educationand alleged illit-
eracy. The share of respondents with no or minimalformal education (a few years in primary
school) has proven to be very low in the DiPAS sample, around 15% for all respondents, and
higher among Afghans (25%) while very low among Syrians and Iraqis (7–9%). Our findings
show that asylum seekers of different origins have different characteristicsand even those coming
from less developed countries, such as Afghans, are positively selected in comparison to the gen-
eral population in their countries of origin. While 53% of the Syrians and 46% of the Iraqis have
at least an upper secondary education, this share is below 30% among the Afghans. This discrep-
ancy is primarily linked to the historicallegacy of the countries of origin. Our findings on respon-
dents’ levels of educational attainment hence corroborate the results of the survey on the
competences of 898 refugees by the AMS (Public Employment Service Austria) (AMS 2016).
Secondly, the analysis of displaced persons’ family structure yielded valuable results. A
majority of respondents arrived with their nuclear family, especially in the Syrian national
group. The greatest possibility for reunificationlies with under-aged children and with mothers
who may decide to join their family members who have already emigrated: Our findings show
that the potential for family reunification (373 individuals)consists of children under the age
of 18 (62%) and spouses (38%).Children over the age of 18 represent a smaller group and are
not eligible for formal family reunion. These findings ought to be taken into consideration for
national and international policymaking.
Thirdly, our findings on potential labour market integration of asylum seekers can be cau-
tiously assessed as promising for the host society: An overwhelming majority (72%) of
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 21 / 29
respondents have already participated in the labour market in their home country at some
point in the past. The intention to participate in the host society’s labour market is equally
high: 67% of all respondents intend to “search for a job” after having been granted officialasy-
lum status (refugeestatus under the 1951 Refugee Convention) in Austria. Among younger
respondents, the option “continue school/studying” was predominant: In the relevant age
groups of 15–19 years and 20–24 years, 71% and 46% respectively indicated that they wish to
continue/complete their education in the host country. These findings corroborate a recent
study by OECD suggesting ways to support the lasting integration of immigrants [27].
Findings on the attitudes and values of the newly-arrived persons seeking refuge, especially
responses about religiosity and the (professional) role of women, may contribute to the on-
going public debate about the entwinement of gender equity with religious attitudes (for exam-
ple, following the recent events on New Year’s Eve 2015/16 in Cologne, Germany). Four ques-
tions in the survey assessed the prevalence of traditional gender-role ideologies (see items Q59,
Q61, Q62, Q63 in the questionnaire). Against popular expectation, these were dismissed by a
majority of both male and female respondents. While religion is an important influence on the
attitudes tested, results show that even among the more religious male respondents, predomi-
nantly gender-egalitarian views prevail. When asked to rate how religious they consider them-
selves, the share of respondents reporting not beingreligious (20%) far exceeded the very
religious (11%). In accordance with earlier findings, female respondents tended to consider
themselves more religious (average score 6.0) than men (average score 4.7). The percentage of
people identifying as very religious declines with increasing education.
Finally, respondents’ return intentions may provide valuable insights into expectedlong-
term developments of the Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugee population in Austria. Three out of
four DiPAS respondents prefer to stay in the host country, even after the situation in their
home country stabilizes. Divided by citizenship, Syrian respondents were most willing to con-
sider a return to their home country, with positive response rates at 10 percentage points higher
than the average (S1 Table). In a breakdown by gender, men were slightly more in favour of
staying than women (68% versus 60%). Permanent threat to livelihood in the home country
was given as the most important obstacle to return, while economic reasons were rated as less
important (ca. 70% to 23% on the macro and 16% on the micro level). Given these findings,
long-term integration policies on the national level seem pertinent, especially as concerns refu-
gees’ opportunities for earning a living in the host country.
Indeed, effective participation by refugees and asylum seekers in the labour market of the
host society is widely considered to be a key integration indicator (cf. [25,27]). According to a
recent report published by the International Monetary Fund [23], rapid integration of asylum
seekers and refugees into the workforce must be considered “key to reducing the net fiscal cost
associated with the current inflow” of persecuted individuals from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan,
and other countries, and may “counter some of the adverse fiscal effects of population aging”
([23], p. 5) that heavily affect Western European countries. The main challenges, as well as
good policy practices to support the lasting integration of immigrants and their children in the
host countries, were recently summarised by the OECD [27].
This paper provides an overview of the first results of our sur vey and further, more detailed
analyses for policy makers and integration experts may be generated. For example, one may
wish to take the professional background of respondents, filtered through NACE and ISCO
codes into account for assessing integration effortsand potentials. Moreover, additional in-
depth analyses of ourdata, including multivariate methods, may answer thequestion of who
the refuge-seeking persons arriving in large numbers in 2015 in Austria are, regarding their
family situations, human capital, coupled partner analyses, health, plans for voluntary return,
as well as their values and attitudes.
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 22 / 29
Several limitations have to be mentioned, especially in the context of representativeness. As
outlined in the section on the study design, there is mutual consent among scholars in the field
of forced migration that it is particularly difficult to generate representative samples of mobile
populations. As a result, we had to accept some methodological compromises for the imple-
mentation of DiPAS, which however will not invalidate the findings or their overall relevance.
The results for the Iraqi and Syrians are more robust than for those for the Afghans and other
nationalities. Nevertheless, we do not expect any bias when comparing the different nationali-
ties with the population in the country of origin. Official statistics on asylum seekers are avail-
able by genderand by citizenship, but unfortunately, data including bothcharacteristics are
not available. Moreover, statistics on gender include unaccompanied children, which were
excluded in our study. For these reasons, we are not able to compare gender statistics to the
population. To add, given the low number of female respondents, results for women are also
less robust, and as a result, analyses including both men and women are biasedtowards male
respondents. Where possible, we therefore carried out the analysis separately for men and
women, and for the different nationalities, to avoid such biases.
Further aspects of representativeness relate to non-response and the characteristics of those
not participating in sur veys. Research on non-response bias in social surveys (capturing a
country’s population and not focusing on specific groups like displaced persons) has identified
various factors affecting survey participation, including education, urbanisation, age, parent-
hood status, migration background, economic situation, religiosity and health [104–108]. We
are unfortunately unable to explore whether these factors affected participation in DiPAS.
Even if official numbers on nationality, gender and age are collected by governmental bodies
and partly made accessible to the general public and/or the scientific community, no official
statistics are available on education and other aspects of human capital, not to mention per-
sonal dimensions like attitudes and values, which would allow us to more critically appraise the
DiPAS data.
Country-specific studies are extremely important for informing national integration poli-
cies. In order to better understand the recent influx of displaced persons,comparisons with
other countries may reveal further important findings. The currently on-going and planned
initiatives for data collection in various European countries will allow valuable comparisons
with the Austrian findings. Therein we regard the current survey and study as a small but
important piece of a big puzzle which helps in gaining a clearer picture of persons seeking asy-
lum in Europe in 2015, specifically in Austria.
Supporting Information
S1 Data. Data files.
(ZIP)
S1 Fig. Family status of individualscaptured in the survey living in Austria, by gender and
age. Source: DiPAS, n = 972 individuals captured in the survey, living in Austria.
(TIF)
S1 File. Historical and comparative perspective on the flows of displaced persons in Aus-
tria.
(DOCX)
S2 File. English questionnaire.
(PDF)
Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0163481 September 23, 2016 23 / 29
S1 Table. Characteristics of respondents. Source: Displaced Persons in Austria Survey
(DiPAS), n = 514 interviewed persons.
(DOCX)
S2 Table. Individuals captured in the sample. Source: Displaced Persons in Austria Survey
(DiPAS), n = 1,391 individuals captured in the survey.
(DOCX)
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all organizations and NGOs, interpreters,
interviewers and bicultural aids. Our thanks go to colleagues who provided valuable comments
on an earlier version of the papers, especially Bill Butz and Alphonse L. MacDonald. Moreover,
we are indebted to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions and
remarks.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization:IB JK BR ZA AG ES RG MT WL.
Data curation: BR ZA.
Formal analysis: IB JK BR ZA AG ES MP RG MT.
Funding acquisition: WL JK.
Investigation: IB JK BR ZA ES.
Methodology: IB JK BR ZA AG ES WL.
Project administration: IB JK BR.
Software: BR.
Supervision: IB.
Validation: IB JK BR.
Visualization: BR.
Writing – original draft: IB JK BR ZA AG ES MP RG MT.
Writing – review & editing: IB BR JK.
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