IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v7y2019i2p165-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

More or Less Political: Findings on a Central Feature of Local Engagement for Refugees in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Verena Schmid

    (Centre for social Innovation and Investment, Max-Weber Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany)

  • Adalbert Evers

    (Centre for social Innovation and Investment, Max-Weber Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany)

  • Georg Mildenberger

    (Centre for social Innovation and Investment, Max-Weber Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany)

Abstract

The article is based on research in the region of Heidelberg—the city itself and two small municipalities nearby. It addresses three dimensions of local support movements for refugees: (1) the varying bundles of motives among those engaged, (2) the diversity of organizations concerned and (3) their interaction with the local political administration. A focal point of the study concerns features and processes that give actions and organizations a more or less political character. Our results reveal that, especially among newly engaged helpers and activists, political and apolitical motives coexist. Many people and their local organizations take positions in the country-wide controversial political debates on refugees, but for their practical action on location, moral concerns clearly prevail. Processes of politicization and depoliticization of refugee support largely depend on the ways and degrees to which nationwide political controversies and local developments intermesh. Politicization may take place due to controversies that call for more than a moral attitude, have an impact and build up at the local level. However, resistance to supportive action, be it by changing discourses or the persistence of traditional administrative routines, may also cause depoliticization, where volunteers and initiatives restrict themselves to acting as mere helpers that bring some human touch into an environment that longs to return to normality.

Suggested Citation

  • Verena Schmid & Adalbert Evers & Georg Mildenberger, 2019. "More or Less Political: Findings on a Central Feature of Local Engagement for Refugees in Germany," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 165-175.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:165-175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1939
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robin Vandevoordt & Gert Verschraegen, 2019. "The European Refugee Controversy: Civil Solidarity, Cultural Imaginaries and Political Change," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 48-52.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inka Stock, 2019. "Buddy Schemes between Refugees and Volunteers in Germany: Transformative Potential in an Unequal Relationship?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 128-138.
    2. Julien Puech & François Yondre & Jane Freedman, 2023. "Typology of European Sports Programmes for Welcoming Migrants: Contrasting Political Philosophies," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1381-1411, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Burcu Toğral Koca, 2022. "Bordering, Differential Inclusion/Exclusion And Civil Society In The Uk," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 65-81, January.
    5. Rivka Saltiel, 2020. "Urban Arrival Infrastructures between Political and Humanitarian Support: The ‘Refugee Welcome’ Mo(ve)ment Revisited," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 67-77.
    6. Larissa Fleischmann, 2019. "Making Volunteering with Refugees Governable: The Contested Role of ‘Civil Society’ in the German Welcome Culture," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 64-73.
    7. Sophia Schmid, 2019. "Taking Care of the Other: Visions of a Caring Integration in Female Refugee Support Work," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 118-127.
    8. Robert Larruina & Kees Boersma & Elena Ponzoni, 2019. "Responding to the Dutch Asylum Crisis: Implications for Collaborative Work between Civil Society and Governmental Organizations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 53-63.
    9. Robin Vandevoordt & Gert Verschraegen, 2019. "The European Refugee Controversy: Civil Solidarity, Cultural Imaginaries and Political Change," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 48-52.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:165-175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.