Harvestehude is one of the wealthier areas of Hamburg, the big harbour city in northern Germany. Last year, there was an outcry when plans for a refugee shelter in Harvestehude became public. In the meantime, emotions have cooled and the neighbourhood has accepted its new inhabitants surprisingly well, a survey shows.

One year ago, 190 refugees moved into a shelter on Sophienstrasse in the wealthy Hamburg neighbourhood of Harvestehude. This move was preceded by successful lawsuits of residents against the influx of refugees into their neighbourhood. In the end, the litigators settled for a compromise: instead of the planned 220, only 190 refugees would move into the refurbished former military district recruiting office. How do residents assess the situation today? Professor Jürgen Friedrichs and his two colleagues Felix Leßke and Vera Schwarzenberg from the University of Cologne’s Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology explored this question in a survey of 279 residents. They found out that

• the majority of respondents (83.1 %) believes that the shelter has advantages in the neighbourhood;
• two thirds (73.4%) have a positive attitude towards the shelter;
• only few people (9.0%) fear the depreciation of their neighbourhood, that the area will become unsafe (5.7%) or that there will be more conflicts (5.4%);
• approximately one fourth (23.3%) believe it is good that the residents of this wealthy neighbourhood are being confronted with the reality of the refugees;
• two thirds are not fearful of the influx of an even greater number of refugees to Germany,
• only 24% have any direct contact with refugees, in some cases through the refugee aid initiative ‘Flüchtlingsinitiative Harvestehude’.

Residents tend not to believe that the refugees pose an economic threat, but they do perceive a cultural threat (34.5% and 51.7%, respectively).

Particularly in light of the numerous protests in Hamburg, the study concludes that accommodating a small number of refugees in an upper-middle-class neighbourhood or a wealthy neighbourhood is relatively unproblematic. It appears likely that the activities of ‘Flüchtlingsinitiative Harvestehude’ contributed to this success.

The research project will continue until the end of 2018. It is being funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

A detailed report is available upon request from Jürgen Friedrichs.

Contact:
Professor Jürgen Friedrichs
Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology
University of Cologne
friedrichs(at)wiso.uni-koeln.de
Phone: +49 221 470 2409
Mobile: +49 173 704 5007

Felix Leßke/Vera Schwarzenberg
Phone: +49 221 470 5658