Establishing a Panel Study of Refugees in Germany: First Wave Response and Panel Attrition from a Comparative Perspective

This article analyzes whether response patterns in surveys differ between the general population, regular immigrants, and recent refugees. Analyses show that the address quality of refugees contacted in the first wave of a panel study is worse than that of the general population, but of a similar quality to that of other recent immigrants. Once contacted, people in refugee households are more willing than others to participate in the first wave. In subsequent waves, this pattern changes. Address quality remains relatively low, and the motivation to participate deteriorates and is worse in comparison with other populations. However, Cox regression models of individual response behaviour reveal that this is mostly a composition effect. When socio-demographic and interviewer characteristics are taken into account, refugees have a lower risk of attrition than other immigrants, but they have a similar risk as the general population. This article provides important insights for the implementation of research about recent immigrants and refugees into ongoing panel studies.