Coming, but not staying? Living conditions of workers from Southeastern EU countries in rural areas of Germany

Background and Objective

Since the early 2010s, the share of foreign nationals in Germany’s rural areas has been increasing due to various forms of short- and long-term immigration. Rural communities and small towns are not only the destination for refugees, but also for migrant workers employed in various sectors, such as agriculture, construction, nursing care, the hotel and catering industry, the automotive supply industry and the food processing industry.

Migrant workers often do not intend to stay in Germany long-term. EU citizens have the flexibility to decide how long they want to take up employment, given that under the EU freedom of movement, they can relatively easily travel between their home country and Germany or onward to another Member State. Their labour migration therefore entails various forms of spatial mobility such as short-term migration, circular migration, multilocality or cross-border commuting.

Among EU nationals, Romanian, Polish and Bulgarian citizens have dominated German statistics for both immigration and emigration in recent years. Occasionally, reports on exploitative structures attract media and political attention, for instance when the precarious working and living conditions of Romanian factory workers in the meat industry came into the spotlight in 2020. However, the knowledge about the specific living conditions of these people is fragmentary.

The aim of this project is to analyse short and medium-term forms of spatial mobility of workers from Southeastern EU countries to rural areas in Germany. The focus is on the perspective of the migrant workers, their decision for a short- or medium-term stay (without a planned long-term resettlement) and the subjective assessment of their living conditions (such as living and working conditions, leisure activities) in Germany.

Approach

• Assessment of the inflows and outflows of labour migration from EU countries to rural areas in Germany (secondary statistical analyses)
• Explorative local case studies in selected regions on workers from Southeast EU countries with short or medium-term staying intentions (semi-structured and biographical interviews)

Our Research Questions

• How are short and medium-term forms of (spatial) labour mobility from EU countries developing in rural areas of Germany?
• What is everyday life and work like for workers from Southeast EU countries in and beyond the German rural community, small or medium-sized town? How satisfied are they with it?
• What are their reasons not to stay?