The purpose of the research project “Research on the Situation of Persons Given International Protection in Estonia and Their Integration into the Society” was to map in-depth the current situation of the internationally protected persons (refugees) and to analyse their integration capability.
By March 2011, Estonia had given international protection to 45 persons. Among those were people from adjacent countries like Russia and Belarus but also from more far-away countries like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Different cultural background create different precondition for integrating into Estonian society. Educational background and language skills of protected persons also have a significant impact on the success of the integration process. Additionally, among the protected ones there are children at the age of compulsory school education, whose challenges of integration into the Estonian society also include integration into Estonian educational system and beforehand the study-system in Estonian language. In order to develop a favourable environment for integration into Estonian society for internationally protected persons, it is necessary to map their problems and challenges for integration. For this purpose n in-depth study was carried out among the persons given international protection. The output from final project results was a survey report, which reflected the socio-demographic characteristics of the persons given international protection and analysis of their integration process and future perspectives based on the conducted interviews.
Implementation phases and analysis of the study: