Belonging and Defensive Urban Citizenship: How the Arrival of Syrian Refugees Created Spaces of Solidarities and Competition with the Established Arab Migrants in Berlin

Lina Emad Abdelbaset MANSOUR

Master's thesis

A Case study on Sonnenallee; The Arab Street

Breaking Down the Hegemony: Understanding the Impact of the 2015 Migration Wave on Urban Culture in Berlin Sonnenallee

Abstract:

This research critically examines the urban encounter between the established Arab immigrant community residing in Berlin since the 1990s and after and the new Syrian refugees from 2015 onwards in a single neighborhood. It asks how the established group reacted to and received the arrival of newcomers in their urban space. By looking into Arab solidarity as defined through the Arab nationalist ideology that is based on shared ethnicity, language, history, and geography, it analyses how established Arab immigrants (re-)construct and (re-) define their relationship to a place and their sense of belonging in a neighborhood in response to newcomers. Through the conduction of an ethnographic study in the Neukölln district of Berlin, with a particular emphasis on the "Arab Street," employing participant observation and interviews with the two migrant groups (long-term residents and the newcomers), this research studies the relationship between migrants and a neighborhood by linking two conceptual frameworks: migrant place-making and agency-related urban citizenship. It finds two spaces of existence between both generations. First, solidarity among Arabs arises based on a shared migration experience and a stronger regional identity strengthened by the German national rhetoric on Arab immigrants. Second, competition and threat developed through time as long-term residents reevaluated their position in the city based on the accessibility of the newcomers to different policies.

Abstract:

This research critically examines the urban encounter between the established Arab immigrant community residing in Berlin since the 1990s and after and the new Syrian refugees from 2015 onwards in a single neighborhood. It asks how the established group reacted to and received the arrival of newcomers in their urban space. By looking into Arab solidarity as defined through the Arab nationalist ideology that is based on shared ethnicity, language, history, and geography, it analyses how established Arab immigrants (re-)construct and (re-) define their relationship to a place and their sense of belonging in a neighborhood in response to newcomers. Through the conduction of an ethnographic study in the Neukölln district of Berlin, with a particular emphasis on the "Arab Street," employing participant observation and interviews with the two migrant groups (long-term residents and the newcomers), this research studies the relationship between migrants and a neighborhood by linking two conceptual frameworks: migrant place-making and agency-related urban citizenship. It finds two spaces of existence between both generations. First, solidarity among Arabs arises based on a shared migration experience and a stronger regional identity strengthened by the German national rhetoric on Arab immigrants. Second, competition and threat developed through time as long-term residents reevaluated their position in the city based on the accessibility of the newcomers to different policies.

Keywords

Migrant Place-making, Defensive Urban Citizenship, Berlin, Syrian Refugees

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 1. 8. 2022

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Antonín Kalous, M.A., Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Humanities / Euroculture