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The Myth of Apolitical Volunteering for Refugees: German Welcome Culture and a New Dispositif of Helping

Author

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  • Larissa Fleischmann

    (Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Konstanz, Germany)

  • Elias Steinhilper

    (Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy)

Abstract

During the so-called “refugee crisis”, the notion of an unparalleled German hospitality toward asylum seekers circulated within the (inter)national public sphere, often encapsulated by the blurry buzzword “Welcome Culture”. In this article, we scrutinize these developments and suggest that the image of the so-called “crisis” has activated an unprecedented number of German citizens to engage in practices of “apolitical” helping. We argue that this trend has contributed to the emergence of what we term a new dispositif of helping, which embeds refugee solidarity in humanitarian parameters and often avoids an explicit political, spatial, and historical contextualization. This shift has activated individuals from the socio-political centre of society, well beyond the previously committed radical-left, antiracist, and faith-based groups. However, we aim to unmask forms of “apolitical” volunteering for refugees as a powerful myth : the new dispositif of helping comes with ambivalent and contradictory effects that range from forms of antipolitics to transformative political possibilities within the European border regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Larissa Fleischmann & Elias Steinhilper, 2017. "The Myth of Apolitical Volunteering for Refugees: German Welcome Culture and a New Dispositif of Helping," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 17-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:17-27
    DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i3.945
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Walter J. Nicholls, 2008. "The Urban Question Revisited: The Importance of Cities for Social Movements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 841-859, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sophia Schmid, 2019. "Taking Care of the Other: Visions of a Caring Integration in Female Refugee Support Work," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 118-127.
    2. Larissa Fleischmann, 2019. "Making Volunteering with Refugees Governable: The Contested Role of ‘Civil Society’ in the German Welcome Culture," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 64-73.
    3. Verena Schmid & Adalbert Evers & Georg Mildenberger, 2019. "More or Less Political: Findings on a Central Feature of Local Engagement for Refugees in Germany," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 165-175.
    4. Robert Larruina & Kees Boersma & Elena Ponzoni, 2019. "Responding to the Dutch Asylum Crisis: Implications for Collaborative Work between Civil Society and Governmental Organizations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 53-63.
    5. Robin Vandevoordt & Gert Verschraegen, 2019. "The European Refugee Controversy: Civil Solidarity, Cultural Imaginaries and Political Change," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 48-52.
    6. Inka Stock, 2019. "Buddy Schemes between Refugees and Volunteers in Germany: Transformative Potential in an Unequal Relationship?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 128-138.

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