Abstract
In contrast to urban centers in the western part of Germany, urban arrival infrastructures for international migrants in the federal state of Thuringia developed very recently and are mostly still in the making. Here, asylum seekers confront shrinking municipalities that are neither socioculturally nor in terms of physical infrastructure and governance structures experienced to deal with and take care of people with diverse backgrounds. Comparing two case municipalities, the chapter addresses how these municipalities “welcome” and include asylum seekers, and argues that this depends widely on the different actors’ perception of refugees as a contribution to a (shrinking) local population. More precisely, the chapter examines local officials’ levels of curiosity and “openness,” as well as the lessons learned from previous hosting infrastructures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, the terms asylum seekers and refugees are used as synonyms. In terms of arrivalinfrastructures, the majority of the (newly built and established) basic services offered by the German government are only financed and constructed for a temporary phase and do not distinguish between asylum seekers as temporary future residents and refugees as permanent future residents. As Asylbewerber (asylum seekers) they both “apply” for asylum, which is then rejected or granted for a respective amount of time. However, depending on the asylum status and place of origin, services and provisions do differ; for example Syrian refugees have more access to German classes than refugees from Afghanistan.
- 2.
The national website that documents all right-wing extremist attacks recorded that 70 racist attacks on asylum seekers and/or their housing, four anti-migration/xenophobic demonstrations, and 22 hate crimes occurred in Thuringia in 2016. For 2015, the website documented 42 anti-refugee demonstrations in Thuringia (more information is available at https://www.mut-gegen-rechte-gewalt.de).
- 3.
Due to the demolition of large parts of the pre-1989 building stock, many of their former residents lost places of home and identification, and thus also their sense of place. As a result, some residents also withdrew from urban and societal life and remain alienated from their new places of residence and the further development of the surrounding cities, as our interviews with civilians and administration workers reveal (Steigemann et al. 2016b).
- 4.
See also the UN report on Germany’s need for replacement migration, available at http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ReplMigED/Germany.pdf.
- 5.
The Königssteiner Schlüssel as the national distribution scheme defines how the individual states of the Federal Republic of Germany are to be involved in joint financing. The annual calculation is based on tax revenues (assessed as a two-thirds share) and population numbers (with a one-third share) of the federal states since 1949.
- 6.
For more information on the attack, see: Mobile Beratung für Opfer rechter, rassistischer und antisemitischer Gewalt 2012, http://www.ezra.de/fileadmin/projekte/Opferberatung/Chroniken/Chronik_Ezra_2012.pdf.
- 7.
PEGIDA, a German anti-Islam and xenophobic political organization, was founded in Dresden (Saxony) in 2014 by Lutz Bachmann. PEGIDA stands for Patriot Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident.
References
Amin, Ash. 2007. “Re‐thinking the Urban Social.” City 11 (1): 100–114.
Darling, Jonathan. 2016a. “Privatising Asylum: Neoliberalisation, Depoliticisation and the Governance of Forced Migration.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 41 (3): 230–243.
Darling, Jonathan. 2016b. “Asylum in Austere Times: Instability, Privatization and Experimentation Within the UK Asylum Dispersal System.” Journal of Refugee Studies 29 (4): 483–505.
Eckardt, Frank. 2015. Willkommenskulturen in Ostdeutschland. Flüchtlinge, Flüchtlingsbilder Und Flüchtlingsgegner. INDES Zeitschrift Für Politik Und Gesellschaft 4: 127–134.
Eckardt, Frank. 2016. Impuls: Gesellschaft - Willkommensstädte. In Mehr Stadt, 56–63. Almanach: Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau und Landesplanung.
Eckardt, Frank, Anna Steigemann, and Franziska Werner. 2015. Willkommensstädte. Studienprojekt der Werkstatt Sozialraumanalyse. Abschlussbericht für den Thüringer Minister für Migration, Justiz und Verbraucherschutz. Bauhaus-University Press.
Fawaz, Mona. 2016. Planning and the Refugee Crisis: Informality as a Framework of Analysis and Reflection. Planning Theory 16 (1): 99–115.
Flüchtlingsrat Thüringen e.V., and DGB-Bildungswerk Thüringen e.V. 2015. Flucht und Asyl in Thüringen. Flüchtlinge unterstützen Diskriminierung entgegentreten. http://www.fluechtlingsrat-thr.de/sites/fluechtlingsrat/files/pdf/Beratungshilfe/webversion-fluechtlingsratthuer-hefta5-web.pdf. Accessed 21 December 2017.
Häußermann, Hartmut. 2009. Die soziale Dimension unserer Städte–von der »Integrationsmaschine« zu neuen Ungleichheiten. Robert Bosch Foundation 2009: Starke Familie–Solidarität, Subsidiarität und kleine Lebenskreise. Bericht der Kommission »Familie und demographischer Wandel«. Studie mit Gastbeiträgen im Auftrag der Robert Bosch Stiftung. Stuttgart, 147–156.
Jacobsen, Karen, and Susan Fratzke. 2016. Building Livelihood Opportunities for Refugee Populations: Lessons from Past Practice. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
Kreichauf, René. 2014. The Fortress European City: The Socio-Spatial Exclusion of Asylum Seekers in Copenhagen, Madrid, and Berlin. European Regional Science Association.
Kreichauf, René. 2017. “Europäische Lagerlandschaften.” In Stadterneuerung und Armut, edited by Uwe Altrock and Ronald Kunze, 171–200. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.
Kronauer, Martin, and Walter Siebel, eds. 2013. Polarisierte Städte. Soziale Ungleichheit als Herausforderung für die Stadtpolitik. Frankfurt, NY: Campus.
Richter, Ralph. 2013. Nach dem Schrumpfen. Stadtbezogene Identität als Potenzial schrumpfender Städte. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
Slupina, Manuel, Theresa Damm, and Reiner Klingholz. 2016. Im Osten auf Wanderschaft. Wie Umzüge die demografische Landkarte zwischen Rügen und Erzgebirge verändern. Berlin: Berlin Institut für Bevölkerung und Entwicklung. Report via: http://www.berlin-institut.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Im_Osten_auf_Wanderschaft/BI_WanderungOst_online.pdf. Accessed 21 December 2017.
Steigemann, A.M. 2017. Offering “More”? How Store Owners and Their Businesses Build Neighborhood Social Life. Berlin: TU Berlin University Press.
Steigemann, Anna, and F. Werner. 2016a. Migration statt Schrumpfung. Leben und Wohnen Asylsuchender und Geflüchteter in Gera. Project Report. Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Steigemann, Anna, Frank Eckardt, and Franziska Werner. 2016b. “A Welcoming Policy in Post-socialist East Germany.” Forced Migration Review 51: 67–68.
Werner, Franziska, and Anna Steigemann. 2017. “Vom Schrumpfen zur Integration? Thüringens Willkommenskultur und die sozialräumliche Integration von Flüchtlingen.” In Geschlossene Gesellschaften. Verhandlungen des 38. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Bamberg 2016. Gera, edited by Stephan Lessenich. DGS.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my two colleagues, Frank Eckardt and Franziska Werner, for their support in the research projects and this article. I also thank our students at Bauhaus-University Weimar and our interview partners in Gera and Meiningen for their cooperation, trust, and confidence during the fieldwork.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Steigemann, A.M. (2019). First Arrivals: The Socio-Material Development of Arrival Infrastructures in Thuringia. In: Meeus, B., Arnaut, K., van Heur, B. (eds) Arrival Infrastructures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91167-0_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91167-0_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91166-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91167-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)