Session details
Organizer(s)
David Templin (Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), University of Osnabrück ) and Jens Gründler (LWL-Institute for Regional History (Münster))
Keywords
é, Suburbanisation, Housing
Abstract
In the post-war decades, increasing processes of suburbanisation often went hand in hand with the deterioration of inner-city neighbourhoods, attempts to urban renewal and the construction of large housing estates in the outskirts of European cities. Not only changing settlement patterns of the domestic population contributed to these trends but also international migration: Which role did migrants play in these urban transformations in the second half of the 20th century? For inner-city neighbourhoods, historians have highlighted the role of migrants in processes of decline, speculation, and urban renewal. Peripheral residential districts shaped by high-rise estates became icons of the failures of modern urbanism and immigration policies. Recent studies in migration research on the other hand focus on the potential of migrant neighbourhoods to facilitate processes of arrival and acclimatisation.
But international migrants not only settled in large cities. Small- and medium-sized towns in suburban areas or the countryside also received large numbers of newcomers. In the second half of the 20th century, suburbs and towns in the wider catchment areas of urban centres experienced a massive growth of population in many European countries – with newcomers coming from the countryside, large cities or foreign countries. Small towns in the suburban sprawl not only provided housing, ranging from detached houses over high-rise estates to make-shift barracks, but often also offered jobs in expanding factories and businesses. International migrants were part of this development, but there is little research on their specific role in suburbanisation and the demise of the “urban-rural-division” in the post-war decades.
The session aims to explore the role of migrants in processes of suburbanization and urban change beyond large cities between the 1960s and 1990s. The papers will reflect on different forms of suburban migration, investigating two main questions: How did experiences of migration and arrival, e.g. regarding housing, differ between large cities and smaller towns, in particular in the suburbs? And what impact did specific urban contexts, but also local actors such as public administrations, employers or associations have on the ways local societies dealt with migration, e.g. with regards to local policies or public debates?
Papers
Lack of Services? Migrants and Infrastructure in West European Suburbs in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Author(s)
David Templin (Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), University of Osnabrück)
Keywords
Migration, Suburbanisation, Infrastructure
Abstract
The increasing suburbanisation in the post-war decades relied on an expansion of infrastructure such as public transport and traffic routes for cars as well as a boom in housing construction. At the same time, a lack of social infrastructure such as schools or youth centres often pointed to a gap between the rapid population growth and the build-up of public facilities.
While newcomers from different backgrounds as well as established residents were confronted with such conditions, (international) migrants faced specific problems: To get access to crucial resources such as language, housing, or work, but also to social contacts, they relied on migration-related social infrastructures. Recent studies in migration research speak of various forms of “migrant infrastructure” (Hall/King/Finlay) or “arrival infrastructure” (Meeus/Arnaut/van Heur) in this regard. The paper asks for the establishment of such infrastructures in suburban settings: What kind of migration-related infrastructures did local authorities, migrant newcomers themselves or other actors establish in suburban settings? Or did migrants rather use the social infrastructure (such as “ethnic” or religious institutions) provided in the neighbouring large cities? And how did these infrastructures and infrastructural practices in turn shape the suburban development?
With regards to different local settings in three West European countries (Spain, West Germany, and the UK), the paper asks for the relationship of infrastructure and migration in suburban areas since the 1960s. It identifies and analyses different forms of local infrastructure related to migration, asks for their emergence and development through infrastructural politics as well as “infrastructural practices” and examines their impact on the transformation and development of suburban areas.
In the Shadow of the Industrial Metropolis: Turin’s and Munich’s Suburban Italian Neighbourhoods in the 1960s to 1980s
Author(s)
Olga Sparschuh (Technische Universität München / Technical University of Munich)
Keywords
Migration, Settlement Patterns, Industrial Suburbs
Abstract
In the post-war era, the industrial boom cities of Turin and Munich became destinations for thousands of labour migrants from the Meridione, the south of Italy. As domestic migration within Italy was unregulated, it quickly yielded homogenous colonies based on local and regional origin, turning Turin’s derelict Centro Storico into an inner-city arrival neighbourhood, that offered informal employment opportunities. In contrast, transnational migration to Germany was state-organized via the recruitment agreement of 1955. Individual Munich employers provided housing for Italian migrants, scattering their accommodation across the city. In the course of the 1960s, the settlement of both domestic and transnational migrants shifted to the cities’ rapidly growing suburbs and condensed in important industrial settlements promising job opportunities and cheaper housing. Near Turin, Rivalta, a small community with important FIAT and Indesit plants, became a central destination for migrants from the Meridione, where they reproduced the social life of their places of origin. Near Munich, the municipality of Karlsfeld, just outside the city limits, turned into an arrival neighbourhood. Starting from the lodging barracks of the nearby MAN factory, it became a focal point of Italian settlement via family reunification and chain migration. While the central settlements of both domestic and transnational migrants triggered fears of “ghettoization” in Turin and Munich from the 1960s onwards, the peri-urban clustering of migrants caused little concern. Long-term, the inhabitants of Turin’s central and suburban migrant quarters settled permanently, in contrast, the majority of Italians in Munich and Karlsfeld returned to Italy – leading to the question, which role settlement patterns and arrival neighbourhoods played in this process. The presentation therefore analyses different urban arrival spaces of migrants from Southern Italy, questioning and examining the assumed dichotomy between internal and foreign migration, which persists in migration research until today.
Housing in Small Town High-rise Estates: Migrants in Rural and Suburban Westphalia in the Late 20th Century
Author(s)
Jens Gründler LWL-Institute for Regional History (Münster)
Keywords
Housing, High-rise Estates, Migration
Abstract
From the 1970s onwards, rural towns and suburbs on the border of larger urban agglomerations in West Germany experienced the arrival of large numbers of migrants, especially from Turkey and countries of the Maghrib. Although transnational migration started in the 1950s, more rural small-town areas were less often destinations for Mediterranean migrants, although particular industries, as textile production, attracted larger numbers. Especially smaller cities often promised cheap housing and regular jobs, as they were either close enough to industrial plants in the larger cities or had small and medium-sized factories or plants themselves. In this paper, I will focus on towns with 10,000 to 50,000 residents, suburbs and cities that were located further away from metropolises.
I will focus on one smaller town, Harsewinkel, in the vicinity of Gutersloh in eastern Westphalia, comparing it to Sennestadt and Jöllenbeck, which had been suburbs in the same region until their incorporation to the larger city of Bielefeld in the 1970s. Harsewinkel was home of Claas Agricultural Machinery, a medium sized employer, and a Royal Air Force airfield. For the latter housing companies were commissioned to planning and building larger housing estates for servicemen. Already during the planning process residents voiced fears of „ghettoization“ once the British forces would leave Germany. The town council reacted to the criticism by skipping housing estates with large blocks. During these re-planning processes the political landscape shifted dramatically. In a first step, I will investigate these debates, focusing on the link between migration and housing.
One of the housing estates in Harsewinkel, Dammanns Hof, became a preferred destination for large families from Turkey – Muslims as well as Syriac Christians – and late repatriates from the Soviet Union (Spätaussiedler) after the British left in 1985. In local perception, the estate quickly became a problematic neighbourhood. In a second step, I will therefore analyse how local public administration, local politics, civil associations, charities, and the migrants themselves negotiated the evolving housing, schooling, and infrastructural issues. Finally, I will put the results in a larger context, looking for differences and parallels in these processes between smaller towns and suburbs to urban areas.