Beyond the Scrapyard

When Igbo men from Nigeria gathered at a scrap yard in an industrial area in the Ruhr city of Essen to dismantle cars, refrigerators and other technical waste, surrounded by the sounds of unfamiliar music and the smells of exotic delicacies, they met with incomprehension and mistrust from their German neighbours and the municipal authorities. This study offers more detailed insights into the socio-cultural identity of these immigrants, which make it possible to overcome such unreflective reactions. It is an "ethnography of transnational transactions" - of the trading process between the junkyard and the markets in Lagos and Onitsha and the interaction with fellow Germans in different social and religious contexts.