Residential Segregation of Turkish Migrants in the Ruhr Area—Reasons, Patterns and Policies

Abstract

The rising concentration of ethnic minorities and low-income households in certain urban neighborhoods has become a salient policy issue in Germany and many other Western European countries (Musterd, 2005; Smets and Salman, 2008). Residential segregation processes are discussed as being of potential relevance to the individual life chances of ethnic minorities and their path to integration in urban contexts. Ethnic segregation can also be perceived as an indicator for how societies deal with migration. While in general the levels of ethnic concentration and segregation in German cities are reported to be low as compared to American cities and cities in other European countries such as the UK and Belgium (Musterd, 2005), there has been intense policy debate on social mix and neighborhood effects in segregated areas. This is particularly true for the Ruhr area, which with a population of more than five million is one of the largest urban agglomerations in Europe. The Ruhr has undergone dramatic economic decline and has a significant low-qualified migrant workforce that was hit hardest by job losses in manufacturing industries. Approximately 22 percent of the population of the Ruhr area has a migrant background, including both those who migrated themselves and those descended from migrants. The proportion is even higher among the young. So, for example, approximately 40 percent of those aged ten and younger have a migrant background; most of them are of Turkish origin (Hanhorster, 2011, p. 110).