Highlights

Every year since 2016, SSRS has conducted telephone interviews of 1,500 refugee households in up to 20 languages with refugees that have resettled within the past five years. This study is funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and is conducted by SSRS as a subcontractor to the Urban Institute. The ASR is the only scientifically collected source of national data on refugees’ progress towards self-sufficiency and integration. Information collected in the ASR helps the Office of Refugee Resettlement make programmatic and policy decisions.

Challenge

Reaching an underrepresented and rare population while ensuring data quality and cultural sensitivity. This study needs to accommodate respondents with low literacy and education levels, conduct interviews in multiple languages – some with few native speakers who live outside their home countries – and address past and ongoing trauma from resettlement with care and awareness.

Approach

To ensure the most up-to-date contact information, the sample is drawn from the Refugee Arrivals Data System (RADS) database and traced using NCOA and TLO to identify current addresses and phone numbers. The step is essential, as refugees often move multiple times within their first five years in the U.S., making it necessary to update outdated contact details. Additionally, postcards are sent to sampled addresses to confirm phone numbers and preferred interviewing language. The survey is translated into the 20 most spoken languages each year, based on the latest RADS data. SSRS partners with Cetra to manage translations, ensuring linguistic accuracy and cultural appropriateness. All interviews are conducted over the phone by trained interviewers who are native speakers of the target language. To maintain cultural sensitivity, respondents and interviewers are matched by gender.

Results

For the past eight years, SSRS has interviewed 1,500 refugees annually across 20 languages to understand how they are adapting to life in the U.S. These data cover factors that shape resettlement experiences and show the progress that refugee families made towards learning English, participating in the workforce, and establishing permanent residence. The data from this study help ORR make decisions regarding programming and policies to aid current refugees, as well as prepare for future refugee arrivals.