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Narratives of “Welcome Culture”: The Cultural Politics of Voluntary Aid for Refugees
- Narrative Culture
- Wayne State University Press
- Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2019
- pp. 19-43
- 10.13110/narrcult.6.1.0019
- Article
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Abstract:
Drawing on an ethnographic and discourse-analytic study, this article examines the meaning and function of narrative in the civic engagement of volunteers who provided humanitarian aid to refugees during the migratory movements of 2015. I argue that a group of self-organized volunteers in a German town used diffferent kinds of narrative during their engagement to advance their own views on the migratory movements and on voluntary work with refugees. A collective narrative in terms of a cognitive structure evolved during the event that shaped the relationship between the volunteers and authorities.