Minimalistische Poetik

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

“…While researchers have long highlighted the importance of taking into account sub-nationalespecially municipal -structures and policies when analyzing asylum issues, the relation between these and civil-society reactions has thus far been largely neglected in scientific inquiry. A recent comparative study of responses to refugee reception and accommodation in six German localities, however, shows how differing actor-constellations and the way in which different actors and factors interrelate, are decisive for more or less positive responses to refugee reception (Aumüller et al 2015). In what follows I highlight three aspects in particular.…”

“…First, how municipal authorities go about announcing decisions (e.g. the opening of an accommodation center), second, how they include local populations in decision-making processes, and third, how they work together with local initiatives,(compare Aumüller et al 2015). The municipality had failed to include Rosenplatz residents in the planning process of the two accommodation centers.…”

“…Unlike many other, especially bigger, accommodation centers, it is neither fenced off nor surveyed. While the size and form of accommodation may not determine how local populations respond to the centers -there are cases of both rejection of small centers and very positive reactions even to mass accommodation centers for several hundreds of people (Aumüller et al 2015: 122) -the way they are (not) marked as 'different' and possibly 'dangerous', as suggested by fences and security staff, has a great impact on the everyday life of their inhabitants (Pieper 2008) and may influence the way neighbors relate to them (Aumüller et al 2015).…”