Zwischen Aneignung und Abwehr: Städtische Integrationspolitik im Blick ihrer Adressat_innen

Over the past decade, more than 400 (post)migrant women in Berlin-Neukolln have been educated to become so-called ‚neighbourhood mothers‘. Their main task is to advise local (post)migrant families who are considered to lack social integration in household related practices and to motivate them to enrol their children in pre-school institutions. Hardly any other integration project in Germany is currently attracting more attention. Using the concept of intersectionality, this paper examines how the neighbourhood mothers position themselves in relation to the project’s contents and methods of integration and how the project influences their perception of their everyday environment. The paper reveals a striking paradox in this policy of urban integration that tends to reproduce discriminating categories but also politicises some of the neighbourhood mothers.