From “Non-Immigration Country” to “Country of Integration” Transformation of integration discourse in Germany Shigeki Sato (Hosei University/ University of Constance)
[email protected] Paper presented at the 10th meeting of the German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences October 9, 2010 Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan) Abstract This paper aims to illuminate the transformation of integration discourse in Germany by comparing the different forms of discourse of the 1980s and the 2000s. In order to do so, the paper attempts to detect underlying cognitive schemes of boundary between immigrants and natives in the discourse of immigrant integration. In the 1980s, the integration discourse, whether it seeks to return immigrants to their homeland and to preserve homogeneous “national character” or it proposes a peaceful and democratic “multicultural” co-existence to enrich “our society”, commonly assumed the cultural difference between “Germans” and “foreigners” as essential and fixed. In the 2000s, the Integration discourse is mainly concerned with the common norms and values immigrants must share, whether these norms and values are called “Leitkultur” or “constitutional patriotism”. It is now generally agreed that immigrants, including Muslims, have to learn German and accept “our liberal-democratic values” of the constitution to be “a part of Germany”. Thus the boundary between immigrants and “us” is perceived to be more blurred and fluid. But Immigrants are strongly urged to have the “will” to integrate. More offensive calls for integration tend to marginalize or stigmatize immigrants “refusing” to integrate. *Do not cite without author’s permission 1 Deutschland schafft sich nicht ab, Deutschland verändert sich durch Immigration, und das ist gut so.