Kurdish women’s interactions in European urban public space and the extent of their social integration

ABSTRACT

The development of accessible and inclusive public spaces has been proposed as a means to address this gender inequality and promote social inclusion. However, there is a lack of specific analysis on the interactions and integration of Kurdish migrant women in European cities. This study explores the social integration of Kurdish migrant women in European urban settings, with a focus on Vienna and Cologne. It investigates the role of urban public spaces in Kurdish women’s social interactions and integration into host communities. The study analyzes the sociodemographic characteristics of Kurdish women in both cities and examines the nature of interactions, sense of safety, meaningful social activities, and barriers in public spaces. The results show that frequenting public spaces and engaging in meaningful social activities correlate positively with social inclusion, while feelings of safety and barriers do not show significant correlations. The study highlights the importance of considering the unique context of each city and improving access to public spaces and community activities to promote social inclusion. The findings contribute to strategies for promoting social inclusion of immigrant women based on their interactions in urban public spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban public space
• social interactions
• social integration
• Kurdish women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/physical-social-environment/places-for-interaction/main

2 https://www.pps.org/article/grplacefeat

3 https://population.un.org/wpp/

4 stadt-koeln.de

5 On this scale, 1 signifies the least association (negative effect on social interaction), while 4 signifies the highest association (positive effect on social interaction). This rating scale is reversed when it comes to aspects of barriers.

6 Our study acknowledges limitations, such as the small sample size and possible bias due to the use of snowballing. This approach was necessary to reach the dispersed and less visible Kurdish community, to which direct access was difficult.

7 The detail of this model has been explained in the appendix.

8 The high relevance of the feeling of belonging to the Kurdish ethnic diaspora is also confirmed in other recent studies, e.g. (Curtis 2005; Kohlbacher, Punz, and Kilic 2022; Syrett and Keles 2019).

9 See https://www.messenger.com/t/RekxrawiXanda

10 See http://centerijnan.blogspot.com.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 836194.