Miletic, MilaMilaMileticSacha, ErikErikSacha0009-0006-1544-2735Göler, DanielDanielGöler0000-0003-0377-07242026-07-082026-07-0820262341-08331138-5774https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/116052In recent years, rural areas in Europe have increasingly experienced international immigration, in some cases for the first time. While labour immigration in Germany has been praised for benefiting local economies, immigrants’ social integration and the level of well-being have often been sidelined. This paper applies contact theory to examine the role of contact in integration process of labour migrants in a rural town in Thuringia, East Germany. Moving beyond the idea of integration as assimilation, we expand the horizontal approach to integration research by comparing perspectives of two groups—newcomers and locals. Findings suggest that immigrants’ material contributions do not compensate for their need for societal contribution. Our research also highlights the importance of shared places for encounter in rural areas and shows that their absence leads to integration being imposed, rather than negotiated.engInternational migrationlabour migrationintegrationrural areasrural developmentEast Germany914.3article10.14422/mig.23822.022