Migrantische Ökonomien zwischen Potentialorientierung und Differenzmarkierung. Konzeption und Erträge eines „prä-postmigrantischen“ Forschungsgegenstands

Abstract

Abstract. In public discourse, issues of migration and immigration were for a long time perceived “only” as an integration problem. Nevertheless, a potential-oriented view of migration has been postulated recently and also implemented in practice. Thus, especially in large cities, various political programmes have been adopted that aim at commodifying the potential of migrant economies for urban development. This potential-oriented perspective is, however, decidedly “pre-post-migrant”, since it requires some kind of distinctive concept of the “migrant” in general and migrant economies in particular. Based on a project examining the importance of migrant economies for urban development in smaller cities, this article discusses the topic as an issue of research and local politics in a post-migrant perspective. Finally, uncertainties on how to deal with migrant economies also arise from the field itself and various challenges remain for a post-migrant “production of urban space”.