Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU)

Research question/goal: 

 

This project focuses on the intergenerational integration of the children of immigrants in four selected European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Initially funded within the NORFACE programme, it is the first comprehensive and fully-standardized panel study on this topic in Europe. Between 2010 and 2013, three waves of data collection were conducted with children of immigrants and their majority peers starting at age 14, thus covering a crucial, formative period of their lives. Furthermore, parental as well as teachers’ surveys were realised during the first wave of data collection. Based on these data, it will be possible to investigate the complex causal interplay between the processes of structural, social, and cultural integration. The project started from the assumption that this is the only way one can account for the important differences between countries, ethnic groups, and domains of life, as revealed by prior research on the integration of the second generation in Europe. The project is the first to collect the data needed to uncover the mechanisms behind these diverse and complex patterns: large-scale, strictly comparative, theory-guided, multilevel and longitudinal data. Regarding the latter, the longitudinal aspect did not end after the initial NORFACE funding period in 2014. All country teams started—sometimes, as in the case of Germany, meanwhile successful—initiatives to prolong the project in the context of national research projects, still ensuring highly coordinated action between the different country teams.

 

Current stage: 

 

The main activities in 2024 included fieldwork for the tenth wave of CILS4EU and preparing the follow-up proposal for the fifth and final funding period (2025–2026) within the DFG’s long-term programme. Additionally, we expanded our data harmonization project, which combines data from CILS4EU and NEPS Starting Cohort 4 to create new research opportunities. A reference article for this new data product was published, and we initiated the linkage of CILS4EU data with administrative data from the IAB to further broaden new research perspectives. Complementing these project activities, exemplary research focussed on the challenges of social integration resulting from the 2015 refugee crisis, particularly on youth attitudes towards partnerships with recent refugees.