LIMITS: Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in European Cities

LIMITS aimed to identify the causal factors that influence the evolving strategies of immigrants and their descendants towards improving their personal well-being.
In each of six countries (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) one city is chosen, and within each city two populations are selected for study. The choice of countries tried to balance comparability and diversity, and was based on the specific histories of immigration and the political frameworks governing them.
The choice of populations, in turn, was determined by the desire to compare populations of the same origin or of similar background in different settings. Thus, immigrants from Turkey were being studied in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands and in Sweden, and Serb immigrants in Austria and Germany. Asian and African post-colonial immigrant groups were studied in Portugal and the UK.
In each case 300 individuals were interviewed face-to-face about themselves and the households they are part of. In a standardised format information was collected on event histories of migration, work, family formation, civic activity and other areas and was supplemented by event histories of legal changes, major political and social events etc.
From this resulted a database of approximately 3,600 cases that are accessible to other analysts after the termination of the project.
The analysis within LIMITS primarily aimed to identify patterns of strategies for the improvement of well-being and the influences shaping them.

The objectives of LIMITS were
* to improve knowledge on the critical relationship between socio-economic context and the life courses and strategies developed by immigrants
* to develop further the methodological instruments of the social sciences, and
* to create a uniform Europe-wide dataset comprising biographical, local and national data, adapted to the specificity of the proposed research questions.

Expected benefits:
* Better understanding of policy impact on life courses and well being of immigrants
* Inputs for policy development at European, national and local level
* Information on the role of civic and political involvement of immigrants in bettering their well-being
* Results relevant beyond the particular cities and groups
* Encouragement of further research, and a database accessible to other analysts.

LIMITS were presented in detail at a workshop in the course of the Eighth International Metropolis Conference in September 2003 in Vienna.

Consortium:
Centre for Social Innovation / CSI (Austria); University of Bielefeld, Institute of Conflict and Violence Research (Germany); Ruhr-University Bochum, School of Social Science (Germany); University of Amsterdam, Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies/IMES (The Netherlands); Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia, Lisbon (Portugal); University of Uppsala, Department of Social and Economic Geography (Sweden); University of Dundee, Department of Geography (United Kingdom).

Mitarbeiter/innen:

• Mag^a. Rossalina Latcheva (Projektleitung)
• Magª. Regina Haberfellner
• Magª. Maria Schwarz-Woelzl

Bereich: Arbeit & Chancengleichheit

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