Department of Germanic Studies

Topic: Refugees in Germany Today

About 1.5 million refugees came to Germany from 2014 to 2017. This became one of the hottest topics and led to the rise of populist parties in Germany and other European countries. Leaving polemics aside, we will look at the history of the "refugee crisis" and related debates in Germany. You will do your own research using social media posts about "Flüchtlinge" and selected transcripts of interviews with more than 150 Syrian refugees in Germany from an ongoing IU research project. This course introduces you to one of the most important debates for Germany in the early 21st century. You will learn and practice basic skills of social media research and discourse analysis. The course will be in German. We will draw on academic books, governmental reports, testimonies by helpers, refugees, and interviews with 150 Syrians in Germany that I and my colleagues have collected. All texts and material will be provided in class or they are available online. We will work with texts in German and English, some of them are available in both languages.