Glorius Birgit, Kordel Stefan, Weidinger Tobias, Bürer Miriam, Schneider Hanne, Spenger David
Chair of Human Geography With Focus on European Migration Research, Institute for European Studies and History, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany.
Department Geography and Geoscience, Institute for Geography, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Front Sociol. 2020 Dec 18;5:578495. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2020.578495. eCollection 2020.
Due to dispersal policies applied in many European countries, such as Germany, rural regions are important arrival regions for asylum seekers and refugees. For German policy makers, who have faced a large number of immigrants since 2015, it is crucial that asylum seekers and refugees stay in those rural regions and benefit the development of those areas. This paper addresses the quality and quantity of social contact between refugees and resident populations as a prerequisite for integration and long-term migration-development effects from a social geographical perspective. Drawing from survey data and qualitative interviews, we examine expectations, perceptions and experiences of everyday encounters and social relationships in neighborhoods in small rural towns and villages from the perspective of both local residents and refugees. Our results support arguments from research literature for faster social inclusion in rural areas due to greater nearness, but also obstacles toward the integration of foreigners due to a higher homogeneity of rural neighborhoods and only few experiences of positive everyday contact with foreigners among rural residents. The interviewed refugees display a high level of reflexivity regarding their new neighborhood and how they might be seen by rural residents. Their experiences encompass various forms of social relationships, while social bridges are crucial, ranging from serendipitous encounters and functional interactions to connections based on mutual interest around family issues or cultural aspects. Openness and tolerance from at least some parts of the local population can help immigrants to feel at home, and support staying aspirations, while simultaneously evoking wider social change. A peculiarity of rural areas is the intersectionality with further challenges related to structural changes, encompassing, for instance, socio-demographic and economic restructuring. However, social interactions and opportunities for encounters are only one factor in the development of long-term settlement. More in-depth research is needed to consider the interrelations of both structural contexts and complex and changing needs for personal development in the future, also from an intergenerational perspective.
由于德国等许多欧洲国家实施的难民分散政策，农村地区成为寻求庇护者和难民的重要抵达地区。对于自2015年以来面临大量移民的德国政策制定者来说，至关重要的是寻求庇护者和难民留在这些农村地区，并为这些地区的发展带来益处。本文从社会地理学角度探讨难民与当地居民之间社会接触的质量和数量，这是融合以及长期移民发展效应的先决条件。基于调查数据和定性访谈，我们从当地居民和难民的视角，研究了农村小镇和村庄邻里间日常接触和社会关系的期望、认知及经历。我们的研究结果支持了研究文献中的观点，即农村地区因距离更近而能更快实现社会融合，但同时也存在阻碍外国人融入的因素，比如农村邻里的同质性较高，且农村居民与外国人进行积极日常接触的经历较少。接受访谈的难民对他们的新邻里以及农村居民可能如何看待他们表现出高度的反思性。他们的经历涵盖了各种形式的社会关系，而社会桥梁至关重要，从偶然相遇、功能性互动到基于家庭问题或文化方面共同兴趣的联系。当地居民至少部分人的开放和包容有助于移民有宾至如归的感觉，并支持他们留下来的愿望，同时引发更广泛的社会变革。农村地区的一个特点是与结构变化相关的进一步挑战相互交织，例如社会人口结构和经济结构调整。然而，社会互动和相遇机会只是长期定居发展的一个因素。未来还需要更深入的研究，从代际视角考虑结构背景与个人发展复杂多变需求之间的相互关系。
