Project management: Prof. Dr. habil. Monika Alisch in association with Prof. Dr. habil. Michael May, RhineMain University of Applied Sciences
Funded by: BMBF, SILQUA FH funding line
Duration: 3/2009 - 2/2012

Cooperation partner:

• Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) Kreisverband Fulda-Stadt-Land e.V.
• Caritas Verband Wiesbaden Rheingau-Taunus e.V.
• Diakonie Hasenbergl. e.V., Munich
• Kubis e.V.
• State Capital Wiesbaden, Residents' and Integration Office, Integration Department; Office for Statistics and Urban Research: Office for Social Work; Foreigners' Advisory Council
• Nassauische Heimstätte / Wohnstadt Group of Companies, Fulda Office

Project description:
The cooperative research project "Older Migrants in the Neighbourhood" deals with the conditions and resources for an appropriate lifestyle of older people with a migration background. It also deals with the barriers that prevent them from realising their ideas of life in old age. As a project of "practical, cooperative social research", Amiqus assumes that strengthening neighbourhood support systems and supporting the self-organisation of one's own interests is a central key to improving the quality of life of older migrants in the neighbourhood.

To this end, the project is being implemented at four research locations: In Wiesbaden (Biebrich, Westend), Fulda (Aschenberg) and Munich (Hasenbergl, Harthof). It pursues practice-relevant goals at the interface between integration work, work with the elderly and civic engagement:

• To collect the views of older migrants on their own social networks, needs, problems and barriers to an appropriate way of life in old age in relation to the neighbourhood; (formation of project groups, keeping so-called social space diaries, future workshops, activating surveys);
• Participative project development in the respective social areas in cooperation with the responsible institutions of community work, work with the elderly and integration work; (feedback of the views of older migrants);
• Developing concrete approaches to self-organisation and self-help for older migrants;
• Networking these structures in the neighbourhood (among themselves and for professional support services close to home);
• Opening up the mostly individualised counselling services for independent living in old age to the support of self-organised assistance by migrants;
• Developing specific low-threshold counselling and support systems;
• Establishing these services as a sustainable component of the local social network;

In each of the four research neighbourhoods, project groups of 15 - 20 older migrants were formed, who, over a period of several months, report weekly on their everyday organisation in the neighbourhood. In the project, older people with a migration background are thus integrated into the process of problem definition, solution finding and participatory project development in the social space. Projects are to be initiated and tested together with the practice partners.

Publications:
Stefan Fröba/ Frank Dölker/ Nadia Laabdallaoui/Holger Adam 2012: Ältere Migrantinnen und Migranten im Quartier Segregationserfahrungen und Quartiersstruktur. In: May, M./ Alisch, M. (eds.): Formen der Segregation. Contributions to Social Space Research, vol. 7. Opladen/Farmington Hills. Barbara Budrich Publishers.

Alisch, Monika / May, Michael 2011: Local Network and Spatial Resources of Older Migrants in Different Urban Structures. In: Soeffner, Hans-Georg et al. (eds.): Transnational Socialisations. Proceedings of the Anniversary Congress of the German Sociological Association in Frankfurt 2010. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Alisch, Monika 2011: Potenziale der Selbstorganisation älterer Migrantinnen und Migranten. In: Hauswirtschaft und Wissenschaft 59/4 2011. pp. 170-176

Alisch, Monika / Michael May 2010: Zwischen Eigensinn und Sozialstaatlichkeit: Stützung von Selbsthilfe und Selbstorganisation älterer Migrant(inn)en. The state of research on the living situation and degree of socialisation of older migrants. In: Widersprüche, Issue 117: "Stubborn Old People? Growing Older in Times of Welfare State Policies of Scarcity. pp. 49-82.

Alisch, Monika / Dölker, Frank / Fröba, Stefan (2010): AMIQUS - Ältere Migrantinnen und Migranten im Quartier Initiierung und Stützung von Netzwerken der Selbstorganisation in Fulda, München und Wiesbaden. In: BAGSO Nachrichten - Das Magazin der Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Senioren-Organisationen. Heft 1/2010. S. 9

Alisch, Monika 2010: Sozialraummodelle im arbeitsmarktpolitischen Kontext - Ein unvollständiger Überblick über die sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskussion(en) zum Sozialraumbegriff. In: IfR Information on Spatial Development. Heft 1/3.2010: Bildung, Arbeit und Sozialraumorientierung.S. 103 - 110.

Alisch, Monika 2010: Ältere MigrantInnen im Quartier. Networks of self-organisation in different neighbourhood structures. In: Stadtpunkte. Information on health promotion. Issue 2/May 2010. pp. 7-8.

Alisch, Monika 2010: Stadtentwicklungspolitik und Wohnungspolitik . In: Hammer, Veronika / Lutz, Ronald (eds.): Wege aus der Kinderarmut. Juventa Verlag. S. 50-59.

Alisch, Monika 2008: Participation gestalten: Social, Political and Legal Frameworks. In: Alisch, Monika / May, Michael (eds.) 2008: Kompetenzen im Sozialraum. Sozialraumentwicklung und -organisation als transdisziplinäres Projekt. Contributions to Social Space Research, Volume 1. Barbara Budrich Verlag. Opladen. Pp. 133 - 156.

Link:www.amiqus.de