ABSTRACT
Munich and Vienna are two similar cities, but they differ in only one respect: the principles underpinning their immigration policies. The proportion of foreign workers in Vienna would have risen much more sharply were it not that many of them opted for rapid naturalization and disappeared from the statistics. In Munich - because of the German concept of citizenship - naturalization is the last step in a long process of integration. National and urban policies influence housing segregation even more strongly than they affect the labour market. The formal exclusion of the foreign resident population clearly represents a problem of democratic policy. In linking social services, housing, and political participation to Austrian citizenship, Vienna contradicts to some extent the spirit of a meritocratic society in which social rank depends on achievement and social assistance is granted according to need.
