Participation despite toleration?

Migrants with precarious residence status are largely excluded from legal employment opportunities and access to social benefits. The exclusion of this group from social benefits is not only problematic in view of existing human rights obligations. It is in the interest of municipalities to include these people in urban policies, for example to prevent homelessness or to provide access to necessary basic services such as vaccinations to all city residents regardless of their legal status in the interest of public health - not only since the Corona pandemic. This pragmatic approach is in turn confronted with numerous barriers, not least the fear of deportation of those affected, which leads to contacts with municipal authorities being avoided. How do European cities deal with these challenges? Using the examples of Frankfurt am Main, Vienna and Cardiff, a European joint project of the University of Applied Sciences Fulda, the University of Oxford and the Vienna University of Technology is investigating this in cooperation with the respective city administrations. The aim is to analyse existing local approaches and to initiate social innovations. For the Frankfurt am Main sub-project, Professor Dr. Ilker Ataç and Dr. des. Maren Kirchhoff from Fulda University of Applied Sciences with Dr Petra Tiarks-Jungk and Sarah Alexandra Lang from the Frankfurt Health Department.

European and national regulations for migrants with precarious residence status have become increasingly restrictive in recent years. When migrants with precarious residence status are excluded from social benefits, this has an impact on municipal objectives such as the protection of public health, protection against domestic violence and homelessness. The exclusion of migrants with precarious residence status jeopardises economic and social sustainability at the local level. Cities are directly and daily confronted with the consequences of excluding parts of the urban population from social services. Many municipalities are developing approaches to pragmatically support the group of migrants with precarious residence status. They justify this support as an expression of solidarity, protection of human rights or as a pragmatic response to achieve broader urban interests. A prime example of such an inclusive approach comes from Frankfurt am Main. The health department of the city of Frankfurt am Main has been offering "humanitarian consultations" in cooperation with the NGO Maisha since 2001. The "Frankfurt Model" has become a role model that also attracts international attention.

Providing the municipalities with an evidence base

The joint project, in which researchers from the University of Oxford, the Vienna University of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences Fulda work together with municipal cooperation partners, examines measures offered by municipalities and civil society organisations for migrants with precarious residence status in these three selected cities. The aim is to identify which legal, political and institutional factors make it easier or more difficult for municipalities to include migrants with precarious residence status in municipal services and to develop new impulses to develop synergies in practice between municipalities and their partners.

The project aims to provide municipalities with an evidence base for achieving their policy goals and to help improve interaction between policy, administrative and practice actors. It also aims to derive from the studies for the three European cities which local approaches have the potential to be implemented across Germany or Europe in different legal contexts.

Three case studies: Frankfurt am Main, Vienna, Cardiff

As municipalities in the countries of the European Union have different tasks and powers, they respond to migrants and especially to migrants with precarious residence status in different ways. The collaborative project will therefore address the following research questions in three case studies in Frankfurt am Main, Vienna and Cardiff:

What approach do the cities take to the inclusion of migrants with precarious residence status in municipal services? What arguments do the cities put forward for their approach?
What concrete measures are in place for this group to access social services? What measures are there for women in particular? What are the legal, political and practical barriers to inclusion and protection of rights for this group?
How and why do municipal and non-governmental organisations cooperate in this context? What processes of cooperation and conflict arise in these interactions?

Cooperation with the Frankfurt Health Department

In the Frankfurt am Main sub-project, Professor Dr. Ataç and Dr. des. Maren Kirchhoff are investigating local approaches to supporting migrants with precarious residence status in Frankfurt am Main. They are cooperating with Dr Petra Tiarks-Jungk and Sarah Alexandra Lang from the city's health department, who are involved in the selection of interview partners and the planning of several meetings with relevant actors from NGOs, welfare organisations and social movements. The project thus aims to provide the impetus for better cooperation between the different stakeholders, to contribute to a transfer of knowledge and to initiate social innovations in this field. The results of the project will be discussed with the stakeholders after the qualitative research has been completed. For this purpose, a knowledge transfer event is planned in July 2022 as well as an international final conference in September 2022, both of which will take place in Frankfurt.

Methodology

The cooperative research project is based on literature studies on urban responses and strategies for dealing with migrants with precarious residence status, as well as preliminary research on the legal context at the international and European level and the respective national, regional and local levels. On this basis, the researchers will hold two stakeholder meetings in Cardiff, Frankfurt and Vienna and conduct around 20 qualitative, guideline-based expert interviews with local administrative staff, NGO staff and migrants with precarious residence status.