Access to and exclusion from housing over time: Refugees' experiences in rural areas
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Author | Tobias Weidinger,Stefan Kordel |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12807 |
54
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International Migration. 2023;61:54–71.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
Following the integration model pro posed by A ger and Str ang (2008), the experienc e of access to housing and
housing conditio ns are considered to be a key dimension of refugee settleme nt and integration. Housing is closely
interlinked with o ther dimens ions of integration such as individuals' sense of safety and security and is often
addressed as a prerequisite for access to empl oyment, educatio n and health ca re (Phillips, 2006; Teixeira, 2008;
Received: 9 Marc h 2020
|
Revised: 22 Septe mber 2020
|
Accepted: 16 Novembe r 2020
DOI: 10.1111/imig.12807
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Access to and exclusion from housing over time:
Refugees' experiences in rural areas
Tobias Weidinger| Stefan Kordel
Institute of G eography, Universit y of
Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Funding information
Bundesministerium für Ernährung und
Landwir tschaft, Gra nt/Award Number:
2817LE035; Staedtl er Stiftung; Hann s-
Seidel-Stiftung
Abstract
Taking the example of recognized refu gees in rural
Germany, and following the housing pat hways approach ,
the paper addresses the complex interplay of individual
and family-related residential prefer ences over time as well
as structur al factors regarding access to h ousing and asso-
ciated settlem ent and integration. Result s are from a long-
term empirical stu dy that encompassed both refugees’ and
local actors’ views. Mechanisms and practices of exclusion
that prevent refugees from accessing appropriate private
housing are related to the negotiatio n of residential prefer-
ences about where a nd how to live, as well as to structural
aspects such as the patter n of loc al housing markets, ac-
cessibility of infrastr uctures or the unwillin gness of land-
lords to let to refugees. Th e paper co ncludes to highlight
the role of place in housing trajecto ries and the significance
of social resources within ref ugees' practices and local in-
termediaries' strategies to overcome exclu sion and p rovi-
sion of access to rural hou sing.
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non-comme rcial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
© 2020 The Autho rs. Internation al Migration publi shed by John Wiley & Son s Ltd on behalf of Intern ational Organiza tion for
Migration
|
55
REFUGEES' HOUSING IN RURAL AREAS
Netto, 2011a, 2011b; U NHCR, 2013; Fozdar & Ha rtley, 2014). Moreover, after entering th e country, an d being
granted asy lum, the search for a flat for o neself or the f amily might be a n important mil estone for indiv iduals to
understa nd themselves as active a gents of their everyday live s.
Recent resea rch highlighted that ref ugees arrive and set tle at locations wit h diverse socio-spat ial characteris-
tics, which subseq uently have an influence on the complex interac tions between individua ls' practices and places.
Thus, following Platts-Fowler and Robinson (2015), we ass ume that “pla ce matters” for refugee s ettlement an d
integration. The majority of s cientific studies concerning housing trajectories of r efugees have centred on urban
contexts and have been conducted, for example, in Australia (e.g. Foley & Beer, 2003; Fozdar & Hartley, 2014),
Austria (e.g . Aigner, 2019), Canada (e.g. Murd ie, 2002; Sherell et al., 2007), Germ any (e.g. Adam et al., 2019), the
United Kingd om (e.g. Bristow, 1979; Aden et a l., 2007), and USA (Poppe, 2013). Some authors have also empha-
sized squatting (e.g. Bolzoni et al., 2015; Belloni, 2016, for Italy) and homelessness (e.g. Kisso on, 2010; Flatau et al.,
2015, for Canada, the UK and Aus tralia). We noticed the bias towards urban environm ents in these studies, which
pointed to a gap in the research on the potential peculia rities of, and ch allenges for, refugees' access to housi ng
in rural areas (se e also Gilhooly & Lee, 2017). This is of concer n for both science and applie d politics because t wo
reasons have foster ed an increase in the number of ref ugees in rural areas in many cou ntries of the Global Nort h,
including Germany. Firs t, dispers al systems distribute asylum seeker s during the asylum procedure, not just to
big cities and metropolita n regions but als o to rural area s (Proietti & Vene ri, 2019). Seco nd, residence ru les limit
the freedom of movem ent of recognized refugees who are r eliant on social welfare to a speci fic spatial scale for a
certain durat ion (e.g. Stewart & Shaffer, 2015; Bakker et al., 2016). The underlying just ification for these measures
is relate d, on the one hand, to “burden sharing” (Boswell, 2003) – that i s, the cos ts of ref ugee accommodati on
should be spread between regio ns, residential segregation in cities should be prevented and the pressu re on urban
housing markets should be relieved (Weidinger, 2020; cf. Münch, 2009). On the ot her hand, polit icians and lob-
byists expect it to be e asier to integrate refugees into rural areas, not leas t because, ostensibly at least, th ere are
existing vac ancies due to out-migration (I FHP, 2015; cf. Weidinger, 2020). By means of conta ining refugees, rura l
areas would at the same time benefit for the ir development, fo r instance in te rms of maintaining infrastructure s
of general intere st (Schech, 2014; c f. Weidinger, 2020).
Running counter to the latter argument, however, refugee advoca cy organizations (e.g. Refugee Council, 2004,
in the UK) and loc al populations often empha size the unsuitability of rur al areas for accommodating refu gees and
highlight their lac k of experience of immigration and of migr ant-related services (e.g. Hubba rd, 2005, UK; Glorius,
2017, Ger many; Zorlu, 2017, Nether lands). In a ddition, the media dis course highligh ts that most refugees have
preferences to move on to cities . Empirical eviden ce, however, indicates t hat recognized refuge es also decide to
move to, stay in, or even return to, rur al areas after moving to cities (Weidin ger et al., 2017). Agains t the backdrop
of the se politica l narratives and la cking knowle dge of t he mechanisms of st aying in rural are as, we consider a
better understanding of the residential preferences and choices of both individual refugees and families in those
regions, as well as of the structures of their housing mar kets and of local i ntermediaries' supporting strategies
that foster or pr event access to, and exclusion fr om, housing, to be a prereq uisite: first, for stu dying the interplay
between i ntegration and r ural development and second, fo r designing sust ainable housing and socially in clusive
neighbourho ods and villages in the count ryside.
Research on refugee housing often focused o n the period of the asylum pr ocedure and the forced immobili-
zation and p lacement in camps ai ming at controlling an d passivating migrant s (e.g. Darling, 2009; Szczepanikova,
2013; K reichauf, 2018). Ins tead, this paper emp hasizes housing trajectori es of re cognized refugee s and re con-
structs th eir residential preferences in rura l residential areas over time and reveals the pract ices that refugees use
to get access to housing , making recourse to their a gency and resources. Co nceptually and methodo logically, this
article is insp ired by the housing pathways appr oach that highlights the ref lexive interaction bet ween individuals'
and hous eholds' preference s and choices , and the structure of local housi ng contexts. Drawing on an empirical
case study carried out betwe en 2015 and 2019 in Germany, which of all European countries has taken the majority
of refugee s during t he last coup le of years and which operates bot h a disper sal mechanism and restric tions on
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