Introduction
Compared to other countries, the German welfare state is characterised by a comprehensive range of benefits, combining social insurance with high coverage levels, tax-financed basic security benefits and an extensive system of social services. Regionally, it is further distinguished by the constitutional commitment to ensuring ‘equivalent living conditions’ regardless of place of residence.Footnote 1 This principle of equality in participation opportunities for all citizens is central to the welfare state’s self-conception and represents a declared political objective in Germany (Kahl, Reference Kahl2016).
However, significant disparities in municipal educational spaces, local healthcare systems and regional labour markets as crucial realms of social protection pose challenges to achieving equal participation opportunities, an issue not confined to Germany alone (Martinelli et al., Reference Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017). These variations in municipal settings are corroborated by European migration research, which examines the local implementation of national asylum and reception policies (Schammann et al., Reference Schammann, Gluns, Heimann, Müller, Wittchen, Younso and Ziegler2021; Scholten, Reference Scholten, Caponio, Scholten and Zapata-Barrero2019). We understand municipalities as fragmented local worlds of social protection that differ along certain dimensions. Social protection understood as all tangible and intangible formal and informal resources against social risks that might impede the realisation of life chances (Bilecen & Barglowski, Reference Bilecen and Barglowski2015, p. 204) is closely linked to the local conditions and accessible and available offers of health, labour and education. In addition, both social policy and migration research emphasise a shift of responsibilities to local administrations and a pluralisation of actors involved in social protection (Andreotti et al., Reference Andreotti, Mingione and Polizzi2012, p. 1927; Scholten & Penninx, Reference Scholten, Penninx, Garcés-Mascareñas and Penninx2016). The fact that the literature reveals major differences between municipalities is of particular importance for refugees. Unlike other migrant groups, they face severe restrictions on mobility in European countries. In Germany, they cannot freely choose or change their place of residence without providing justification. Thus, refugees must navigate and adapt to pre-existing local conditions. The fact that refugees act as independent subjects with self-determined agendas (Triandafyllidou, Reference Triandafyllidou2018) has so far received insufficient attention in both social policy research on equal participation opportunities and migration research on municipal variances.
We argue that refugees’ social protection practices cannot be understood in isolation from fragmented local worlds. Little is known about the interplay between refugees’ strategies and diverse local conditions. Drawing on fifty-four qualitative interviews with refugees who arrived in Germany before 2020 in twelve municipalities, we investigate how refugees navigate within divergent local settings of labour, education and health, utilise them for their own purposes (or not), and explore the consequences of employing similar strategies across different local worlds. We focus on these three social policy fields, because they are crucial for being socially protected from sickness, poverty and exclusion for citizens and migrants alike. To capture the different local settings, we differentiate municipalities along their financial and political frameworks, spatial contexts and local framing of migration regarding the management of refugee migration. This results in fragmented local worlds of social protection in Germany.
We begin this article with an overview of existing research on local welfare variations, migration and social protection. Section Methods and sample outlines our methods and the sample studied in the diverse municipalities. Three distinct strategies for accessing and utilising social rights and services in education, health and the labour market that refugees use to navigate in different local worlds are presented in section Refugee practices in different ‘local worlds’. In section Discussion we discuss these against the backdrop of the fragmented local worlds. Section Conclusion ends with a plea to better understand social protection, particularly in the context of forced migration, as an interplay of local variations and individual strategies.
Municipalities, flight and social protection in the context of the local turn
The ‘local turn’ in both social policy and migration research draws attention to domestic variations across different levels of governance. A major research area considers municipalities as independent political actors in shaping the social protection of refugees (Klammer & Brettschneider, Reference Klammer and Brettschneider2021; Zapata-Barrero et al., Reference Zapata-Barrero, Caponio and Scholten2017). Social policy research on local welfare environments looks at regional variation in population composition and service provision in cities and rural areas (Kriisk, Reference Kriisk2019). Disparities in local education areas, healthcare provision and regional labour markets are considered a challenge for issues of equal participation opportunities (Martinelli et al., Reference Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017). Changing welfare state paradigms and structural reforms aiming at ‘social investment’ (Martinelli, Reference Martinelli, Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017b, pp. 20–21) have led to a dual shift: on the one hand, responsibilities have been increasingly delegated to local bodies; on the other, the provision of social services and the diversity of actors have been pluralised (Andreotti et al., Reference Andreotti, Mingione and Polizzi2012, p. 1927; Martinelli, Reference Martinelli, Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017b, pp. 18–22a). From this perspective, incoherences between national and local policies, the multitude of municipal integration policies and the varying significance of symbolic attributions in granting rights come into view.
While social policy debates on ‘territorial justice’ (Kriisk, Reference Kriisk2019) and ‘social cohesion’ (Andreotti et al., Reference Andreotti, Mingione and Polizzi2012) do not consider refugees as a specific group of actors, migration research understands refugees as self-determined subjects with an independent agenda, highlighting the relevance of autonomous social protection strategies (Bilecen & Barglowski, Reference Bilecen and Barglowski2015; Triandafyllidou, Reference Triandafyllidou2018). Migration research shows that migrants harness a wide range of resources to create social rights across national borders (Bonfert et al., Reference Bonfert, Günzel and Kellmer2022; Calzada, Reference Calzada2018). Migrants’ social protection is characterised as an interplay of formal state systems and informal protection strategies, called ‘assemblage’ (Bilecen & Barglowski, Reference Bilecen and Barglowski2015) or a symbiotic relationship (Serra Mingot & Mazzucato, Reference Serra Mingot and Mazzucato2019).
Despite these insights, existing research often neglects the impact of local variances on refugees’ social protection strategies. Yet, refugees are more dependent on context-specific opportunity structures than German citizens and other migrants due to their particularly precarious living situation (Phillimore, Reference Phillimore2021). Usually, temporary residence allowances, uncertain return options, traumatic experiences, expectations of state integration programmes and support structures result in a high need for social services. Recent literature already reveals poor health outcomes (Wångdahl et al., Reference Wångdahl, Lytsy, Mårtensson and Westerling2018) and barriers in accessing labour markets due to a lack of recognition of professional qualifications as well as discrimination (Calo et al., Reference Calo, Montgomery and Baglioni2024). The importance of local opportunity structures increases if refugees are not free to move (on). The Integration Act in Germany restricts recognised refugees from relocating between federal states or municipalities freely. Refugees without recognised protection status face even stricter residence obligations (Brücker et al., Reference Brücker, Hauptmann and Jaschke2020).Footnote 2 Thus, refugees’ ability to pursue certain strategies and their success in achieving related goals depend heavily on local conditions: e.g. the proximity to a university, the regional labour market’s demand and the availability of local facilities.
In conclusion, the ‘local turn’ in migration and social policy research has not yet led to a consideration of local worlds and migrant strategies in their interactions. Our study addresses this gap by examining, firstly, the strategies refugees use to create social protection and, secondly, how these interact with specific local conditions. We argue that municipalities can be conceptualised as fragmented local worlds that differ across three relevant dimensions: (i) policy, (ii) space and (iii) local framing of migration.
Policy captures specific political-administrative structures and financial framework conditions. In Germany, refugee policies are primarily regulated by federal law, which distinguishes three main categories of residence that come along with different rights of social protection: a preliminary residence permit (throughout the asylum decision), the residence permit and the tolerated stay permit (after a rejected asylum decision). While the residence permit generates access to the labour market as well as the health and education system, the other two severely restrict social rights. However, after initial reception and beyond the asylum procedure, all relevant areas of everyday life are administered locally (Schammann et al., Reference Schammann, Gluns, Heimann, Müller, Wittchen, Younso and Ziegler2021). While federal funding supports education and healthcare, other expenses must be borne by local authority budgets despite precarious financial situations. Accessing additional state programmes is conditional and requires local financial and personal resources, such as providing problem descriptions aligned with funding criteria. Thus, political programmes on the local level vary between targeting refugees as a specialised group with single programmes to integrating them into regular systems. Overall, local authorities are positioned differently in their capacity to address refugees’ needs.
Space relates to specific spatial arrangements and socio-economic dispositions. Municipals show variations in centre-periphery ratios, mobility infrastructures and regional labour markets. For example, refugees in rural municipalities can hardly attend language courses, access appointments with authorities or secure employment. While urban centres feature more social infrastructure, an expanded public transport system and better job prospects, shortages in housing and childcare provision exist.
Finally, local framing relates to migration-related experiences and narratives ranging from openness and support to defensiveness. While rural municipalities of the former and cities of the new Federal Republic of Germany described refugee migration as a new local phenomenon and a major unprecedented challenge, cities of the former Federal Republic saw themselves as experienced in migration and were more willing to adopt new inclusive approaches to refugee reception. Such municipalities initiated cooperation with (partially long-existing) migrant organisations as a resource for enhancing social protection and actively promoted language diversity in local services and institutions. However, even in ‘migration-experienced’ West German municipalities, some actors described the reception of refugees as an additional challenge alongside existing social problems. While local narratives can facilitate inclusive practices, they also have potentially restrictive facets, such as in all municipalities, racist stereotypes and narratives were evident among municipal actors, influencing how they legitimised or delegitimised access to social protection (Menke & Rumpel, Reference Menke and Rumpel2022).
Methods and sample
Our empirical findings are based on qualitative-reconstructive research in different sub-projects of a research group, which focuses on the labour market, education and health. The selection of the three fields was based on key areas of social policy. Within these areas, the individual qualification projects focused on specific sub-areas, oriented towards the specific needs of refugees. While all projects dealt with questions of access, the analysis of these specific areas could also be adapted to general social policy fields. In this way, the insights gained from the individual cases also enabled further conclusions to be drawn about access to social policy. Between January 2018 and April 2021, we collected qualitative data related to different areas of social protection (gainful employment, education, health), different population groups (refugee women and men, young adults) and specific problem situations (substance use). The focus of attention was on local structures as well as refugees’ access to and use of these structures. We define social service provision as educational opportunities, health services and (voluntary and mandatory) integration and labour market measures, because they are intended to enable participation, health and financial independence.
The following empirical findings are based on narrative (biographical), partially semi-structured interviews with refugees (n = 54) in twelve municipalities in eight federal states in West (8) and former East (4) Germany. Both urban (8) and rural (3) municipalities (from small towns to large cities) are represented in the sample. The communities and areas were selected based on subject-specific differences (e.g. in terms of the organisation of education or healthcare) and research interests regarding the differences between urban and rural areas. With regard to our three relevant dimensions of fragmented local worlds, the municipalities display distinctive characteristics: regarding the policy dimension, the sample contains rich and poor municipalities, those actively implemented local integration policies and those who acted with restraint; regarding space, the sample covers sparsely populated/densely populated and structurally weak/strong municipalities in terms of labour market, transport and housing; in terms of local framing, we considered open vs. defensive and migration-experienced vs. migration-inexperienced municipalities, such as cities that have always seen themselves as cities of migration and understand migration as a resource.
The interviews were held in German, English, French or their preferred language as a conversation triad (Tempes & Rumpel, Reference Tempes and Rumpel2022). Language mediators were involved, and, in one case, co-researchers (Kamali-Chirani et al., Reference Kamali-Chirani, El-Kahil, Schlee and Mratschkowski2020).
Access to the refugees was gained through municipal actors and relevant social services as well as low-threshold services provided by welfare associations and migrant organisations, social workers in accommodation facilities and volunteers. The refugee sample was diverse in terms of gender, age, religious affiliation, country of origin, educational background and residence status. Most of the refugees came from Arab or African countries, with some still in the asylum application process. At the time of the interviews, participants had been in Germany for a period ranging from a few months to five years. Refugees from Ukraine are not represented in the sample due to the timing of the interviews.
Most of the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Analysis was mainly based on grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, Reference Strauss and Corbin1996), one sub-project employed Mayring’s content analysis approach (Mayring, Reference Mayring2015). The analysis focussed on subjective interpretations, patterns of interpretation, descriptions of recurring behaviours and relevant municipal structures and institutions. Codes were iteratively developed and refined through interpretation rounds within the research group and with other researchers, leveraging maximum and minimum contrast comparisons. Ethical reflections were integral to the research process, addressing issues such as precarious residency status, the power dynamics inherent in the relationship between researchers and participants and the challenges of multilingualism. These considerations were regularly discussed within the research group and with external researchers to ensure ethical rigour.
Refugee practices in different ‘local worlds’
This section explores the diverse strategies employed by refugeesFootnote 3 in accessing and making use of social rights and services in education, healthcare and the labour market. The practices described in what follows should not be viewed as a self-contained or clearly delineated typology. Rather, we understand the practices as dynamic and fluid in relation to each other. We are not simply combining local framework conditions with lived experiences/response strategies. Rather, drawing on the grounded approach outlined above, we developed a typology of practices. This typology was constructed inductively across multiple municipalities and spanned several fields of social policy. In a subsequent analytical step, we systematically related these empirically derived practices to the identified response strategies.
Haphazard navigation through limited municipal services
After applying for asylum and moving out of the initial reception centres, refugees begin to engage with the local environment. Many expressed a desire to simply ‘do something’ – a broad aspiration where the specific activity, whether related to employment, education or health, appeared secondary. The primary motivation was to remain active in some way. Consequently, some interviewees exhibited a haphazard approach to navigating local social services and opportunities.
This practice is predominantly observed among refugees with precarious legal status, such as those in the asylum process or holding ‘tolerated’ status. The uncertainty surrounding their legal residence prospects often creates a sense of paralysis, serving as a significant barrier to pursuing long-term goals related to education or employment. Individuals without secure residence status use local educational programmes to stabilise their residence status. An example is Laurent, who enrolled in a vocational training programme to secure a training toleration permit under §60c AufenthG,Footnote 4 even though this diverged from his desire to complete his A-levels:
… like my choice? Because with this thing (points to his notice of deportation threat) yes, if you have this letter like I do right now. […] now I’m doing an apprenticeship that I won’t need in the future. So, I’m going to leave my dream behind, do what they want me to do (K10, Laurent, pos. 435).
The existence of such local education programmes depends on the financial capacity of the respective municipality and if local authorities apply successfully for additional state-funded programmes. The latter is linked to the local framing of migration.
Regardless of their personal interests, refugees often prioritise securing their residence above all else – a logical response given that a regular residence permit provides access to a wider range of municipal services. This prioritisation leads to quick accessing of local labour markets to secure one’s livelihood. Refugees in the sample with a work permit often focus on achieving independence from social benefits – a key requirement for extending their residence permit. To address financial pressures, refugees are often willing to accept any form of work, regardless of whether it is secure, precarious or properly compensated. In particular, refugees with ‘tolerated’ status take on unpaid internships (sometimes lasting up to two years), mini-jobs, voluntary work or so-called ‘one-euro jobs’, offered by local job centres. The availability and type of work, however, depend on local demand for skilled labour and initiatives of key individuals or organisations. In our empirical study, this is exemplified by a chamber of skilled trades that engages with refugee accommodation centres as part of a project to strengthen the pipeline of skilled workers. In another municipality, skilled trades companies collaborate with social workers, who identify suitable candidates in accommodation centres and prepare them for vocational. Thus, refugees in urban municipalities or urban centres with a dynamic, highly absorbent local labour market have more options to secure residency than others.
The haphazard navigation observed in the field of work extends to other fields of social protection, such as health-related services. For instance, Reza, a student from Iran, sought out local services to address his substance use, with the primary goal of simply being admitted somewhere as a first step:
[There] were two or three places where I went but unfortunately, they didn’t accept me because they said, for example, that I was in the asylum procedure and I couldn’t get this offer. I also went to a Japanese doctor, he told me no, you are still very young, you don’t have the capacity for it […] After that I went to two other places that didn’t accept me either until this place accepted me. (K7, Reza I1, pos. 68)
It is made clear here that haphazard navigation can only be a successful approach if the municipality has a diverse range of offerings; in Reza’s case, a large city with a fundamentally open integration concept and a long history of migration. Due to his temporary residence permit, he is denied certain services, but his persistence, flexibility and the wide range of services on offer compensate for this.
Finally, the haphazard navigation through local worlds is linked to the refugees’ desire for structure in their daily lives. Many report experiencing boredom, living from day to day and having an excess of unoccupied time: ‘The only thing I simply have far too much of is time’ (K7, Mustafa I1, pos. 126). Overall, it becomes evident that haphazard navigation within municipal fields often results in the acceptance and utilisation of given local support structures, even when these do not align with refugees’ long-term interests. In our data, the lack of a residence permit emerges as a particularly powerful factor, significantly shaping and constraining the practices and decisions of refugees.
Pragmatic navigation depending on the local settings
Refugees who have (at least temporarily) secured residence differ in the way they navigate the local world. A residence permit provides them with a minimum level of social protection and access to a much broader range of municipal services. These refugees in our sample – diverse in terms of gender, qualifications and permit type – had been in Germany for a while, with most initially living in rural areas and already having had contact with services in education, the labour market and health. At the time of the interviews, many of them were still looking for suitable offers.
While these refugees expressed aspirations and goals, they had come to understand that achieving them directly in Germany could be challenging or even impossible. They demonstrated a willingness to adapt, showing flexibility regarding the type of local opportunities they pursued, the timing of their engagement and their long-term objectives. In this context, the local framework conditions play a crucial role. Refugees assigned to cities or urban centres encounter a broader array of offers, enabling them to orientate themselves professionally and embark on new paths. For instance, Aram, a lawyer from Syria, consequently invested in training as an interpreter after realising that a legal career was not feasible in Germany. She used the opportunities available locally but is still not satisfied with her options for professional development opportunities. ‘I have my job now, but I want to expand my work a bit, I want to do more German courses. And become a sworn interpreter. […] Sworn interpreters [earn] 70 euros an hour, that’s good’ (K1, Aram, line 359).
Other refugees do not find local education programmes compatible with the qualifications brought from their countries of origin on-site, or the local labour market does not require their specific skills. For female refugees, balancing their labour market aspirations with care responsibilities is an additional hurdle. The spatial dimension emerging here is not limited to the multitude of local opportunities available to some refugees but also extends to the utilisation of existing services and infrastructure, which often leads to long waiting times. For instance, some women reported participating in undesirable labour market programmes while waiting to enrol in the language courses they wanted. Others, upon completing a language course, could not continue with the next level of language course.
Even though some refugees in the sample were able to identify positive aspects in the services utilising – ‘I knew that I would get something out of it. I would make a few friends, I would start to get to know German culture’ (K11, Sedhat, Z. 54) – they must pragmatically navigate the limited range of services offered by municipal structures. Programmes in rural municipalities are only accessible by long travel times, which leads to dropouts and reorientation regarding their own educational pathways.
And I started it for two months and then I had to stop it because […] I had to travel an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back home every day. That’s why I quit and I kept looking for a training place (K12, Toure, Z.76)
Consequently, refugees located in remote and/or poor municipalities like Toure are compelled to fall back on less suitable options.
In terms of healthcare, refugees are dependent on local services, as specialised services, such as the treatment of drug use, are only available in certain regions. Refugees living in smaller communities without such specialised services often turn to alternative options. For instance, Fraug from Togo, who is in Germany for three years, awaiting trial after an appeal against his rejection, explains: ‘I just need a drug, something to support me. I can’t do it just by willpower alone. And through psychological support’ (K9, Fraug I1, pos. 72). The locally restricted availability of services means that Fraug is compelled to use options he finds unsatisfactory, as his preferred services are unavailable. In the interview, he voices his dissatisfaction more strongly than other participants.
Overall, refugees whose educational and labour market trajectories are still emerging under the new conditions in Germany tend to navigate pragmatically through the local settings. While they often use municipal services due to a lack of suitable alternatives – such as in the healthcare sector – they remain flexible and are willing to accept detours and delays. They wait for language courses, make use of available educational opportunities or complete labour market programmes they have already started. This pragmatic navigation of alternatives is strongly shaped by the specific municipal environment. However, refugees typically do not question the limitations or diversity of these local spaces of opportunity, accepting them as they are.
Targeted navigation in self-selected local settings
Many refugees in our sample have clear goals regarding desired municipal offers and social services in the fields of education, the labour market and health, which they persistently pursue, knowing the steps needed to achieve within their local contexts. This group is characterised by a higher social status in their country of origin and, in some cases, advanced educational qualifications. Among them, women frequently take on the role of breadwinners, either because they are better educated than their partners or because their partners are unable to work. Some women have also arrived without a partner. They seek assistance from volunteers or migrant self-organisations more often than in the other strategies, which tend to be more accessible in communities with a history of migration. Albert, for instance, refuses to pursue vocational training, even though it could improve his residency status. As a qualified physicist, he remains committed to his goal of completing a Master’s degree, prioritising long-term fulfilment over immediate stability:
I have my targets. If I decided to go to work, just as someone who wants that kind of security but without happiness […] I will lose the chance to reach my targets. That’s why I say, very risky, but in life, when you don’t take a risk, you can’t get what you want. (K10, Albert, Z.140)
Part of the practice of perseverance is holding on to what he has and has brought with him; like other people from this group, he wants to build on his social status in his country of origin. These refugees benefit particularly from a broad local opportunity structure, as these usually offer specialisations in specific interests and qualifications/skills. In Albert’s case, he can draw on the opportunities offered by a large city and a region with close economic and infrastructural ties.
In the healthcare system, perseverance is less about maintaining previous behaviours and more about striving to improve or restore their health. Refugees seek access to specific healthcare services, such as long-term therapy, and are not easily discouraged by initial barriers. As Kiaroch from Iran with a tolerated status for three years explains: ‘Yes, it’s been a few weeks that I’ve been thinking about long-term therapy, but I haven’t found anything yet’ (K7, Kiaroch_I1_2, pos. 236). Kiaroch emphasises that he needs support from (also migrant) gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are more likely to be found in municipalities with experience of migration, like in the case of Kiaroch, due to their experience in addressing migrants and offering services of migrant welfare organisations.
Driven by their personal goals, refugees critically reflect on and assess municipal services, often highlighting poor coordination, inadequate quality or the lack of nearby educational and employment opportunities. These refugees may choose to change municipalities to access better opportunities, even when residency requirements complicate such moves. Sedhat, holding a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and five years of teaching experience in Eritrea, aspires to pursue an English-language Master’s degree in Germany. However, the rural community to which he has been assigned lacks access to a university. He begins initially
to look for a job, move to a big city and increase my chances of getting a better education. So I looked for jobs on the internet, in schools, in renovation, in the industry here […] I wrote my application, and I was invited for an interview, and I got the signature on the contract to work with them. (K11, Sedhat, Z. 57)
In addition to the variance in the local setting – in a municipality with a university, Sedhat might have succeeded in gaining access to a university – he is also hindered by the residency requirement. This regulation obliges him to reside in a specific location for a fixed period. To circumvent this restriction on better education opportunities, Sedhat seeks employment in a city with a university. Similarly, other refugees make strategic decisions to relocate, moving to the nearest larger city, relocating multiple times or initially commuting to urban centres, which is permitted by law after a lengthy administrative process and under certain circumstances, such as employment, study or vocational training. Mariam, a hairdresser from Côte d’Ivoire and a mother, illustrates how moving from a rural to an urban area enabled her to access an institutional education. Even when refugees do not immediately gain access to suitable programmes after such strategic relocations, they view these moves as critical intermediate steps towards achieving their long-term goals. Given their aspirations, it is not surprising that refugees in this group frequently report conflicts with local authorities and providers of programmes.
When striving to pursue their own plans despite resistance, many refugees report experiencing racist discrimination from local authorities or social services. In such cases, support from volunteers within the majority society and local migrant self-organisations plays an important role. They are predominantly found in migration experienced municipalities throughout Germany.
The spatial dimension linked to population density, local infrastructure linked to work, education and public transport appears to be crucial for the targeted navigation in self-selected local settings.
Discussion
Our research illustrates three distinct practices of navigation employed by refugees in Germany’s fragmented local worlds, regardless of the municipality interviewees were assigned to: (i) haphazard navigation through limited municipal services, (ii) pragmatic navigation depending on the local settings and (iii) purposeful navigation in self-selected local settings. In the following, we relate these practices to the fragmented local worlds on-site, drawing on policy, space and framing as differentiating dimensions, as well as to the scientific discourse.
Under conditions of uncertain residence, refugees engage in haphazard navigation within communal worlds, characterised by short-term, indiscriminate acceptance of available services in the fields of healthcare, employment and education. Finding legal and financial security, structuring everyday life and achieving health improvements are key orientations for refugees seeking social protection for themselves, but also by remitting money to relatives in their country of origin (Sirkeci, Reference Sirkeci, Sciortino, Cvajner and Kivisto2024). This is closely linked to the overarching goal of securing residency. Local education and work programmes are used to consolidate residence, mostly offered in resource-rich municipalities that apply for and secure competitive funding for specific educational programmes. Research shows that resource-rich municipalities are more successful in obtaining such funding than poorer ones (Brettschneider & Klammer, Reference Brettschneider, Klammer, Klammer and Brettschneider2021). However, access to and use of municipal offers and services are legally restricted by the lack of a residence permit and depend on the local context. The relevant space dimension encompasses factors such as the absorption capacity of the local labour market, the availability of training opportunities and the suitability of healthcare services. The local framing dimension is reflected in initiatives from civil society and migrant organisations that are more likely to exist or gain traction in municipalities with migration experience. Refugees in urban centres or larger cities tend to benefit from better local structures (Kühn, Reference Kühn2015), whereas rural municipalities are characterised by barriers; for example, regarding access to healthcare due to close-knit communities, fewer resources and public transport (Coumans & Wark, Reference Coumans and Wark2024). Our findings reveal the extent to which residency obligations and requirements (policy dimension) hinder refugees from pursuing their individual goals, often pushing them into undesirable educational programmes or precarious jobs, which can lead to the already noted highly bureaucratic nature of these policies and their obstruction of potentially integration-promoting relocations (Baba et al., Reference Baba, Schmandt, Tielkes, Weinhardt and Wilbert2024; Brücker et al., Reference Brücker, Hauptmann and Jaschke2020).
Refugees with (predominantly) secure residence status, whose orientations in education, employment and healthcare are still emerging or have only begun to develop after migrating, exhibit pragmatic navigation through local settings. This is consistent with findings that temporary residence permits are associated with higher employment rates and permanent residence permits lead to greater investment in education (Jutvik & Robinson, Reference Jutvik and Robinson2020), which is associated with disadvantages for women who fled during the family formation phase and/or who had not (yet) returned to work with children in their country of origin (Menke, Reference Menke2024). Here, the policy dimension remains critical. In the absence of suitable alternatives, refugees often switch to accessible municipal services, showing flexibility in terms of what they use, when they use it and how it aligns with their long-term goals. Detours and delays are accepted, as are temporary (and often precarious) jobs that may not fit their original aspirations. The quality and availability of local opportunities (space dimension) greatly influence the pathways refugees take, even if the limitations are not actively questioned. As elsewhere, the local education and vocational training system and opportunities offered by employers can stimulate curiosity and boost self-confidence (Wehrle et al., Reference Wehrle, Kira and Klehe2019). Refugees with limited personal resources rely on support from gatekeepers. Also, the local framing dimension influences pragmatic navigation: municipalities with high levels of voluntary engagement and active migrant organisations provide refugees with better orientation and more suitable services. According to our empirical findings, municipalities that see migration – including refugees – as part of broader social and economic transformations are better positioned to provide relevant support.
Many refugees in our sample navigate purposefully, demonstrating clear orientations towards employment, education or health-related self-care. This group of refugees is often oriented towards maintaining or building on their higher social status from their country of origin. They formulate specific goals, independently select local services and critique the lack of quality or diversity in existing options. These refugees are heavily dependent on the space dimension, particularly on customised programmes and support from local associations and initiatives (local framing dimension). Refugees navigating purposefully, in fact, change municipalities to access better opportunities, even if this involves detours due to residency requirements (policy dimension). Such relocations often bring additional challenges, including housing shortages and limited availability of schools and childcare in urban areas. Municipalities on the periphery offer refugees fewer suitable educational, job and healthcare opportunities than municipal centres or cities. The availability of a local university or college, for example, is often a decisive factor. However, the refugees’ long-term goals remain unchanged. These relocations reduce the centrality of the space dimension compared to the other two strategies. For female refugees with care obligations in this group, the impact of location is striking because they are less mobile than (male) refugees without care obligations and cannot do everything necessary to pursue their professional ambitions. Given literature shows that this leads to experiences of dequalification (Akdemir, Reference Akdemir, Akdemir, Elle, Grittmann, Hess, Koopmann, Müller, Schwenken, Senoguz and Ullmann2023; Hillmann & Toğral Koca, Reference Hillmann and Toğral Koca2021). Refugees who push forward with ambitious plans often report experiencing racist discrimination, as their aspirations challenge racialised stereotypes of refugees as unskilled, unmotivated or needy (Menke, Reference Menke2024). This highlights the potentially restrictive impact of the local framing dimension, where dominant negative narratives about refugees act as barriers to accessing opportunities. In municipalities with a greater number and diversity of actors, such as migrant organisations and migrant networks, refugees find it easier to navigate the fields of education, healthcare and employment (Andreotti et al., Reference Andreotti, Mingione and Polizzi2012, p. 1927). This underlines findings that emphasise the importance of established migrants in arrival infrastructure (Hans, Reference Hans2023). These organisations provide support, including guidance into the healthcare, education or labour market systems, the dissemination of information and advocacy in cases of conflict (Günzel et al., Reference Günzel, Kellmer, Klammer and Schlee2023).
Because the variety and accessibility of social services in education, healthcare and labour markets vary depending on the financial, geographical and socio-demographic conditions of each municipality (urban periphery) (Kriisk, Reference Kriisk2019; Kühn, Reference Kühn2015), refugees are thus at the centre of the broader issue of territorial inequalities. Martinelli describes this as a ‘mismatch between (growing) demands – social needs – and a (shrinking) supply of public social services, which is eroding the principle of universal social rights and restoring social stratification and territorial differentiation’ (Martinelli, Reference Martinelli, Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017a, p. 398).
Conclusion
This article has demonstrated that refugees’ practices – and consequently their opportunities for social protection – cannot be fully understood without considering the particularities of the local settings in which they live and navigate. Drawing on qualitative research with refugees who arrived in Germany, we identified three distinct practices of navigation in relation to education, healthcare and employment: (i) haphazard navigation through limited municipal services aimed at consolidating residence status, (ii) pragmatic navigation shaped by the local settings encountered, and (iii) targeted navigation within self-selected local settings. These practices can be understood in relation to the fragmented local worlds in which they occur, differentiated along the dimensions of policy, space and local framing. In this sense, the outcomes of the location-independent strategies we have reconstructed among refugees are intrinsically tied to the specific characteristics of the local worlds they inhabit.
In reflecting on our empirical findings, we want to highlight three main conclusions: firstly, our research underlines the importance of varying local conditions in Germany for the social protection of refugees. While existing literature refers to the respective legacy of the institutional frameworks, political regimes, regulatory practices and political debates (Brenner & Theodore, Reference Brenner and Theodore2002), we have highlighted the relevance of varying politics, space and local conditions regarding (refugee) migration. As with other inhabitants, municipalities with limited financial resources in structurally weak regions offer refugees few options for employment, education and healthcare. The growing relevance of municipalities is accompanied by a pluralisation regarding the provision of social services and the diversity of actors (Martinelli et al., Reference Martinelli, Anttonen and Mätzke2017), also in the field of migration and integration. Refugees benefit from an increasing professionalisation of migrant networks and the incorporation of services offered by migrant organisations into public structures like low-threshold support and mediation between refugees and institutions; however, this is closely linked to the self-perception of municipalities as migration experienced. It is important for municipal politics to fundamentally see themselves as places of arrival, which must be actively shaped with the support of diverse actors providing social services, including migrant organisations and civil society. This will improve the accessibility and availability of social rights and social services at the local level.
The second conclusion to draw is that immigration and questions of social inequalities are closely intertwined: on the one hand, social inequalities between refugees and the respective European host societies are exacerbated because, unlike citizens, refugees have fewer resources and social rights. They are restricted in their choice of place of residence more than others and therefore must live with the existing local options. If municipalities do not have capacities to offer work or education opportunities, racist stereotypes about refugees and right-wing populist discourses potentially arise (even more). On the other hand, our findings show how refugees with a higher social status in their country of origin and advanced educational qualifications navigate more successful throughout the fragmented local worlds of social protection. They, in fact, do change their place of residence independently to circumvent a lack of options. In addition, our findings show that women face gender specific challenges in accessing employment, education and healthcare due to caring responsibilities, which makes them even more dependent on local options (Akdemir et al., Reference Akdemir, Elle, Grittmann, Hess, Koopmann, Müller, Schwenken, Senoguz and Ullmann2023; Hillmann & Toğral Koca, Reference Hillmann and Toğral Koca2021). Municipal actors could reflect that intra-group inequalities of refugees do not differ from those of the respective European host society, but that issues of residence and restricted social rights only affect people with refugee status and exacerbate the challenges described.
Thirdly, unlike most existing social policy research so far, refugees need to be conceptualised as active agents with distinct, dynamic strategies of social protection and their own agenda. We showed that refugees frequently change municipalities on their own initiative, accepting delays in their journey towards their desired destination and mobilising a variety of resources to create social protection, combining formal with informal protection strategies – such as accessing the labour market or healthcare system (Bilecen & Barglowski, Reference Bilecen and Barglowski2015). However, the success of the strategies employed by the refugees we interviewed consistently depended on the specific local world in which they lived. For local policies, this means a need to address refugees as a distinct target group due to their precarious legal residence status and restrictions on their choice of residence. These make them heavily dependent on the ‘local world’ assigned to them.
According to our findings, future research needs to consider and further investigate the interplay of practices of refugees and the given local worlds in order to understand their opportunities for social protection.
Acknowledgements
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Author contribution
The first named two authors have done most of the work in writing the article. However, the materials, interpretations and ideas for the article originate from all authors.
Funding statement
Funding network Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research in the Junior Research Group Funding Line, funded by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Germany.
Competing interests
None.
Ethical standards
An ethics committee was not involved in our project. Due to this absence, other procedures were established to ensure ethical correctness. Written or verbal informed consent was obtained from all involved persons. Verbal consent was witnessed and formally recorded. Ethical reflections were integral to the research process, addressing issues such as precarious residency status, the power dynamics inherent in the relationship between researchers and participants and the challenges of multilingualism. These considerations were regularly discussed within the research group and also with external researchers and with language mediators to ensure ethical rigor. In addition, two published methodological articles reflected on power asymmetries and aspects of the translation of conversations:
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• Rumpel, A., & Tempes, J. (2019). Einbindung von Übersetzenden im Kontext der Flucht_Migrationsforschung: Rollenverständnisse, Chancen und Herausforderungen, In M. E. Kaufmann, L. Otto, S. Nimführ, & D. Schütte (Hrsg.), Forschen und Arbeiten im Kontext von Flucht, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28380-3_9
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• Tempes, J., & Rumpel, A. (2022). Power (im)balances in ‘conversation triads’ within qualitative research projects in the field of (forced) migration: Chances and challenges in conversations between interpreter, (forced) migrant and researcher’, Migration Studies, 10(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnac003
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