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The development of accessible and inclusive public spaces has been proposed as a means to address this gender inequality and promote social inclusion. However, there is a lack of specific analysis on the interactions and integration of Kurdish migrant women in European cities. This study explores the social integration of Kurdish migrant women in European urban settings, with a focus on Vienna and Cologne. It investigates the role of urban public spaces in Kurdish women's social interactions and integration into host communities. The study analyzes the sociodemographic characteristics of Kurdish women in both cities and examines the nature of interactions, sense of safety, meaningful social activities, and barriers in public spaces. The results show that frequenting public spaces and engaging in meaningful social activities correlate positively with social inclusion, while feelings of safety and barriers do not show significant correlations. The study highlights the importance of considering the unique context of each city and improving access to public spaces and community activities to promote social inclusion. The findings contribute to strategies for promoting social inclusion of immigrant women based on their interactions in urban public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public spaces are central to social interactions and cohesion, overall urban life, and therewith sustainable urban development. They can play key roles in increasing social interactions and women's empowerment. The literature lacks empirical research on the state of women's use of public spaces and these spaces' effects on women's social interactions and empowerment in Middle Eastern cities in the Kurdistan Region, where women historically enjoyed greater freedom. This paper addresses this gap by presenting insights from a comparative cross-border study with women in two Kurdish cities, Sanandaj and Sulaimani. In doing so, the paper contributes an empirically based theorization of urban public place-making, and debates its effects on the empowerment of women in the context of Kurdish urbanisms. The study developed a survey instrument to measure women's interactions with and in public spaces and their related empowerment in these two cities across five main factors. Despite the local women's limited interaction with and in the public spaces of these two Kurdish cities, the findings show a strong positive relationship between women's interactions in public spaces and their empowerment. The results also suggest that socio-political and related socio-spatial changes have contributed to a decreased relevance of traditional meeting and leisure spaces but have increased the use of malls as commodified spaces, particularly in Sulaimani. The study debates the specificities of urban public spaces in Kurdish cities, and commonalities as well as differences compared with developments elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the relevant theoretical frameworks of well- being and migration and the links between the two concepts. The article is part of the theoretical preparatory work for the MIGWELL project. We argue that increasing it at the individual level is a universal human desire. From this perspective, migration - if it is truly voluntary - may be a tool to reach the desired outcome of increasing well-being. In general, micro-level approaches are more suitable for linking subjective well-being and migration. In particular, the "new economics and sociology of migration", the "network theory" and the "capabilities approach" offer the implicit or explicit possibility to do so. Regarding well-being, we apply a hybrid approach, inspired by both the OECD and the WeD concepts. Finally, in this paper we propose a research design that may be suitable (with some limitations) to capture the two-way relationship between the two concepts: the impact of subjective well-being on migration intention and the effect of migration on subjective well-being [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from the traditional Kurdish gender regime, which originates from the Kurdish tribal structure and which to some extent restricts the visibility of women in society, the status of Kurdish women is considered to be relatively high in comparison with that of their neighbors, since Kurdish women enjoy relative tolerance in society. This includes the possibility of reaching high professional positions, their presence in public spaces, and entertaining guests in the absence of their husbands. Certain socio-economic and political transformations took place in recent decades, which improved Kurdish women's social standing, turning it into a symbol representing fundamental change in the gender role model in the Middle East. Although there are some studies on the status of Kurdish women in different individual Kurdish regions throughout the Middle East, not many reviews have compared the four parts of Kurdistan simultaneously, and there are hardly any specific analyses dealing with Kurdish women's interactions in public spaces. This review aims to investigate the status of women in Kurdish society in different Kurdish regions according to a comparative approach. Although the path of Kurdish female emancipation was initiated first in the region of Rojhalat in 1946 and the Kurdish region of Iraq was granted some opportunities toward national liberation in 1991, the Bakur in Turkey can be considered a successful movement, establishing a sustained approach to the liberation of Kurdish women from patriarchal structures. During the Rojava Revolution in northern Syria, this movement proved itself able to build an indigenous alternative to Western-type egalitarian societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and related measures on the social interactions of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria in Vienna during the first lockdown in March/April 2020. The focus is on the challenges for these vulnerable groups in the field of tension between the contact minimisation prescribed in the Corona regulations of the federal government on the one hand and cramped housing conditions, precarious labour market positions, homeschooling and the "digital divide" on the other. Further focal points are how refugees deal with the measures of "social/physical distancing", its consequences in view of the colliding cultural norms, the extent of contact reduction and its causal factors. The empirical basis was provided by a quantitative online survey and qualitative interviews with refugees as well as experts from refugee support NGOs and organisations from both groups of origin, who were involved in the underlying project within the framework of a community-based participatory approach. Contrasting with the criticism sometimes voiced in the media that primarily certain groups with a migration background have been less compliant with the measures to contain the pandemic, a more differentiated picture is drawn. Above all, the factors of family status, age and housing conditions have had a strong influence on compliance with the distancing measures. The inaccessibility of public space, which is a particularly important resource for the refugees, as well as the discontinuation of social services offered by NGOs have particularly affected these vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrants who came to Vienna as guest workers from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey during the 1960s still form the majority of the local immigrant population. Business activities of Turks and former Yugoslavs cover a multitude of diverse sectors; what was once a niche economy has now become an important part of Viennese business life. This paper combines official statistics for Vienna as a whole, survey material and expert interviews, to analyse business ventures run by migrant entrepreneurs on two commercial streets in Vienna. Our research shows significant local variation in the migrant economies of the two groups in the study areas, highlighting the importance of the local context as an additional determinant shaping the diversity of business activities of certain immigrant groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With ongoing immigration from 'all over the world', European cities are realising that the local level is gaining importance as a setting for interethnic coexistence. In this article, we investigate the attachment of migrants and natives to their local context in three neighbourhoods (one better-off, two more deprived) in Vienna that differ in contextual, structural, and socio-economic characteristics. We ask how the place attachment of natives and migrants is related to weak and strong social ties. In all three neighbourhoods, we found a majority of residents reported high or medium levels of attachment proving that urban neighbourhoods are still important contexts for local residents. A closer look revealed differences across groups and research areas: The strongest place attachment is displayed by natives in the middle-class area of Laudongasse, with migrants being significantly less attached, but still more than migrants (and natives) in the two deprived settings. In social housing (Am Schöpfwerk), migrants are more attached than natives, whereas in Ludo-Hartmann-Platz, the difference is not significant. The first result is that obviously deprivation reduces individual place attachment. In contrast to previous studies we found that socio-demographic factors are not relevant, it is social contacts that are important in explaining local attachment. For natives and migrants alike, close ties in the neighbourhood raise local attachment. Small talks are relevant for migrants but not for natives. This is in line with previous studies emphasising the special relevance of weak ties for migrants in supporting the integration process in a new environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the spatial dimension of ego/alter relations, the fact whether egos and alters live within the same neighbourhood and the consequences thereof are heavily debated. Some authors argue that a network consisting mostly of people who live in the same urban area may result in lower socio-economic opportunities. Another strand of research emphasizes the importance of strong ties on the local level for neighbourhood embeddedness and social cohesion. In this article the role of the neighbourhood (a) in the formation of strong ties, (b) as the place where strong ties currently live and (c) as a meeting place for people sharing strong ties is investigated for three neighbourhoods in Vienna. In line with previous research results, it turns out that in the socially marginalized remote setting, strong ties are more often neighbourhood-based and less often interethnic. In the more affluent neighbourhood, strong ties are not so strongly bound to the neighbourhood, but are more spatially dispersed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question emphasized in this article is related to the reasons for a certain level of German language proficiency and its impact on the actual integration of foreigners into the Viennese labour market. The empirical basis of the article was a survey of 450 foreign nationals from four different national groups (Germans, Poles, Turks and nationals from the former Yugoslavia) currently residing in Vienna. German nationals, for obvious reasons, were, however, not included in the specific language related questions. As regards actual language proficiency, significant discrepancies became visible between the core analysis groups: The Viennese Turks proved to have the lowest German skills, the Poles, in contrast, the best. Level of education was an important determinant. The simple formula "the higher the level of education, the better the German language proficiency", proved to be valid for all three nationalities. The influence of the actual duration of residency is, however, inconsistent. There are many examples of migrants, primarily Turkish women, who, even after lengthy residence in Vienna are only able to speak very basic and rudimentary German. The level of proficiency in German has a manifold impact on the actual integration of foreigners into the labour market. A high proficiency level does in fact lead to higher income, reduces occupational de-qualification, increases participation in advanced vocational training, reduces dependency on support from ethnical networks as regards job seeking and generally helps the migrant gain a more optimistic self-assessment of his/her own individual career opportunities. In other words, the overall conclusion of the empirical analysis is that German language skills should not be seen as a guarantee for easier integration into the labour market, these skills do, however, increase immigrants' chances of finding employment in Vienna considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increasing migration to the big cities all over Europe ethnic 'mixed' neighbourhood becomes a very frequent urban phenomenon. The basic question whether it is primarily creating an atmosphere of neighbourhood conflict or helps to establish positive interethnic relations will be answered in this article. Based on a representative dataset from an inquiry, carried out in Vienna in 1998, the analysis starts off from theoretical reflections about ethnic 'mixed' neighbourhood and its consequences on social interactions. In the Vienna case, interactions with immigrants are more often found in the job than in the neighbourhood sphere. In contrary to the neighbourhood relations of Austrians interethnic interactions are characterized by a higher degree of social distance and even mutual avoidance. Socio-demographic features (gender, age and level of education) are the main factors in determining individual patterns of neighbourhood behaviour. The younger and better educated are not only actually involved in more interethnic relations but would even agree to exceed their contacts to nearby living migrants. Neighbourhood conflicts are a relatively rare phenomenon in Vienna, even in housing units with a high proportion of foreign population. The mediation of arising conflicts is usually transferred to institutionalized mediation authorities. Taking into consideration the relative scarcity of conflicts compared with the considerable interaction potential of ethnic "mixed" neighbourhoods this analysis comes to the conclusion that strategies of ethnic desegregation and a more equal distribution of migrants in urban neighbourhoods should be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]