3.2. Methodology In order to address the relation of housing and its characteristics to the social integration of its inhabitants, I developed two methodological strategies. On one hand, using existing maps and simultaneously visiting the site, I plotted the amenities and the infrastructure and services that the inhabitants have access to such as schools, hospitals, centres of social support, open spaces including playgrounds, public transport connectivity and other amenities. This would become the basis for analysing the accessibility in terms of distance and connectivity to the services. As a second strategy, I conducted semi-structured in-person interviews with refugees and asylum seekers who are inhabitants of the GU at Hofheim. The interviewee sample consisted of asylum seekers and persons who had already obtained any of the official protection statuses, including in some cases, the status of refugee. The interviews were loosely structured to be based on the housing evaluation criteria but often, the process transformed into ‘ethnographic hanging out’ (Weber, 2018). The questions raised mainly pertained to the social connections, location, privacy, layout within and of the buildings, spaciousness, open spaces, access to services, and safety. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the Sozialarbeiterin6 working at the GU as well.
The interviewees were randomly approached in the open spaces in and around the GU. Six interviews with the residents were with individuals, whereas four were conducted in groups. Since each of these groups has a key person who was answering the most, for the sake of analysis, the group interviews and individual interviews are not distinguished. The persons apart from the key respondent, during the group interviews were mostly supporting the key respondent with smaller points or acting as translators.
While interviewing the inhabitants of the GU, since they were all of different countries of origin, different languages, namely, English and Hindi were used to converse with them. The majority of the interviews, six to be precise, were conducted in English. In the interview with the man from Chechnya, the respondent was speaking in his mother tongue and I, in English, but his son was able to translate for both of us. Four interviews were conducted in Hindi as three Afghan respondents and the Pakistani interviewee were all more comfortable with it. The site visits to the GU at Hofheim and interviews occurred during the months of May and June 2021. The result of the mapping will be coupled with the analysis of the qualitative data collected through semi-structured, individual and group interviews, in the next section to draw inferences.
6
Each GU has an appointed official ‘social worker’.
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