Germany

Dong Xuan Center Berlin, Vietnamese
February 27, 2014 0

Viet in Berlin: Images from Dong Xuan Center Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg's Dong Xuan Center consists of 6 hangars, stocked tightly with all the things one might come to miss living far away from a place, where a broth of cardamom and ginger is paired with any meat imaginable and the most delicate of noodles; where a certain kind of manufacturing can turn out plastic and fabric wares for all sizes and ages in bulk; where sweet things might come packaged in banana leaves, wrapped around sticky mango rice like presents. Or this is the impression one might get of Vietnam, when visiting Dong Xuan - a Mecca in the middle of former East Berlin, little Hanoi amidst not so little Plattenbauten... [Read More!]
November 20, 2013 2

Roma in Berlin: Bureaucracy in Lichtenberg

On the first Tuesday of every month, the Migrantenrat Lichtenberg (immigrants' plenary) meets to address issues of migration affecting the district and its neighborhoods. The gospel of November's session: The Roma are coming! 2014 will be a year of change for Roma in Berlin, primarily for those who have come from Bulgaria and Romania. They will have access to the social welfare system, the situation will change dramatically. But this is about families, not simply numbers... [Read More!]
November 11, 2013 1

Lens: With Wings, Roots, and Sweaty Hands

"Punctual. Exact. Productive. Closed off. Careful. Inflexible. Humorless." And some "Goethe" and "Einstein" thrown in for good measure. Was this really all a group of seemingly well-educated professionals had to say about German identity? No wonder the facilitator had started to draw sad faces on the list... [Read More!]
August 25, 2013 1

Rave: Why Remembering the Holocaust is Good for Immigrants

In 2005, Germany officially became an immigration country with the establishment of its federal office for migration. The question - who are the Germans anyway? - has become increasingly important in deciding what to impart to these newcomers set to stay. Expats are good at constructing Germanness for the Germans themselves, often leaving out the Holocaust in such a description of 'German identity', however. Today's Germany - an immigration country - is a republic built on tragic events like the Holocaust, just as France is a country built on colonialism. Everything has a context, and it is this context that immigrants to Germany should learn to understand for the sake of a more complete country - a civic society which respects differences and celebrates them... [Read More!]
August 13, 2013 0

Reviewing the Rave: “We are the We”

We're so used to talking all the time that words tend to lose their effect. Especially when the talking is predominantly happening in one direction, as it so often does in immigration discourse. The Migrantas organization is unleashing an alternate voice within immigrant women in Germany that is arguably just as powerful: their artistic creativity... [Read More!]
June 18, 2013 2

Review: Become a German (in just under 650 hours)

You must clean up after your dog. You must ride your bike in the right direction of the bike lane, recites a Russian student. The audience chuckles. First work, then... chants the teacher. The audience groans. Do you know any examples of German humor? asks the teacher. Uhhh, fumbles the Japanese student. 10 seconds go by. I'm still thinking, he mutters and scratches his head. The audience roars... [Read More!]
June 6, 2013 1

The N-Word

When I posted the Who's/Whose Normal? article a few weeks ago, I expected the "N-word" of interest to be Neger, a term that falls somewhere between "negro" and "nigger" on the translation and offensiveness spectrum. Instead, the strongest reactions came in response to another N-Word: Nazi... [Read More!]
May 22, 2013 3

Lens: Becoming Berlinerin at the Bürgeramt

Bureaucracy is there to keep the rules in check, to decide who can be a part of the stacks of paper and benefits that make up either citizenship or the ominous category of legal (or illegal) residency status. Oftentimes, the line between these two categories is arbitrary, not reflective of individuals but of rules and their guardians. This is my story in a two-part lens about how blood and ink can define who you are in a city, how, as a German citizen, a ruler was used to cleanly draw a line in my passport across my former American city of residence, replacing it with a German one... [Read More!]
April 23, 2013 5

Over and Over

Migrants face the concept of identity more acutely than many other groups. As they move from one geographic and cultural setting to another, they are presented with a new set of rules and codes for becoming a "member of a group" - their "distinct personality" may be interpreted differently than it was in their home country. The transition from migrant to "resident" or "citizen" is also laden with complications - legally, personally, and socially - both from the perspective of the migrant's identity and the national identity of the host country.... [Read More!]
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