The Condition of Conditional Citizens

This quote from Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami aimed at describing her experience as a Moroccan-born American citizen applies though to any other non-local conditions (including and particularly in Germany), both from the point of view of their contribution to the overall society than to the limitations and resent they experience on a daily basis:

´Immigrants continue to contribute to America in a million different ways, from growing the food on its tables to innovating the technologies its citizens use every day. Some are exceptional in their fields, while others work in the fields, doing jobs that few nations are willing to take because of their low wages. Whether documented or undocumented, immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native-born citizens. But whenever on offense, particularly a violent offense, involves immigrants, the entire project of immigration is called into question. The problem is, the nativists may say, they don´t assimilate´.

One can write novels and memoirs about how does it feel to carry the weight of your passport on your shoulder, every second of your immigrant life. No matter how educated and fluent you may be in the language, most often than not your identity and allegiance will be questioned, either by your colleagues or the neighbour next door, curious why strange sounds are heard from the other side of your door.

I may allow myself to describe this eternal condition as a Non-belonging.

About the National Writer

 

A round up of the different aspects related to the inclusion of literature and the writer as part of the national identity, La fabrique de l´écrivain national by Anne-Marie Thiesse can be used as a support handbook for the various cultural identity processes from the 18th century onwards.

Literature and its creators, the writers, are an important part of the re-writing, reconstruction and (re)creation of identity narratives. Either in France or the USA, in the Middle East or Africa, the writer is assigned an institutional role in the identity building process. A role which means not only being assigned a prestigious role and the incumbend priviledges but equally restrictions and limitations. Once the writer is bold enough to touch upon - even with the softest critical take required by the intellectual status itself, the national narrative is not only ready to expell him or her, but also to accuse him or her of treason. Which means often the expelling from the national historical narrative. 

The book is rich in arguments and situations as well as in information that help to trace long-take historical processes. However, the focus is rather on the chronological mapping of the phenomenon than on the critical evaluation. Equally, it does not refer extensively on the eventual relationship between what does it mean being a writer with the intellectual status, particularly as a critical take on contemporary facts - Dreyfus case, anyone.

Therefore, it contributes to the debate by the systematic outline instead of pushing forward new interpretations and critical points of view. 

'Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum'

Identity is a nightmare. Either you belong to the majority, therefore in a position of power, or to a minority/migration community, identity is self-explanatory. You have to permanently confirm who you are and request others to subscribe to the group narrative. Request by force, if necessary, as often happened in national states in the last decades. 

Germany is a special case within the European context, given the post-war pressure towards 'behaving' in a more inclusive way and the identity split in two states. Did it matter in the end, when it comes to the national identity? Adding the term 'Heimat' - that German country defined by the 19th century philosophy which means more than a geographical determination - to a ministry - 'Ministerium des Innen für Bau und Heimat' - plus the sometimes physical aggressive outburst of the far-right in some parts of the country - Sachsen is a notorius example, but unfortunately not the only one - requests a different answer.

What does it mean to live in the Heimat? Authors with foreign-sounding names, some with a different skin colour, many born in Germany and with a German passport are sharing their so-called 'multicultural' experiences in Germany - and one in Austria - in a remarkable volume edited by Fatma Aydemir and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah.

At certain extents there are the experiences of everyone having lived here, with a non-German name, a slight accent, which looks different, doesn't have blonde hair and blue eyes. How many times I had to answer the obsessive 'Where are you from', from people I've met only for a couple of seconds. How my Indian friend, on a train to Leipzig, was stared at by a family whose child asked her mother: 'She can't be German, isn't it?' and answered 'Of course not'.

Indeed, this Heimat is a nightmare. The essays are collected under individual labels: Work, Sex, Identity etc. Although at least since 2001 there are institutional structures created which confirm that Germany is a 'Einwanderungsland' - country of immigration - the institutional racism (in schools,  police, other state structures including Finanzamt or Burgeramt) is growing. How fast the 'integration policies' went and at what extent they failed it is another discussion, but reading those essays makes a 'tour de force' displaying how deep is discrimination and racism thinking into the everyday life and local mentalities.

The answer is not to 'go back from where did you come from' as me and many others 'migrants' in Germany are often told. The answer to be persistent and courageous enough to not let such voices become the majority.