Access to social services – how refugees navigate through fragmented local worlds

Regarding refugees’ social protection studies in social policy and migration, research emphasises the importance of different local framework conditions as well as individual strategies of refugees. While the debates in these disciplines have so far been largely separate, this article sheds light on the interplay between strategies and local framework conditions in the context of flight. Based on qualitative interviews with refugees and local actors in twelve municipalities in Germany, we illustrate the practices of refugees in accessing and utilising social rights and services against the backdrop of fragmented local worlds. The municipalities analysed differ in terms of local policies, migration-related narratives and space. Firstly, we show that refugees pursue diverse strategies of access and participation in education, healthcare and the labour market, which are initially independent of municipal framework conditions. Secondly, we illustrate the extent to which these strategies are associated with different consequences for access to and utilisation of educational, healthcare and employment opportunities for refugees depending on local conditions. Based on our findings, we argue that social protection of refugees must be understood as an interplay between local conditions and individual practices.