Migration is a natural part of living systems, and human history is no exception. Yet it remains one of the most debated public issues of our time.
Both people and borders move. Who is allowed to move, and who is granted rights, lies at the heart of how nations define belonging. In Germany and the United States alike, these debates have been deeply intertwined with evolving ideas of race and ethnicity.
These timelines trace how citizenship and belonging have been constructed, challenged, and redefined through laws, social movements, global events, and cultural works — and how those histories continue to shape the present.
In the 1989 elections, Leyla Onmur of the SPD was elected to the European Parliament. Five years later, she and Green Party politician Cem Özdemir became the first German politicians with Turkish parents to be elected to the Bundestag.