Friederike ENßLE-REINHARDT, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany
Birgit GLORIUS, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany
Since 2014, large numbers of refugees have arrived in Europe, also in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas (SMsTRAs) that had only limited experiences with migrant integration so far. Seven years later, the European Research Project Whole-COMM explores how local communities responded to the arrival of migrants in 12 different countries. Within this project, our qualitative research in six SMsTRAs in Germany focuses on local dimensions of integration policy making. During our research, we came about various narratives on the local migration history, which were used as a framing for explaining governance approaches and outcomes of migrant integration. Drawing from other research on local narrations and framing processes (see e.g. Marschütz et al. 2020), we hypothesise that historical events, embedded in local memory and identity, can impact the perception and policy approaches towards governance issues, such as local integration. We understand local narratives as selective representations of a community’s history bound to specific places and periods of time, and shaped by specific values, beliefs and emotions, rather than objective facts (Carmichaelet al. 2020). Drawing on three examples from our research, we trace how specific economic, demographic and historic conditions (re)produce local narratives on migrant integration: (1) Cultural diversity as a central local characteristic due to a long history of labour migration; (2) cultural homogeneity as the norm in one locality in the former GDR; (3) the arrival of refugees as long desired diversity in a rural region with a history of anti-nuclear protests that attracted ecologically conscious artists and urban elites. Our contribution shows that these narratives provoke conflicts between actors that promote, and actors that oppose these narratives. We conclude by reflecting on how the power of local narratives could contribute to constructive policies in the field of migrant integration.
Mots clés : small towns|rural areas|refugee integration|local narratives |local governance
A104325FE