Methodology

• Author: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 5-14

5

Methodology

Methodology

FRA collected evi dence on the impac t of policy response s to the arrival of young refu gees in 2015/16 by carr ying

out socio-legal res earch and analysis at 15 loc ations in six EU Membe r States. This secti on summarises the project’s

development and oversight, and its methodological approach.

Development and oversight

The research was conduc ted in 2017 and 2018. It invo lved different phases: d esk research; focus groups; as well as

individual inte rviews with experts a nd with people in need of interna tional protection in the followin g six EU Member

States: Austria, France, Germ any, Greece, Italy and Sweden. These countries were se lected because they were among

those that received the high est numbers of asylum seekers in 2015-16 (see F igure 1). Greece was chosen beca use of

its particul ar challenges as acountry of first ar rival and transit.

Desk research

The desk research exami ned legal, policy and a dministrative development s in the six EU Member States concerni ng the

thematic fields of th e report for the period Januar y 2015 to May 2019. This included: national an d regional/municipal

integration poli cies; national provisions re garding the procedure, cond itions, type an d length of residence perm its;

the indicative leng th of asylum procedures; laws and policies regul ating family reunification; as well as soci al rights

concerning housing , education and social welfare. The resea rch also collected demographi c data concerning persons

in need of internation al protection who arrived in the six Memb er States in 2015 and 2016.

Primary research

Case studies

The report uses aqual itative case study approach, base d on focus groups and semi-struct ured individual interviews .

The purpose of the case s tudies is not empirical gene ralisation in the statistica l sense, but to provide adescription and

in-depth unders tanding of acomple x social issue, distilling drivers and o bstacles for integration of young refugee s.

Figure 1: Asylum appl ications in 2015 and 2016, top 10 EU Member State s

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

Germany

Italy

Hungary

Sweden

France

Austria

United Kingdom

Netherlands

Greece

Belgium

Note: The report covers the EU M ember States in light blue.

Source: Eurostat,

Asylum and f‌i rst time asylum applica nts by citizenship, age and sex ann ual aggregated data, extra cted on

24June 2019