Abstract
<p>Numerous studies have stressed the importance of social networks for the transfer of resources. This article focuses on recently arrived immigrants with few locally embedded network contacts, analysing how they draw on arrival-specific resources in their daily routines. The qualitative research in an arrival neighbourhood in a German city illustrates that routinised and spontaneous foci-aided encounters in semi-public spaces play an important role for newcomers in providing access to arrival-specific knowledge. The article draws on the concept of ‘micro publics,’ highlighting different settings facilitating interactions and resource transfers. Based on our research we developed a classification of different types of encounter that enable resource transfer. The article specifically focuses on foci-aided encounters, as these appear to have a great impact on newcomers’ access to resources. Institutionalised to varying degrees, these settings, ranging from local mosques to football grounds, facilitate interaction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ immigrants. Interviews reveal forms of solidarity between immigrants and how arrival-specific information relevant to ‘navigating the system’ gets transferred. Interestingly, reciprocity plays a role in resource transfers also via routinised and spontaneous foci-aided encounters.</p>
Highlights
There’s that football pitch...where I went to play
We propose a classification of different contact types and their respective role in facilitating resource transfer, analysing the importance ofpublic spaces and institutional settings for resource transfer and seeking to answer the following questions: What is the significance of encounters for newcomers’ access to resources in arrival neighbourhoods?
The focus of this analysis is on the extent to which routinised and spontaneous foci-aided encounters with strangers inpublic spaces can act as starting points for forming social relations and gaining access to resources
Summary
There’s that football pitch...where I went to play. Samuel is a 34-year-old immigrant from Cameroon who moved to Dortmund four years ago to start studying there. Upon arrival, he had difficulties finding an apart-. Samuel’s story illustrates how he gained access to resources by moving around in his neighbourhood and ‘bumping into’ people. He met the person who helped him find this flat “by chance,” as he says, on a football pitch in the Nordstadt
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