Identity & Belonging

December 5, 2014 0

Review: Circumcision at the Jewish Museum Berlin

Circumcision has a history of being used to make distinctions between 'us' and 'them', particularly in Germany. In the United States the debate on foreskin or no-foreskin looks much different, citing hygiene rather than religious freedom. This begs the question if arguments against a religious practice, such as the one raised in the German context, can ever be purely about legal arguments - for the rights of children, as German courts have decreed - when strong divisions between those of Christian heritage and those of Muslim and/or Jewish heritage remain. This question was the inspiration for the newest exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin, a timely one, at that... [Read More!]
September 29, 2014 1

Beyond Berlin: London and other transplants

This past week, I visited my good friend D who, like me, is an American transplant. D lives in East London, where the corner store owner greets you in an upbeat banter and the sign to a ‘Carolina Fried Chicken’ joint dances in the light from the neighboring gastropub. Multicultural, maybe. But London’s multiculturalism has a few faces and facades. And, in the end, it’s the people that matter more than the cultural installation: So, who is actually 'making' it here?... [Read More!]
Ali für Deutschland
September 2, 2014 0

Interview: Ali for (and from) Germany

In the wake of Germany's World Cup victory, much has been said about a renewed sense of German patriotism and its implications. While some have feared a connection to Germany's dark past, others have welcomed the discourse as a chance to shape a new sense of belonging within the country's evolving demographics. We've already written something about it here. But what a discussion on national identity means on the personal level is another story. Or rather many stories. Here's one... [Read More!]
July 28, 2014 0

World Cup Fever: How malleable is German identity?

Germany's World Cup victory has unleashed a new wave of patriotism, as well as a new identity crisis. This patriotism might only be as good as the boundaries it is ready and able to redefine. An act of flowing colors and neighbor-to-neighbor high-fives may have started a new understanding of who is allowed into the club, but policies and institutions need to take it one step further. Otherwise, patriotism is just as good as nationalism, which rules by way of exceptionalism. In the type of inclusive global society many of us would love to build, there is no room for exceptionalism... [Read More!]
July 4, 2014 1

Review: Berlin needs you (but why?)

Why is immigration important? The debate takes many angles. There's the demographic argument, that developed countries with low birth rates and aging populations need bodies to maintain the replacement rate. There's the globalization take, that the movement of people in all forms is increasingly inevitable and contributes to global competitiveness and 21st century skills. The moral or even religious spin, emphasizing human dignity, charity, an obligation for prosperous nations to help those more needy. But few arguments are as pervasive as the economic one... [Read More!]
May 10, 2014 1

Review: Seeing Berlin Through The Homeless

They wait for the subway doors to close before they address the car with a rehearsed speech. "Excuse the interruption, I am one of Berlin's annoying homeless people"... it usually begins, as they peddle newspapers and scan the crowd for an outstretched hand holding change or food. The majority of us keep our hands tucked away or firmly gripping our phones. Some of us fall into convenient bouts of exhaustion, promptly leaning back and closing our eyes. In this moment, we are restricted to a shared space... [Read More!]
April 11, 2014 4

Integration in Berlin: Research for a Desolate Landscape

On April 2, the new Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Integration and Migration (BIM) was launched. Certainly not the first institute of its kind in Germany, Berlin's Humboldt University, the Hertie Foundation, the Federal Employment Agency, and the German Football Association held a press conference to frame this initiative as new and needed. The reason: the field  - what is really known about the integration or inclusion of diversity - is more desert than rain-forest in this country of immigration... [Read More!]
Orhan and Sophia pre 2014 Berlin half marathon
March 30, 2014 1

Interview: The Taxi Driver

Orhan was 5 when his father moved to Berlin in 1972. It was only one year before West Germany would halt guest worker recruitment from non-European countries to fill labor shortages after World War II. His mother followed 7 years later with his youngest sister and they lived in Rudow in southeastern Neukölln - where they still live over 30 years later. "They got jobs as cleaners in an office," Orhan recounts, "but they were fired!" he adds, snorting in laughter. I look up from my notepad, surprised... [Read More!]
March 19, 2014 1

Review: “Schwarz gemacht” and the White Audience

One attends a play about an Afro-German living in the years of Nazism and Jim Crow not because of the dramaturgy. One buys the ticket because of the topic's near absence in the German discourse. This is not a review of the play, but rather a continuation of the discussion with the cast that followed. As one of the cast-members remarked, it all comes down to audience: "Black folks probably wouldn't go to the theater to see this play in the U.S., let alone have enough money for the ticket. And here, we have a white audience. So, who are we really talking to here? Who is seeing this play?"... [Read More!]
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