Sept 22 -- The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks an update to the existing data collection for the Annual Survey of Refugees. The Annual Survey of Refugees is a yearly sample survey of refugee households entering the U.S. in the previous 5 fiscal years. The requested update is based upon results of a multi-year effort in instrument redesign and field testing. Comments are due by October 23, 2023.
Data from the Annual Survey of Refugees are used to meet the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) Congressional reporting requirements, as set forth in the Refugee Act of 1980 (section 413(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act). ORR makes survey findings available to the general public and uses findings for the purposes of program planning, policy-making, and budgeting. The requested update reflects changes to the survey instrument to: enhance ORR's understanding of refugees' resettlement experiences; streamline the collection of household-level information; and improve data reliability and validity. As a result of these changes, the estimated time to respond was updated from 48 to 50 minutes.
The Annual Survey of Refugees secures a nationally representative sample of refugee households arriving in the United States in the previous 5 fiscal years.
The purpose of the ASR is to better understand refugees’ integration during their early years of resettlement. The ASR collects household information, as well as individual information. Survey content areas include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
-- Demographics
-- Experiences before arrival
-- Human capital (education/language)
-- Economic self-sufficiency
-- Health
-- Social connection
-- Well-being and receiving community experience
-- Children and schools
Survey data collection begins in mid-January to mid-April, typically lasting 12 weeks of each calendar year. Approximately 1,500 households, who resettled in the U.S. during the preceding five fiscal years, are randomly selected and interviewed. Besides the primary household members who are interviewed, information is also gathered on approximately 3,500 eligible family members.
The ASR is conducted by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) to ensure timely and accurate data collection. The survey is designed to be linguistically and culturally relevant and sensitive to refugee populations. Interviewers are trained and matched to respondents by language, gender, and country of origin, when possible. Each year, the ASR is conducted in approximately 20 languages, which represents about 75% of all adult refugee arrivals during the survey time period.
ORR proposes changes to the ASR that draw on validated questions that were developed for other comparable data collection efforts. These proposed changes refine the wording of certain questions, incorporates questions designed to collect more detailed data on refugee needs related to health, mental health, housing, transportation, and financial assistance, and result in a nominal increase in the length of the survey. The proposed changes are as follows:
-- Added the “uses a different term” response option to the gender question to align with ACF data collection and expert recommendations.
-- Added a question about respondent financial assistance needs (e.g., banking services, budgeting, filing taxes, obtaining a loan, etc.).
-- Added a question about respondents and family members’ difficulties performing basic life activities due to health issues, such as (e.g., hearing, sight, mobility challenges).
-- Added questions about respondents’ housing situations and primary methods of transportation.
-- Added a question about family reunification.
-- Added a question about respondent’s children’s activities.
-- Revised question wording about respondent challenges applying for a green card to be more consistent with the question format used to ask about challenges in other ASR survey questions.
-- Revised question wording related to respondent health care coverage to be more comprehensive and align with other well-being and basic needs surveys.
-- Deleted a question about mental health that respondents had difficulty understanding and replaced it with a question that simplifies the wording to make it easier for respondents to understand and answer.
Annual Survey of Refugees:
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/refugees/annual-survey-refugees
ACF submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202309-0970-007 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-20544
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806