The attached presentation provides the background, objectives, and introduction of team members involved in the research. The research is being conducted as part of my German Chancellor Fellowship. With this research, we intend to understand what factors affect economic outcomes of the newcomers as they integrate in Germany. More specifically, it aims to collect qualitative insights into the strategies they use to manage day-to-day financial needs, overcome financial risks, and build lump sums of money to seek economic opportunities.

1. UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL
LIVES OF REFUGEES AND
ASYLUM SEEKERS IN
GERMANY
Drawing lessons for policy makers and
service providers
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Swati Mehta Dhawan
German Chancellor Fellow 2017-2018
Supported and hosted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Picture Courtesy: http://katherineball.com/Refugee-Protest

2. CONTEXT
Refugees and asylum seekers in Germany
• Highest level of displacement since World War II with an estimated 68.5
million displaced from their homes by end of 2017 (UNHCR)
• Registered refugees: 25.4 million
• Asylum seekers: 3.1 million
• Refugees in protracted situations: Nearly 13.4 million refugees (without
immediate prospects for implementation of durable solutions)
• Within Europe, Germany is the largest single recipient of asylum
applications
• 1.5 million first time asylum applications received between 2014 and 2017
• Top countries of origin are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Eritrea
• Syria, Eritrea, and Iraq had highest protection in 2016 (98.0%, 92.2%, 70.2%
respectively); Afghanistan had medium protection (60%)
• Majority of applicants are male (60%) and single with their families split between
Germany, their home countries and other host countries
• Over the last two years, Germany has taken steps to create an enabling
environment for refugees and asylum seekers
• Reformed Asylum Act and developed integrated refugee management system
• Provided initial housing support in refugee shelters and a subsistence
allowance depending on the type of permit granted
• Ensured access to integration courses and labour markets
Asylum Applications since 1953

3. CONTEXT
Need for economic self-reliance and access to basic financial services
• The better new arrivals are integrated, the better they are able to contribute to the local economy and society
• Refugees and asylum seekers are often subject to higher economic and financial instability, and are vulnerable to exclusion
especially due to long legal processes and sometimes lower protection based on the asylum decision
• Evidence shows that refugees could contribute significantly to the growth and development of host countries, if they are well
integrated into the economy and society
• Economically active and financially self-reliant refugees are less dependent on aid, less vulnerable, and more responsible
members of the society
• Misplaced perceptions about refugees’ and asylum seekers’ economic lives
• They are usually perceived as economically inactive, aid dependent, and highly transitory persons
• In reality, often they are in protracted situations in the host countries (living more than 5 years), keen to be financially independent,
and many times economically engaged (formally or informally) to sustain beyond the government benefits received
• Access to financial services as a tool to economic integration and to enable financial self-sufficiency
• Basic financial services (e.g. bank account) is a pre-requisite to participate in broader formal economy e.g. pay for servicer, enter
into contracts (rent, phone), and to gain formal employment
• Different financial services will be required at different stages of integration to store money, make payments, cover health risks,
send or receive international remittances, start a small business, or to return to their home countries
• Reduces their financial instability and vulnerability by helping them save, reduce reliance on informal networks (e.g. for
remittances), cope with emergency situations, and make long term investments to build capacities (e.g. training, education,
business)

4. CURRENT GAPS AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
• Despite the recent focus on the topic of refugee integration, there are still gaps in understanding what mechanisms refugees and
asylum seekers (collectively ‘newcomers’) have access to and use to regain financial footing as they integrate in the host
economies. It is also unknown, how they manage their financial lives outside of the aid received, bring together income from
different sources, and cope with financial risks.
• Barriers on the demand side as well as supply side means that refugees mostly turn to cash and informal mechanisms to manage
their money, resulting in high risks and costs for them, and also encourages the informal money markets
• Demand side barriers: Lack of legal documents, no financial or credit history, lack of information, low trust in formal institutions,
behavioural biases and influences, lack of previous experience with formal financial services, low income capacity, and long
trajectory to labour market integration
• Supply side barriers: Perceived as high risk and less credit worthy, considered less profitable due to limited income capacity, and in
most cases simply ignored as a target segment
The end objective is to disseminate the findings to the relevant stakeholders (notably financial regulators and providers,
ministries responsible for refugees integration), and initiate a dialogue to recognize the challenges faced by refugees and look for
solutions. At the same time, some of the best practices from the German experience could be tranferred to other host countries.
In order to fill these knowledge gaps, the research project proposes
 to conduct in-depth case diagnostics of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany to understand their specific
experiences and strategies to stabilize their financial lives during the integration phase; and
OBJECTIVES
 to gauge the supply side perceptions and regulatory environment, thereby bringing together both demand and supply
perspectives.

5. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
Primary qualitative research with the newcomers, as well as with key stakeholders involved in
refugee integration and in the financial sector.
INFORMANT
INTERVIEWS
(Supply Side)
IN-DEPTH
INTERVIEWS
(Demand Side)
Semi-structured in-depth with the refugees and asylum seekers to understand:
• Understand the socio-economic, demographic, and family background of the
respondents
• Gauge the financial health of the respondents—assets, liabilities, savings, debts—at
the time of arrival and during the time of study
• Understand the usage and knowledge of financial services in Germany and home
country (formal and informal)
• Identify the mechanisms used to manage money and overcome any risks, their
financial goals and aspirations, financial risks, challenges faced, and support available
• Identify behavioural factors that might affect their financial choices
• Understand how their financial needs might change overtime at different stages of
integration
The primary tool for the research
is personal in-depth interviews.
This is complemented by financial
diaries, secondary research, and
key informant interviews. About
50% of the respondents were
visited multiple times for follow-up
interviews and cash-flow
discussions.
The demand side sample is
selected based on their country of
origin, gender, age, and legal
status. The interviews are being
conducted in Berlin and Bonn.
Interviews with the following stakeholders are being conducted to understand the existing
enabling policies and challenges, and their role in refugee integration (also to identify
respondents for the primary research)
• Financial sector policy makers and financial service providers
• Initiatives supporting refugees especially for labour market integration and
entrepreneurship
• Academicians working on the topic of refugee integration and financial inclusion
• Local authorities (immigration office, job centres), NGOs involved in refugee integration
FINANCIAL
DIARIES
(Demand Side)
Financial diary data is being collected for a subset of the respondents, and has provided a
basis to probe more on specific financial transactions, needs, and decisions. Though the
data has not been analysed in the traditional quantitative manner because of the small
sample size, it still provides deeper insights into the financial decisions of the respondents.

6. MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM
Swati is from India, and is a German Chancellor Fellow for 2017-2018.
She has been working as an advisor on projects to advance access to
financial services for all sections of the society. Her work has taken her to
different parts of India and to countries in Africa and Asia.
She is keenly interested in solutions that support economic development
of excluded socio-economic segments such as low-income families,
women, youth, urban migrants, and forcibly displaced.
So far, her work has focused on understanding all of this, using ‘finance’
as the entry point for research and to design interventions. Currently, she
is conducting a research to understand the above in the context of forced
displacement, specifically for refugees and asylum seekers (collectively
described as ‘newcomers’) in Germany. This project is supported by the
fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. She is hosted at the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

7. MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM
Dellair is a Berlin-based director and writer born in Damascus,
Syria. He studied ecology at Damascus University before changing
his major to film at private institutes in Syria and the Netherlands.
During his studies, he attended several journalism workshops. His
films have been screened at various international venues. His
book, Stories from this Time, was published in Beirut by Beit El-
Mwaten publishing house in 2014. His articles and essays have
been regularly featured on Arabic blogs and newspapers, and in a
selection of German newspapers and magazines.
Dellair is supporting the interviews in Berlin.
Rula is an artist working with textiles. She is based in Berlin
and arrived in Germany three years ago. She is a bachelor
in English literature from Damascus University and studied
sculpture for two years in Damascus at an institute under
Ministry of Education. She is also part of savings groups
mobilized by a not-for-profit called Savings Buddies in
Berlin.
Rula is supporting the interviews in Berlin.
The research will not be possible without the critical support from my team of research assistants who have been conducting the interviews in Arabic, Kurdish
and Dari with the refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As you might notice, some of them bring in their own personal experiences of going through the
asylum process and trying to integrate into the German economy.

8. MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM
Mai has over four years of research experience covering
the telecom and media industries in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA). She has performed data collection,
report writing for research and consulting projects. She is
currently studying International and Development
Economics at the Hochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft-
Berlin. She also works with the Stei Project which provide
group trainings and individual support to people in shelters
and shared accommodation in Berlin.
Mai is supporting the interviews in Berlin.
Wisam is a Palestinian and studied Bachelor in Information
Technology at Damascus University. While studying he
worked for two years with the biggest telecommunication
company in his country. He was a committee member in the
in United World Colleges (UWC) in Syria from 2015 to 2016.
As a start to his career in Germany he did an internship in
Telekom for six months. He plans to start with his university
at Bonn at the end of this year.
Wisam is supporting the interviews in Bonn.

9. MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM
Rohullah is from Afghanistan and has extensive experience
of working with the statistical organization in Afghanistan.
Before coming to Germany in 2016, he served as the head
of the department for national and international trade of the
Central Statistical Organisation in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He is a asylum seeker in Germany, while his family (wife
and two children) is in Kabul.
Rohullah is supporting the interviews in Bonn.

10. Photos from a recent workshop on ‚Financial Inclusion of Newcomers‘
at the Migration Hub Network. The research team participated at the
workshop bringing in rich insights from the field interviews.

11. The team conducted an ‚Empathy Mapping‘ exercise to identify key
personas based on the respondents interviewed. The exercise
enabled the team to better understand the context, goals, networks,
and challenges of the newcomers. The personas have been used to
facilitate discussions at two workshops.

12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!