What is SCIP?

SCIP is a large European research project called “Socio-Cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe”. In this project, we seek to learn more about how people who have recently moved from one country to another adjust to their new environment. For instance, we are interested in how people get jobs, find housing, and make friends. To study these issues we plan to conduct interviews with men and women who have recently moved from another country to Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain or Ireland.

Since we want to observe how people’s lives change over time, we plan interview those individuals who have been selected to be part of our project twice. The first interview will be conducted in the first year after moving, the second one about 1.5 years later. In total, we plan to complete about 1.000 interviews between 2010 and 2012.

For further information you may also visit our project website at www.scip-info.org .

Who is doing the survey?

SCIP is a collaborative research project jointly conducted by an international research team. Its overall coordination lies at the University of Goettingen (Germany). National coordinators who are responsible for the research in each country come from Utrecht University (Netherlands), the University of Essex (Great Britain), and Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland). If you agree to participate in the survey, you will be contacted by one of our numerous researchers who are conducting the interviews.

SCIP is publicly funded through the NORFACE Programme. The money comes from national governments as well as from the EU.

How has my name been selected?

In spring 2010, we chose your name randomly from official registers. In many countries, researchers are entitled to use these registers when they plan to conduct academic surveys. (If you live in Great Britain or Ireland, your name may also have been suggested by someone who has already participated in our survey). Because of this random selection you represent many other newcomers like yourself. Hence, the information you provide in our survey will be representative of what happens to many other people who have recently moved here.

Why should I participate in the survey?

Your answers to our questionnaire will help academics to produce new knowledge about what happens to people right after they have moved to another country. Such knowledge will be helpful for policy makers in better meeting the needs of newcomers in the four countries we investigate. Your participation will help to answer many unsettled questions, for instance: Do most people who move to Western Europe plan to stay forever or to return home soon? What is the main reason why they decided to settle here? Do they experience discrimination when looking for a job or a house? How difficult do they find it to get along with natives and institutions such as the medical system or housing agencies?

How will my answers be used?

Your responses will be used for academic purpose only. We guarantee that your answers will be kept strictly confidential. No information that could reveal your identity, such as your name, address, or phone number, will appear in any report or will be given to anyone else including government agencies. The results will only be published in the form of tables, graphs and in statistical form. Some of these results will be published on our website or send to you by email so that you can get an idea how we will use the information you give us.

How do I agree to participate in the SCIP survey?

We very much hope that you agree to participate in the SCIP survey by answering to our questions. The whole interview which can be conducted in your mother tongue will take about one hour and will be done either at your home or somewhere else. There are two ways in which an interview date can be arranged.

(1) Within the next few weeks one of our interviewers will contact you at home and ask you for an interview. In this case, our interviewer can either conduct the interview with you right on the spot or fix a later date that better fits your schedule.

(2) If you prefer to fix a date for the interview beforehand you could also call the number stated below or send us a message (in your mother tongue) via the contact form on this website.
tel: +49 (0)551 39 10923 (Wed 12 a.m - 2 p.m.)

Are you going to contact me again after having completed the interview?

After your first interview in 2010, we plan to conduct another interview with you in early 2012 so that you can share your experiences since we last spoke. This second interview will be rather short and can be done by phone – even if you have moved to another city or country in the meantime. Your continued cooperation is very important since it will help us better understand what happens during the first years of newcomers’ adjustment to a new environment. During the first interview we will therefore ask you to provide some contact information that will make it easier for us to stay in touch with you.