Question Text:
What is your current residence status in Germany?
[Was ist Ihr aktueller Aufenthaltsstatus in Deutschland?]
Answer Categories:
Ongoing asylum procedure - asylum seeker [laufendes Asylverfahren – Asylsuchender]
Asylum procedure completed - refugee status [Asylverfahren abgeschlossen – Flüchtlingsstatus]
Asylum procedure completed - toleration [Asylverfahren abgeschlossen – Duldung]
Asylum procedure completed - refugee status refused, asked to leave the country [Asylverfahren abgeschlossen - Flüchtlingsstatus abgelehnt, aufgefordert das Land zu verlassen]
Recommendations:
Question: It may be necessary to add a category for the phase before the asylum application: "I intend to make an asylum application" [„Ich habe vor einen Asylantrag zu stellen.“]
Answer options: The term "asylum seeker" should possibly be changed or deleted in Russian.
Specific Probing.
Findings for Question:
There are some difficulties with regard to the completeness of the categories. For example, three test persons cannot assign themselves to any answer option. However, the majority of the test persons have no problems with the understanding of the categories.
Serbian
To test person SER01 is not clear what the question is about: "Does this mean why I came to Germany?". SER01 claims to have come to Germany as an asylum-seeker, to have filed an application, which is still pending, and correctly assigns herself to the first answer option. In addition, the test per-son misses a response option that indicates that one has come to Germany but has not yet formally applied for asylum, which seems to take time and is the first completed step for them.
SER02 also has problems understanding the question, but unlike SER01, she does not know what to tick, as nothing applies to her. The test person explains that three weeks ago she received a deportation notice ("a letter that I have to go back" ) but has filed an objection. When asked, SER02 is unable to specify her current status.
Arabic
Both test person AR01 and AR02 have no problems answering the question and rate it as very easy.
Farsi
Test person FAR01 has an ongoing asylum procedure and rates the answer to the question as very easy. The interpreter and the test person point out that the last answer option is missing a verb in the translation.
Test person FAR02 also has an ongoing asylum procedure. The test person states that she had a hearing that was rejected, but that the procedure is continuing with a lawyer. Therefore, the first answer option was chosen, but the question was judged to be moderately difficult: "Not very easy but not very difficult either".
Russian
Test person RUS01 stumbles over the Russian translation of "asylum seeker", as it does not exist in this way: "You don't say that". The wording "ongoing asylum procedure" would be sufficient. The interpreter notes that the remaining answer options have been well translated. Furthermore, the test per-son does not find any of the answer options suitable, as she married a German man. For this reason it is very difficult to answer the question.
Test person RUS02 is the son of RUS01, which is why none of the answer options is applicable here either; neither of the Russian test persons is part of the actual target group of the questionnaire.
English
Test person ENG01 asks what the difference is between the first and the third answer categories. She would spontaneously choose the first answer, which is correct in her case.