The aim of this presentation is two-fold: In the first part, Sophie Hinger will present results from a study on local negotiations around asylum accommodation. In particular, she will elucidate the decision- and sense-making processes of local governmental actors regarding the placement in and transfer between different types of accommodations in Germany. Conceptualising asylum accommodation as part of go­vernmental arrival infrastructures, she will argue that asylum-seeking newcomers are chan­nelled through urban space selectively and in a step-wise manner, producing differential arrival trajectories. In the second part of the presentation, Francina Guggenberger and Sophie Hinger will share reflections from an ongoing research project on the production of (knowledge on) urban spaces of migration in German cities, in which notions such as “arrival infrastructures” or “welcoming cities” are not used as analytical concepts, but are studied concerning their production, usage and circulation – notably between municipalities and research. Our analysis seeks to provide insights into how these concepts are (not) used to govern (forced) migration in and through the city. This (self-)reflexive turn enables us to examine the transfer or translation of knowledge between science and administrative practice, and to highlight and reflect on the role of researchers in the local production of urban spaces of migration.

This seminar is hybrid. Join us in person at Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, or participate online via Zoom by registering here: hu-berlin.zoom-x.de/meeting/register/-gKR4DPDTYyGjjDNcfym-g