René Kreichauf is an urban researcher from Berlin, Germany. He studied urban planning and urban sociology at the Technical University Berlin as well as urban studies within his international master's program at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Universität Wien, Københavns Universitet, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. As a research assistant, he has worked at several university and research institutions, such as the Department for Urban and Regional Sociology at TU Berlin and the Leibniz-Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning. In 2011, René lived and worked in Chicago and Detroit investigating social polarization processes and urban shrinkage. His research and publication activities focus on urban transformation trends, social inequality, urban minorities and migration. His PhD project investigates the arrival and integration of refugees and asylum seekers in European and North American cities.

Work Experience

Fellowships

Scholarships

Awards

Media Appearances

Towards Urban Asylum. Policies, Approaches and Consequences of the Reception of Refugees in European and US American Cities (Dissertation Project)

Dissertation in Political Science

Mentoring team:
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Markus Kienscherf
Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bas Van Heur
Third supervisor: Prof. Dr. David Bassens

Forced migration is a global phenomenon, which is politically regulated on supranational and national levels. However, it is the city where the arrival, accommodation and integration of refugees take place. Whereas current research explores the failures of nation-states to address the needs of refugees and to provide solutions to the challenges of housing and integration, there is a lack of studies on how urban policies will be central to refugee resettlement, housing challenges and integration practices. This PhD extends the debate towards the city’s abilities to handle and integrate refugees in European and US-American migration regimes. To do so, it focuses on 1) the relation between state authority and urban autonomy and the development of national and local housing and integration policies, 2) the local implementation of housing forms and their objectives, 3) built and social urban (infra-)structures as well as 4) the refugees’ perception on the consequences of housing and integration practices. Applying a qualitative research approach consisting of policy and stakeholder analysis, interviews with experts, local authorities and persons affected as well as spatial analyses of refugee infrastructures, the thesis plans to clarify the role of the urban in the face of different political systems and national approaches towards refugees in arrival cities in Europe and the US. It assumes that metropoles, as traditional migrant destinations, develop particular practices – despite national frameworks – towards urban asylum systems.

Publications

• Kreichauf, René (2017): Between Economic Revival and Social Disruption: The Redevelopment of Detroit’s Downtown and Midtown and its Impact on the Emergence of new socio-spatial Inequalities. In: Doucet, Brian (eds.): Why Detroit Matters. Policy Press at the University of Bristol: Bristol. (accepted; forthcoming in 2017).
• Kreichauf, René (2017): Michel Foucault – Raum als relationales Mittel zum Verständnis und zur Produktion von Macht. In: Eckardt, Frank (eds.): Schlüsselwerke der Stadtforschung. Springer VS: Heidelberg.
• Kreichauf, René (2016): Europäische Lagerlandschaften - Die Sozialräumliche Exklusion Asylsuchender in Berlin, Kopenhagen und Madrid. In: Altrock, Uwe (eds.): Jahrbuch Stadternerung. Springer VS: Heidelberg.
• Kreichauf, René (2016): Flucht, Stadt und Rassismus – Geflüchtete in europäischen Städten. In: Wissenschaft und Frieden, 2/2016.
• Blaser, Laurenz; Holzer, Jakob; Kreichauf, René; Schute, Paulina; Steinhauer, Hannes (2016): Asyl und kommunale Flüchtlingspolitik. Das Lehrprojekt Fürsorgliche Exklusion am ISR der TU Berlin. In: PLANERIN, 2/2016.
• Kreichauf, René (2016): Schrumpfen um zu Wachsen – Regenerierung, Kapitalakkumulation und sozialräumliche Disparitäten in schrumpfenden Städten. In: Lange, Jan; Müller, Jonas (eds.): Wie plant die Planung? Kultur- und planungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf die Praxis der räumlichen Planung. Berliner Blätter. Ethnographische und ethnologische Beiträge 71, RH 3/2016, Berlin: Panama.
• Kreichauf, René (2016): From Fortress Europe to the European Fortress City – The Translation of EU Asylum and Border Policies into Space. In: Seyfarth, René; Eckardt, Frank (eds.): Urban Minorities Bauhaus Urban Studies, Bd. 6. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann: Würzburg.
• Kreichauf, René (2016): Das Flüchtlingslager – Raumtheoretische Zugänge. In: Ludwig, Joachim; Ebner von Eschenbach, Malte; Kondratjuk, Maria (eds.): Sozialräumliche Forschungsperspektiven – Disziplinäre Ansätze, Zugänge und Handlungsfelder. Verlag Barbara Budrich: Opladen, Berlin, Toronto.
• Kreichauf, René (2015): Ghettos in Small Towns? The Research on Ethnic Segregation and Stigmatisation Processes in Small Town Germany. In: Barberis, Eduardo; Pavolini, Emmanuele (eds.): Symposium: Rescaling Immigration Paths: Emerging Settlement Patterns beyond Gateway Cities, Sociologica – Italian Journal of Sociology, 2/2015.
• Kreichauf, René (2015): Migrationsrealität und Stigma-Bildung am Beispiel von deutschen Kleinstädten. In: Bäuerliche Zukunft. Nr. 339, Nr. 4/2015.
• Kreichauf, René (2015): Die Grenzen der Schrumpfung: Gestalterische Perspektiven oder Sterbehilfe für schrumpfende Städte?! In: Dangschat, Jens S. et al. (eds.): Raumplanung. Jahrbuch des Departments für Raumplanung der TU Wien 2015. Neuer Wissenschaftlicher Verlag: Wien.
• Kreichauf, René (2014): In die Kleinstadt gezwungen – Spätaussiedler_innen in Genthin zwischen Integration und Isolation. In: 99ProzentUrban. No. 2. Berlin.
• Kreichauf, René (2014): Die Großstadt in der Kleinstadt – Ethnische Segregation in kleinen Städten. In: PLANERIN, 4/2014.
• Kemmer, Laura; Adebar, Philip; Bergmann, Malte; Ehrlich, Kornelia; Freiermuth, Mira; Jansen, Hendrik; Kreichauf,René; Kühnel, Sandy; Müller, Frank; Nitsche, Tobias; Petzold, Knut; Vogel, Johanna; Günzel, Marian (2014): Conference Report: Nachwuchsnetzwerk [Young Academics Network] NWNW8 – Diversity and Plurality. Theory and Practice in Spatial Science. In: Forum Qualitative Social Research. Berlin.
• Kreichauf, René (2013): Who is afraid of Detroit City? In: Stadtaspekte. No. 1. Berlin.
• Kreichauf, René (2012): Kleinstadt und Zuwanderung. Zur Theorie und Empirie ethnischer Segregation in kleinen Städten. In: Graue Reihe (Online-Publication of the Technical University of Berlin). Berlin.
• Kreichauf, René; Meuel, Jan (2010): Altstadt Berlin: Verkehr, Innovationen, Neubauten und Konflikte – Quellen zur Stadt, Bürobauten verdrängen die Altstadthäuser. In: Nentwig, Franziska; Bartmann, Dominik (eds.): Berlins vergessene Mitte – Stadtkern 1840-2010. Berlin.

Presentations

• Towards Urban Asylum - The Reception of Refugees in Berlin and Athens, IMISCOE Annual Conference, Geographic Migration Centre (GEOMIGRACE) at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), 01.07.2016
• Torn between Willkommenskultur and Xenophobia – Immigrant Integration In German Small Towns, Final International Conference Local Responses to International Migration: a Challenge for Europe, UNESCO Chair on the Social and Spatial Inclusion of International Migrants – Urban Policies and Practices, Venice (Italy), 10.03.2016

• Harsh, Hostile and Exclusive or Misunderstood? Asylum in Denmark, IMISCOE Workshop on Refugees in European localities: Reception, Perceptions and Policies; University of Amsterdam/IMES, Netherlands, 03.03.2016

• The Securitized European City and its New Borders, International Work Shop "Arrival Infrastructures", Brussels (Belgium), 10.12.-11.12.2015.
• Das Siedlungsverhalten von Spätaussiedler_innen in ostdeutschen Kleinstädten, Tagung "Russlanddeutsche in einem vergleichenden Kontext. Neue Perspektiven der Forschung", Berlin (Germany), 18.11.-19.11.2015.

• Neue Grenzen in der Europäischen Stadt – Die Wirkung der Flüchtlingsunterkunft auf die Integration von Asylsuchenden, ARL Congress 2015 „Migration, Integration - Herausforderungen für die räumliche Planung“, Cologne (Germany), 19.06.2015.
• Europäische Lagerlandschaften – Die Unterbringung Asylsuchender in Kopenhagen, Berlin und Madrid als räumlicher Ausdruck restriktiver Asylpolitiken, Gesprächskreis Stadtentwicklung der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Halle (Germany), 12.06.2015.
• Festung Europäische Stadt – Die sozialräumliche Exklusion Asylsuchender in Kopenhagen, Berlin und Madrid, Seminar: Zwischen Willkommenskultur und Asylbewerberverwaltung - Zuwanderung und kommunale Integrationspolitik in Deutschland, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany), 02.06.2015.
• Das Ende städtischer Schrumpfung und planerischer Postwachstumsstrategien? – Privatisierung, Entdemokratisierung, Kapital- und Eigentumsakkumulation in Bitterfeld und Detroit, Wie plant die Planung? – Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf die räumliche Planung, Symposium, Berlin (Germany), 17./18.04.2015.
• Detroit And Bitterfeld – Managing Decline To Generate Growth, 5th Halle Forum on Urban Economic Growth, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), Halle (Germany), 11./12.12.2014.
• Exclusion, Control and Heteronomy of Asylum Seekers in European Cities, Urban Minorities – Final Conference, Bauhaus University Weimar (Germany), 13./14.11.2014.
• The Limits to Decline – A Paradigm Shift to a Smart Urban Shrinkage or Pursuing the Path of Growth?, Fall Symposium Re: The City, Detroit (USA), 31.10.2014.
• Das Flüchtlingslager – Raumtheoretische Zugänge, Nachwuchsforscher_innentagung Sozialräumliche Forschungsperspektiven, Magdeburg (Germany), 17.10.2014.
• Displaced, Excluded, Disfranchised – Housing Asylum Seekers in the European Fortress City, Berlin Unlimited, International Festival on Architecture and Urban Research, Berlin (Germany), 07.10.2014.
• Being on the Losing Side of Global Urban Development – The Limits to Managing Urban Decline, 54. ERSA Congress on Regional Development and Globalisation, Sankt Petersburg (Russia), 28.08.2014.
• The European Fortress City – The Socio-Spatial Exclusion of Asylum Seekers at the annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. San Francisco (USA), 18.08.2014.
• The New Urban Poor – The Socio-Spatial Exclusion of Asylum Seekers in Europe at the Conference on Urban Development and Poverty. Kassel (Germany), 24.06.2014.
• New Trends in Berlin’s Urban Development. Free University of Berlin, Berlin (Germany), 12.03.2014.
• Ghettos in Small Towns? The Research on Ethnic Segregation and Stigmatisation Processes in Small Town Germany. Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg (Germany), 4.11.2013.
• Migration and Small Towns – Speech at the 8. NWNW- Conference on Diversity, Frankfurt am Main (Germany), 10.11.2012.
• Russian ghetto, Small-Moscow, deprived neighbourhood – On development and stigmatisation of ethnic segregated neighbourhoods in East German small towns at the Forschungskolloquium of the Department for Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning of the BTU Cottbus, Cottbus (Germany), 07.11.2012.
• The Rathausforum as the Image of Berlin’s history of urban development – Keynote and panel discussion at the event Rathausforum – Wie weiter mit der Mitte Berlins? of the Bildungswerks Berlin Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Berlin (Germany), 01.11.2012.
• Ethnic Segregation in small towns? – Speech and Poster Presentation at the study conference of the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin (Germany), 20.01.2012.
• Migration to Small Towns and Counties in Germany –Speech at the Technical University of Berlin, Berliner (Germany), 8.10. 2010.
• Civic Participation and Planning in Public Spaces – Speech at the Workshop Public Space of the Hermann Henselmann Foundation, Berlin (Germany), 29.11.2010.