Federal Employment Agency

While refugee inflows into Germany have typically been relatively moderate in recent decades, specific exogenous political events such as the Yugoslav civil war in the early 1990s, the intensifying of the Syrian civil war around 2015, and the war in Ukraine since 2022, have generated substantial spikes in refugee arrivals, affecting the receiving society in multiple ways. This study examines the possible association between the large inflows of refugees into German society during the Syrian civil war period and the development of residents’ life satisfaction in Germany. While several studies have addressed the integration of this exceptionally large number of refugees into the German labor market and society, less attention has been paid to the potential impact of recent refugee arrivals on the subjective well-being (SWB) of the resident population, including native Germans and first- and second-generation immigrants. Whereas the literature reports neutral or positive associations between labor migration and residents’ or natives’ life satisfaction, less is known about the association between refugee inflows and residents’ life satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) enriched with official regional information and data from immigration statistics regarding refugee inflows into Germany, we analyze the association between refugee inflows and residents’ life satisfaction while controlling for established variables associated with life satisfaction. In contrast to political debates, our results demonstrate a significant positive association between residents’ life satisfaction and periods of increased refugee inflows since 2012. Even during the peak years of refugee inflows in 2015 and 2016, we observe increases in residents’ life satisfaction both overall and across specific subgroups. However, as the observed increases are neither linear nor continuous, and vary across time within residential subgroups, we favor an explorative framework and do not claim to identify causal effects.

This article examines Netflix’s third original German series, How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (2019–), in order to situate German (streaming) television in the broader media developments of the convergence era. Transnationally conceived from the outset, the series combines transnational genre narratives with German cultural history in order to address broad audiences across the globe. Focusing on narrative complexity, intertextuality, and genre hybridity, the article first analyzes the series’ references to both national and international nerd narratives such as Baran bo Odar’s Who am I: Kein System ist sicher (2014) and David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010) . Then it contextualizes How to Sell Drugs within twenty-first-century societal debates in Germany and canonical works from nineteenth-century German literary tradition—especially Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774) and Faust (1808) , as well as Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen (1891) . In doing so, this article demonstrates that the series creates ambiguous images simultaneously inspired by both German and Anglo-American cultural history to appeal to audiences around the globe.

ABSTRACT This study estimates the firm-level employment effects of investment grants in Germany. In addition to the average treatment effect on the treated, we examine discrimination in the funding rules as a potential source of effect heterogeneity. We combine a staggered difference-in-differences approach with a matching procedure at the cohort level. The findings reveal a positive effect of investment grants on employment development. The subsample analyses yield strong evidence for heterogeneous effects based on firm characteristics and the economic environment. They highlight the responsibility of the local funding authorities to clarify ex ante which goals of a funding programme are most important in their regions.

BackgroundThe interactions between unemployment and mental health are complex. However, broad and current epidemiological data about the mental health status of unemployed individuals in Germany are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence rates of mental disorders and work ability among all unemployed people who underwent socio-medical assessment by the Federal Employment Agency (FEA).MethodsSocio-medical assessments between 2016 and 2021 were taken from the FEA database and analyzed regarding sociodemographic characteristics, mental disorders and work ability. Standard descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.ResultsA total of 4,249,028 unemployed individuals were assessed. Of these, 2,213,048 persons (52.1%) had at least one psychiatric diagnosis (mean age 40.6 ± 13.5 years, 51.7% female). Mood disorders (53.9%), neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (43.9%), as well as substance use disorders (15.3%) showed the highest prevalence rates among mental disorders and accounted for about 80% of all psychiatric diagnoses. About 40% of them were evaluated to be able to work full time.ConclusionsPsychiatric morbidity among unemployed people is high. However, a significant proportion of them was assessed to be able to return to the labor market. Therefore, close collaborations between unemployment agencies and mental health care institutions as well as specific re-integration programs including supported job placement and vocational training, long-term job coaching as well as integrated mental health care are required in order to improve mental health status, prevent further chronification, avoid labor market exit, and increase employment rate.

ABSTRACT Mailing campaigns are a way to keep longitudinal survey respondents engaged. While mailings usually include a survey answer request, sometimes respondents are contacted between-waves to update contact information or simply to keep respondent contact. Research on the actual impact of these between-wave contacts on response rates is scarce. This paper addresses three research questions: (1) Do between-wave campaigns impact response rate? (2) Does the addition of non-monetary incentives to between-wave campaigns further impact response rates? (3) Do between-wave campaigns also affect other members of the household? Following a one-year break between survey waves, we design a randomized survey experiment assigning respondents to five treatment conditions. Results show that keeping-in-touch mailings did not significantly increase the likelihood of an interview in the National Educational Panel Study for either children or their parents in general. However, when we focus on specific characteristics of the targets, significant differences are found.

Since democratisation, South Africa has struggled to create a stable system of local governance. There are constant municipal failures. Higher levels of government have to intervene in municipalities regularly. This study, therefore, set out to assess the effect of intervention mechanisms, including preventative measures, as part of the broader accountability and oversight setting. Based on a qualitative research approach, this paper argues that both prospective and retrospective accountability forms are weak. Post-factum interventions yield only limited results. Overall, these mechanisms are not able to form stable local governments and prevent municipal failures. Ultimately, this paper infers that strengthening prospective accountability and oversight mechanisms has the capacity to increase the stability of the local governance system. This finding has important implications for developing new accountability and oversight practices in South Africa and elsewhere.