| Popis: |
Given how West Germany’s migration regime of the late 1970s and early 1980s was marked by preference of European immigration, its roll-back of ‘guestworker’ settlement, and its tightening of asylum procedures, Berlinghoff shows in this chapter that the resettlement of large numbers of Asian refugees and the warm public welcome they encountered was ‘surprising’. The chapter outlines the historical, political and discursive context on which this resettlement programme was built. Berlinghoff highlights the role of German experience of forced migration, the state’s federal structure, media coverage and the Cold War. He argues that the ‘boat people’s’ resettlement was shaped by both the established integration schemes originally designed to handle the integration of ethnic German immigrants (Aussiedler) and positive stereotypes which constructed the boat people as ‘perfect immigrants’. |
