multiculturalism

December 4, 2016 0

Why Feminism and Hijab Go Together

As Muslim refugees who choose to wear hijab become a lasting part of the societies of those European states that have taken them in, their right to be different must be defended. Most importantly, we must defend the right of women to choose. It is this choice that makes women free. This is why feminism and hijab go together. [Read More!]

May 31, 2016 3

Women Only: The Frauenraum

I'm at Rathaus Wilmersdorf, a former city hall building turned refugee home in Berlin, where I teach a literacy class once a week. The home initially opened its doors to 178 refugees in September 2015, following Merkel's famous "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it") declaration that sidestepped the Dublin Regulation and opened up Germany's borders to thousands of asylum seekers. [Read More!]

July 3, 2015 1

Interview: “I’m a Human Being”

Vienna. Seat of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Widely considered the gateway to Eastern Europe. Home to a United Nations headquarters and numerous international companies and universities. The Austrian capital has long been a city of immigration – even when politics have told a different story – and a staggering 50% of the population has what’s referred to as a “migration background”. So it’s not as if I expected Vienna to not be multicultural... [Read More!]

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!]

March 7, 2014 3

Interview: Three Dimensions of Integration

It's easy (and admittedly amusing) to reduce expats to stereotypes, as if we all neatly fall into one or the other category based on which country we hail from, what we do for a living, or where we party and eat brunch. Reality is always more nuanced and multi-dimensional. Dare we even say, interesting?... [Read More!]

February 20, 2014 2

Lens: An Ode to the Maybachufer

From Berlin's "problem district" to more expensive than spießig Charlottenburg: Kreuzberg's made quite the transformation over the decades, but migration continues to shape its identity and reputation as a district. The bulk of Kreuzberg's diversity stems from the '50s and '60s, when guest workers were recruited by West Germany to fill labor shortages after World War II*. Kreuzberg's dilapidated housing became home to guest workers, primarily from Turkey... [Read More!]

January 21, 2014 1

Beyond Berlin: Difference in the Wet Country

For nearly a month this holiday season, I explored the social fabric surrounding my US origins with a German national, who had never before been to the land of plenty. Through the fresh eyes of 'the foreigner', I saw my part of America unfold under a curious and critical lens. America is a country that defines itself by historical narratives of migration and manifest destiny. What one encounters on the road in its northwestern corner, however, is a bit more mundane. At closer glance, emptiness and the prosaic everyday give food for thought, in regards to locating and valuing difference wherever it bubbles up... [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!]

Schoenes Cafe in Graefekiez, Kreuzberg where I ran into the "Diversity in the Big City" girls and chatted multiculturalism and Collidoscope.

September 6, 2013 3

Multiculturalism, Diversity, and the Big City

With my back to them at the street-side café I felt like a judge on "The Voice", straining my neck for any hint of where they were from or what they looked like, resisting the urge to swirl around and start dancing on my chair. Truth be told my ears had perked up as soon as the trio plopped down at the table behind me, switching between topics like gentrification in Kreuzberg and the cultural difference between Kaffee and "coffee" as quickly as they were switching between German and English... [Read More!]

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