Refugees Welcome?

The arrival in 2015 and 2016 of over one million asylum seekers and refugees in Germany had major social consequences and gave rise to extensive debates about the nature of cultural diversity and collective life. This volume examines the responses and implications of what was widely seen as the most significant and contested social change since German reunification in 1990. It combines in-depth studies based on anthropological fieldwork with analyses of the longer trajectories of migration and social change. Its original conclusions have significance not only for Germany but also for the understanding of diversity and difference more widely.

The arrival in 2015 and 2016 of over one million asylum seekers and refugees in Germany had major social consequences and gave rise to extensive debates about the nature of cultural diversity and collective life. This volume examines the responses and implications of what was widely seen as the most significant and contested social change since German reunification in 1990. It combines in-depth studies based on anthropological fieldwork with analyses of the longer trajectories of migration and social change. Its original conclusions have significance not only for Germany but also for the understanding of diversity and difference more widely.

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Making, Experiencing and Managing Difference in a Changing Germany
Jan-Jonathan Bock and Sharon Macdonald

PART I: MAKING GERMANS AND NON-GERMANS

Chapter 1. Language as Battleground: ‘Speaking’ the Nation, Lingual Citizenship and Diversity Management in Post-unification
Germany
Uli Linke

Chapter 2. Diversity and Unity: Political and Conceptual Answers to Experiences of Differences and Diversities in Germany
Friedrich Heckmann

Chapter 3. Jews, Muslims and the Ritual Male Circumcision Debate: Religious Diversity and Social Inclusion in Germany
Gökce Yurdakul

PART II: POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE

Chapter 4. Islam, Vernacular Culture and Creativity in Stuttgart
Petra Kuppinger

Chapter 5. ‘Neukölln Is Where I Live, It’s Not Where I’m From’: Children of Migrants Navigating Belonging in a Rapidly Changing
Urban Space in Berlin
Carola Tize and Ria Reis

Chapter 6. The Post-migrant Paradigm
Naika Foroutan

PART III: REFUGEE ENCOUNTERS

Chapter 7. New Year’s Eve, Sexual Violence and Moral Panics: Ruptures and Continuities in Germany’s Integration Regime
Kira Kosnick

Chapter 8. Solidarity with Refugees: Negotiations of Proximity and Memory
Serhat Karakayalı

Chapter 9. Negotiating Cultural Difference in Dresden’s Pegida Movement and Berlin’s Refugee Church
Jan-Jonathan Bock

PART IV: NEW INITIATIVES AND DIRECTIONS

Chapter 10. Interstitial Agents: Negotiating Migration and Diversity in Theatre
Jonas Tinius

Chapter 11. Articulating a Noncitizen Politics: Nation-State Pity vs. Democratic Inclusion
Damani J. Partridge

Chapter 12. The Refugees-Welcome Movement: A New Form of Political Action
Werner Schiffauer

Conclusion: Refugee Futures and the Politics of Difference
Sharon Macdonald

Index