Hypersexuality and Headscarves: Race, Sex, and Citizenship in the New Germany

Prologue

1 Prologue 1 Prologue As the ’68 generation reaches retirement age, it becomes ever more apparent that Europe needs immigration to support its aging population, but unemployment rates are nearly 50 percent for so-called immigrant youth, many of whom were born in Europe. In this context, Germany and Berlin are not exceptional, but exemplary sites for an investigation of the future of Europe and the future of global noncitizens, particularly when one thinks of this future in relation to the aftermath of socialism and the post-9/11, intensified turn against Islam. In 1989, street protesters in East Germany made public claims that the state be held accountable to their desire, asserting Wir sind das Volk (We are the people). This call for democratic accountability, however, turned into nationalist fervor, expressed in the subsequent chant Wir sind ein Volk (We are one people); the emphasis shifted from democratization to the two Germanys’ “re”unification1 as the path toward social and economic prosperity. From the first moment of flagwaving , it was already clear who was to be included in that “we,” even if there continued to be hierarchical differentiations between West and East Germans and between Western and Eastern Europeans. Even so, just prior to the Wall’s fall, a pluralistic future seemed possible, at least from the perspective of antiracist activists in West Berlin. Multiculturalism, even if a problematic concept, was not yet a tainted term. Was It a Peaceful Revolution? Many scholars have described 1989 in terms of a “peaceful revolution.”2 The affirmation of this claim, however, depends on whose lives are taken into account . This assertion is too centered on the experiences of das Volk (the ethnonational community) and not enough on the noncitizen, including those who 2 Prologue have German passports but whose complexion leads analysts and the normative public alike to see them as foreign, or not to see them at all. Real Citizenship Reform in 2000? Just over ten years after the Wall fell, on January 1, 2000, the German parliament instituted a new legal order under which the children of those who had lived in Germany for at least eight years with a legally recognized permanent resident status could legally become German citizens without having to naturalize . Most would still have to choose one country to which to belong by age twenty-three, for example, if their parents held Turkish citizenship. Up until that point the only way that children of Turkish descent or Turkish parentage could become citizens was to submit to the discretionary power of local German bureaucrats, who would decide whether they fulfilled the requirements for formal German belonging. After 2000, under Social Democratic and Green Party leadership, a more universal citizenship seemed possible. But there were impossibilities inherent in these new proclamations, and, at best, they have led to exclusionary incorporation for noncitizens. In local communities , for example, Germany has developed a parallel form of not-quitedemocratic accountability called Ausländer Beirate (foreigner advisory councils) to represent the interests of foreign residents to elected officials in local government . I sat on such a council in 1999–2000, during one year of my research, in the so-called immigrant neighborhood of Kreuzberg3 in Berlin as a representative of the local Anti-Racism Initiative. I was not persuaded of the efficacy of these institutions other than as an official version of exclusionary incorporation: the presence of noncitizens is formally recognized, but there is no chance of equal participation. These councils are purely advisory. Remembering the Wall’s Fall: Anti-Racism, Anti-Anti-Semitism, and Noncitizenship The fall of the Berlin Wall must be considered in relation to the massive outpouring of violence against noncitizens and those thought to be non-Germans. Returning to Berlin in the unusually cold winter of 2010, I wanted to follow up on the contemporary relevance of the fall of the Wall to the politics of noncitizenship. It was in this context that I met with anti-racism and antianti -Semitism activist Anetta Kahane. Just at the end of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), she became the Ausländerbeauftragte (foreigner 3 Prologue representative) for East Berlin, and in 1991 she founded the Regionale Arbeits­ stelle für Ausländerfragen, Jugendarbeit und Schule (Regional Center for Foreigner Questions, Youth Work, and Schools) and in 1998 the Amadeu Antonio Stift­ ung (Amadeu Antonio Foundation). Amadeu Antonio Kiowa was...