Vélomobility of female refugees and immigrants in Germany: Towards an inclusive city

Abstract

This study focuses on the subjective urban spatialities and temporalities as well as micromobility patterns of 30 refugee and immigrant women before and after learning how to ride a bicycle in Freiburg. Several studies conducted in Europe and North America have advocated the significance of providing opportunities and capacities for immigrants and refugees, particularly women, to have access to ‘good mobilities’ like cycling as their increased spatial mobility may open doors for more political and economic participation and social inclusion in the society. However, what is currently missing is research on whether those who, for example, learn cycling in a host country continue to use bicycles to move around on a regular basis. If yes, what have been the relevant enabling factors and how do the bicycle users perceive the long-term effects of their increased spatial vélomobility on access, accumulation, and possible transformation – to multiform capital (social, cultural, symbolic, and economic). If not, what has constrained their regular use of a bicycle and what can be changed and improved. The study aims to draw attention to the problems of uneven mobilities, differential accessibility and the need to provide equitable and sustainable solutions that are open to all urban dwellers on an equal basis – irrespective of income, ethnicity, gender, abilities and so on.

In this study, I read Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the city through an intersectional feminist lens to adopt a multidimensional analytical approach to the spatial formations of various forms of interrelated inequalities. The empirical basis of my study consists of data collected by the mobility mapping method combined with interviews in four languages.