Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Insights: Embarks, Economic Activity, and Housing between 2015 and 2021

Product Description

The Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) longitudinal cohort study is a joint project between the Home Office (HO), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Finding robust quantitative data on refugee integration outcomes, particularly over the longer term, is challenging. Existing studies on refugee integration outcomes are scarce and often exhibit weaknesses in the robustness of their data. The aim of the RIO cohort study is to create a comprehensive dataset of refugee outcomes to better inform our understanding of integration outcomes and provide a more robust evidence base for interventions by government and other providers.

The current RIO dataset includes refugees resettled under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) or Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS) (resettled refugees) and asylum seekers who were granted refugee status between 2015 and 2020 (asylum route refugees). These groups represent a subset of all refugees in England and Wales and therefore conclusions from this study should not be generalised across other refugee groups.

This report presents analysis results from refugee cohorts linked to Census 2021 data. There is a significant difference in the quality of data matching for our 2 refugee groups. ONS previously published the Refugee integration outcomes data-linkage pilot: Census 2021 linkage methodology article reporting that Census 2021 linkage rates were 91% for the resettled refugee (RR) group and 70% for the asylum route refugee (ARR) group. The linkage rate for the ARR group is 72% in this latest study. The difference in linkage rates between the 2 cohorts emphasises that these are 2 distinct cohorts with different characteristics and behaviours. Analysis of each group should be interpreted and used with caution, but particularly for the ARR considering the significantly lower level of data matching for this group.