Diversity in mind: Towards a differentiated understanding of migrants’ recreational practices in urban forests
Individual immigrant experiences vary widely with respect to views of forest recreation
Jay and Schraml look at the relationship between migration and forest recreation near Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany. Through 42 qualitative interviews with three groups of varying immigrant status—people from Turkish migration backgrounds, people from Russian-German migration background, and people without migration background—these researchers found five common types of narratives that characterized interviewees’ relationship with outdoor recreation.
These included interviewees who recounted a nostalgia for their home landscapes, but following many lifestyle changes from migration saw their new natural environment as unfamiliar and less ideal than what they had grown up with; interviewees who had positive memories about nature and who continued to think of the new forest as an ideal place to be but tended to spend little time there due to urban lifestyles; interviewees who characterized Turkish immigrants as recreating by having family barbeques and gatherings to eat outdoors; interviewees who lacked previous experience in forests who had newly discovered them as a positive place for recreation; and interviewees who expressed fears about the forest either due to past experiences, stories, or lack of confidence.
In general, respondents with migration backgrounds were less likely to visit urban forests, but otherwise there were no obvious differences between the three groups in the two cities, all of whom enjoyed water features, walking, and eating outdoors. The authors emphasize that migration and ethnic identity are social constructs, but it is a clear that life history (especially childhood experiences with nature) and individual context all have an influence on leisure and outdoor recreation choices and perceptions of the outdoors.
Migration was a cause of major changes in people’s lives such as their financial situation and social contacts. These changes, along with a lack of familiarity with new landscapes, perceived discrimination, and psychological difficulties, also led to changes in their leisure patterns. Childhood experiences in nature factored into the perception of forest environments as familiar, but, in the case of immigrants, knowledge of and comfort in natural environments was sometimes lost with the move to a new country. Along with worries about new behavioral rules, this sometimes led to less outdoor recreation.
On the other hand, similar landscapes, sensory experiences, or plants also had the potential to create ties between immigrants and their new environment, through a sense of nostalgia and unexpected familiarity. In some cases immigration led to completely new but very positive outdoor experiences in people who had no childhood experience in the forest. In line with some previous work in this area, this study found that women were more likely to express fear about the forest, whether due to wild animals, people, or a lack of familiarity with the place.
Interestingly, the authors suggest that forest recreation, and people’s tendency to think that other ethnic groups recreate differently in the outdoors, is part of the “othering” process by which collective identity is socially constructed—that is to say that Turkish immigrants, for example, may be lumped together by other groups as commonly having barbeques outdoors although their individual relationships with the outdoors might actually vary widely. Non-Turkish individuals, however, might ignore these differences and point them out as different from the way that they themselves might interact with the forest. The authors accordingly suggest that urban greenspace managers should take into account actual local experiences and needs rather than simply relying on pre-determined categories of user groups.
This study was careful to examine many underlying assumptions that other studies have taken for granted, such as the definitions of ethnicity and migration. As such, it lays important groundwork for further work needed to understand the interaction between leisure preferences, migration, childhood experiences, and gender.
Citation
Jay, M., Schraml, U., (2014). Diversity in mind: Towards a differentiated understanding of migrants’ recreational practices in urban forests. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 13(1),
