Limits of Activation? Street-Level Responses to the 2015 Refugee Challenge in German Job Centers

Abstract

Frontline workers in host-country state organizations influence refugees’ life chances and social integration. Yet little is known about how the local organizational environment shapes the action orientations of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). This article explores how German job centers and placement officers have responded to the unprecedented increase in refugee clients following the winter of 2015/16. Our findings suggest that new organizational structures motivate SLBs to interpret rules flexibly and do what works well. This pattern of authorized rule bending is relevant for overcoming the limits of activation and for the inclusion/exclusion of refugees as mediated by state bureaucracy.