Refugees have more contact with locals
Social contacts can be helpful for refugees when settling into their new home and can, for example, help them find accommodation and work or learn the new language. This applies for contacts with people who were born in Germany and are therefore familiar with German bureaucracy.
The annual participation of refugees in the “Living in Germany” study makes it possible to examine the development of contacts with people from the local population over time. There are clear differences between refugee men and women who sought protection in Germany in 2015/16. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the proportion of refugee men with at least weekly contact with Germans increased continuously, while no increase was observed among refugee women. During the pandemic, contact became less frequent for both genders. After the pandemic, the positive trend among men continued, while women also had significantly more contact with the local population.