‘Can we manage?’ Anxieties and politicisation in German debates on immigration

On August 31, 2015, Angela Merkel uttered a phrase that many1 have come to see as defining her 15-year tenure in power: in response to growing numbers of refugees arriving primarily from war-torn Syria and Iraq, the German Chancellor stated that “Germany is a strong country. The motive we’re approaching these things with has to…

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Anger, fear and exasperation among German Muslims after the Hanau attack

Germany has been rocked by one of the worst far-right attacks in its recent history: at around 10pm local time on the evening of Wednesday, February 19, a gunman opened fire on two Shisha bars in the town of Hanau, around 25km from Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt. Racially motivated gun attacks on two hookah establishments…

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Upcoming Turkish elections reverberate in Germany

Turkey will hold parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24 – roughly one and a half years ahead of schedule. Turkish citizens living abroad can already vote at Turkish consulates prior to that date. In Germany, home of the world’s largest diaspora of Turkish origin, roughly 1.4 million Turkish citizens are eligible to cast their…

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Documentary on young German-Syrian couple causes stir in Germany, giving free rein to xenophobic outbursts

For more than two decades, Germany’s public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have jointly operated KiKA, a channel aiming at a young audience aged three to thirteen. The TV channel – whose acronym stands for “children’s channel” – has led a relatively quiet life for most of its existence. For the past two weeks, however, it…

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Reflection on news outlets calling an attack “terrorism” after Finsbury Park

Guardian journalist, Paul Chadwick, responds to concerns about what should be considered terrorism. He said he started calling the incident a terrorist attack early but it was not premature. He says events can be called terrorist attacks if they involve “serious harm to random innocents, a location and/or victims with symbolic resonance, apparent intent to…

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