Timelines

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.

1993

Vietnamese self-help associations

Shortly after reunification, many associations were founded to improve the legal situation of former Vietnamese contract workers and to disseminate information about their residence status.

Among other things, the newly founded associations offered legal advice and served as meeting places for sharing and processing previous experiences. In 1994, the association “Diên Hồng” was founded in Rostock in response to the pogroms in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen (see attacks in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen, 1991-1992). In Berlin, the “Reistrommel e.V.” and the “Association of Vietnamese in Berlin-Brandenburg” campaign for former migrant workers to be allowed to remain legally in the FRG. To this day, the associations are still active as meeting places and social work centers, promoting cultural understanding between Vietnamese and German cultures, Vietnamese language learning, women's rights, and fighting exclusion in society and politics, among other things.

The newly founded associations offer legal advice and serve as a meeting place for exchanging and processing previous experiences.

Germany

Related Events

1976

Labor Treaties Between the GDR and Non-European States

1991

Racist pogroms in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen

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UNITED STATES

GERMANY

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