| Description |
Over the past year, for at least three-quarters of a million asylum-seekers from a variety of backgrounds, Germany has exceptionally engaged in the task of accommodation (providing housing and sustenance, financial support, healthcare and legal services). It is widely recognized that the next task - and one of perhaps greatest public and policy concern - is that of facilitating asylum-seekers' 'integration'. Yet integration - however defined - already begins during the stage of accommodation. It is the nature of specific institutional arrangements - created during the process of accommodation - that is decisive for conditioning and channeling subsequent processes of integration. Further, integration can only proceed successfully if asylum-seekers' own diverse needs and aspirations are addressed. Funded by the VolkswagenStiftung, a pilot project at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity has examined these issues in numerous Flüchtlingsunterkünfte (asylum-seekers' housing centers) in one city. Preliminary findings have underlined the key role that Betreiber (facility operators) play in accommodation and integration. Building on the pilot, this project compares different kinds of Betreiber in three different to explain the key factors that condition and determine distinctive accommodation outcomes. It is guided by the following questions: What accounts for similarities and differences in asylum-seekers' housing centers? What are the critical roles and outcomes of differential facility operators in managing these? How do varying institutional arrangements address the needs and aspirations of asylum-seekers, what social positions ensue, and what prospects do these hold for asylum-seekers? Consequently, we will be better able to conceive, analyze and theorize the nature and effects of social positioning among asylum-seekers in Germany.
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