Easier Said than Done – Still, Germany and the U.S. Need to Break the Cycle on Migration
Looking back after five years, Germany’s relative success with the more than 1.1 million people who arrived in 2015 is a vindication of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s belief in Germany’s can-do …
We Could Schaffen Das, But We Won’t
EU migration policy reform still stalled five years after peak of crisis The crisis that hit Europe in 2015 has never gone away. This summer, Germans reflected on the fifth …
Countering Racism and Anti-Extremism in Germany
On May 20, just days before the United States became engulfed in another serious crisis over the issue of racism and racial violence, the first meeting of the German federal …
Lost in Translation: The Meaning of Sanctuary for Immigrants in the U.S. and Germany
The American concept of “sanctuary cities” for asylum seekers is foreign—and somewhat incomprehensible—to Germans. In the United States, “sanctuary jurisdictions” are relatively few, and they are established to protect immigrants …
“Your Homeland is our Nightmare”: Viable Conservatism Amid Far-Right Terror
In the weeks following political turmoil in eastern German state of Thuringia over unprecedented collaboration between mainstream German parties and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in supporting the Free …
Recent Authors
Support the insights you need into the German-American relationship.
Support Our Work
Europe Is Careening toward a Crisis of Its Own Making: Immigration, Coronavirus, and the End of European Values
On February 14, France announced the first coronavirus death in Europe. By the end of the month, cases had spread throughout Europe and spiked in Italy. On March 9, Italian …
AICGS is now accepting applications for its project “Social Divisions and Questions of Identity in Germany and the United States”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, dates for the second year of the AICGS project “Social Divisions in Germany and the U.S.” have shifted. The program will now take place …
Immigration and Questions of Identity in Akron, Ohio
Overview of Issues The United States, built on a history of immigration, is no stranger to questions of integration, identity, and social cohesion. It has long grappled with these questions, …
Building Diverse Communities: Toolkits for Global Cities
By 2040, one-third of Germans will have a “migration background.” Around the same time, the United States will become a majority-minority country, with immigration contributing to this demographic change. In …
Migration and Integration in Germany: The First Two Decades of the Twenty-First Century
Migration and integration have become dominant political topics in the United States and Germany. The German experience in 2015-2016 is often cited in the U.S. discourse on migration, but there …
Welcoming Places – Few and Far Between?
These days negative and at times dehumanizing rhetoric aimed at migrants—both legal and undocumented and of varying religious and ethnic make-up—are grabbing headlines around the globe. The trend to ignore …
Merve Schmitz-Vardar, Visiting Fellow
AICGS is pleased to welcome Merve Schmitz-Vardar as a Visiting Fellow at AICGS from August to October 2019. Ms. Schmitz-Vardar is a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of …
The Dehumanization of Immigrants and the Rise of the Extreme Right
The ascendance of the far right has jolted both American and European politics. It has undermined liberal democracy in Hungary and Poland, and threatens it throughout Europe. That ascendance depends …
Wunderbar Together in Southwestern USA
In the course of the AICGS project “Integration: Made in Germany” the group travelled through the Southwest region of the United States from March 17 to March 22, 2019. It …
