Geographies of Fear : Intersectional Perspectives on Migrant Women in Berlin

Sammanfattning

The gendered nature of urban safety and fear is well established in research, yet migrant women's experiences continue to be marginalised within both feminist scholarship and urban planning practice. Drawing on feminist geography theory and an intersectional framework, this thesis examined how migrant women perceive and negotiate safety and fear in urban public spaces in Berlin’s neighbourhoods — Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Using semi-structured interviews and Relief Maps, the research demonstrated that perceptions of safety among migrant women are deeply contextual, shaped by individuals’ intersecting identities, prior experiences and spatial contexts, neighbourhood familiarity, and sense of belonging. The results revealed that migration background functioned not only as a source of vulnerability but also of spatial confidence. For migrant women, Kreuzberg and Neukölln represented spaces of comfort, recognition, and belonging, despite their negative public reputations. Critically reflecting on the methods used, Relief Maps not only produced spatial and reflective data that interviews alone could not access but also revealed how the power dynamics between researcher and participants shaped the production of knowledge. With relevance to both research on the geographies of fear and urban planning practices, the findings underscore the need to foreground the intersectional and embodied experiences of migrant women in urban public spaces.