Shaping municipal diversity

Migration policy is made by "states". However, migration and integration take place "on the ground". Cities and municipalities negotiate how mobility and migration-induced growing diversity change a society.
Although integration has been successful in many places in Germany since 2015 as a result of changes in migration patterns, there is a noticeable tendency towards uncertainty and rejection in parts of the public.

Reflexive reactions that project fears onto migration as the "mother of all problems" stand alongside unreflected ideas about the time horizons and social consequences of integration processes. An important aspect here is that considerations are primarily focused on "migration" but rarely on "society" as a whole. There is therefore a lack of forums in which society can discuss how it actually is and where it would like to develop.

This is also a reaction to the finding that urban development that is sensitive to the shaping of an increasingly diverse society mostly focuses on large cities and conurbations. Smaller and medium-sized towns in rural areas are always decisive places for social integration, but they are often not perceived as such and are rarely provided with the appropriate resources.

The aim of the project is therefore to develop a concept in cooperation with a partner municipality and the district of Osnabrück over a 12-month working phase, based on the following guiding principles:

1. Analysis of the structures and needs in local government with regard to the possibilities of initiating and accompanying an (urban) social discourse that specifically combines questions of municipal development with questions of shaping good living conditions in a migration society.
2. Development of a practicable concept that enables such a negotiation as a participation process and can be presented together with the district of Osnabrück and the partner municipality for suitable funding programs.
3. Scientific documentation of this process so that exemplary derivations can be derived from it as a "proof of concept" for other municipalities.

The strategic importance of the project lies above all in providing small and medium-sized cities with access to the design of strategic integration projects and overall social negotiation processes in the context of growing diversity induced by migration.