Page 33 - IJPS-8-2

International Journal of
Population Studies URM Education, Economic, and Social Outcomes

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Myanmar, and DC, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York,
Somalia? RQ2: What are the employment outcomes for North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and
youth from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Washington state. Only 1.78% (n = 7) of youths who
Eritrea, Myanmar, and Somalia? and RQ3: What social discharged from the URM program were below the age of
ties exist for youth from the Democratic Republic of the 14 years. Five youths (1.28%) were 15 years of age, 0.77%
Congo, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Somalia? (n = 3) of youths were 16, and 2.04% (n = 8) of youths
were 17 years old. The majority were aged 18 or over at
2. Data and methods the time of discharge: 12.75% (n = 50) were 18, 22.19%

2.1. Data source (n = 87) were 19, 16.07% (n = 63) were 20 years old, 32.40%
(n = 127) were 21, 4.34% (n = 17) were 22, 3.06% (n = 12)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), one of were 23, and 0.51% (n = 2) were 24 years of age. For 2.30%
the national agencies that administer the URM program, (n = 9) of youths, the date of birth was missing and so age
collects administrative data on each youth at the time that at discharge could not be calculated. The average age at
they discharge from the URM program. The administrative discharge was 19.7 years old.
data is cross-sectional and contains a series of youth
outcomes such as living situation, employment status, 2.2. Data management
educational attainment level, English language skills,
access to health care, and more. This information has been The researcher assessed the dataset for missing data
shared with the university and secondary data analysis was and worked with staff at LIRS to fill in as many fields
approved through the University of Maryland Baltimore as possible. Any data that appear inconsistent were
County (UMBC’s) Institutional Review Board. The sample questioned and rectified to ensure data integrity of the
for this study includes 392 youth who was discharged from sample. A codebook was created for the dataset which
an LIRS URM program during Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) lists all possible responses and assigned a numeric value
2015 or FFY2016. for nominal variables, for ease of data analysis. Finally, all
string variables were transformed into numeric values and
The majority, 72.70% (n = 285), of the youth who the data were imported to Stata 14SE for analysis. List-wise
exited URM care were male as compared with 27.30% deletion was used to eliminate incomplete files as there
(n = 107) females. Of the 392 youth in the sample, 25.77% were very few; the final sample was 388 youths.
(n = 101) are from Honduras, 19.90% (n = 78) are from
Guatemala, 10.20% (n = 40) are from Mexico, 8.67% (n = 2.3. Measures of analysis
43) are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 5.87% (n The outcome variables of interest were level of education,
= 23) are from Myanmar, 5.36% (n = 21) are from each economic well-being, and social ties. The youth’s highest
El Salvador and Somalia, 4.08% (n = 16) are from Eritrea, level of education was recorded as one of the following:
1.53% (n = 6) are from Sudan, 1.28% (n = 5) are from (1) K-12; (2) GED, high school diploma, attending a
Nepal, and 1% or less (n = 4 or less) are from the each vocational technology program, or attending an associate’s
of the following countries: Afghanistan, Belize, Bhutan, degree program; and (3) attending a 4-year college.
Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti,
India, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nicaragua, Two different measures of economic well-being were
Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Thailand. The considered in this analysis: Employment status and self-
present study focuses on youth from DRC, Myanmar, sufficiency. Employment status was recorded for each URM
Somalia, and Myanmar as they are the four countries with youth at the time of discharge and for the purposes of this
the highest number of refugees in the sample. The other analyses was dichotomously coded as (1) unemployed if
countries with high numbers of youth (Honduras et al.) do the response was: Unemployed, no work authorization, not
not have refugee status, and many of these outcomes have employed due to disability, or attending school full time
been studied (Crea et al., 2017; Hasson 3 et al., 2021). The and unable to work; or (2) employed if the response was
rd
average length of stay in the URM program for the youth in employed part time or employed full time. Self-sufficiency
the study was 1002.77 days, or a little under 3 years. was dichotomously coded as (1) not self-sufficient if the
response was no income or income limits standards of
Within the sample, the majority of URM youth
discharge from the foster care program during the young living or (2) self-sufficient if the response was income
adulthood years of 18 – 23. The age of majority for foster meets basic needs, self-sufficient, or income is beyond
enough.
care services varies by state, and URM programs are located
across the United States and at the time of data collection Social ties were measured by the youth’s connections
were in Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington to supportive adults. The literature strongly suggests that

Volume 8 Issue 2 (2022) 27 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.304