Migration as Crisis? German Migration Discourse at Critical Points of Nation-Building

Abstract

This article enquires how the Federal Republic of Germany has governed migration at critical junctures of German nation-building within a growing European Union. Drawing on the documents on “Einwanderung” (immigration) from the archive of the German Bundestag from 1949 until 2022, and on secondary literature and media representations of (forced) migration, migrants, and refugees, this article traces different depictions of migration in German political discourse at critical moments of German nation-building to answer the question: Which role does the narrative of “migration as crisis” play for the German nation-building project? I argue that to answer this question, it is necessary to understand whether an incoming migrant group is considered beneficial or dangerous (“critical”) for the hegemonic articulations of an imagined German national identity.