The production of diversity in municipal administrations: change and persistence of organizations in increasingly diverse societies

Christine Lang

- completed -

Public administrations in European cities still rarely reflect how much international migration has transformed population structures. The discrepancy between a growing migrant population and the mostly native ‘white’ public workforce is large, raising questions of representation and equal opportunities. Demands have been growing louder to employ more employees with a migration background in public service. Drawing on a qualitative-ethnographic study on public administrations in Berlin and on organizational theory, this project investigated to what extent the employment of staff members of immigrant descent in municipal administrations is changing, and which factors contribute to change, or persistence, of organizational practices and structures. Originally a Ph.D. thesis, the project was turned into a book at the MPI-MMG. The thesis was awarded the Augsburger Wissenschaftspries für interkulturelle Studien 2019.