Migrants and the city: gentrification, ethnicity and class in a Berlin neighborhood

Abstract

The term gentrification has found its way into everyday vocabulary. However, neither in the academic nor in the non-academic community does there seem to be a consensus about what gentrification is, how and why it happens and what the consequences for local populations are. This thesis attempts to contribute to this debate by examining the relation between the gentrification of the working-class neighborhood Reuterquarter in Berlin, Neukölln and the social exclusion of immigrants from Turkey. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s sociology of space, particularly his notions of abstract and lived space, to understand why, how and with what effects on the local population Reuterquarter is gentrifying. Research is based on qualitative methods, combining field work in the form of 80 semistructured interviews to understand the repercussions of gentrification on the local populace and the analysis of secondary material such as newspaper articles, policy reports, websites and brochures to trace the evolution of this process. This dissertation firstly argues that research on gentrification must take into account both: economic and cultural change. Secondly, this work shows that the German state, despite its long welfare tradition, has played a pivotal role in Reuterquarter’s gentrification. Lastly, this study argues that gentrification’s consequences go beyond physical displacement and encompass effects such as overcrowding, emotional displacement and diversion to informal work. These effects can only be unraveled by research on the neighborhood-level, taking the experiences of residents into account.