First Arrivals: The Socio-Material Development of Arrival Infrastructures in Thuringia

Abstract

In contrast to urban centers in the western part of Germany, urban arrival infrastructures for international migrants in the federal state of Thuringia developed very recently and are mostly still in the making. Here, asylum seekers confront shrinking municipalities that are neither socioculturally nor in terms of physical infrastructure and governance structures experienced to deal with and take care of people with diverse backgrounds. Comparing two case municipalities, the chapter addresses how these municipalities “welcome” and include asylum seekers, and argues that this depends widely on the different actors’ perception of refugees as a contribution to a (shrinking) local population. More precisely, the chapter examines local officials’ levels of curiosity and “openness,” as well as the lessons learned from previous hosting infrastructures.