Welcoming, Revitalising, Re-Growing? Refugee Arrival and Urban Development in Shrinking Cities

Abstract

In Europe and North America, refugees 2 are increasingly relocated to shrinking places which brings refugee-centred revitalisation strategies to the forefront of policy discourse in places affected by urban decline (see Pottie-Sherman, 2018). As "urban area[s] [...] that ha[ve] experienced population loss, economic downturn, employment shrinkage and social problems as symptoms of a structural crisis" (Martinez-Fernandez et al., 2012: 214), shrinking places are often characterised by high unemployment rates, low tax bases, and infrastructural difficulties resulting from long-term decline. The phenomenon is considered structural, as it affects a place's economic, demographic, and social tissue, ultimately manifesting itself in the built environment with social implications. Consequently, these "dis-empowered" places (Glick Schiller and Çağlar, 2011) fall behind in a global system of inter-urban competition and uneven development, leading policymakers in such places to aim for re-scaling via various strategies. Considering their aging populations and selective out-migration, attracting young populations and families is one important strategy. Over the past years, more and more cities expanded this target group by international migrants, notably refugees. Numerous shrinking places in Europe and the US made headlines for pushing local development by welcoming refugees. The mayor of the shrinking town of Goslar in Germany's East, for example, was puzzled by the lack of agreement over the development potentials tied to welcoming refugees in places affected by decline: "It's mad that in Göttingen, they are having to build new accommodation and are