Pretest of the Annual Survey of Refugees

ATTACHMENT B

Annual Survey of Refugees Redesign

Cognitive Interview Protocol

Thank you for participating earlier and taking the revised survey. This interview will take about an hour. Before we start I need to let you know that you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to answer. You can stop the interview at any time. The answers you give will be private and will not have your name on them. Your information is protected by federal law. You will continue to receive social services and benefits regardless of your decision to participate in the study.

Your answers will help the Office of Refugee Resettlement improve future surveys. We will not identify you when using your answers. Only the researchers at the Urban Institute and SSRS will see your information.

Also, a federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0355 and the expiration date is 03/31/2018.

Do you have any questions about the study or the interview?

Do you agree to be interviewed?

Next, we would like to ask your permission to record this interview. This is also voluntary. It will help us to get all the information and feedback you provide so that a better survey can be developed. We will destroy the recording after this study is completed.

Do we have your permission to record the interview?

___ YES  Thank you (BEGIN AUDIO RECORDING)

___ NO  Ok, we will not record this interview. (DO NOT RECORD)

Now let’s begin.

Q.1) You may recall that at the beginning of the survey, we asked you to list the members of your household. How hard or easy was it to figure out who should or should not be included in the list of household members? Why did you find it either easy or hard?

Q.2) We then asked you a number of questions about each HH member, including their dates of birth, gender, and marital status. How hard or easy was it for you to answer these questions for each person? Was it okay to ask about these questions in a survey or was it uncomfortable?

Q.3) We also asked what country the head of your household was born in and if all members of your household were born in that same country. Can you tell me a little more about your thoughts when deciding on the answer to that question? (POSSIBLE PROBE): Did you think one-by-one about where each member of your household was born? We asked a similar question about whether all members of the household arrived as a refugee. What were your thoughts while responding?

Q.4) How hard or easy was it to remember the month and year that your household members arrived in the United States? If hard, what made it hard? How about the state that your HH members originally settled in? Was that hard or easy to answer?

Q.5) Did you have any difficulty determining if other members of the household had the same ethnic origin as the Head of household? Would you have asked this question the same way we did, or in a different way?

Q.6) How about when we asked about the race of household members? How did you decide how to answer this question? Was it comfortable or uncomfortable to respond to this question? Did the response options make sense to you?

Q.7) Early in the interview we asked if you lived in your house or apartment 1 year ago and then whether all members of the household lived there 1 year ago. How hard or easy was it for you to answer this question? Did you have any difficulty recalling this information? Were there certain members of this household that were more difficult to recall this information for than others? Did the response options make sense to you? (different state; different town, city or metropolitan area).

Q.8) The survey asked a series of questions about what you were doing in your “home country” before you left. Do you remember what time period you were thinking about when you answered that question? Can you tell me a little more about that period of time? Did you have any difficulty answering the question about whether you were working in that period of time?

Q.9) What about when we asked where you were living “while you were displaced” and how long you were displaced? What time period did you think about when you were answering those questions? Was it hard or easy to respond to those questions? (POSSIBLE PROBE): Did you understand what time period we meant? Did these questions apply to your situation? Did you have any difficulty answering the question about whether you were working in that period of time? Did you have any difficulty answering the question about where you were living? Anything you think we should have asked differently?

Q.10) (IF RESPONDENT HAS CHILDREN) Was anything unclear in the questions asking whether your children were able to access schooling while you were displaced? How hard or easy was it to remember these details?

Q.11) At various points in the survey, we asked you about the challenges you may or may not have faced doing certain things. For example, we asked about challenges you may have faced taking ESL or English classes in the U.S. For those questions, can you recall how easy or hard it was to find your answer on the list provided? How well did the choices apply to you? Are there others we should include?

Q.12) We also asked about organizations where you might have taken classes or accessed services such as at work, at schools or colleges, at the library, a Refugee resettlement organization, etc. Again, how easy or hard was it to find your answer on the list of organizations? How well did the choices apply to you? Were you able to recognize the different organizations on the list? Are there others we should include?

Q.13) We asked you about job preparation programs you have taken. Did you have any difficulty answering the question? How well did the choices apply to you? Anything you think we should have asked differently?

Q14) We asked about the jobs, working hours, industry, and salary of all members of your household. How hard or easy was it to answer these questions for yourself, and about household members other than yourself? (POSSIBLE PROBE): How hard or easy was it to respond how many hours and weeks were worked, and to say your family’s monthly income?

Q.15) We asked about your first job in the U.S., how you got it, how well it matched your skills; and how it compares to your current job. How hard or easy was it to answer these questions? How hard or easy was it to remember these details?

Q.16) If any members of your household are not working outside of the home, did the questions that we asked about employment apply to their situation? Were the questions unclear in any way? Is there anything about their employment situation that we did not ask about?

Q.17) About half-way through the survey, we started asking questions about your “Family.” Questions included how many people in your family work at least part time, your family’s average monthly net household income, and receipt of benefits. When answering these questions, who were you including as part of your “family?” Did you think of it differently than members of your “household”?

Q.18) The survey asked about whether one or more people in your family received certain government benefits. We asked about food stamps, TANF, SSI, General Assistance, and Refugee Cash Assistance. How hard or easy was it for you to answer these questions? How much would you say you know about these benefit programs? Do you know more about some than others? (POSSIBLE PROBE) IF THEY MENTIONED OTHER GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS: Can you tell me more about those?)

Q.19) Several questions asked about aspects of your community such as the availability of groceries, public transportation and your feeling of connection to refugees both in your city and in other locations. How much do things like transportation and availability of groceries matter to how you feel about your community? How about being connected to other refugees? Are there things that are more important to you?

Q.20) What does it mean to you to feel connected to refugees inside and outside your community? How would you describe this in your own words? How important do you think these connections are?

Q.21) We asked about your connections to people who share your background and to people of a different background? Did you have any difficulty answering the question? How clear was it what we meant by different groups? Were you able to recall if anyone had visited your home or you had visited theirs? How important do you think these connections are?

Q22) We asked how welcome do you feel in the U.S. Did you have any difficulty answering the question? How would you describe welcome in your own words?

Q23) We asked who you go to for advice on how to get things done in the U.S. Did you have any difficulty answering the question? Can you tell me more about this person, if you had someone? How important do you think this connection is?

Q24) We asked about assets that you own in the U.S. and back home. Did you have any difficulty answering the question? How well did the choices apply to you? Anything you think we should have asked differently?

Q25) We asked about your current housing. How easy or difficult was it for you to remember the monthly rent or housing payment? Was it clear when we asked about the total monthly rent vs. what you contribute? Anything you think we should have asked differently?

Q26) We asked about how safe you feel at home and in your neighborhood. Did you have any difficulty answering the question?

Q.27) We asked whether you had experienced discrimination since coming to the U.S. In your own words, can you tell me what you think the word discrimination refers to in this question? Was it comfortable or uncomfortable to respond to this question?

Q.28) We asked a number of questions about your health and health care. Were these questions okay to ask on a survey or were they uncomfortable? Were some more or less uncomfortable than others? (IF DOES NOT ANSWER SPONTANEOUSLY) What about questions regarding mental health? Were those okay or uncomfortable?

Q.29) One question asked what you do to keep healthy and provided answer choices such as exercising, eating well, meditation, and seeing your doctor regularly. How hard or easy was it to find your answer on the list? Are there other options that we missed?

Q.30) We asked what type of health insurance you have. How much would you say you know about that topic? Was your answer on the list provided? (LIST OPTIONS IF THEY DON’T REMEMBER)

Q.31) How about Refugee Medical Assistance? How hard or easy was it to recall whether anyone in your family ever received this? Tell me how you first heard about this program?

Q.32) If you were without health insurance for any part of last year, how did you come up with the number of months you or household members were uninsured? How easy or difficult was it?

Q.33) (IF RESPONDENT HAS CHILDREN) Toward the end of the survey, we asked some questions about your children. These included whether the child has problems in school and whether they have any learning or emotional impairments. In general, how did you feel about these questions? The question uses the word “impairments.” Do you think this is the right word, or would you choose something different?

Q.34) (IF RESPONDENT HAS CHILDREN) When we asked whether your children were enrolled in school last year, what did the word enrollment mean to you? Are there other words you would use here?

Q.35) (IF RESPONDENT HAS CHILDREN IN SCHOOL) We asked about a number of ways you might have interacted with or participated at your child’s school last year. Please talk to me a little bit more about your activities with your child’s school. Please tell me more about whether you participated in any volunteer activities and your experiences talking with teachers and administrators such as the principal. How did you feel you were treated by school staff? What are the experiences your children are having in school?

Q.36) Are there any specific questions or topics where you think we could make improvements to the survey or make it easier for someone like yourself to comfortably respond to?

Q.37) Were there any questions that you found particularly unclear or difficult to answer that we have not touched on?

Q.38) How did you feel when we called you to do this interview? Did you recall taking the survey earlier this year? How do you feel about the fact that the government sponsors this survey of refugees each year? Does the fact that the government is involved make you feel more positively or more negatively about participating in the survey?

Q.39) Lots of people don’t like to answer their telephones unless they are sure who is calling. Would there be a better way to reach you than the telephone?

Q.40) If we were to want to talk to you again in one year to see how you are doing, would you be willing to be interviewed again? Why or why not? What would be the best way to reach you, if your phone number changes?

Thank you very much for your help. Do you have any questions or comments before we end?

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