Onward (Im)Mobilities and Integration Processes of Refugee Newcomers in Rural Bavaria, Germany

Abstract

In the last decade, Germany has become the European country hosting the greatest number of forced migrants in absolute terms. Due to a dispersal policy and a residence rule, asylum seekers, recognized and resettled refugees must increasingly be considered also a rural phenomenon. Against this backdrop, the study aimed to better understand the onward (im)mobilities and integration processes of these ‘refugee newcomers’, focusing on rural specificities in terms of settlement and integration. Drawing on an interdisciplinary multi-method approach and a case study in rural Bavaria, Germany, this cumulative PhD thesis analyzed three aspects: first, the discursive framing of refugee settlement processes in rural areas; second, the residential and everyday (im)mobilities of refugee newcomers in these regions; and, third, characteristics of mechanisms of socio-spatial exclusion and inclusion of forced migrants in terms of everyday mobility and access to rural housing.