Intelligence of Refugees in Germany: Levels, Differences and Possible Determinants
1 Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, D 09111 Chemnitz, Germany
2 Department of Business, Harz University of Applied Studies, D 38855 Wernigerode, Germany;
3 Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK;
* Corresponding author:
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 8 Sep 2021 / Revised: 25 Oct 2024 / Accepted: 15 Mar 2024 / Published: 30 Oct 2024
Abstract
Intelligence is the best predictor and the most important causal factor in job performance. Measuring intelligence therefore provides information about future job performance and employment. This applies to different professions and social groups, including immigrants and refugees. Two previous German studies with N=29 and N=552 refugees found average intelligence scores of IQ 92 and 86, respectively. A newer study with N=499 refugees and immigrants from N=15 countries conducted in 2017 to 2018 using the BOMAT, a German non-verbal and purely figural matrices test, found an average IQ of 90 (using the norms of the manual, 84 using a recent German comparison sample). Overall (as a result of our “mini-meta-analysis”), refugees’ cognitive abilities are about (5 to) 10 IQ points higher than the average abilities of people in their home countries (measured by student assessments or intelligence tests and compiled by various research groups), but 12 (to 15) IQ points below the German average. Positive selection, people that are more intelligent being more likely to leave their countries of origin, and accessibility to testing all likely play a role. At the individual level, refugees’ IQ was correlated with education: Each additional year of schooling corresponded to about 2 IQ points (r=.41). At the cross-national level, education was again significantly correlated with immigrants’ average IQ, but so were the level of cognitive ability in the home country (five different measures), income (GDP per capita as indicator of standard of living), positively valued policies (e.g., democracy), indicators of evolutionary ancestry, and culture (religion is used as a measure here). Individuals’ cognitive abilities could be better predicted with individual-level data than with country-level data (multiple R=.50 vs. .34). However, if individual predictors are not available, group predictors are not useless. Path analyses at different data levels showed indirect effects of country of origin cognitive ability on refugee intelligence via income and level of education.
Keywords: refugees; immigrants; intelligence; cognitive ability
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CITE
Rindermann, H.; Klauk, B.; Thompson, J. Intelligence of Refugees in Germany: Levels, Differences and Possible Determinants. Controversial_Ideas 2024, 4, 20.
Rindermann H, Klauk B, Thompson J. Intelligence of Refugees in Germany: Levels, Differences and Possible Determinants. Journal of Controversial Ideas. 2024; 4(2):20.
Rindermann, Heiner; Klauk, Bruno; Thompson, James. 2024. "Intelligence of Refugees in Germany: Levels, Differences and Possible Determinants." Controversial_Ideas 4, no. 2: 20.
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