ABSTRACT
In 2015, the surge of people fleeing protracted civil wars in the Middle East culminated in what has frequently been referred to as Europe’s refugee crisis, or Europe’s migrant crisis. This chapter argues that the refugee crisis trope is devoid of historical and political considerations of the ways in which urban spaces have been shaped by monetized governance in the wider dynamics of global capitalism, thereby fueling and regenerating its myth-making tendencies. It examines the power, paradoxes and politics of resettlement of newly arrived refugees marked by high levels of impoverishment, marginalization and displacement. The chapter demonstrates how monetized governance – involving a myriad of power relations ranging from the Berlin Senate; to private, for-profit and not-for-profit NGOs; to public and private landlords; to grassroots organizations; to the public role of the private consultancy firm McKinsey & Company – has played a nuanced and contradictory role in reproducing the displaced survival of refugees in Berlin.
