How well are immigrants integrating in their communities? Are the policies and programs intended to support them leading to improved quality of life and meaningful participation in host societies? For decades, there was no common measure of successful immigrant integration. Most existing survey tools assessed economic outcomes, language skills, or access to services, without looking at the social and relational aspects that immigrants have towards their communities.
In 2018, IPL developed the IPL Integration Index, a quick and easy-to-implement survey tool to measure various dimensions of integration. For the first time, researchers, policymakers, and service providers had a way to compare the integration of refugees and other migrant groups into host communities across time, locations, and contexts, and evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions for these populations.
The tool captures six dimensions of immigrant integration: psychological, social, economic, political, linguistic, and navigational. It is designed to measure the degree to which migrants are able to build a successful, fulfilling life in the host society—not the degree to which they have shed their cultural heritage features. The survey, which is available as a 12-item short form (IPL-12) and 24-item long form (IPL-24), features questions versatile enough to be asked to migrants and non-migrants alike and designed to produce valid results in nearly every context.
Since it was created, the IPL Integration Index has been used by researchers, government agencies, and service providers in Austria, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Jordan, Lebanon, Norway, Peru, and the United States, and has been translated from English to a half dozen languages, including Arabic, Dari, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Adapting the Integration Index to Your Projects
Join us May 28, 2024 for “Measuring Immigrant Integration,” an online session covering the creation of the IPL Integration Index, what it captures, and how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners can adapt it for use in different contexts. A Q&A session will provide the opportunity for attendees to explore how they might use the IPL-12/IPL-24 to better understand the needs of migrant populations they work with. Register here to submit questions and receive a Zoom link for the event.
Date: May 28, 2024
Time: 5:00 pm Zurich | 8:00am Los Angeles
Presenters:
- Adam Lichtenheld, Executive Director, Stanford Immigration Policy Lab
- Niklas Harder, DeZIM Institute Co-head of Integration Department
- David Laitin, Professor of Political Science and Faculty co-Director, Stanford Immigration Policy Lab
- Marine Casalis, Program Director, IPL at ETH Zurich
