Students on the Master's degree program in Social Work at the HWG LU present their teaching research project at the annual conference for the nationwide regional coordination offices of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
At the heart of the research-oriented Master's degree course in Social Work at the HWG LU is a three-semester teaching research project in which students carry out their own research project on a social science issue under the guidance of an interdisciplinary teaching tandem. Since March 2025, a group of seven students has been working on the question of how refugees experience arriving in Ludwigshafen. The aim of the project is to identify the challenges, needs and resources of arriving in Ludwigshafen and to gain insights for the further development of a cross-actor arrival network in Ludwigshafen. The special feature of the research project - which is being carried out in cooperation with the city of Ludwigshafen - is its participatory approach: supported by the head of the "Integration and Further Education" department of the city's social services department, the students were able to make contact with the participants in the integration and orientation courses, build up trusting relationships over a number of weeks and then recruit some of the new arrivals in Ludwigshafen as co-researchers for their project.
The group was invited to present their project and report on their ongoing empirical work at this year's conference for the BAMF's nationwide regional coordination offices from September 16-19, 2025. Representing the entire group were: Master's students Juliane Lauer and Luisa Steinmetz, co-researcher Ayse Ciraci as well as the educators Prof. Dr. Lena Loge (teaching and research area "Social Work and Diversity") and Prof. Dr. Andrea Lutz-Kluge (teaching and research area: Aesthetic Practice in the Context of Education, Socioculture and Research).
For the coming winter semester (2025/26), the evaluation of the empirical material collected in the meantime is planned. This is to take place - together with the co-researchers - from the outset in a dialogical process with various stakeholders in integration work. The BAMF and representatives from the Rhineland-Palatinate region will also be involved.
Prof. Dr. Lena Loge/Prof. Dr. Andrea Lutz-Kluge
