Annual Survey of Refugees, 2016

United States of America, 2017

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Reference ID

ORR_USA_2016_ASR_vEXT

Producer(s)

Office of Refugee Resettlement, Urban Institute (Contractor)

Collections

Other organizations Americas

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Dec 06, 2021

Last modified

Jun 27, 2022

Page views

13332

Identification

Survey ID number

ORR_USA_2016_ASR_vEXT

Title

Annual Survey of Refugees, 2016

Country

Name	Country code
United States of America	USA

Study type

Socio-Economic [hh/ses]

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has conducted the Annual Survey of Refugees (ASR), which collects information on refugees during their first five years after arrival in the U.S. The ASR is the only scientifically-collected source of national data on refugees’ progress toward self-sufficiency and integration. ORR uses the ASR results alongside other information sources to fulfill its Congressionally-mandated reporting following the Refugee Act of 1980. Historically, the microdata from these surveys have generally been unavailable to researchers.

In the Spring of 2017 ORR completed its 50th Annual Survey of Refugees (ASR). The data from the ASR offer a window into respondents’ first five years in the United States and shows the progress that refugee families made towards learning English, participating in the workforce, and establishing permanent residence. This public use data deposit is only for the 2016 ASR with future years likely to be added to the ICPSR archive..

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

Households and individuals

Version

Version Description

v2.1: Edited, anonymous dataset for licensed distribution.

Scope

Notes

Demographics; household composition; English training; livelihoods; education; residency status; medical care sources; social assistance; housing.

Topics

Topic
Education
Livelihood & Social cohesion
Health Care
Domestic Needs/Household Support
Income Generation
Land and Property

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

National coverage

Universe

Refugees aged 16 years old or over at the time of interview who arrived in the U.S. during FY 2011-2015

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
Office of Refugee Resettlement
Urban Institute (Contractor)

Funding Agency/Sponsor

Name
Office of Refugee Resettlement / U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The 2016 ASR design used a full cross sectional national sample of refugees entering within the past five years. The 2016 ASR employed a stratified probability sample design of refugees. The first stage of selection was the household (PA), and the second stage was the selection of persons within households.
The sample was drawn as fresh cross sections by cohort; there was no longitudinal component. The survey objectives required that – in addition to primary stratification by cohort – the sample of households (i.e., PAs) be stratified at least by year of entry and geographic region of origin.
A total of 1,500 completed household interviews would require a sample of roughly 4,800 refugees, of which 1,585 would be successfully traced. Thus, the net yield is estimated to be 4,768/1500 = 3.2 sampled Principal Applicants to yield one completed household interview. However, since there is always uncertainty associated with the fielding of a survey, replicated sampling was also used to ensure that the target of 1,500 was achieved.

Response Rate

An overall response rate of 24 percent was achieved. The response rate was driven by the ability to locate and speak to (1500+468)/6176 = 32 percent of the sample, meaning that two thirds of the sample could either not be located, or (if located) could not be successfully contacted. The overall response rates decreased with time since arrival to the U.S., varying from 20 percent for FY 2011-2012 refugees to 25 percent for FY 2013-2014 refugees and a high of 31 percent for FY 2015 refugees.

Weighting

Household- and person-level analytic weights were developed for the 2016 ASR to allow for valid statistical estimates of the target refugee population. Both sets of weights are comprised of two components – a base weight reflecting the selection probability and an adjustment that corrects for differential nonresponse and aligns the population to known totals from the sampling frame (RADS universe file).

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2017-01-10	2017-04-20

Data Collectors

Name
Urban Institute (contracted by ORR)

Data Collection Notes

Survey instruments and materials for the ASR 2016 were translated into 16 different languages, including English. Additionally, the survey team retained an interpreter to conduct interviews in a 17th language, Chaldean. The languages that were translated and available in CATI or hard copy (written only) form appear in Table 7 below. In total, these languages cover about 77 percent of the eligible adult refugee population. Letters of introduction, survey instruments and update return post cards were translated into the 16 languages (all but Chaldean). Russian, Amharic, and French were languages that had been used in earlier years of the ASR and were thus retained for the ASR 2016 despite their relatively low frequencies in the population.

Data Access

Citation requirements

Urban Institute. 2016 Annual Survey of Refugees. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-02-19. https://doi.org/10.3886/E104642V4

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

UNHCR_ORR_USA_2016_ASR_DDI_v1.0

Producers

Name
UNHCR

Date of Metadata Production

2021-12

Metadata version

DDI Document version

1.0

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