We will begin our encounter with a panoramic look at the century of migration: societal debates of the 21st century and discussions about how we will live together in the future are increasingly determined by questions of migration, escape, the border regime, hospitality, and the right-wing mobilization. While in this setting the conservative mainstream constantly marks migrants and refugees directly or indirectly as a problem against which society must either choose to protect itself or to “integrate,” at the launch of Welcome2Stay we will turn this perspective on its head. The movements of migration place the specifically western view of the world in question. And this is no new phenomenon. Our aim is to allow refugees, migrants, solidarity initiatives and politically engaged persons to talk with one another and to explore the question together as to how a political actor and a social force could emerge and grow that are capable of taking a stand against both the neoliberal social austerity and the right-wing campaign of anxiety and fear. In the streets, in the shelters, and in many places, practical efforts can be found to make a good life possible for all. But this will only be comprehensive and encompass all of society when a break is made with both the unsocial politics of cuts and the undemocratic, authoritarian European crisis management. – And not least with a radical questioning of western-national self-understanding and modes of life.
With: Nasim Lomani (Diktyo / Hotel City Plaza Athen), Manuela Bojadzijev (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg) – Tanja van de Loo (Recht auf Stadt – never mind the papers, Hamburg) – Turgay Ulu (Author, O-Platz Berlin Refugee Movement) - Moderation: Juliane Nagel (LinXXnet Sachsen)