Narratives of “Welcome Culture”: The Cultural Politics of Voluntary Aid for Refugees

Sutter, Ove

doi:10.13110/narrcult.6.1.0019

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Citizens make sense of political processes and structures, interpret, modify and reproduce formal political narratives (Groth, 2019). They construct political narratives of their own in a co‐construction process, interpreting and re‐arranging pieces of official stories through their own filter and experiences (Seabrooke and Thomsen, 2016; Sutter, 2019). Anecdotes and references to personal experiences are important in the process because ‘the exchange of anecdotes in mini‐publics helps people identify their personal interests and views, clarify wider points or bring new aspects of an issue into consideration’ (Boswell, 2013: 625).…”

Section: Narratives As a Conceptual Tool To Understand How European C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrating Europe: (Re‐)constructed and Contested Visions of the European Project in Citizens' Discourse

Beaudonnet

Belot

Caune

et al. 2022

J of Common Market Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Changes in public opinion and civil society over the last decade have shown that citizens, particularly in old EU Member States, have developed more complex attitudes towards European integration. While the European project was previously generally described as a teleological depoliticized project, aiming at building peace and comforting growth, different competing visions of the European project are nowadays acknowledged and surface among the public on occasions, like referendums or treaty negotiations. While EU official narratives are documented by studies on the European institutions or the visions of leaders and parties, their empirical analysis at the citizens' level is still fragmented. Using focus group data in four countries (France, Portugal, Italy and Belgium) and three social groups (21 group interviews), we provide a comparative qualitative answer to how citizens envision European integration. Our results show that, first, official narratives do not fail to reach citizens, but they are also loosened, contested, and do not systematically produce a sense of common belonging. Second, they highlight the importance of socio-economic contexts, as well as national and personal experience in the re-appropriation of these narratives.

show abstract

Section: Narratives As a Conceptual Tool To Understand How European C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrating Europe: (Re‐)constructed and Contested Visions of the European Project in Citizens' Discourse

Beaudonnet

Belot

Caune

et al. 2022

J of Common Market Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Whereas research with the Belgian initiatives was conducted between 2017 and early 2019 onwards, the examples observed in Germany date back to the migration summer in 2015 and shortly thereafter. Retrospectively, this peculiar context was characterised by a distinctively welcoming attitude towards asylum seekers, being discussed as a German ‘Welcome Culture’ in public and academic accounts (Fleischmann and Steinhilper, 2017; Hamann and Karakayali, 2016; Sutter, 2019). The catchphrase depicted both the extraordinary level of civic engagement and the relatively appreciative stance of the German government towards the newly emerging grassroots initiatives (Fleischmann, 2019).…”

Section: Grassroots Temporal Dilemmas: ‘Searching Solutions To Yestermentioning

confidence: 99%

Impossible Futures? The Ambivalent Temporalities of Grassroots Humanitarian Action

Vandevoordt

Fleischmann

2020

Critical Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While humanitarian action is often criticised for its focus on immediate needs in the present, social movements and political activists are usually thought to work towards a different future. With this article, we aim to complicate these clear-cut distinctions. We investigate how grassroots initiatives supporting migrants navigate different temporalities, relating their actions both to the present and to the future. These interwoven temporalities, however, come with ambivalent political effects. Drawing on cases from Belgium and Germany, we show how they range from potentially shrinking grassroots’ power to intervene to opening windows of political possibility. On the one hand, we illustrate how grassroots initiatives in Belgium feel stuck in a temporal dilemma, when they are forced to focus on the present. On the other hand, initiatives in Belgium and Germany have nonetheless engaged in strategies of future-making, trying to bring about more structural changes to migrants’ living conditions.

show abstract

“…In a nutshell, this vague catchphrase denoted a generally positive or supportive attitude towards the reception of asylum seekers among German citizens (cf. Hamann & Karakayali 2016;Fleischmann & Steinhilper 2017;Karakayali 2017;Sutter 2019). It presented German society as being characterized by a remarkable level of open-mindedness, hospitality and compassion for those in search of refuge and asylum.…”

Section: The Notion Of a 'Welcome Culture' And Its Mobilizing Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This unprecedented outburst of compassion for newly arrived migrants made history as a German "welcome culture" or a "summer of welcome" (cf. Hamann & Karakayali 2016;Karakayali 2017Karakayali , 2019Sutter 2019). My interlocutor Maria Papadopoulos 1 , a volunteer supporting refugees, described in vivid terms the spirit of this exceptional moment:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Solidarity

Fleischmann¹

2020

Kultur Und Soziale Praxis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the summer of 2015, an extraordinary number of German residents felt an urge to provide help to refugees. Doing good, however, is not as simple and straightforward as it might appear. Practices of solidarity are intertwined with questions of power. They are situated, relative and contested, unfolding in an ambivalent space between humanitarianism and political activism. This ethnographic account of the German »welcome culture« provides insights into the contested practices, imaginaries, interests and politics of refugee solidarity. Drawing on works from critical migration studies to social anthropology, Larissa Fleischmann develops an empirically grounded understanding of solidarity in migration societies.

show abstract

Narratives of “Welcome Culture”: The Cultural Politics of Voluntary Aid for Refugees

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Narrating Europe: (Re‐)constructed and Contested Visions of the European Project in Citizens' Discourse

Narrating Europe: (Re‐)constructed and Contested Visions of the European Project in Citizens' Discourse

Impossible Futures? The Ambivalent Temporalities of Grassroots Humanitarian Action

Contested Solidarity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About