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“Wir Schaffen Das!”? Spatial Pitfalls of Neighborhood-Based Refugee Reception in Germany—A Case Study of Frankfurt-Rödelheim

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  • Martina Blank

    (Department of Human Geography, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6, D-60629 Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

Abstract

Refugee reception in Germany is a primarily municipal task that relies heavily on neighborhood-based volunteering. This paper asserts that there are fundamental spatial mismatches between municipal policies and neighborhood-based approaches that place additional burden on all of the stakeholders involved. Drawing from the case of Frankfurt-Rödelheim, which is a socially and ethnically mixed neighborhood in Frankfurt am Main, I show how the way the municipality accommodates refugees disregards the politically embraced work of neighborhood-based volunteers and how the ideal of neighborhood-based inclusion creates a spatial fetish that fails the living reality of the refugees. The findings are based on my ethnographic fieldwork as volunteer in a neighborhood-based welcome initiative.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Blank, 2019. "“Wir Schaffen Das!”? Spatial Pitfalls of Neighborhood-Based Refugee Reception in Germany—A Case Study of Frankfurt-Rödelheim," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:5:p:161-:d:234511
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Larissa Fleischmann & Elias Steinhilper, 2017. "The Myth of Apolitical Volunteering for Refugees: German Welcome Culture and a New Dispositif of Helping," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 17-27.
    2. Franziska Werner & Annegret Haase & Nona Renner & Dieter Rink & Malena Rottwinkel & Anika Schmidt, 2018. "The Local Governance of Arrival in Leipzig: Housing of Asylum-Seeking Persons as a Contested Field," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(4), pages 116-128.
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