Leipzig: A destination for transnational migrants in creative and knowledgeintensive industries? The view of transnational migrants (original) (raw)

Transnational migrants only play a minor role in the social fabric of Leipzig. Due to a specific historic, political and economic constellation, Leipzig only has a small proportion of transnational migrants, compared to other cities in Western Germany. This situation make the problem perceptions and articulations of the transnational migrants relevant in order to evaluate recent efforts of knowledge-based and creative institutions to attract the ‘creative class’ to Leipzig. It is obvious, that the articulation of a tolerant, open-minded and migration friendly firm, institution or milieu will influence the general perception of a city-region. Although Leipzig promotes itself as an open-minded trading place with a long history, it has to be stated that Leipzig’s current economic structure is characterised by only a small share of internationally oriented industries and a large proportion of public sector employment. Leipzig still suffers from a rather marginal inflow of foreign direct investment – not only in industrial production but also even more in knowledge-intensive industries. A distinct political and historical development path still determines the present situation. Leipzig still forms a rather homogenous space in cultural and ethnical terms. Concerning the migration flows, Leipzig reflects a specific East German pattern, which differs from Western German migrating patterns especially in the origins of foreigners. For instance Leipzig lacks the history of Gastarbeiter immigration, which in many European cities led to a large proportion of foreign residents and workers and thus shaped the social fabric of cities. These two key factors – the low degree of internationalisation of the economy as well as the distinct socio-political context – determine the present position of Leipzig concerning the status of migration in general. With a qualitative approach, the perception of the institutional landscape of Leipzig by transnational migrants could be analysed in more depth. The types presented in chapter 7 and briefly mentioned in section 8.1 provide valuable information about the perception of the institutional landscape. The following aspects allow to discuss the basic assumption, presented mainly by regional economist Richard Florida, that a tolerant and open-minded urban climate has to be considered as a central prerequisite for attracting those targeted highqualified knowledge and creative workers in their urban realm. The normative dimension allows asking how the interviewees have explicitly and implicitly related their personal, professional, and social situation to the distinct context of Leipzig. The following aspects allow a first interpretation of the current institutional landscape as well as its capacity to integrate transnational workers: Existing social and leisure opportunities - low utilisation It was obvious that a rich and diverse institutional landscape of social and leisure opportunities, e.g. also learning options in the field of language course is available to many interviewees in knowledge-intensive industries. These opportunities, e.g. sport courses in universities, are important fields for engaging with the city and its inhabitants in a nonworking environment. Many transnational workers are aware and know of these extra amenities although they demonstrate low orientation how to practically engage in. Linking opportunities with the demands and the individual situation of transnational workers, who are only temporarily in Leipzig, appears to be rather undeveloped. It seems that the ‘hardware’ exists (facilities, courses, technical infrastructure…) although the software (adequate communications tools, man power…), that means how to bring and invite transnational workers in these opportunities is not well developed. The inner-directedness of transnational workers in knowledge-intensive industries This observation also led to the conclusion that especially transnational knowledge-intensive workers are ‘inner directed” that means they operate on a clear and determined firm-based or individual professional trajectory and are thus not explicitly working to fully engage in the social fabric of their temporary place of work, in this case the city of Leipzig. Especially transnational companies very often provide multiple inner-firm based opportunities to engage, and to socialise next to work. That is why a high degree of inner-directed trajectories leads to different interactions with the institutional fabric of the city of Leipzig. The outer-directedness of transnational workers in creative industries When looking at the case of transnational creative workers, a clear contrast can be detected: these transnational agents interact in quite a different way with the institutional fabric of Leipzig. Looking at the working conditions of transnational workers in core creative activities fields most of them operate on individual motives. Their degree of professional stability is definitely lower, compared to transnational workers in knowledge-intensive industries. These creative workers operate mainly in highly self-organised and less institutionalised context with less official support and opportunities. Their professional trajectories as well as their professional career opportunities depend to a high degree on personal networks. These networks are informal and instable per se, depending on trust, sympathy but not on formalised contracts. That is why it can be assumed that transnational workers have to engage in a rather different way with representatives of cultural, creative, and intermediary institutions when being in a foreign context such as Leipzig. They have to present themselves, their work, as well as their world-view to these representatives, as well as to leading local agents of creative milieus. Apart form this outer orientation, it can be assumed that creative and artistic practices tend to interact to a large degree with the social, economic, urban as well as political environment. What we consider as symbolic ‘products’ is often a reaction to a distinct perception of the outer world (although it may be very personal). Linking the professional argument with the production process of creative workers, generally speaking, core creative workers very often demonstrate a higher interest in as well as a sensitive perception of the respective context they live in. Therefore a major difference to the transnational worker in knowledge-intensive industries is the degree of outer-directedness of creative workers in respect to the inner-directedness of the first.