Asylum Seekers Struggle to Recover the Everyday: The Extended “Emergency Shelter” at Tempelhofer Feld as a Site of Continuous Crisis

Abstract

Abstract This study describes how the iconic hangars at Tempelhofer Feld, which are designed to accommodate asylum-seekers temporarily prior to relocating them to various other parts of Germany, have for some of them turned into a more permanent and more regimented site of accommodation in Berlin. The shelters have housed several hundred asylum-seekers for two and a half years, and in many respects they contradict the so-called Willkommenskultur (‘welcome culture’) on which Germany has prided itself. Drawing on Vigh’s (2008) notion of continuous crisis, this study argues that these asylum-seekers have found themselves residing in a state of perpetual regimentation, which they understand as detrimental to their well-being. It also shows that they have nevertheless sought to find well-being and to dignify their lives by striving to normalize this situation.