Refugee Housing, Asylum Politics, and Barking Madness: Lessons from Germany

Presented by Eli Auslender.

Germany emerged as a 'laboratory' for refugee integration efforts after then-Chancellor Angela Merkel opted to allow asylum-seekers throughout Europe to declare asylum in Germany.

One of the most pressing issues for this sudden refugee influx was finding a place to house them, both temporarily and long-term, because German cities were experiencing (and still are) experiencing tight housing markets writ large. This seminar will review the policies enacted in three German cities and how the different political and bureaucratic cultures shaped how refugees not only obtained housing, but attempted to normalise their lives amidst the tumult.

Eli Auslender is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on Professor Paul Cairney's Horizon WAge project. He obtained his PhD at the University of York, where his thesis studied refugee housing and integration policies in Berlin and Leverkusen.