Aleksandra Lewicki

Acts and practices of citizenship: Muslim women's activism in the UK

ABSTRACT Drawing on the growing literature on Muslim women’s activism, this paper explores grammars of action that frame political mobilizations of Muslim women in the UK. By taking a broad view of political activism, we identify acts and practices of citizenship through which Muslim women activists engage with, reinterpret and challenge social norms. The article critically engages with dominant readings of post-migration minorities’ political mobilization through the lens of citizenship regimes and draws attention to more processual and agency-centred perspectives on citizenship. We focus on two salient themes that Bristol-based Muslim activists were concerned with: mobilizing against violence against women, manifested in the anti-FGM campaign by Integrate Bristol, and attempts to re-negotiate the terms of participation in religious spaces, manifested in claims for more inclusive mosques. In both instances, mobilization was not confined to the local community or national level, but supported by and embedded in related transnational struggles.

Polish migration within Europe: mobility, transnationalism and integration

Polish migration within Europe is by now a well-researched field, with a growing number of scholars exploring a variety of its features across different disciplines and geographic locations. A decade on from Poland’s EU accession and the ensuing free mobility which led to large-scale migration, we seek to take stock of directions and developments in the field of research on Polish intra-European migration. Since 2004, much research has examined the reasons for the large scale of Polish migration post-2004; explored individual strategies of specific migrant sub-groups; as well as investigated the impact of sudden large-scale inflows on host societies. More recently, a shift has occurred in the academic focus, which has led to a greater emphasis on the impacts of migration experiences on perceptions and attitudes at the individual level, for migrants, and a growing interest in processes of change that shape social relations in the sending society. This recent scholarship focuses on more established Polish post-migration communities in Western Europe, including this population’s continuing mobility, and acknowledges the influence of transnational ties and of integration – within both sending and receiving contexts. With this Special Issue, we seek to pay tribute to this on-going turn to processes of transnationalism and integration, and thus explore how Polish post-accession migrants straddle transnational ties with Poland and integration processes in a variety of European countries of settlement. We locate these explorations in the context of changing perspectives on mobility, transnationalism and settlement among Polish intra-European migrants, which are reflective of and contribute to conceptual debates about the nature and extent of interactions between integration and transnationalism. Two analytical dimensions of the present Polish intra-European migration flows are apparent in the collection of articles, that of proximity and of volume. We return to these as conceptual lenses below. A decade on from Poland’s accession to the EU, it has become evident that many Polish EU citizens have come to stay (Drinkwater & Garapich, 2015; Okólski & Salt, 2014; White, 2010; White & Ryan, 2008). The fact that migration inflows declined between 2008 and 2010, but only few Polish migrants returned as a result of the financial crisis in Europe, is an important indicator of this trend. Meanwhile the literature on Polish migration in the post-accession period has often been framed in relation to ideas of ‘liquid migration’ (Engbersen, Snel, & De Boom, 2010). This idea, borrowing from Bauman’s notions of ‘liquid modernity’ was supposed to reflect the nature of new Polish migration in a context of free mobility. This contexts still exists, and there is a proportion of Polish migration which indeed remains circular and can hence be seen as ‘liquid’, however, this scenario applies less and less to many Polish EU citizens who have settled across different geographic contexts in Europe. In some instances, even circular migration becomes permanent, and thereby less liquid, but instead an instance of ritualized transnational mobility. For migrants who settle, the simultaneity of integration and sustained transnational ties is often also the norm, which is why this Special Issue focuses on the parallel processes of mobility and settlement by bringing together a collection of articles that combine the analytical lens of the literature on transnationalism with the literature on integration. The articles in this Special Issue analyze the different types of interactions of

‘The dead are coming’: acts of citizenship at Europe’s borders

Abstract This article combines the research agenda of the acts of citizenship literature with reflections on emancipatory theatre. I examine the Centre for Political Beauty’s activity-based artwork ‘The dead are coming’ which problematizes the cruelties of the European border regime in symbolically charged spaces in the German public. Focusing particularly on the roles available to ‘actors’ and ‘spectators’, and the directionality of the message conveyed through the artwork, I examine how the performance subverts the ‘sites’ and ‘scales’ of citizenship. My analysis indicates that the artwork’s subversive potential emerges not only from the political vision conveyed by the artist collective, but also from the way in which others become involved in the performance. Acts of political beauty thus most extensively challenge instituted citizenship’s orientalist anchoring, reverse status-based role allocations and subvert the structural violence of borders when the performance enables the enactment of novel forms of political agency and solidarity.

Moving citizens: citizenship practices among Polish migrants in Norway and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT Following post-EU-accession migration, Poles currently form the largest group of foreign nationals in Norway and the second largest group of foreign born residents in the United Kingdom. Given the considerable volume of new arrivals, there is a growing literature on Polish migration to both countries; however, there is little comparative research on Polish migration across different European settings. By exploring how Polish migrants reflect on the possibilities of settlement or return, this paper comparatively examines the effects that permanent and ‘normalised’ mobility has on Polish migrants’ self-perception as citizens in four different cities. In addition to classic citizenship studies, which highlight the influence of a nation-state based institutionalised citizenship regime, we find that transnational exchanges, local provisions and inter-personal relationships shape Polish migrants’ practices of citizenship. The resulting understanding of integration is processual and sees integration as constituted by negotiated transnational balancing acts that respond to (and sometimes contradict) cultural, economic and political demands and commitments. The research is based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a total of 80 respondents, conducted in two British and two Norwegian cities that experienced significant Polish immigration, Oslo, Bergen, Bristol and Sheffield.

Das Christentum als kulturelle Wiege der Demokratie und Gleichbehandlung

burtstag von Erhard Eppler. Schriftenreihe der Evangelischen Akademie Bad Boll, Bad Boll. Lehmann, Rolf 2011: Der Traum von einer Bürgergesellschaft ganzheitliche Verantwortung in einer geschwisterlichen Kultur der Nächsten, Stuttgart. Nussbaum, Martha 2014: Philosophie der Menschenrechte, Marburg. Rauschenbach, Thomas/Müller, Siegfried (Hrsg.) 1988: Das Soziale Ehrenamt. Nützliche Arbeit zum Nulltarif. Weinheim 1988. Rilling, Klaus et al. 2006: Armut lässt sich überwinden – Herausforderung für eine nachhaltige Sozialpolitik. Fachpolitischer Gesprächskreis Soziales im SPD-Kreisverband Reutlingen, Reutlingen. Rosanvallon, Pierre 2011: Verbundenheit schaffen – Vergemeinschaftung fördern, in: Stuttgarter Zeitung vom 19. Dezember 2011, Stuttgart. Samariterstiftung Nürtingen/Stiftung Liebenau (Hrsg.) 2008: Das Zusammenspiel von hauptamtlicher Arbeit und Bürgerengagement, Nürtingen. Schröder, Wolfgang 2012: Vorsorge und Inklusion. Wie finden Sozialpolitik und Gesellschaft zusammen, Berlin. Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Grundwertekommission 2010: An den Grenzen des Wachstums – Neuer Fortschritt ist möglich, Berlin. Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.) 2012: Gerechtigkeit und Barmherzigkeit. Anstöße und Materialien für eine zukunftsfähige sozialdemokratische Sozialpolitik, Stuttgart.

The blind spots of liberal citizenship and integration policy

ABSTRACT Governments across Europe have stepped up their efforts to manage social diversity politically, often specifically targeting Muslim populations. Lewicki interrogates the policy tools that the British and German governments deploy to ‘integrate’ an increasingly stigmatized and racialized population, zooming in on whether and how they problematize patterns of inequality. Complicating the ‘one country, one citizenship’ rationale of the citizenship regime literature that assumes a one-dimensional interpretation of history, cultural identity, political institutions or legal norms, she points to four salient liberal citizenship discourses that currently frame policies of diversity management. These are civic republicanism, multiculturalism, civic universalism and cosmopolitanism. Her analysis demonstrates that all four liberal citizenship discourses have blind spots when it comes to problematizing structural hierarchies and the logics of racism. Over the last two decades, liberal citizenship and integration policy frameworks have thus contributed to the retention of binary distinctions between superior citizens and inferior Others, distinctions that can now easily be exacerbated and used for mobilization by right-wing populist movements.

Paradoxien des kirchlichen Minderheitenschutzes: Diskriminierung im Arbeitsrecht kirchlicher Einrichtungen

Kirchliches soziales Engagement befindet sich in einem Spannungsfeld im Bereich des Minderheitenschutzes. Zum einen vertreten die Kirchen das Gebot der christlichen Nachstenliebe, haben sich als Wohlfahrtstrager seit jeher fur die Belange von Einwanderern verdient gemacht, und unterstutzen prinzipiell den Diskriminierungsschutz durch das Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG). Zum anderen wollen sie keine Beschrankung ihres Sendungsauftrags in ihren semi-offentlichen Einrichtungen hinnehmen. Dadurch besteht eine in Europa einmalige und paradoxe Rechtslage: Das AGG, dessen Grundintention der Schutz von Minderheiten vor Diskriminierung ist, schutzt im Bereich Religion gegenwartig ausdrucklich das Recht der religiosen Mehrheit, in kirchlichen Dienstverhaltnissen – etwa aufgrund der religiosen oder sexuellen Ausrichtung – zu diskriminieren.

Institutionelle Diskriminierung: Rechtliche Möglichkeiten in Deutschland und Großbritannien

Der Parlamentarische Untersuchungsausschuss, der sich mit dem Versagen der Sicherheitsbehorden bei den Ermittlungen zur Mordserie des Nationalsozialistischen Untergrunds (NSU) befasst hat, hat eine breitere offentliche Diskussion uber das Phanomen der institutionellen Diskriminierung entfacht. Auch wenn der Untersuchungsausschuss selbst sich nicht dazu durchringen konnte, institutionelle Diskriminierung zu diagnostizieren (vgl. Lewicki 2014b), hat sein umfassender Bericht doch die Konturen des Phanomens umfassend beschrieben (vgl. Deutscher Bundestag 2014). Explizit fokussierte sich der Untersuchungsausschuss auf direkte Diskriminierung, die darin besteht, dass Personen aufgrund bestimmter Merkmale, wie zum Beispiel ihrer vermeintlichen oder tatsachlichen Religion, ethnischen Zugehorigkeit, ihres Geschlechts, ihres Alters, ihrer sexuellen Orientierung, einer Behinderung oder ihrer Hautfarbe, eine nachteilige Behandlung erfahren.

Weil ihre Kultur so ist… : Narrative des antimuslimischen Rassismus

refracted through material cultures at their point of disposal’ (176). As formal and informal collectors bring waste to the site, ‘scratchers’ or scavengers scramble to acquire the most valuable items. The tensest scrambling occurs when the garbage arrives from the city’s most affluent neighbourhoods, which produce the best rubbish. Garbage from international hotels and the African Union headquarters is also highly sought after. Scratchers knowwhat is coming based on the colours and types of the trucks that deliver it and by who drives them. They search for things that they can use for themselves or resell: clothes and shoes that can be resold at the Mercato, or plastic bags, bottles or metals that are recycled. The dump is a microcosm of social inequality and the effects of global economic crisis. Those who have worked there for years claim that the ‘best’ rubbish seems to be syphoned off at some unsecured collection point prior to arrival. Competition for the best goods is getting fiercer as more migrants flood the city and oldtimers work to block access by these new ‘interlopers’. Knowles’s journey takes us into the hidden or purposefully ignored corners where globalization takes place. We meet actors who are the usual poster children for accounts of globalization and others whose stories have been left untold. We enter the familiar terrains of offices, restaurants and company housing, but also smell and feel the almost unbreathable air in the factory where flip-flops are made and the garbage dump where they are disposed of. Her account fills our senses with the everyday lived experience of the global, making its cost and benefits and winners and losers come to life. At the end of the day, concludes Knowles, many people live precarious lives on the edge while a few enjoy greater advantages. ‘Globalization’ she says, ‘needs to be re-examined for the opportunities to maneuvre its instabilities might provide for the mass of people worldwide who struggle in their own ways to navigate it.’

The German Equal Treatment Act: Discrimination on Grounds of Religion

This chapter traces the creation of the first German anti-discrimination law, passed in 2006. I sketch Germany’s historical experiences with equal treatment and show how civic republican and civic universal arguments were salient in the negotiation of the new law. The chapter indicates that the General Equal Treatment Act reflects an inconsequential interpretation and application of human rights standards to what appear as ‘familiar’ and ‘unfamiliar’ religious groups. As a result, the legislation and its enforcement agency prioritize the religious majority’s interest to discriminate over minority rights to non-discrimination; the German Christian Churches position as the main health care provider and their reservations towards members of minority faith groups create particular barriers for Muslims to realize their rights to economic, cultural and political parity of participation.