Developing a multidimensional measure for understanding refugee integration in protracted displacement contexts: evidence from Turkey

Abstract

The debates on durable solutions for refugees takes place in the absence of well-designed measures for monitoring and assessing integration processes in protracted displacement contexts. Addressing this gap, this study develops a multidimensional measure of refugee integration by introducing conceptual modifications to the key components of immigrant integration framework offered by Ager and Strang (J Refug Stud 21(2):166-191, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fen016). Leveraging survey data from 1630 Syrian refugees in Turkey, a typical forced migration context in the Global South, this study employs a structural equation modeling approach to capture the multifaceted refugee integration process. The proposed multidimensional construct contributes to research into immigrant integration in two significant ways. Firstly, the proposed measurement model overcomes the limitations of aggregative/compensative models commonly used to assess integration outcomes by also enabling the examination of relationships between various domains of integration. Secondly, by acknowledging the precarity inherent in forced migration contexts in the Global South, the multidimentional measure facilitates the monitoring and assessment of refugee integration in protracted displacement contexts. The proposed measurement model facilitates a nuanced understanding of the relationships among conceptual dimensions of the multifaceted integration process and offers a methodologically sound tool for comparison of integration outcomes across refugee groups and over time in protracted displacement contexts of the Global South.