At the beginning of September, we launched our new project: EMCY – Enabling Migrants to Cycle. We are investigating how migrants can be better represented in research, namely through their access to cycling. The team consists of Beatrice Stude from stape e.U. as lead partner, Tadej Brezina from the Institute of Transportation at TU Wien, Sanderien Verstappen and Helen Vaaks from the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna and Elisabeth Kampel from klarfakt e.U.
The Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology is funding the project as part of FEMtech Research Projects 2023.
The following locally anchored institutions enrich the project as cooperation partners: IBZ Diakonie Zinnergasse, Piramidops Frauentreff, Verein Projekt Integrationshaus, Fremde werden Freunde, you are welcome / PIR, Volksschule Braunhubergasse, Volksschule Molitorgasse and Volksschule Münichplatz. A committee consisting of academia and civil society representatives accompanies the project.
Additionally, the project is supported by Martin Udovičić as illustrator, Robert Fuchs as cycling instructor and cycling instructor trainer at the Schulterblick cycling school and Andreas Röderer as bike mechanic and bike mechanic trainer.
Abstract: EMCY – Enabling migrants to cycle
How can the interests of people with a migration background be represented more equitable in research? This question is being researched through the topic of cycling in everyday life: What obstacles do migrants and their children face in using cycling as a means of transport in Vienna? The EMCY project aims to answer this research question under the premise of an intersectional understanding of gender. There, gender is an aspect of social inequality also including economic conditions, education, age, and the capacity to be mobile.
Motivation: In Vienna CO2 emissions from transport account for around 43% of total emissions (Wiener Klimafahrplan, 2022). A reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2040 is only possible by changing the behaviour of all people in Vienna. EMCY focuses on groups of the population that have been underrepresented in cycling research: residents of Vienna who were born outside of the European Union of 1995, when Austria joined the EU.
Studies in other countries suggest that everyday mobility practices are different between migrant and non-migrant populations. In the car-focused United States, migrants cycle more often than non-migrants (Smart, 2010). In the cycling-focused Netherlands on the other hand, migrants cycle less than non-migrants (Harms, 2007). In Austria, 40 % of the migrants and 32 % of people without migration background say they never use a bicycle (Fassman and Reeger, 2014).
Despite a few noteworthy case studies with female cyclists in Vienna (Segert et al., 2015), migrants are underrepresented in the growing volume of cycling research in Austria. This was also the case in the online survey in the »FreiRad – voluntary cycling test for all children« project, in which 86 % of parents stated German as their first language. In the surveys, about half of the parents and authorities, and three quarters of teachers said that parents should do more to encourage their children to cycle in everyday life. But representatives of parents’ associations disagreed: many parents, who are not represented in the survey, need support (Kampel et al., 2023).
The aim of the project is to investigate whether and by utilising which type of survey method reliable results can be obtained on migrant attitudes and needs. Obstacles shall be identified that prevent migrants from cycling in everyday life. The target group is residents of Vienna who have migrated from outside the EU of 1995, focusing on parents with children of primary school age. This approach is analogous to the FreiRad project and enables a comparison of the research results in order to confirm or expand the recommendations for action developed there. For the survey, the plan is to cooperate with institutions from the migrant integration sector that are locally anchored. Based on the knowledge gained, a practical test (e.g. tailor made cycling courses) will be developed in order to test possible support measures for migrants.
More information
- EMCY in the FFG project database
- BMK Federal Ministry of Austria for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology
- TU Vienna, Institut of Transportation
- University of Vienna, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
- klarfakt e.U.
- FreiRad – Freiwillige Radfahrprüfung für alle Kinder
- FreiRad – Act now! – project completion