TY - JOUR

T1 - Surveying Diverse Subpopulations in Refugee Studies

T2 - Reflections on Sampling, Implementation, and Translation Strategies Drawn from Experiences with a Regional Quantitative Survey on Refugee Parents in Germany

AU - Wenzel, Laura

AU - Husen, Onno

AU - Sandermann, Philipp

N1 - The research was funded by Lower Saxony’s State Ministry of Science and Culture with a grant of EUR 0.8 million from the ‘Niedersächsisches Vorab’ programme. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

PY - 2022/12/1

Y1 - 2022/12/1

N2 - Conducting a survey with refugee populations involves particular challenges. Among these challenges, sampling, implementation and survey translation are crucial. This becomes even more obvious when trying to access hard-to-survey subgroups of a larger refugee population. This paper demonstrates possible ways of addressing sampling, implementation and translation problems and some of the associated pitfalls based on the example of a quantitative survey intended for refugee parents in the state of Lower Saxony/Germany. First, we argue that based on the need to collect representative data, adjusting the target population may be one way to respond to the lack of a sampling frame for the original target population. Second, we reason that under unforeseen circumstances, such as an ongoing pandemic, ad-hoc changes may be needed in implementation strategies, and we shed light on some disadvantages of self-administered web-based surveys in refugee studies. Third, we claim that surveys involving linguistically and culturally diverse refugee populations benefit to large extent from using a modified variant of the team translation approach (TRAPD). In our conclusion, we critically reflect on adaptable strategies for ensuring well-defined samples, a reasoned implementation and translation practice that meet the challenges of representing a distinct refugee population’s diversity.

AB - Conducting a survey with refugee populations involves particular challenges. Among these challenges, sampling, implementation and survey translation are crucial. This becomes even more obvious when trying to access hard-to-survey subgroups of a larger refugee population. This paper demonstrates possible ways of addressing sampling, implementation and translation problems and some of the associated pitfalls based on the example of a quantitative survey intended for refugee parents in the state of Lower Saxony/Germany. First, we argue that based on the need to collect representative data, adjusting the target population may be one way to respond to the lack of a sampling frame for the original target population. Second, we reason that under unforeseen circumstances, such as an ongoing pandemic, ad-hoc changes may be needed in implementation strategies, and we shed light on some disadvantages of self-administered web-based surveys in refugee studies. Third, we claim that surveys involving linguistically and culturally diverse refugee populations benefit to large extent from using a modified variant of the team translation approach (TRAPD). In our conclusion, we critically reflect on adaptable strategies for ensuring well-defined samples, a reasoned implementation and translation practice that meet the challenges of representing a distinct refugee population’s diversity.

KW - sampling

KW - survey implementation

KW - survey translation

KW - TRAPD

KW - parents

KW - ECEC

KW - access

KW - trust

KW - Social Work and Social Pedagogics

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a33a8a3d-bce3-3bc2-82e8-d0d3a41b78b3/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153033224&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/jrs/feac043

DO - 10.1093/jrs/feac043

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 35

SP - 1593

EP - 1615

JO - Journal of Refugee Studies

JF - Journal of Refugee Studies

SN - 0951-6328

IS - 4

ER -