Navigating Challenges of Integrating Newcomers in Germany

Drawing on interviews and participatory workshops with 11 municipalitiesacross Germany, this chapter analyses how local governments have navigated the arrivalof forced migrants from Ukraine since 2022. We discuss how administrations seek tostrengthen their institutional capacity to govern integration capacities by collaboratingwith non-state actors, and first and foremost with volunteers. Applying a resilience lens,we study specific examples of such strategic collaboration and show how different functionsof networks, such as the pooling of resources and information, or the creation ofsynergies, can enhance municipal capacity to accommodate the needs of these newcomers,such as finding housing or applying for social support. In these manners, the chaptercontributes to the literature on local-level resilience and integration.