OB Barometer 2023: Refugee aid is currently the most important task

In this year’s survey of the town and city leaders for OB Barometer from the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu), the coronavirus pandemic was no longer important. Instead, the municipalities are increasingly facing the challenge of having to manage several crises at once: for cities, towns and municipalities overcoming crises has become a kind of permanent state.

The mayors regard the immigration of refugees, which since 2022 has once again been greatly increasing, as the task that currently needs to be overcome the most urgently. For more than half of the town and city leaders, it is a central topic alongside the urgent request for support from the German Federal Government and the individual federal states. The topics of housing and finance are also currently being attributed increasing urgency.

However, with a look to the future, the town and city leaders undisputedly regard climate topics as the most important areas for action. And their relevance increases again if you include the necessary, generally climate-based, measures for mobility, the next most named topic. They are followed by the topics of finance, housing and the accommodation of refugees.

Overcoming all crisis-induced developments is extremely cost-intensive for the municipalities. Therefore, this year the town and city leaders once again regard the financial situation of the municipalities as clearly more worrying than in the previous years. Therefore, the need for investment to overcome climate change is named as the biggest current challenge for municipalities, even before the accommodation of refugees. Also in regard to mobility and housing, the municipalities assume that a high level of investment is required.

According to the survey, the topic of “attracting and keeping professionals” has become more important, yet in the evaluations it does not yet appear to reflect the current discussions on the shortage of professionals. In regard to the role of the municipalities as a crisis manager, which now appears to be a permanent role, the topics of shortage of professionals and digitalisation deserve more attention.

Social justice and social peace were repeatedly named by the surveyed town and city leaders but these topics have not yet counted among the top positions for the most urgent tasks.

However, this year the mayors, primarily those from the East German towns and cities, rated social topics as areas for action that will become more important in the future and that will require much more attention.

Background: Information about the OB Barometer

The OB Barometer by Difu is an annual survey of mayors in German towns and cities with over 50,000 inhabitants. It is supported by the Association of German Cities and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities and its aim is to reveal changes in various municipal areas of action on the basis of four questions. This year’s results are based on a representative telephone survey, which was carried out in January/February 2023 by the infratest dimap polling institute. 122 of the invited 193 invited mayors (including 17 deputies) participated. That corresponds to a participation rate of 63.2 percent.