Postmigrant Societies - Borders and Boundaries in Plural Democracies

After decades of struggling to accept its status as a country of immigration, Germany has emerged over the past decade as one of the world's most dynamic migration actors - second only to the United States in terms of international immigration. Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, and Eritrea, and more recently millions of refugees from Ukraine, are joining already established immigrant communities, leading to blurring borders and new concepts of national identities on the one hand, and growing racism and right-wing populism on the other. While it has been a long journey to understand that Germany was developing into a country of immigration with multicultural knowledge productions, literature, and migrant voices, the social reality is already going beyond that - transforming Germany into a post-migrant constellation with a whole new terminology, self-description, and edgy pop culture. A ‘Post-migrant’ perspective provides a framework of analysis for social and political transformations that occur after migration has taken place, while migrants struggle to be recognized as legal stakeholders in society. There is puzzling empirical evidence that it is precisely the integration of former immigrants that lead to stronger societal conflicts by fostering hybridization, ambivalence, distribution and recognition gaps in society. Drawing on national surveys and empirical data Dr. Foroutan presented her concept on postmigrant societies and discussed it with Professor Harald Bauder Toronto Metropolitan University, and Doug Sanders, The Globe and Mail.