Challenging oppression: how grassroots anti-racism in Berlin breaks borders

Abstract

In recent years, the successful anti-migrant mobilization of populist radical right parties and movements in Germany has stimulated the anti-racist struggle. This article investigates the anti-racism of grassroots organizations that contest border regimes in Berlin. While grassroots anti-racism also intends to combat the ideology of populist radical right parties, it contributes distinctively to the debates on racism, colonialism and border regimes. Specifically, grassroots antiracism sheds light on the mechanisms through which border regimes oppress and racialize migrants. Crucially, by acknowledging the imbrication between historical racial inequalities and border regimes, grassroots organizations weave an anti-racist struggle against border regimes that is emancipatory for racialized migrants. I contend that grassroots anti-racism contributes to tackling the pervasive historical amnesia (Hall, S. 2000. "Conclusion: The Multicultural Question." In Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, 'Transruptions', edited by B. Hesse. Zed Books) regarding colonialism and the role of racism in the construction of the German nation.

‘We are all refugees’: how migrant grassroots activism disrupts exclusionary legal categories

“…The refugee* collective identity is associated with a claim for equal rights for all migrants in Germany irrespective of their legal status. Indeed, GROs frame their claims against border regimes through the idea of the right to stay, which implies residence rights for all migrants in Germany and, in the longer term, the redundancy of the asylum system through which the state assigns legal status categories (Perolini, 2021).…”

“…17 tightening border regimes that occurred in 2018, the refugee* collective identity enabled solidarity among groups of migrants with different legal statuses and counteracted the state's attempt to divide them into distinct categories that often fragment collective action (Swerts, 2021). The tightening of border regimes promoted by the newly elected government in 2018 produced a moral shock (Jasper, 2014) that resulted in an enhanced social movement activity (Perolini, 2021).…”

We don't remember the O‐Platz protest camp for the sake of it. Collective memories and visibility of migrant activism in Berlin

“…In their views, the main claims against border regimes had to be grounded in the oppression faced by refugees because of border regimes. The connection between claim-making and the collec tive experiences of racialized refugees is an important aspect of grassroots anti-racism (Lentin, 2008;Perolini, 2021).…”

“…Seebrücke made claims for safe and legal routes for refugees to reach Europe and framed the hindrances imposed on NGOs, which I discussed in the introduction to this article, as an attempt to criminalize search and rescue operations (Schwiertz & Steinhilper, 2021). The coalition Unteilbar framed its demands against border regimes through the idea of the right to asylum, which does not entail the opposition to any restriction on freedom of movement (Perolini, 2021). In contrast, grassroots organizations grounded their claims against border regimes in the experiences of racialized refugees; they contested restrictions on freedom of movement ad called for the right to stay, a component of unrestricted freedom of movement (Perolini, 2020(Perolini, , 2021.…”

“…In October, a group of diverse organizations launched the coalition Unteilbar (Indivisible), which succeeded in mobilizing a quarter of a million protesters who took to the street to contest radical right populism (Perolini, 2021).…”