Due to dispersal policies applied in many European countries, such as Germany, rural regions are important arrival regions for asylum seekers and refugees. For German policy makers, who have faced a large number of immigrants since 2015, it is crucial that asylum seekers and refugees stay in those rural regions and benefit the development of those areas. This paper addresses the quality and quantity of social contact between refugees and resident populations as a prerequisite for integration and long-term migration-development effects from a social geographical perspective. Drawing from survey data and qualitative interviews, we examine expectations, perceptions and experiences of everyday encounters and social relationships in neighborhoods in small rural towns and villages from the perspective of both local residents and refugees. Our results support arguments from research literature for faster social inclusion in rural areas due to greater nearness, but also obstacles toward the integration of foreigners due to a higher homogeneity of rural neighborhoods and only few experiences of positive everyday contact with foreigners among rural residents. The interviewed refugees display a high level of reflexivity regarding their new neighborhood and how they might be seen by rural residents. Their experiences encompass various forms of social relationships, while social bridges are crucial, ranging from serendipitous encounters and functional interactions to connections based on mutual interest around family issues or cultural aspects. Openness and tolerance from at least some parts of the local population can help immigrants to feel at home, and support staying aspirations, while simultaneously evoking wider social change. A peculiarity of rural areas is the intersectionality with further challenges related to structural changes, encompassing, for instance, socio-demographic and economic restructuring. However, social interactions and opportunities for encounters are only one factor in the development of long-term settlement. More in-depth research is needed to consider the interrelations of both structural contexts and complex and changing needs for personal development in the future, also from an intergenerational perspective.

Following the integration model proposed by Ager and Strang (2008), the experience of access to housing and housing conditions are considered to be a key dimension of refugee settlement and integration. Housing is closely interlinked with other dimensions of integration such as individuals' sense of safety and security and is often addressed as a prerequisite for access to employment, education and health care (Phillips,

This article develops mobility mapping as a valuable space-related instrument to tackle the lack of attention to the meanings of places and everyday spatial mobility in the process of refugee settlement. Referring to two consecutive case studies carried out with asylum seekers and recognized refugees in rural Germany, we discuss the surplus of this tool considering both peculiarities in implementation and the opportunities of analysis of respondent-generated maps. Experiences from this trial research point out ways of implementing a tool that focuses on the graphic and visual dimension of knowledge creation. Relying on principles of participatory research, this tool can help to diminish power asymmetries between the researcher and the participant and acknowledge individuals’ competencies in terms of language. Depending on the aim of the study, the empirical data generated can be analysed both as a product and as a process. Results indicate added value by revealing the importance of spatial dimensions in asylum seekers’ and refugees’ life-worlds, encompassing the construction of individually important places as well as spatial mobility and accessibility. For practitioners, the implementation of the tool provides an opportunity to enhance participant-oriented planning and capacity building, such as in terms of networks and infrastructures, that addresses both individuals’ needs and spatial structures.

ZusammenfassungDas Kapitel nimmt die Rolle von Alltagsmobilität in den Blick und bestätigt deren Stellenwert für die Teilhabe von Geflüchteten in ländlichen Regionen. Ein zentraler Faktor hierfür ist der Zugang zum motorisierten Individualverkehr. Geflüchtete nehmen dies wahr, passen sich den lokalen Mobilitätspraktiken an, entwickeln aber auch eigene Strategien im Umgang mit der bestehenden Mobilitätssituation. Werden sie dabei von lokaler Politik und Zivilgesellschaft unterstützt, kann das wesentlich dazu beigetragen, mobilitätsbedingte Exklusion zu verringern.

Physical places of encounter are nodes of social interaction in which moments of social inclusion and exclusion crystallize. On a methodological level, meeting places have in the past usually been associated either with firmly established spatial arrangements or with situational opportunities of encounter. Acknowledging the complexity of places of encounter and developing further a spatio-visual mapping tool conducted in various research projects on local inclusion of newcomers, we propose an integrative research approach to capturing, mapping and analyzing places of encounter via four dimensions: level of institutionalization, level of intentionality, level of inclusion and horizontal and vertical scale. The proposed place-based approach holds the chance to explicitly take into account a spatial perspective in the analysis of social interactions. Thus, it goes beyond mere network analysis, but is able to capture the socio-spatial conditions of encounters as pre-configurations of further social dynamics. In doing so, we address not only the methodological gap in research but also the practical relevance for identifying and evaluating locally important meeting places. More specifically, as part of a qualitative interview, the mapping tool can enable the participation of people whose voices are seldom heard, while the inclusion of multiple perspectives on places of encounter may facilitate local governance processes in the social realm.