Cultures of unwelcome: Understanding the everyday histories of exclusionary practices – A view from across the German border
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Author | Annika Lems |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13019 |
72
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International Migration. 2023;61:72–86.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
In the summer of 2015, as the public beca me aware of the dire situation of the hundreds of thousan ds of refugees
trying to ma ke their way to Europe, the Ge rman Chancellor Angel a Merkel famously took t he decision to embark
on an open- door policy that would enab le asylum seekers to ente r the country safely. Effe ctively suspending the
Dublin regulation accor ding to which the first EU member state refugees entered would have been responsib le for
handling the ir asylum cases, migrants travelli ng along the Balk an route were permi tted to cross bord ers to enter
Germany without police che cks. Propelled by a spirit of historical reparation and the mantra of wir schaffen das (we
Received: 6 June 2 021
|
Revised: 1 March 20 22
|
Accepted: 11 April 20 22
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13019
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Cultures of unwelcome: Understanding the
everyday histories of exclusionary practices – A
view from across the German border
Annika Lems
© 2022 The Auth ors. International Migration published by John W iley & Sons Ltd on behalf o f International Or ganization for
Migration.
Max Planck Ins titute for Social
Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
Correspondence
Annika Lems , Max Planck Instit ute for Social
Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany.
Email: lems@eth.mpg.de
Funding information
Max- Planck- Gesellschaft
Abstract
This art icle sheds light on the socio- cultural dy namics
Merkel's ope n- door poli cy set in motion in Austria . Based
on t he Anti- Merkel discourses that came to infiltrate
Austrian mainstream politics, it will show h ow the sum-
mer of displacements 2015 led to a pronoun ced move to
the right. While many comment ators have tended to link
the post- 2015 triumph of react ionary parties to the sense
of crisis caus ed by the few months the European Union
opened its borders to asylum seekers, the article demon -
strates that we need to be mo re careful in our a nalyses of
the roots of excl usion. By zooming in on the eve rydayness
of anti- cos mopolitan practices in a n Austrian mountain
community, it ar gues that if we are to understand the cur-
rent backlash against liberal and cosmopolitan ideas we
need to pay at tention to genealogies of excl usionary prac-
tices, or ‘cultures of unwelcom e’.
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Crea tive Commons Attr ibution License, w hich permits use , distribution an d
reproduct ion in any medium, pro vided the origina l work is properly cit ed.
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