When several hundred thousand refugees came to Germany within a very short space of time five years ago, the local authority administrations responsible were put to the test. While the situation presented a challenge to the state, together with its social security systems and administration, it was by no means overwhelming. Instead, the local administrative system proved its ability to deal with the crisis in 2015/16. However, asylum seekers were also excluded when they arrived in the local communities. This is the conclusion of a study by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, in which three communities in Lower Saxony were studied.
“Like nearly everywhere else, the refugees themselves experienced exclusion there