Abstract
The German chapter by Susi Meret and Walther Diener discusses collective mobilizations and resistance movements started by non-status refugees in Germany protesting stricter asylum and migration laws, the lack of basic freedoms and rights. The emergence and activities of these groups demonstrate the rise of politicization where refugees with(out) status are key actors building awareness about their marginalization and rightlessness. Germany is in this sense paradigmatic: Refugee-led mobilizations (e.g. Lampedusa in Hamburg, the Berlin Refugee Strike Movement) have taken place in several major cities particularly in 2012–2015. We argue that contemporary refugee struggles feature significant practices of political subjectivation, self-organization and empowerment that display similarities across Germany. This chapter focuses on the specific urban (activist) contexts of Hamburg and Berlin and on the ways mobilization strategies have been “transformed” by and with self-organized refugees.
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Notes
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A recent initiative is the so-called Hamburg Urban Citizenship Card. It was launched during the anti-G20 summit event, on 2 July 2017. Residents, activists and supporters temporarily occupied the green spot Grüner Jäger in St. Pauli to debate asylum, migration, urban citizenship and rights for all. The park was registered as a congregation where the “authority” of the “Free and Solidarity City Hamburg” issued the Hamburg Urban Citizenship Card, designed with a logo, a seal and a photograph and details of the card owner. See http://urban-citizenship-hamburg.rechtaufstadt.net/
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The Refugee Radio Network project was to a large extent kindled by this experience and motivation to be refugees organizing their own media outlets. See http://www.refugeeradionetwork.net/projekt.html
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On 1 May 2014, LiHH and Hamburg activists and supporters briefly occupied an empty public building (a former primary school) placed in Laeiszstrasse 12, St. Pauli. The plan was to establish a Refugee Welcome House, functioning both as an info point and as a sleeping place for those still without a place to stay in Hamburg. The squatters were evacuated by police soon after. LiHH and other activists continued for some days to hold public meetings in the schoolyard, but abandoned the project once it became clear that the Hamburg Senate would never let them in.
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Interviews
Ali Ahmet, conversations in November 2017.
Asuquo Udo, interviews in Hamburg in February 2014 and April 2015.
Napuli Paul Langa, interview in Rome, May 2017; conversations in Aalborg, March 2017.
Internet Sites
Berlin Besetzt http://berlin-besetzt.de/#!id=687
Initiativen Esso Häuser. Wir sind Kein Objekt, Hamburg http://www.initiative-esso-haeuser.de/index.html
International Conference of Refugees and Migrants, Hamburg, February 2016. http://refugeeconference.blogsport.eu/files/2016/02/program-overview_final_correct.pdf
Kotti & Co, Berlin https://kottiundco.net/english
Lampedusa in Hamburg http://lampedusa-in-hamburg.org/
Napuli speaks at the UN conference on Migration https://vimeo.com/80632864
Oranienplatz refugees’ site, Berlin https://oplatz.net/
Pressekonferenz der Flüchtlinge in der Ohlauer Straße, 27.06.2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yilF-UWoICY
Recht auf Stadt – Never Mind the Papers, Hamburg https://nevermindthepapers.noblogs.org/about/
Recht auf Stadt, Hamburg http://rechtaufstadt.net/about.html
Rote Flora, Hamburg https://rote-flora.de/
The Refugee Radio Network, Hamburg http://www.refugeeradionetwork.net/projekt.html
World Refugee Let Fear Go Tour, Berlin https://www.facebook.com/wrlfg/
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Meret, S., Diener, W. (2019). We Are Still Here and Staying! Refugee-Led Mobilizations and Their Struggles for Rights in Germany. In: Siim, B., Krasteva, A., Saarinen, A. (eds) Citizens’ Activism and Solidarity Movements. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76183-1_6
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