Municipal Housing Strategies for Refugees. Insights from Two Case Studies in Germany

Abstract

The high number of asylum seekers who immigrated to Germany in 2015 and 2016 is supposed to be one of the key challenges for social cohesion in the years to come. While initially the most pressing tasks such as providing emergency shelters, housing supply and registration had to be managed, the long-term integration of recognised refugees is currently a major topic of discussion. The relocation of asylum seekers out of group accommodation into the housing market is said to be a central precondition for integration. Simultaneously, providing individual apartments for refugees has proven to be a tremendous challenge for many municipalities, especially in highly populated urban areas, since it puts additional pressure on tight housing markets. This competition for affordable housing can (further) evoke social tension in these regions. In this chapter, we will examine the local responses to these developments by comparing two case study areas in North Rhine-Westphalia. The selection of different local contexts provides a comparative insight into the structural conditions of integration processes in urban contexts of different sizes. We will explore different housing strategies for refugees in the large city of Cologne and in small and medium-sized towns in the district of Heinsberg. The chapter illustrates the difficulties of implementing these strategies and identifies several implementation gaps.

The Role of Arrival Areas for Migrant Integration and Resource Access

“…Previous research on neighbourhoods with high numbers of people with a migration background, primarily in the realm of studies on so-called 'context effects' and 'ethnic enclaves,' has described both the advantages and disadvantages of living in such areas. Because much of the research on 'context effects' has assumed that deprivation in such neighbourhoods leads to further disadvantage (van Ham & Manley, 2012), and that, for local authorities, the arrival of newcomers might exacerbate already existing challenges related to deprivation, many European countries are applying distribution strategies in order to disperse newly arriving refugees (Adam et al, 2020;ESPON, 2019).…”

“…In European cities, social-mixing and area-based policies have been the main instruments implemented for governing diversity (Galster, 2007). This can be illustrated by the lively and partly heated debate in countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden on policies of refugee dispersal, which ought to prevent (new) 'ethnic concentrations' in specific cities and neighbourhoods and thereby 'distribute the burden' (Adam et al, 2020;ESPON, 2019;Robinson, Andersson, & Musterd, 2003).…”

Refugee and Migrant Integration in Urban Spatial Structures and City Development: Case Study of Busan, South Korea

“…Thus, to understand the process of migrant integration at the city level, the interplay between housing opportunities or municipal housing policy initiatives and the urban planning framework will be considered. In doing so, integration will be explained as a process varying across space and time, as a policy, practice, and an outcome and as way of making place for and with migrants and refugees [44]. The findings of this study offer an understanding of the role of migrant spatial integration in creating new cityscapes based on humanitarian and migrant urbanism.…”

Mass migration governance and openness toward refugees: Comparing Germany and Turkey

“…However, recognizing that this policy led to isolation of refugees and hindered integration (Chemin & Nagel, 2020; Kürschner & Kvasnicka, 2018), Germany began to implement the housing policy in separate apartments with the support of municipalities, CSOs, and projects such as Refugio and Airbnb's start‐up Refugees Welcome (Council of Europe, 2018). Relocating refugees from accommodation centres into the housing market was challenging for refugees, municipalities, and the housing market (Adam et al., 2019). Refugees still need help finding affordable housing opportunities as well as accessing education and health services.…”