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A Life-Course Perspective on Migration and Integration pp 239–258Cite as

The Effect of Ethnic Segregation on the Process of Assimilation

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Abstract

For more than two decades the problems of individual and social consequences of immigration to Germany have accounted for the central topics of the public, political and social science debate, within which the question of integration into functional social systems plays a key role. Especially considering the groups of working migrants who have immigrated since the 1960s, and here in particular considering migrants of Turkish origin, strong integration deficits can be found in the areas of gainful employment, education, housing as well as inter-ethnic prime-group relationships. However, extensive integration in the sense of a successive dissolving of structural disadvantage along ethnic borders within one or a second migration generation is not to be expected.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Percentages that differ by a standard deviation from the weighted mean of all parts of the town are considered very high proportions of population.

  2. 2.

    A small-scale part of the town with the same name exists within the primary district of Groepelingen.

  3. 3.

    Due to the indefinite direction of the connection between language ability and inter-ethnic friendship (cf. Farwick 2009: 184) this characteristic is not considered in the multivariate analyses.

  4. 4.

    According to Zelinsky and Lee (1998: 285) the process of heterolocalism is marked by five characteristics in all : first by the immediate spatial dispersion of the migrants in the host country; second the residence of the migrants extensively is spatially separated from the work place and other places of daily activity; third the ethnic communities are maintained despite a missing spatial concentration of their members in districts beyond city limits, regions and even state borders; fourth the process of heterolocalism – even if observable for some time – is tied to a certain phase of socio-economic and technical developments of the late twentieth century; fifth heterolocalism can be observed in urban as well as in rural areas.

  5. 5.

    The apartments mentioned were designated by the interviewers on a previously drawn up sketch of the closer residential environment so as to preserve the results for the further course of the survey.

  6. 6.

    Cf. Farwick (2009: 233–234) on the problem of the process of capturing the ethnic composition of individual closer neighborhoods.

  7. 7.

    The correlation coefficient as a measure of association between the proportions of Turkish migrants in the city blocks and the proportions of Turkish households in the relevant neighborhoods is low: r = 0.27.

  8. 8.

    This parameter is based on the assumption that the spatial concentration of Turkish migrants essentially has an influence on the extent of inter-ethnic friendships only when the respondents also attach a certain importance to their district and accordingly also spend time in this area. As a threshold value an average daily duration of stay in the district (excluding sleeping hours), including the apartment and the closer neighborhood, is set at over 40%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography Department, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany

    Andreas Farwick

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  1. Andreas Farwick
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Correspondence to Andreas Farwick .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bremen International Graduate School of, Social Sciences (BIGSSS), Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Matthias Wingens

  2. AG Migration und Stadtforschung, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Michael Windzio

  3. , Department of Social Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussel, 1055, Belgium

    Helga de Valk

  4. Bremen International Graduate School of, Social Sciences (BIGSSS), Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Can Aybek

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Farwick, A. (2011). The Effect of Ethnic Segregation on the Process of Assimilation. In: Wingens, M., Windzio, M., de Valk, H., Aybek, C. (eds) A Life-Course Perspective on Migration and Integration. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1545-5_11

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