Causes and Consequences of Socio-Cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe (SCIP)

The SCIP project (“Causes and Consequences of Socio-Cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe”) is the first comparative survey among new arrivals in four Europe countries: Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands. Its substantive focus is on socio-cultural integration trajectories. This aspect of migration has received increasing attention in public debate yet remains seriously under-researched. In particular, existing data cannot settle the question whether socio-cultural integration is a consequence or a prerequisite for migrants’ structural integration (e.g. in the labour market) – and whether, how and why groups might differ in this regard. By focusing on recent arrivals, the SCIP project studies a particularly dynamic phase of the entire integration process, thus laying the ground for the creation of a “European New Immigrant Panel” that matches the existing new immigrant surveys in classical immigration countries such as the USA.

In the SCIP project, two cross-national waves of survey data were collected among groups of new immigrants that vary along a number of dimensions, including religion (Catholics versus Muslims), social status (medium to high-skill versus low-skill migrants) and immigration status (EU citizens versus non-EU-citizens). In all four countries, recently arrived Poles were sampled, along with new immigrants from Turkey (Germany, Netherlands), Antilles (Netherlands), Bulgaria (Netherlands), Morocco (Netherlands), Suriname (Netherlands) and Pakistan (United Kingdom). In a mini-panel design, immigrants were interviewed 12 months maximum after their arrival (first wave) and one and a half years later (second wave).

To allow for comparisons across time, pre- and post-migration characteristics were collected. Further, questions were adopted from established survey instruments such as New Immigrant Survey, the European Social Survey, or the World Values Survey to facilitate broader comparisons.

The survey instrument was designed to cover a wide array of items including (1) standard demography and migration biography, (2) language and integration policies, (3) identity and exclusion, (4) religion, (5) social and (6) structural integration. In detail, the following information was collected:

Topics: 1. Language and integration policies: language skills und use, information on third languages, participation in integration classes 2. Identity and exclusion: cultural consumption and practices, identification / belonging, feelings of acceptance and perceived discrimination, satisfaction with the migration decision and the current situation, perceived compability of cultures and acculturation attitudes, information on politics and attitudes about democracy 3. Religion: religion, worship attendance and praying behaviour, religious practices, the composition of the place of worship as well as information on the religion of the partner 4. Social integration: bonding and bridging ethnic ties, social participation, core networks (strong ties) and the density of the social network 5. Structural integration: education, employment situation of the respondent and partner as well as information on remittances.

Demography and migration biography: sex; year of birth; country of birth; citizenship; currently working; family situation; stable relationship; household characteristic; migration biography and motives; migration biography and legal situation of the partner; living situation and composition of the neighbourhood.

Additionally coded was: respondent-ID; mode of the interview; Panel wave; ethnic group; interviewer-ID; disposition-code; date and time of the interview; duration of the interview; proportion of missing values in case; contacted by interviewer, interview accomplished.

Interviewer rating: easy implementation of the interview (interviewer and respondent); attendance of third parties during the interview; person who has answered questions about the partner; attendance of the partner during the partner questions; problems finding the survey household; respondent´s cooperation; comments.