Focus groups and employer survey

Between June 2019 and February 2020, the CARe consortium organised 11 focus groups and conducted the CARe employer survey, both covering the 10 CARe target countries.

Focus groups

The CARe project consortium conducted the focus groups in 10 target countries between June 2019 and February 2020. Each focus group gathered up to 9 researchers with refugee background to discuss the research labour market in the respective host country and their career paths, given their background and personal trajectories. The purpose of the focus groups was to collect perspectives of researchers from various countries of origin, academic fields, career stages and employment statuses sharing somewhat similar experience of arriving to Europe as at-risk scholars, as well as to map their needs, interests and competences as researchers with refugee background who are navigating the research labour market in different European countries.

The expectation was that there would be substantial country-specific findings concerning the perspectives of individual researchers in each country. However, most of the issues and themes raised by the researchers were joint across the 10 European countries and the results reflect the similar situation.

Employer survey

The CARe employer survey* was conducted in the period November 2019 to February 2020, with the objective of collecting relevant information on the labour market conditions and requirements for researchers from the target group in the 10 project countries. The survey targeted potential employers of the target group such as higher education institutions, businesses, companies and research centres in the target countries and those operating at European level.

The survey looked into the country-specific research labour market conditions, employers’ recruitment practices and requirements, obstacles and incentives in employing researchers with refugee background, employment culture and further support needed to improve labour market access and integration for the CARe target group. 

*The survey was designed by the project consortium and technically conducted and quantitatively analysed by the agency “Splendid Research”. Splendid Research also produced the charts for the report.

Brief comparative report

The brief comparative report combines the two sets of results and looks into ways to further support researchers at risk and with refugee background, at regional, national and EU level.  It compares the perspectives of researchers and those of employers with and without the experience of hiring the target group, and identifies the main support needs as well as potential incentives to best facilitate labour market integration of researchers from this vulnerable group. 

For more information about the focus groups, potential involvement or contribution, please contact the consortium at care(at)aca-secretariat.be.