Integration and Housing Cooperatives

Residual segregation is one of the most controversial topics of urban housing in the context of immigration. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the number of integration problems in Vienna has been increasing. The integration issues, which include problems in education and in "immigrant neighbourhoods", have been dominating the media. The growing competition in urban labour markets, where Austrians meet foreign labour, has been increasing the problem further. At the moment, social cohesion on the city-level appears to be in danger. The public debate mentions the absence of effective integration policies. One reason for the lack of clear concepts for the integration of immigrants lies in the fact that the notion itself is defined in many different ways and sometimes seems to be nothing more than a vague idea. This book deals with the challenges of maintaining and developing social cohesion in the urban Viennese areas and describes the social factors affecting it. It furthermore deals with the role of housing cooperatives in integration process and identifies those housing cooperatives with higher power of influence and their way of operating.