Homeland - Landscape perception and landscape utilization by migrants

Background

People who are separated from the native landscapes that influenced them in their former lives, often feel they have ‘lost their roots’. For reasons peculiar to their immigration both voluntarily and non-voluntarily, some migrants see few opportunities to become an equal part of the host society due to various real or assumed shortcomings.

How can migrants adapt to foreign landscapes and to what extend do we, the hosts, want migrants to have a visible impact on ‘our’ landscape? Does this represent a conflict between preserving typical regional cultural landscapes and allowing foreigners to use and form landscapes according to their needs and preferences? There exists an underlying sentiment that the wants of those in hereditary ‘possession’ of the territory have precedence over those who arrive as strangers. The ‘common feeling’, and not to mention laws and policies, assume that immigrants should be integrated, and that they should empathise with the host culture. But does this mentality not ignore the potential and the values associated with imported cultural elements, including land use practises?

The aim of this research is to reveal the various influences that migrating people have had on landscapes in the past and still have in the present, and how foreigners have formed and influenced landscapes.

Why should it be interesting to investigate the landscape perception and landscape utilization of migrants in Germany? Immigration is part of the demographic change, not only in Germany but all over the wealthy countries on all continents. At the moment we count 7,2 Million migrants from over 200 nations that make almost 9% of the inhabitants of Germany. In addition to this, there are about 7 Million German citizens that do have migration-background. That counts to 17% of the people living in Germany who do not have German origin. Regarding such a high amount of people, it is astonishing that there is so little we know about the differences or similarities of landscape perception and landscape utilization of every sixth person who lives in Germany.

One can hardly think about migrants without being concerned about their integration in the society. In our daily lives we experience on the one hand the “integrated” individuals who are familiar to us by personal contact or by selling tasty or interesting foreign products, but on the other hand we realize the establishment of parallel worlds and encapsulation, in some location to such an extend that local people fear to visit some quarters where migrants live.

Integration projects through the use of landscape seem to be very rare and so in succession there are only a few research projects about landscape appropriation by migrants.

Research problem

Can landscape serve as a social facility for encounter and integration for migrants among themselves and for migrants and natives?

Main research question

What affects landscape perception in migrants?

• historical data, maps, archives, ego-documents, publications to interpret the historical aspects of landscape utilisation
• interactive standardised questioning by pictures, to reach also illiterate people, women and children
• several intense interviews to crosscheck the results and to verify and falsify the generated propositions from the picture questionnaires
• participatory workshop with migrants to develop a picture how their new homeland should be