Areas of Activity I: Politics and Society

Migration Societies under Stress – Germany and Israel

The thematic fields of migration and security are becoming ever more intertwined – both within the public discourse and at a political level. This interdisciplinary academic exchange program explores the question of what is the potential offered by immigration and integration within both societies and what security cultures have formed in each of the two to deal with risks.

Participants
30 BA and MA students of social and administrative studies

Project Content
Germany and Israel have become a new home for many people of different backgrounds over the last decades. Yet whether this is seen as something dangerous or something valuable varies between the two countries. The project takes this difference as its starting point and asks: what security aspects are discussed in connection with migration and integration both here and there? What historical experiences have left their mark on these debates and respective practices? And how does this, in turn, influence the identity of individuals and thus societies as a whole?

Project Working Methods
The participating students at both universities develop questions in preparatory seminars in order to then analyze the points of contact and differences in the two security cultures as well as the historical contexts in both countries during joint seminars and excursions. The starting point here is the question of which resources are available in the two societies for integrating immigrants and how undemocratic tendencies, growing right-wing populism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or even terrorism might endanger these resources.

Project Goals
The participants present their results in papers and presentations at events at both universities. They also generate new networks that extend beyond the academic discourse itself - both among themselves and at meetings with experts in the respective guest country.

Collaborating Partners
Technische Universität Chemnitz
Sapir Academic College Sderot