Heimat means home. Discover our Heimat-Builder,
images of home, and build your own image of home.
Who is “we”? Who makes the decisions about this?
And how do we want to shape society together?
Heimat means home. Discover our Heimat-Builder, images of home, and build your own image of home.
“Flood of refugees,” “inflow,” “wave of refugees”—these are metaphors used to describe refugees entering the country. They give the impression of a natural phenomenon that is on its way to Germany or is flooding the country. People and their individual fates thus become an anonymous, threatening mass. It is also suggested that politics are helpless in the face of a force of nature; this puts the responsibility for structural problems or for problems in the asylum policies on those seeking protection when they are admitted to Germany. It would be more appropriate to refer to a specific number or to make comparisons or to speak of forced migration.
(based on: Glossar der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher)
“Refugee crisis” is a frequently used catchphrase in the context of the asylum discourse in 2015–16. It implies that there is a crisis because of the refugees. This must be challenged:
Compared to the sixty million people worldwide who were refugees in 2015, and a population of 82 million, the almost one million people who came to Germany is not all that much. Also, the term “refugee crisis” puts the responsibility on the refugees instead of seeking the causes of the problems, for example, the failure of German politics and structures. Accordingly, one could also speak of a crisis in the asylum policies or, using a more neutral term, of forced migration or refugee movements.
(based on: Glossar der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher)
