Asylum in Germany: The Making of the ‘Crisis’ and the Role of Civil Society

Abstract

In most German cities today, refugees are welcomed and supported by a large and growing number of individuals and collectives whose volunteer work covers almost all aspects of refugee reception. At the same time, the arrival and establishment of refugees has been met with xenophobic protest and violence in many German localities. Focusing especially on the example of a local welcome initiative, but also considering exclusionary civil-society practices, this contribution explores recent civil-society involvement in refugee reception against the legal and political context of asylum in Germany. It will be argued that measures of forced dispersal, deterrence and discomfort, in particular, have materially and discursively produced the framing of current refugee movements as a ‘crisis’ and have triggered the differing actions and reactions among local populations. The fact that the ‘refugee crisis’ has been presented not only as a threat, but also as a ‘humanitarian crisis’ that needs to be tackled by both German state actors and civil society has encouraged the wave of positive reactions. Furthermore, taking into account local negotiation processes of asylum is significant if we want to understand the recent and often contradictory civil-society responses. The paper draws on observations from an ongoing research project on local migration regimes and urban asylum, as well as on other studies dealing with refugee reception in Germany.

The Grandhotel Cosmopolis – a concrete utopia? Reflections on the mediated and lived geographies of asylum accommodation

“…At several points in the interview he stressed that he viewed asylum seekers' living circumstances to be the actual source of danger; a conclusion he draws based on his personal experience with local facilities. Contrary to media reporting, Richard and Max evaluated the GHC relative to its position in the built environment as well as to its historical position within local experiences of asylum accommodation, which underlines how local political, socio-economic and historical factors influence attitudes towards asylum accommodation (Bock, 2018;Bygnes, 2019;Hinger, 2016). The respondents' statements below exemplify that media representation alone does not determine how a place such as the GHC is perceived; lived experiences is just as influential for the judgements on spaces and places of otherness (Moores, 2017;Silverstone, 2007).…”

The Refugee Reception Crisis : Polarized Opinions and Mobilizations

“…In contrast, other active groups share a more humanitarian approach. Many people who became involved in pro-migrant mobilization in 2015 and 2016 were moved above all by the (media representation of the) "refugee crisis" (Hinger 2016) and "just wanted to help" (IfD Allensbach 2016: 23) the newcomers, who had left their homes and who were not adequately cared for in Germany because of insufficient state support (Karakayali 2017: 18-19). The new volunteers thus mostly shared a humanist stance, partly in connection with religious beliefs.…”

Landscapes of refugee protection

“…Indeed, whereas both countries have faced “refugee crises” in the past few years (Europe's influx of asylum seekers in 2015–2016 as well as Thailand's influx of Rohingya asylum seekers during the “Andaman Sea crisis” of 2015), it is important to deconstruct the rhetoric of emergency that has characterised state responses to refugee arrivals, as Collyer and King () note. Indeed, Hinger () notes that the long‐term strategies of dispersal, deterrence and discomfort discursively and materially produce the framework of refugee “crises”. Understanding the landscapes of protection helps to deconstruct the panicked rhetoric states use to authorise increasingly draconian approaches to refugee governance.…”