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Migration ist eine globale Realität und seit jeher Teil der Menschheitsgeschichte. Dennoch gehört sie bis heute zu den am stärksten umkämpften öffentlichen Themen. 

Sowohl Menschen als auch Grenzen sind ständig in Bewegung. Wer sich bewegen darf und wem Rechte zugesprochen werden, zeigt, wer als Teil der Nation angesehen wird. In Deutschland wie in den Vereinigten Staaten sind diese Debatten — und die damit verbundenen politischen und gesellschaftlichen Praktiken — eng mit sich wandelnden Vorstellungen von „Rasse“, Kultur und Sprache verbunden. 

Diese Zeitleisten zeigen, wie Rechte und Zugehörigkeit durch Gesetze, migrantische Bewegungen und Kämpfe, globale Ereignisse und kulturelle Werke ausgehandelt, infrage gestellt und neu definiert wurden — und wie diese Geschichten bis heute nachwirken. 

Entstanden sind die Zeitleisten in einem community-basierten Prozess gemeinsam mit Partner*innen aus migrantischen Selbstorganisationen, Bildungsinstitutionen und Wissenschaft sowie mit Unterstützung vieler weiterer Beteiligter und Ehrenamtlicher.

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1914
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1918
World War I Spurs Anti-German Crusade

During the time of World War I, the U.S. witnessed drastic decline in immigration and a rise in intolerance toward foreigners. As Germany was a U.S. enemy during the war, German immigrants and German Americans found themselves the targets of forced Americanization campaigns and daily hostility and discrimination. The use of German language in schools (see also: State legislation authorizes German bilingual education, 1831)and the wider culture came under attack. In some places, German music was even banned. By the close of the war, most states had passed laws against foreign language instruction. Many German Americans were compelled to prove their allegiance to the United States through military service and cultural assimilation.
Newspaper Cartoon Clipping from New York Evening Standard. 1915. Library of Congress
Newspaper Cartoon Clipping from New York Evening Standard. 1915.
With Anti-German sentiments rising in America due to World War I, campaigns and propaganda against German identity and culture began to circulate in the U.S. One of these pervasive ideas from the Anti-German crusades was getting rid of "hyphenated Americans". President Woodrow Wilson spoke upon this as people who have not truly become Americans due to their loyalty to their countries of origin. The cartoon seen above echoes this sentiment with it depicting ten cartoonish Germans who slowly die off due to their allegiance to their German identity. This anti-hyphenation is one of the many phenomena that contributed to the modern-day notion of Whiteness we know today.
United States
Sources
  1. Eric Foner. Give Me Liberty! An American History. Edition Seagull Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton.
Additional Resources
  1. Gary Gerstle. “Liberty, Coercion, and the Making of Americans”. The Journal of American History. Edition 84, no. 2. Pages 524-558.
  2. T. G. Wiley. “The imposition of World War I era English-only policies and the fate of German in North America”. Language and politics in the United States and Canada. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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