Project Description: project: Practices of Integrating
Immigrants – Examined at the Cases of Dortmund and Shef-field
Start date: March 1997 -
Planned end date: February 2000
Ph.D.-research
Brief Description: The central questions addressed within the
research are: How do immigrants and natives interact? What is
integration and how are immigrants taken into a society? The
empirical material of this project comprises biographic interviews
with natives and immigrants in two quarters with a high percentage
of immigrants: Nordstadt in Dortmund (Germany) and Sharrow in
Sheffield (England). Both are old inner city neighbourhoods
in old steel towns. The interviews are supplemented by background
information on life in and development of these quarters from
archives, newspapers, etc. The method of interpretation is a
hermeneutic sequence analysis of the biographic interviews and
fol-lows three dimensions:
- People: It is important to understand the immigrants as
well as the natives, their image of each other, and their
interactions.
- Space: The spatial processes in the two quarters are examined,
but also the specific circumstances of the two countries are
considered.
- Time: The bio-graphic perspective reveals some information
about the processes over time.
The findings of this research will try to answer how the life
of immigrants is influenced by natives and vice versa as well
as under which circumstances positive relationships between
immigrants and na-tives develop. The discussion focuses on,
amongst other things, circumstances of inclusion vs. exclu-sion,
of stigmatization vs. recognition, of cohesion vs. disintegration.
First and preliminary conclusions: It became apparent that
other community studies with a similar focus on the integration
of two groups are only partially transferable to my cases. Especially
the comparison with Elias and Scotson "The Established and the
Outsiders" (originally published in 1965) shows that the immigrant
communities became more and more established and gained cohesion
while the natives little by little lost their co-hesion and
thus their power. Furthermore this complex relation between
natives and newcomers is su-perimposed by the relation between
the quarter and the rest of the city. Quarters with a high percent-age
of immigrants are often in an outsider position in relation
to the rest of the city. This could lead to solidarization between
the various groups, but frequently results in the opposite.
Those who claim to be the established blame the newcomers for
the bad reputation of the quarter. On the individual level there
is a wide range of reactions and strategies for interaction.
However it is striking how ambivalent and contradictory these
reactions are. They range from strategies of ignoring to feelings
of suppressed contempt. Some natives have on the one hand fears
of undue competition, but support on the other hand the immigrants'
full right to social benefits. The future research will have
to supplement these conclusions and show how far they hold true
in the English case. This cross-country comparison will help
to unearth the influence of different general conditions.
|
