‘The Others Don't Want …’. Small-Scale Segregation: Hegemonic Public Discourses and Racial Boundaries in German Neighbourhoods

Abstract

This paper examines the interplay between hegemonic discourses on segregation and small-scale segregation in neighbourhoods. In the German mass media, segregation is mainly discussed in the context of so-called ‘problematic neighbourhoods’. Thereby the discourse concentrates on cultural differences and blames immigrants for building parallel societies instead of integrating into German society. However, boundaries in neighbourhoods are often due to racialised stereotypes rather than differences in cultural practice. Small-scale segregation is not necessarily related to migration or cultural differences but corresponds to racialised images of who is perceived as German and who is not. Qualitative interviews with White German residents of three neighbourhoods in Berlin indicate that the discourse about ‘problematic neighbourhoods’ in itself furthers small-scale segregation and racialised stereotypes in neighbourhoods. Instead of interpreting small-scale segregation as immigrants’ lack of will to integrate into German society, I suggest Bourdieu's concept of Habitus and social space as an explanation for boundaries in neighbourhoods.

Keywords:

• Small-Scale Segregation
• Racism
• Germany
• Habitus
• Social Mixture

Notes

1. German citations and quotes have been translated by the author.

2. In line with Ehrkamp (2005), I use the term ‘immigrant’ instead of ‘migrant’, because of the struggle for acceptance of Germany as a country of immigration and of immigrants as part of German society.

3. The term probably refers to the so-called Mau-Mau Rebellion, the Kenyan people's war of independence against British colonial rule and oppression, which took place in the 1950s and was associated with many legends about cruelties committed by Kenyan fighters against White British settlers (Mährdel 1983).

4. Here, social capital is not defined in the sense of Bourdieu but as social relationships based on reciprocity and mutual trust (Putnam 2000).

5. The term Spätaussiedler refers to people who lived in areas that were German before World War II but belonged to eastern countries such as Poland or Russia after the war, and who now migrate to Germany as German citizens.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sabine Gruner

Sabine Gruner is Research Assistant at the Technical University of Berlin