Urban Policy Responses to Foreign In-Migration: The Case of Frankfurt-am-Main

Abstract

The impacts of immigration are primarily local; yet, local policy responses to immigration from abroad are still a rarity in the United States, and for that matter, in other countries. An exception is Frankfurt-on-the-Main, a major whose population is of foreign brith. The city's response to the presence of an immigrant population is recounted, to offer insights for American cities with similar proportions of immigrants although in a different cultural and legal context. In Frankfurt, the 1989 municipal election victory by a Social Democrat-Green coalition led to the creation of a Department of Multicultural Affairs (AMKA). This paper tells the story of the Department and its major achievements through 1993. The concluding analysis examines elements in Frankfurt's experience with immigration policy that may have relevance for American planners.