Evaluation of the Accommodation Situation of Unaccompanied Underaged Refugees in the State of Brandenburg

Aim and research question

The challenges and problems of accommodation, care and support are identified from three research perspectives in order to provide targeted recommendations for policy-makers, institutions and professionals. In addition, a contribution is to be made to addressing the subject area, which has been little researched scientifically.

The subject perspective focuses on the everyday life of young people and asks about their life situation, the associated needs and interests. With the help of participatory research methods, research should not only be conducted about the young people, but with them.

What is the life situation of the young refugees? How do they assess their situation? What recommendations would the young people give for improving the accommodation situation and facilitating integration processes?

From the perspective of the facilities, it is evaluated how problems and challenges (e.g. insecure residence status and/or traumatic experiences of the young people, prejudiced and hostile climate in the neighbourhood, etc.) are dealt with in the facilities.

What coping strategies do the facilities offer the young people? What are conducive organisational cultures to enable successful care and support for the refugees? Which forms of cooperation between facilities and actors in the community have proven successful?

The structural perspective looks at the socio-spatial embedding and asks about the factors that contribute to the successful integration of minors into society.

How is social integration and networking in the social space organised? What challenges does society face? What are best practice examples of successful social integration?

Approach and methodology

The study uses a mixed-method design:

• By establishing and conducting a peer research group, the young people can actively participate in the research process.
• In addition, individual interviews with narrative passages and group interviews are conducted with the young people.
• In order to capture the situation of the minors in broad terms and to elicit knowledge about typical case histories, a questionnaire developed in the preliminary study will also be used.
• In order to be able to carry out an in-depth analysis of the socio-spatial embedding, the study cooperates with three key institutions. For this purpose, expert interviews and participatory observations will be used.