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What does the situation in Leipzig tell us about Europe and especially about the European city? First, we can summarize that the current housing policy in Leipzig refers to the concept of the European city and that also current strategies on hosting refugees can be seen in line with the concept of the European city: Integration instead of isolation, central location instead of peripheral locations and rather small- than large-scale solution. Therefore we can conclude that even if on national and supra-national level the challenge of how to deal with the increasing amount of refugees leads to divergent policy responses and can be even considered as a challenge for the future European integration process, the case study Leipzig shows another picture: It is still tried to implement the European City model.

Two issues need to be highlighted:

• There exists still a considerable gap between the political ideas and the actual situation. Even though there is a political will to avoid large scale housing for refugees, the majority of refugees still live in large scale accommodation. Structural obstacles stand against the implementation of the political will. This shows that the implementation of the concept of the European city is not an easy-going process but requires to overcoming existing problems.

• A second point tackles the social dimension of the European city, which refers to the idea of citizen participation and the involvement of civil society organizations in urban development. This dimension has not been implemented in the policies on how to host refugees in Leipzig. Participation of refugees in decision making processes of housing policies has not taken place. In the discussions on what kind of housing, floor plans and location refugees actually prefer the social group most affected by the decisions, the refugees themselves have not been included. Participation of refugees is far from easy and requires complex methods. Nevertheless, the idea to see the refugees not only as objects for which the European city need to provide housing opportunities but as subjects which are part of the urban society and which opinions need to be heard would be in line with the concept of the European city and actually would provide a true integration of refugees in the cities of the European Union.