Geschätzte KollegInnen,

Wir möchten gerne – wie viele andere KollegInnen – unsere Sessions auf der ESA Konferenz eingehend bewerben, die in Zagreb von 15. Bis 19. Juli stattfindet. Die Deadline für Abstrakteinreichungen ist bereits am 18. November. Die erste Session beschäftigt sich mit methodologischen Herausforderungen bei Flüchtlingsstudien, die zweite Session mit sensitiven Fragen. Bitte reichen Sie Ihr Abstract (maximal 300 Wörter) über das ESRA-System ein. Sie müssen sich dafür auf der Homepage der ESRA einloggen und den weiteren Instruktionen folgen: (https://www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conferences/call_for_abstracts ). Wir freuen uns über zahlreiche Einreichungen, unten sind die näheren Beschreibungen der Sessions enthalten.

Mit besten Grüßen,

Wolfgang Aschauer

Assoz.-Prof. MMag. Dr. Wolfgang Aschauer

Coordinator of ESA RN 21 (Quantitative Methods)

Department of Political Science and Sociology

Division Sociology and Cultural Science

University of Salzburg

Rudolfskai 42

5020 Salzburg

e-mail: wolfgang.aschauer@sbg.ac.at

Web: www.uni-salzburg.at/soziologie/aschauer

Methodological challenges in current surveys on refugees – total survey error estimations

Coordinator 1    Professor Wolfgang Aschauer (University Salzburg)

Coordinator 2    Professor Martin Weichbold (University Salzburg)

Coordinator 3    Dr Alexander Seymer (University Salzburg)

Session Details

With respect to contemporary dynamics of the refugee “crisis” in Europe (e.g. challenges for integration and social cohesion or impacts on the welfare system or security issues) there is need for specific studies on refugees. As a consequence large-scale studies on asylum seekers are conducted in several European countries to shed light on their qualifications and on their labor market integration, on attitudinal and behavioral dynamics and on their long-term process of acculturation.

In this session we want to encourage our potential speakers to specifically focus on methodological challenges in these ongoing surveys from a total survey error perspective. This concept tries to capture various forms of biases during the whole survey process and aims for calculating sampling errors, measurement errors or specification errors. Concerning sampling we are confronted with mobile and often undocumented populations where the claim of representativeness is hard to fulfill (selection errors). Concerning questionnaire development the issue of language barriers and the use of sensitive questions has to be taken into account. Overall, the issue of cross-cultural equivalence is particularly relevant because the survey participants come from diverse countries of origin and are often not used to Western survey conceptions. (specification errors). During fieldwork potential mode effects, certain interviewer characteristics or classical measurement errors (such as social desirability or cultural response styles) demand further attention (measurement errors). We also have to consider ethical barriers because asylum seekers are often still in a state of emergency and have potentially undergone traumatic experiences.

Thus for this session we are seeking for contributions which try to estimate the quality of the surveys precisely focusing on certain levels of bias. Also mixed-methods studies are highly welcome which highlight certain potentials as well as limits when it comes to quantitative studies with refugees. The findings should contribute to an enhanced knowledge how to carry out surveys among asylum seekers, especially in the current European context.

Sensitive questions in surveys – What are sensitive topics?

Coordinator 1    Dr Kathrin Gärtner (University of Applied Science Wiener Neustadt)

Coordinator 2    Professor Wolfgang Aschauer (University Salzburg)

Coordinator 3    Professor Martin Weichbold (University Salzburg)

Session Details

Gaining valid information about sensitive topics is an issue for survey research since its beginning. Over the years different methods have been developed and tested to encourage participants to respond in such surveys (avoiding unit nonresponse), to answer sensitive questions (avoiding item non-reponse) and to give honest answers (avoiding bias caused by false or socially desirable answers). Those methods include sampling strategies, framing and formulating items so that potentially problematic answers seem „normal“, enhancing the perceived privacy and also randomized response techniques that enable at least estimates for aggregates. However, as all those methods come with potential drawbacks, it seems reasonable to ascertain as precisely as possible in which cases such methods are really needed, i.e. which topics and items have to be considered sensitive. Besides classical examples such as sexual behavior, drugs, criminal and ethical problems and attitudes involving suicide and abortion, we also know from cross-national surveys that widely-used indicators such as income are highly sensitive and missing rates vary across countries. We also want to point out that people of various ethnic backgrounds, age groups or attitudinal characteristics may differ in what topics people consider sensitive. For this session, we particularly encourage submissions on findings about what topics are sensitive topics in which populations. We welcome studies using classical methods to detect sensitive questions and their impacts such as described above but we particularly aim for new concepts and new methods how to identify the sensitivity of questions among different societal or cultural groups.