Dr. Kristi Winters: Germany’s Environmental Inequalities Linked to Lower Incomes and Migration Backgrounds, DOI: 10.34879/gesisblog.2023.70
Dr. Stephan Jünger found links between living in areas with environmental disadvantages; a person’s income; and whether they or their parents migrated to Germany. Land use disadvantages decrease with higher income. Whereas environmental advantages can be defined as a person’s access to green spaces such as parks, sporting areas, or gardens, environmental disadvantages relate to the amounts of blacktop, concrete, and buildings in a location. Areas with high amounts of these types of materials and objects have fewer recreational green spaces.
Native-born Germans and higher-income migrants experienced fewer environmental disadvantages while low-income migrants mainly experienced significantly higher disadvantages. Jünger, a geo-data specialist at GESIS, combined survey data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) with small-scale spatial data. His conclusions should interest local planners and policymakers when cities, towns, and other municipalities want to enhance the number of recreational areas to compensate for the deleterious effects of other land use.