Gala Nettelbladt

As one of the most pressing issue of our times, immigration has gained particular relevance at the local level. The recent increase of refugee migration to Germany has instigated new negotiation processes in urban policy and planning. At the national level, the transition of Germany into an immigration country is envisaged by the government, and a new immigration law is underway to create new legal pathways for labour migration. Simultaneously, immigration has become a central focus of the mobilisation for new right-wing parties and movements. These current conflicts over immigration lead to a multiplicity of new dilemmas for municipal decision makers. Consequently, this research project investigates how urban migration policies are negotiated and formulated, which actors participate in policy formulation and how migration-related segregation tendencies are addressed. more info

Many cities are reliant on immigration to turn their declining populations back into growing ones. Nevertheless, despite the increasing competition for younger inhabitant, students, and qualified professionals, as well as widespread growth policies, cities have to date barely developed their own immigration strategies. The management of immigration has so far been seen as the task of national migration regimes. When it comes to local integration policies, cities react solely to the influx of migrants and the national allocation of refugees and asylum seekers. A linkage between urban-development and integration concepts rarely takes place. more info

The PhD project investigates the negotiations of far-right contestations in urban planning and governance processes. It is supervised by Matthias Bernt (Lehrstuhl für Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie, Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Laura Calbet i Elias (Fachgebiet Theorien und Methoden der Stadtplanung, Städtebau-Institut, Universität Stuttgart). more info