THE APARTTOGETHER SURVEY
The survey aimed to capture whether refugees and mi‑
grants understand the information related to COVID‑19,
whether their living situations are hampered following
certain regulations, what current daily stressors they may
face (e.g. insecure income or limited housing), whether
they have experienced discrimination during the pan‑
demic, and what impact the current measures of physical
distancing have had on their social support networks. This
survey used convenience sampling combined with snow‑
ball sampling.
It is expected that the results of this perception-based
survey may provide information for policy makers to ad‑
dress the specific challenges of refugees and migrant and
to inform the health systems, preparedness and inclu‑
siveness.
Participation in the survey
Over 30 000 refugees and migrants from around the world
participated in the ApartTogether survey.1 After cleaning
responses for inconsistencies, this report is based on re‑
sponses from 28 853 refugees and migrants from around
the world who have shared their perspectives on how
COVID‑19 has impacted their lives. There were 5764 mi‑
grants who completed the survey while residing in their
country of birth; they represented a diverse group that
included children of migrants, internally displaced people
and returnees. Survey respondents lived in 170 countries
and originated from 159 countries.
The survey aimed to capture refugees and migrants older
than 16 years of age.
Participation in the survey was voluntary and the partici‑
pants could withdraw their participation from the survey
at any point without providing any reasons or skip any
questions that they did not want to answer. Consequently,
not every question was answered by all participants. How
many participants answered each question is clearly indi‑
cated under each figure. The voluntary nature of participat‑
ing in the survey, and aim of the survey and other relevant
information was indicated in the informed consent form
for those wishing to participate in the survey. Participants
could also contact WHO, in addition to consulting the WHO
website on COVID‑19 for which a link was provided.
Methodology
Information presented in this report was derived from a
brief non-systematic cross-sectional survey called Apart‑
Together administered online to allow speedy comple‑
tion using phones or other hand-held devices. The survey
was intended to be completed by refugees and migrants
themselves through online access. However, it cannot be
guaranteed that this was the case in all instances. How‑
ever, based on the reports received from partners such as
NGOs and academic institutions involved in facilitating
the participation of refugees and migrants in the survey,
this was largely ensured. Questions were in 37 languages
and the 30 questions were organized around five catego‑
ries.
ĥ Sociodemographic characteristics of the participants:
gender, age, education, country of residence, country of
origin, time living in the current country of residence,
residence status (citizen, permanent documents, tem‑
porary documents, no documents/without legal docu‑
ments, other), housing situation (house or apartment,
asylum centre, refugee camp, on the street/in insecure
accommodation, other), family composition and family
size in the household, and work situation.
ĥ COVID‑19: self-reported health status related to COV‑
ID‑19, understanding of measures (physical distancing,
handwashing, masks, gloves, coughing in elbow, etc.)
and the ability to follow preventive measures.
ĥ Daily stressors: impact of COVID‑19 and related meas‑
ures on daily living, including income, food, housing
sense of safety and access to medical care.
ĥ Psychological well-being: symptoms of anxiety and
depression, loneliness and anger; reminders, physical
reactions, feelings of irritation and hopelessness; sleep
problems, substance use and other worries.
The website for the survey offered the possibility for par‑
ticipants to voluntarily add their stories to enlarge on the
1 The survey protocol, questionnaire and informed consent form were approved by the WHO Ethics Review Committee. Ethics approv‑
al for the study was also granted by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Ghent University.
The ApartTogether survey |
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