Tag Archives: refugee movement

Protest against deportation and migration defense agreements

On 11/11/2017 there will be a bus demo to several African embassies and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). The background to this is the increasingly brutal Valetta Process, with which the EU not only wants to close the flight and migration routes from African countries, but also to massively force deportations from Europe. We must take to the streets against this policy – immediately, loudly and with many! Continue reading →

From subject back to object?

Whether in France or among left-wing activists in India, the world is enthusiastic about Germany. The self-profiling as “welcome world champion” and “refugee helper” has above all one effect: It drowns out the tightening of laws and the repression policy against migrants as well as the hate speech and violent attacks of “concerned citizens”. Government policies and the right have shifted the public discourse on migration and asylum to the right, trampling everything that refugee and migration protests have built, reformulated, re-set, fought for in recent years. Read more

Beyond #refugeeswelcome: The Spectre of Racist Violence and Lessons from Refugee Resistance in Germany

This text by Joshua Kwesi Aikins and Daniel Bendix reframes the current debate about refugees in Germany by contrasting Germany’s recent history of racist violence and limitations of asylum laws with the resistance and agency of refugee movements across Germany. Both provide an important lens to re-examine the simultaneous heralding of “welcome culture”, a sharp rise in arson attacks on asylum centers and the current legislative roll-back of refugee rights in Germany. In bringing these perspectives together the text offers a corrective of both the current image of Germany as a welcoming champion of refugee rights and the problematic notion of refugees as objects of German policies and civil society “help” rather than subjects with a long history of resistance in Germany. Read more

Distant headaches over welcome world champions and other confusions

Chandra-Milena Danielzik argues that the current mainstream discourse in the FRG aka the self-profiling as ‘refugee supporter’ and as ‘welcome culture winner’ (co-)enables the legitimization of repressive asylum and migration policies. It also asks about failures of the German, White Left in recent years and to what extent today’s reactions are (in)adequate. Continue reading →

UNITED NEIGHBOURS // Right to stay and housing for all!

This Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, a demonstration will take place at 3 p.m. starting at Spreewaldplatz/Ohlauerstraße to bring together the demands of protesting refugees in Berlin and the protests against rent increases and evictions. More information can be found at the Bündnis Zwangsräumung Verhindern or on f-book. The magazine analyse & kritik also published a freely accessible article on the background of the demonstration.

Refugee Policy in Germany: “First Trickery, Then Starvation”

For 11 days now, the Berlin Senate, with the help of a large police force, has been starving and thirsting refugee activists on the roof of a hostel for refugees in Gürtelstrasse. Doctors who warn of the serious consequences of dehydration and want to bring water are not allowed through. Press is not allowed to the protesters. The few people who show solidarity are harassed and their protest against the inhumane actions of politics and police is made impossible. Go here to the blog and Twitter for information including press reviews and ways to support.

 

Refugee women’s group on tour across Germany: interim results

Since 14.07.2014, the feminist group ‘Women in Exile & Friends’ has been traveling from Nuremberg to Berlin with Heinz Ratz’s escape ship project. With a journey on rafts, they draw attention to the situation of refugee women and children and, as part of an accompanying program in shelters for asylum seekers, talk to the residents about their concerns and problems. Now they are taking stock. Continue reading →

Forced eviction of the school occupied by refugees in Kreuzberg

According to media reports and statements by the district councilor Hans Panhoff (Bündnis 90/GRÜNE), a forced eviction of the occupied Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule, which has served refugees for one and a half years as a refuge and center of the common struggle against compulsory residence, placement in camps, deportations, etc., is imminent. For the protest against this, here is a mobilization video.