Compassionate revanchism in the European city. The “Humanitarian Aid” for homeless EU citizens in Cologne, Germany

This article examines the urban governance of homeless EU citizens in Cologne, Germany, through the lens of compassionate revanchism. It contributes to debates on homelessness governance by adapting the concept to the European welfare context and highlighting its multiscalar production through urban bordering and citizenship regimes. Drawing on 19 semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations, the study analyzes Cologne’s “Humanitarian Aid” measures. The findings show that compassionate and revanchist objectives are closely intertwined. A range of measures are mobilized to reduce the visibility of homeless EU citizens, while a dedicated facility operates as a space of abeyance that contains individuals and limits access to social rights. These arrangements rely on legal ambiguity and austerity-driven governance logics. At the same time, social workers exercise constrained forms of resistance, while homeless EU citizens navigate exclusion through informal labor, tactical mobility, and everyday coping practices. The article argues that compassionate revanchism in Europe differs from its U.S. counterparts by emerging through the revanchist reconfiguration of welfare-state and legal obligations in this context. Furthermore, it demonstrates how homelessness governance simultaneously functions as migration governance through interactions across supranational, national, regional, and urban scales.