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Alone in Berlin (archive picture): The pandemic is also affecting the mind
Photo: Florian Gaertner / Photothek / Getty Images
Fewer contacts, less travel, less culture and gastronomy: the pandemic severely restricts social life - so much that pretty much everyone is affected by it.
Many studies now show how much this crisis puts a strain on the psyche of many people.
So far, however, there has been no well-founded knowledge about the mental health of an already structurally disadvantaged population group: that of the refugees.
Researchers at the German Institute for Economic Research have now closed this knowledge gap, and the results are now available to SPIEGEL.
Study details
Expand areaWho is behind the study?
It is one of the so-called weekly reports of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin.
The authors of the report are Theresa Entringer, Jannes Jacobsen, Hannes Kröger and Maria Metzing.
How did the researchers work? Expand
The team investigated the extent to which the first months of the pandemic affected the mental health of refugees in Germany compared to people with and without a migration background in Germany.
For this purpose, the scientists used various surveys, which they compared and evaluated according to scientific criteria.
The surveys were carried out in 2016 and 2017 and 2019 as well as from April to August 2020.
AreaWhich data were used for the study? Expand
Data from the so-called IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey, in which asylum seekers who moved to Germany between 2013 and 2016, took part were evaluated.
In addition, the researchers used the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a representative annual repeat survey of private households in Germany.
There was also a special survey on the pandemic among refugees in Germany and a special survey on the pandemic among people living in Germany.
All of the results mentioned in the study relate to the adult participants in the surveys.
As a result, the psychological stress of refugees apparently hardly changed when the first shutdown began a year ago - but this is not good news: In particular, the feeling of loneliness among refugees was already at a high level before the corona crisis.
"The room for deterioration was, so to speak, significantly less than for the rest of the population," says study author Hannes Kröger.
In other words, the situation remains alarmingly bad.
According to the DIW, the reason for this is the lack of social participation: language barriers, a lack of gainful employment and the generally low household income make it extremely difficult to arrive in German society.
The data from the surveys therefore show that, for example, a job, better knowledge of German or a higher household income alleviate the feeling of loneliness.
The researchers therefore call for investments in language training and better access to the labor market.
"You have to think about integration and mental health together," says scientist Kröger.
"Because psychological stress can be additional hurdles that refugees have to overcome on the way to participation in an already difficult situation." brings with it.
"Chronic loneliness makes you mentally and physically ill"
Study author Theresa Entringer
It is striking how the situation of refugees has changed compared to the rest of the population: While those seeking protection were significantly more lonely than the rest of the population until a year ago, it is now as lonely as refugees were in 2017.
On an index from 0 to 12, the feeling of loneliness among refugees is unchanged above the value 5. There it is now also related to all other people in the country.
In 2017, the value for citizens without a migration history was still below the value 3. So anyone who has suffered from perceived isolation since the beginning of the pandemic is now relatively close to the basic attitude to life of many newcomers.
Of course, there can be no question of an approximation of life situations.
The economic, linguistic and cultural differences between those seeking protection in Germany and the rest of society remain large even during the pandemic.
The DIW report also highlights that refugees continue to be more affected by depression and anxiety disorders than people without a migration background.
"The loneliness that was triggered by the pandemic is likely to be a temporary phenomenon," the DIW quotes study author Theresa Entringer.
"With the refugees, on the other hand, we see that they have been feeling lonely for a long time," she says.
"This is questionable in terms of health policy, since chronic loneliness in particular makes people mentally and physically ill."
It is unclear whether the worrying mental state of many refugees will not worsen after all. "Beyond the special situation of the pandemic, it should be observed," the researchers say, "whether there might not be medium or long-term deterioration for refugees as well."
