Abstract
AbstractWhereas refugees with an insecure residence status have long been excluded from integration measures in Germany, they have recently become the target of integration policies at both the national and the local levels, especially in cities. This chapter compares these policies through category analysis. The core argument is that there is a difference between the logics underlying the policies at the two levels: the national Integration Bill is mainly marked by an ethno-national framing of integration which contributes – through the introduction of the notion of ‘likely or not to stay’ – to a further fractioning of the refugee label and thus the deterioration of rights for many asylum claimants. While it posits integration as a privilege and duty for ‘genuine’ refugees, it aims to undermine the integration of those not deemed to be deserving, following the logic that the disintegration of the latter is necessary to reserve integration capacities for the former. At the local level, in contrast, participation matters more than legal status and refugees are increasingly viewed as a potential resource for and part of a heterogeneous urban society. Yet, also at the local level, integration is ultimately tied to disintegration, as local authorities attempt to select who comes to the city in the first place.
Highlights
Until recently, refugees1 with an insecure residence status were, just like undocumented migrants, not a target group for integration policies in Germany
In the 2000s, a few city municipalities started to make plans to decentralise the accommodation of refugees – that is, to move away from mass accommodation to providing access to private flats
Having explored the way in which disintegration is entangled with integration policies at the national level, this section turns tointegration policies and practices at the local level
Summary
Refugees with an insecure residence status were, just like undocumented migrants, not a target group for integration policies in Germany What is more, they were explicitly excluded from national integration provisions, such as German language and integration courses. They were explicitly excluded from national integration provisions, such as German language and integration courses They were largely prohibited from taking up employment, from moving out of accommodation centres into private flats and from leaving their assigned locality of residence. The in- depth analysis of one local case allows to go beyond an analysis of integration policies as they are described in official documents and to trace the implementation of policies over time (Penninx and Garcés-Mascareñas 2016) Looking at both levels, this chapter asks: How do the policies construct and distinguish between the different target groups? The fourth section turns to the national Integration Bill, which will be contrasted, fifth, with an analysis of local integration policies and practices in the city of Osnabrück
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