This is evident, for example, in the concepts of intercultural opening and the provision of specific services ( Papen Robredo 2017 Gögercin 2018b, p. At the same time, established welfare associations and state providers of social services sought to address and adapt to the specific needs and challenges of migrant populations. 20 Klie 2022).Īgainst this background, growing numbers of MOs in Germany began to offer social services targeted specifically at people with migration biographies, especially in the field of education ( Halm et al. 2022 Hunger and Metzger 2011 Schultze and Thränhardt 2013 Halm and Sauer 2015 Halm et al. As a result, they have garnered growing public and political attention, especially in the course of professionalization and in broadening the scope of their activities ( Bonfert et al. In recent years, however, discourses around MOs have increasingly focused on the ways in which they may hinder or promote the political goals of ‘integration’ 2 ( Pries and Sezgin 2010, pp. Originally referred to as Ausländervereine (foreigners’ associations), these organizations were seen mainly as spaces for newcomers to preserve and engage in the languages and traditions of their origin countries ( Blätte 2014, p. 30 Hallmann 2016), the role of organizations from and for people with migration biographies in this context has long been neglected. Whereas the nonprofit sector has always played a key role within the German welfare architecture ( Anheier and Seibel 2001, p. In this context, migrant organizations (MOs) have become relevant actors in providing largely voluntarily organized social services targeted especially at the growing number of people with migration biographies ( Halm et al. Since the 1990s, however, the German welfare state system has increasingly evolved toward a pluralizing “welfare market”, where established welfare associations face growing competition from a range of private profit and nonprofit actors ( Ledoux et al. Traditionally, the German welfare state has been characterized by a subsidiarity-based welfare corporatism, in which nonprofit actors (especially the six leading welfare associations 1) have a privileged position in the provision of social services ( Reichenbachs 2018). As a result, contrasting and sometimes competing perspectives challenge the role of MOs within the German welfare system, even though these organizations already fulfill key functions for their target groups’ social protection. In this way, we show how MOs use these various functions to actively engage with a changing welfare landscape, whereas welfare institutions and political administrations often perceive of the work undertaken by MOs rather as an ‘integration’-oriented prerequisite for their own social service provision. Thus, we juxtapose the viewpoints of MO representatives, their target groups and people associated with welfare state institutions and political administrations. In this article, the discussion of the specific ways in which these functions play a role for the social protection of people with migration biographies is based on joint analysis of three data sets. Moreover, we demonstrate that these functions are shaped and complemented by a “homemaking” function, a form of informal protection based on mutual support, trust and understanding. In addition to providing social services themselves (service function), they mediate with the welfare system (hinging function) and advocate for the interests of people with migration biographies in public and political discourse (advocacy function). Based on document analyses and qualitative interviews with three groups of actors, we identify four functions through which MOs contribute to their target groups’ social protection practices, and show how diverging perceptions toward these functions shape the current role of MOs in a changing welfare system. This article engages with the functions assumed by migrant organizations (MOs) in Germany in the context of the social protection of people with migration biographies.
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