Social Participation of Turkish and Arabic Immigrants in the Neighborhood: Case Study of Moabit West, Berlin

Social participation of immigrants in district activities and local planning processes is given significance in Germany. It has become an important issue with the introduction of Neighborhood Management concept in the 1990s. This concept deals with districts which have a considerable percentage of low-income, unemployed, low-educated,immigrant population and social help beneficiaries. Immigrants are usually seen as the cause of the problems in those areas by the authorities since they are not integrated into the host societyand to the other immigrant groups. Since the 1990s, they have started to be seen as potential solution to the problems by means of an active social participation in their neighborhood. Desired level of social participation, however, has not been reached due to a number of reasons although there are a few immigrants who take part in social, cultural and planning activities in their district.The aim of this article is to outline the reasons of low participation rates, motivations of the participant immigrants and the forms of participation among Turkish and Arabic immigrantsin a neighborhood of Berlin, Moabit West, based on in-dept interviews made with both nonparticipant and participant immigrants and with some immigrant associations. The field research was carried out in June 2005, within the framework of the project ‘Immigrants in the City’. The reasons of low participation which were found as a result of this research study are language deficiency, different cultural understandings of participation, looking for concrete results of participatory actions and lack of information. The participant immigrants are motivated to solve the problems in the district and to change it, to increase integration of the immigrant youth into the society and of the immigrants, to the established society. Lastly, participant immigrants usually take part in street festivals and youth social work, and in immigrant associations instead of German ones.