Chapter 13
Discourses of immigration and integration in German newspaper comments
This chapter employs a critical, constructivist theoretical perspective to address how online commenters on articles in the liberal newspaper Die Zeit characterize immigrants, integration, and German identity. While the formerly dominant ethnonational ideology about German identity is now in the minority, there is nonetheless a strong tendency to categorize and characterize immigrant background residents according to ethnonational and religious criteria. A hierarchy of immigrants has emerged, with a discourse that positions Muslims in general, and Turks in particular, as the unintegrated Other. Because Germanness is defined in opposition to Muslim practices, integration for such residents is impossible. However, the presence of competing discourses is significant; through voices that point out discrimination and view integration as a two-way process, social change may be enacted.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background: German immigration, citizenship policy, and integration
- 2.1Terms: A rose by any other name
- 3.Theoretical background
- 4.Data and methodology
- 5.Integration in Germany: Themes
- 5.1Dissatisfaction with the state of integration in Germany
- 5.2Whose responsibility?
- 5.3What is integration?
- 5.4Good immigrants and bad
- 5.5Refugees
- 5.6What does it mean to be German, anyway?
- 6.Discussion
-
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Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Hase, Johanna
2021.
Repetition, adaptation, institutionalization—How the narratives of political communities change.
Ethnicities 21:4
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Möllering, Martina & Eva Schmidt
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The case of Mesut Özil: A symbol of (non-) integration? An analysis of German print media discourses on integration.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.