News Archive

06.07.2022 | Investigating return migration during the pandemic and the role of cultural distance for migrant adjustment

GERPS research projects have also been accepted for the annual conference of the European Consortium of Sociological Research (ECSR), taking place at the University of Amsterdam. Nils Witte (picture) discusses how global crises affect privileged migrants based on empirical findings about the impact of Covid-19 on German return migration. The study of Andreas Genoni, Jean Philippe Décieux, and Elke Murdock (University of Luxembourg) shows how the cultural distance between origin and destination country affects the adjustment of recent migrants.

01.07.2022 | GERPS presents new survey and emigration research at the 19th annual IMISCOE conference in Oslo

This year’s IMISCOE conference featured two talks from our colleague Andreas Ette. He presented collaborative work with Marcel Erlinghagen, Bernd Weiss and Steffen Poetzschke on the methodological advantages and pitfalls of different sampling frames (sampling via population register and social media networks). Andreas also gave a talk about another contribution, co-authored by Nils Witte, in a highly inspiring panel including colleagues from the US, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway (picture). They all deal with emigration processes from those developed countries.

30.06.2022 | Presenting new research on individual well-being in the course of international migration and on first-time and repeat emigration

This year’s European Population Conference (EPC) at the University of Groningen featured two talks from project members. Our colleague Andreas Genoni (picture) presented collaborative work, showing how the subjective well-being of individuals increases substantially and sustainably in the course of their emigration.

The online presentation of Nils Witte highlighted differences between first time and repeat emigration of German origin.

25.05.2022 | Presenting new research on international migration and fertility

At the 7th pairfam Interdisciplinary International Conference in May, our colleague Lisa Mansfeld presented her most recent findings. The presentation titled "International migration and its short-term effects on fertility" was based on combining GERPS data with pairfam data, allowing for a comparison of German mobiles and non-mobiles. This approach was found to be convincing, given that Lisa Mansfeld won one of the three best presentation awards. Congratulations!

08.03.2022 | New survey research on the consequences of multitasking for data quality

In this publication, our colleague Jean Philippe Décieux examined sequential-on-device-multitasking (SODM) activities, their determinants and consequences for data quality. Multitasking activities were detected for 25 percent of all respondents and related to their attributes and the device used for survey participation.

Moreover, SODM activities were significantly related to established data quality measures. The findings overall suggest measuring SODM activities in modern survey diagnosis. For more information, check out Jean Philippe's article in Sociological Methods & Research.

09.02.2022 | New publication about participation in online panels

How can participation in probability-based online panels be facilitated through incentives?

In their new study, Nils Witte (GERPS) and his co-authors Ines Schaurer (City of Mannheim), Jette Schröder (GESIS), Jean Philippe Décieux (GERPS), and Andreas Ette (GERPS) find that low combined incentives (€5/€5) and high conditional incentives (€20) are most effective in enhancing panel participation.

The findings have been published in „Social Science Computer Review“. A preprint can be found here .

15.11.2021 | Launch of GERPS wave 5

Following the high response in wave 4 one year ago, GERPS surveys its panel participants for the fifth time, thus extending the panel to three years. Over the next several weeks, we again ask internationally mobile German citizens in Germany and emigrated Germans worldwide about their migrations and (re)integration, their family and job situations, their well-being and consequences of the pandemic.

However, the fifth wave not only covers established questions but also features new modules on students, political interest, (dual) citizenship, perceptions of cultural differences, and more.

13.09.2021 | Presenting new research on incentivisation

At this year’s General Online Research Conference (GOR), Nils Witte and Jean Philippe Décieux presented findings from two incentive experiments and their effects on response behaviour and panel recruitment.

17.08.2021 | New publication: How do friendships change in the course of international migration?

Our colleague Jean Philippe Décieux published a new article on friendship change in the course of international migration.

Using data from the first GERPS wave, he investigates how migration-related changes of friendship circles relate to personality traits such as risk attitude, locus of control, and attachment to the home and destination country.

The article "Personality Traits and Self-Perceived Development of Friendship in the Course of Migration" is part of the new edited volume “Friendship in Cultural and Personality Psychology: International Perspectives” , published by Nova Science Publishers.

12.07.2021 | Wave-2 data and wave-1 update now available

The Scientific Use File (SUF) of the second GERPS wave is now accessible via the GESIS data archive.

The second wave focuses on income, labour market integration and social background. Together with the wave-2 SUF, researchers are also offered an updated version of the wave-1 data. The files can be found here.

12.07.2021 | Fifth GERPS wave in the making; fielding scheduled for autumn 2021

Our team currently prepares for launching a fifth GERPS wave in autumn 2021. Data for wave 5 will be collected one year after wave 4, thus expanding the panel frame of GERPS to three years.

The fifth wave will include a COVID module as well as many modules that were already implemented in the previous waves. With wave 5, GERPS increases its potential for analysing migration events and integration processes during the pandemic and beyond. More information to follow.

07.07.2021 | Presenting new research at the 18th IMISCOE conference

This year’s IMISCOE conference in Luxembourg features three GERPS-related talks: Our colleagues Nils Witte and Andreas Ette present first results on international migration during the pandemic. Jean Philippe Décieux and Andreas Genoni use GERPS data to explore the impact of cultural distances on recently emigrated individuals’ attachment to their destination country.

IMISCOE participants interested in GERPS from a survey-methodological perspective may want to join the talk of Jean Philippe Décieux, Andreas Ette and Andreas Genoni on how to set up probability-based online panels of migrants with a push-to-web approach.

21.06.2021 | Methodology and data manual of the second wave of GERPS

The manual documents the survey design and the instruments of the forthcoming second wave of GERPS.

The report also documents technical, cognitive, and realistic pre-tests as well as standards regarding data processing and weights. It further includes generated variables and fundamental decisions regarding the Scientific Use File (SUF) of the second wave.

The SUF will soon be available in the GESIS data archive, along with the SUF of our first wave, which can be downloaded here.

14.06.2021 | New research on graduates’ labor market entry abroad

Nils Witte (GERPS), Nico Stawarz (BiB) and Nicolai Netz (DZHW) presented initial findings regarding the payoff to international early career migration and its implications for social inequality at two conferences: the ISA RC28 Spring Meeting and the joint-meeting of the DGS-sections “Social Inequality and Social Structural Analysis” and “Social Politics”.

21.05.2021 | Spring Meeting of the DGS-section “Migration and Ethnic Minorities”, University of Göttingen

This year’s spring meeting of the DGS-section “Migration and Ethnic Minorities” features two contributions with GERPS data. Lisa Mansfeld talks about the impact of emigration and remigration on partnership stability. Nils Witte and Andreas Ette present first results about return migration of Germans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

30.04.2021 | New Open Access Publication "The Global Lives of German Migrants"

A new edited volume has now been published with Springer in the IMISCOE series. 17 contributions investigate individual consequences of migration across the life course. They provide an overview of GERPS and its research potentials.

The volume yields insights into the lives of German citizens just after they moved abroad or returned from there respectively. The book also addresses consequences of migration by comparing GERPS participants with non-migrants in the country of origin, Germany.

Moreover, the book introduces new theoretical perspectives on migration and integration and gives new directions for setting up probability-based online panels.

"Global Lives" is open access and can be downloaded here.

18.03.2021 | Spring session of the Young Academics Network of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Integration and Migration Research (InZentIM), University of Duisburg-Essen

Our colleagues Andreas Genoni and Jean Philippe Décieux give a talk at this year’s spring session of InZentIM, „Identity in the Context of Migration“. In their presentation titled „Culturally close and yet so far“, they investigate the role of cultural distance for migrants’ host country attachment and point to the need of distinguishing between dimensions of cultural variation.

10.03.2021 | New Open Access Publication with GERPS-data

This year’s German Data Report features a Chapter on „International Mobility and Social Structure” by our project members Andreas Ette, Andreas Genoni and Nils Witte.

Using retrospective and wave-1 data, the Chapter provides an overview of the social structure of the internationally mobile German population and compares their situation before and after emigration. Moreover, our colleagues draw on data from the German Socioeconomic Panel to compare the social structure of emigrated German citizens with their non-migrated counterparts.

The Data Report 2021 is edited by the Federal Agency of Civic Education (bpb), the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), the Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). The report is freely accessible and can be downloaded here .

16.02.2021 | New Open Access Publication with GERPS-data

Ethnic and Racial Studies recently published a new paper by our colleague Marcel Erlinghagen. The paper proposes an integrated and unified theoretical concept for migration research which combines the advantages of the life course approach and transnational migration theory. The potential of this new transnational life course approach (TNLC) is demonstrated using three-wave panel data from GERPS. The paper is Open Access and can be downloaded here .

02.02.2021 | New Open Access Publication with GERPS-data

Our colleague Jean Philippe Décieux co-authored a new paper together with Alexandra Mergener from the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB). The paper was published in a Special Issue of Sustainability. Using the first wave of GERPS, the authors investigate push- and pull-factors of labour migration from Germany. The paper thereby provides valuable insights on characteristics and geographies of skilled migration and on the international competition for talents. It is Open Access and can be downloaded here.

16.11.2020 | Launch of GERPS wave 4

One year after the last questioning of our participants, GEPRS just launched its fourth wave. With the data from the fourth wave, GERPS extends the time frame of its panel to two years. Therefore, wave 4 primarily aims at enhancing the longitudinal perspective of GERPS with respect to classical dimensions of social inequality such as employment and income, well-being and life satisfaction, relationship and family, and social relations and social participation. In addition, wave 4 also features new modules on issues like ostracism, ethnic boundaries and on international migration in light of the ongoing pandemic.

15.09.2020 | New Open Access Publication with GERPS-Data

Our colleague Marcel Erlinghagen just published a new paper based on the first wave of GERPS in Population, Space and Place. In the paper, he investigates migration patterns of internationally mobile couples. Previous research largely covered this topic within the context of internal migration. The paper thus represents an important contribution to the research of spatial mobility and partnership stability. It is Open Access and can be downloaded here.

14.09.2020 | 40th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS), Berlin

At this year’s DGS congress, our colleagues Nils Witte and Jean Philippe Décieux host a session on transnational migration together with Emanuel Deutschmann from the University of Göttingen.

Additionally, the congress hosts three GERPS-related talks: Jean Guedes Auditor and Lisa Mansfeld talk about our focus in GERPS and the analytical potential of the study. In her other talk, Lisa Mansfeld discusses partnership stability of German emigrants and remigrants. Lastly, Nils Witte and BiB researcher Nico Stawarz talk about German remigrants from Great Britain in their presentation “Goodbye Britain - The unintended escape of skilled Germans on account of Brexit.”

10.09.2020 | 22nd General Online Research (GOR) Conference, Berlin

Participants at this year’s virtual GOR conference can witness two talks by our colleague Jean Philippe Décieux.

His first talk with Philipp Emanuel Sischka is about the applicability of mobile friendly survey designs taking GERPS as a case in point. In his second talk, he introduces the aim, scope and design of our online study to the audience.

03.07.2020 | Questionnaire development, wave 4

The GERPS team is currently working on the questionnaire for wave 4 which is scheduled for autumn 2020.

The questionnaire features diverse topics which we already implemented in previous waves, allowing researchers to observe short- to mid-term consequences of international migration. Additionally, this year’s survey also features questions on COVID-19 in the context of international migration.

30.06.2020 | 17th IMISCOE Annual Conference on “Crossing borders, connecting cultures”, Luxemburg

At this year’s virtual IMISCOE conference, GERPS is represented by three presentations. Jean Philippe Décieux introduces the aim and scope of our study and its design to the audience. In another talk, he reflects on German emigrants’ host country identification and potential causes. Nils Witte and Jean Guedes Auditor, in turn, highlight the monetary dimension in their talk and investigate how German nationals’ income changes in connection with their emigration from Germany.

31.03.2020 | Call for Proposals

For the first time, GERPS offers researchers the opportunity to actively contribute to the study. With wave 4, we invite researchers to send their proposals for a short questionnaire module in GERPS. GERPS launches the upcoming wave in November 2020. The study will thereby survey recent German emigrants and remigrants for the fourth time within two years. With wave 4, GERPS offers researchers the opportunity to include their own questions or short questionnaire modules. Proposals are welcome in German or English by the 24th of April 2020 in a preliminary version. More information about the proposal requirements can be found in the official Call for Proposals.

30.03.2020 | Wave 1 data and methodology report available now

Since March, interested researchers can access the Scientific Use File (SUF) of the first GERPS wave in the GESIS data archive. The first wave of GERPS focuses on persons’ lives before migration. Among other things, this includes questions on migration motives, income, job and family. The available methodology report of GERPS documents the survey process of wave 1 and the study’s design in detail.

GERPS surveys 20- to 70- year-old internationally mobile persons with German citizenship. Over 11,000 persons – roughly 4,600 emigrants and 6,400 return migrants – participated in the first wave. With a panel consent of over 93 percent, GERPS wave 1 constitutes a promising foundation for analysing short- to mid-term consequences of migration.

03.03.2020 | Spring meeting of the DGS-Section for family sociology, Munich

In this year’s spring meeting of the DGS-Section for family sociology, Lisa Mansfeld talks about tied migration and gender roles as determinants for separation risks among couples.

03.02.2020 | 14th Workshop of Panel Surveys in German-speaking Countries, Mannheim

Andreas Ette and Nils Witte present GERPS, its research design, and findings on incentive experiments at the 14th Workshop of Panel Surveys in German-speaking countries at GESIS in Mannheim.

16.12.2019 | New GERPS publication comparing characteristics of German emigrants, remigrants and non-mobiles now available

The publication “Bevölkerungsforschung Aktuell” discusses GERPS and its research design and compares descriptive statistics between German emigrants, remigrants and non-mobiles.

04.12.2019 | GERPS Policy Brief and press conference

Marcel Erlinghagen, Norbert Schneider and Andreas Ette present the new issue of the BiB Policy Brief at a press conference in Berlin. The issue reports initial findings from the GERPS baseline study. It provides political decision-makers with practice-oriented information about the international mobility of the German population, the individual economic consequences of being mobile, and it gives policy recommendations.

19.11.2019 | Social Informatics (SocInfo) 2019, Doha, Qatar

Nikola Sander gives an invited talk at the SocInfo 2019 in Doha, Qatar. She introduces our Project GERPS and presents first results of the first wave of GERPS in the conference’s workshop on migration.

16.11.2019 | Conference of the „Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nord-West des Verbands Deutscher Städtestatistiker“ (VDST), Mettmann

Jean P. Décieux and Marcel Erlinghagen talk about the analytical potential of GERPS and present first results at the conference of the northeastern working group of the VDST.

04.11.2019 | Launch of GERPS wave 3

GERPS is building up its panel! We just launched the third wave, which mainly focuses on family and partnership of internationally mobile German citizens living abroad and in Germany.

12.09.2019 | Neuchâtel Graduate Conference of Migration and Mobility Studies, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Nils Witte introduces GERPS in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, at the graduate conference of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) for migration and mobility studies.

20.08.2019 | 14th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA), Manchester, England

Our colleagues Marcel Erlinghagen and Jean P. Décieux attend the 14th ESA Conference in Manchester, England, giving two separate talks. “Mono-, bi- or transcultural?” Jean P. Décieux talks about feelings of belongingness by investigating social identity patterns among our GERPS participants. Marcel Erlinghagen investigates patterns of internationally mobile couples. He elaborates on the questions of who is leading and who is trailing.

15.08.2019 | Summer Meeting 2019 of the International Sociological Association’s (ISA) Research Committee (RC) 28, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

“Who leads, who trails?” Marcel Erlinghagen presents findings on international migration patterns of couples at this year’s ISA RC28 Summer Meeting on “social inequality and social mobility in comparative perspective” at Princeton University.

17.07.2019 | Second Conference for young researchers of the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), Duisburg

Marcel Erlinghagen and Lisa Mansfeld give separate talks at the second conference for young researchers of the DeZIM institute, hosted by the University of Duisburg-Essen. While Marcel Erlinghagen talks about the analytical potentials of GERPS, Lisa Mansfeld provide findings on the contact between German emigrants and non-migrated family members and friends.

15.07.2019 | Conference of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) in Zagreb, Croatia

Jean P. Décieux talks about our experiences regarding the first two waves of GERPS at the ESRA Conference in Zagreb, Croatia. The Faculty of Economic and Business at the University of Zagreb hosts this year’s conference.

01.07.2019 | 10th International Conference on Population Geographies, Loughborough, England

Nikola Sander introduces GERPS at the 10th International Conference on Population Geographies, hosted by the Loughborough University in England.

20.05.2019 | Launch of GERPS wave 2

After successful completion of wave 1, GERPS switches to its panel mode by launching the second survey wave. In the second wave, the focus lies on German emigrants‘ and remigrants‘ current economic and professional situation.

10.04.2019 | Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA) Austin, Texas, USA

Nikola Sander is announcing GERPS overseas with her presentation at the annual PAA meeting in Austin, Texas, USA.

14.03.2019 | Annual Conference of the German Society of Demography, Bamberg, Germany

Our colleague Nils Witte is presenting the study design of GERPS at the annual conference of the German Society of Demography at the University of Bamberg, Germany.

28.09.2018 | Launch of GERPS wave 1

After careful elaboration of the questionnaire, intensive pretesting and preparations, GERPS has just entered the field process. The first wave of GERPS puts a special emphasis on individuals‘ migration motives and their situation before and directly after they emigrated or remigrated respectively.

24.09.2018 | 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association (GSA), Göttingen, Germany

Our Postdoc researchers Jean P. Décieux from the UDE and Nils Witte from the BiB are organizing a Symposium on the dynamics and consequences of international migration of emigrants and remigrants at the GSA congress in Göttingen, Germany. They further actively participating in the congress by introducing GERPS‘ unique DOM (Destination-Migration-Origin) approach to the scientific audience.