This doctoral thesis is based on my personal experience as Black African asylum seeker in Germany in which research, I investigate the economic activities that Black African asylum seekers i.e. with an Aufenthaltsgestattung (residence authorization; § 55 German Asylum Act) and tolerated migrants i.e. with a Duldung (§ 60a German Residence Act) have developed in Berlin for income generation. It is an innovative research project as it integrates several approaches and methods for data collection from the humanities and social sciences. For instance, different ethno-sociogeographical methods 1) participant observations, 2) interviews and focus group discussions 3) cartography (mapping) are used in my doctoral thesis to make visible the income generation practices developed by Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants for their and their families’ survival. 

Methodically, the thesis relies on mixed methods for data collection (sampling, interviews, questionnaires). Between 2016 and June 2021, I have achieved twenty individual case studies, three hundred semi-structured questionnaires, two expert interviews with members of the German Parliament and the Berlin Parliament, six focus group discussions conducted both with the target group itself and with an German official governing their socio-economic integration in Berlin/Germany. The economic activities identified and investigated in this research are: drug dealing, newspaper delivering, informal street food selling, hairdressing, trading and testing for corona. 

The uptake of the economic activities mentioned above are deeply connected and intertwined with the individual’s socio-economic integration. And the socio-economic integration of the research’s target group (Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants), i.e. their access to integration course and their having/receiving a work permit, always heavily relies on the approval of two state agencies: 1) the Foreigner Registration Office (in German Ausländerbehörde: ABH) and 2) the Federal Agency of Work (In German: Bundesagentur für Arbeit: BA). Due to the interconnectedness of these different factors, the final aim of my doctoral thesis is: 

1. to identify, describe, understand and critically reflect the survival strategies developed by Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants for income generation, including the development of typologies of their economic activities for income generation in Berlin, e.g. day/night time economic activity, the form and nature of their economic activities (legal, semi-legal or illegal/criminal) and its worker’s socio-demographic characteristics in Berlin. 
2. to uncover the terms, concepts and notions used by the Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants in defining themselves and their economic activities in Berlin (Glossary of Black African Migration); and 
3. to investigate the relevance of their networks (individual/common) to access their job(s).

Indeed, this research is shedding light on a human group that is invisible and unresearched so far. I uncover the different aspects and factors influencing the uptake of certain economic activities by Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants and investigate the everyday experiences and challenges by carrying out these economic activities. Furthermore, this research advocates for a rethinking of the socio-economic integration policy of Black African asylum seekers and tolerated migrants in Germany which is highly restricted and heavily elitist letting few possibilities to these two groups of migrants study in this research, than relying on (il)legal, semi-legal and criminal income generation practices which negatively affected and slow the genuine socio-integration in Berlin/Germany.