Abstract
The article analyses and discusses the development of Leipzig and especially its inner east as an ‘urban space of arrival’ since 1990. It represents a study about arrival in the post-socialist context that is fairly rare in the international debate so far, since most of the arrival debate builds on western European evidence. Leipzig’s inner east was characterised by shrinkage until the end of the 1990s and by new growth, especially after 2010, as the whole city grew. Since the second half of the 1990s the inner east has developed into a migrant area, referred to here as an ‘arrival space.’ Today, in 2020, it represents the most heterogeneous part of the city in terms of population structure and is one of the most dynamic areas in terms of in- and out-migration. At the same time, it represents an area where large amounts of the population face different types of disadvantage. Set against this context, the article embeds the story of Leipzig’s inner east into the arrival debate and investigates the area’s development according to the characteristics discussed by the debate. Our results reveal that Leipzig’s inner east represents a meaningful example of an arrival space in a specific (post-socialist, shrinkage followed by regrowth) context and that arrival and its spatial allocation strongly depend on factors like population, housing, and real estate market development, as well as policymaking and, significantly, recognition.
Highlights
Like other cities in the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), the city of Leipzig had a population that was highly homogenous in terms of social and national backgrounds
Until 1989, the proportion of migrants was very low due to restrictive immigration rules. This only changed with the peaceful revolution in 1989/90, when the borders were opened and the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) became one state with more liberal immigration rules
When we look at the development of Leipzig’s inner east as an urban space of arrival, we can confirm that the area displays most of the characteristics that are described as typical for such areas in the literature, e.g., in studies by Biehl (2014), Kurtenbach (2015), Hall et al (2017), and Hans et al (2019)
Summary
Like other cities in the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), the city of Leipzig had a population that was highly homogenous in terms of social and national backgrounds. After 1989–1990, the city of Leipzig experienced profound demographic, social, and economic changes: a specific post-socialist transformation This encompasses population shrinkage and economic decline in the 1990s, stabilisation, moderate growth and reurbanisation in the following decade of the 2000s, and dynamic regrowth and economic recovery since 2010. Leipzig’s inner east became one of the areas with a concentration of migrant households This is all the more astonishing because the economic and social situation in Leipzig at that time was rather unattractive for in-migration, due to deindustrialisation and high rates of unemployment ( > 20%) until the early 2000s. The situation majorly differed from western German cities, which are much more prominent in the discourse on immigration and arrival Embedded in this specific Leipzig context, the inner east attracted low-income households, the majority of which were migrant households. The area is well-known and celebrated as a migrant area but is increasingly endangered by rising rents and incipient upgrading
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
