One Word Shapes a Nation: Integration Politics in Germany

“One Word Shapes a Nation provides a much-needed scholarly interrogation of integration as a form of governmentality in Germany. Johanna Schuster-Craig charts the post–Second World War story and broad contemporary impacts of the politics of integration, carefully attending to the racialized context of immigration and its management. The book takes as its primary focus an interdisciplinary examination of the policies of the 2000s as they appear in public debates, media discussions, and the work of those organizations implementing policy. By distinguishing between the work of incorporation and the apparatus of integration, One Word Shapes a Nation provides a key framework for understanding immigration in contemporary Germany.” Beverly Weber, Professor of German Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

“Written with compelling clarity and a palpable sense of purpose,World  One Shapes a Nation helps to sharpen our discourse and train our focus on inclusion and access, incorporation, and participation beyond the assimilationist pressures of the ‘integration apparatus.’” Johannes von Moltke, Professor of German Studies and Film, Media, and Television, University of Michigan

“Johanna Schuster-Craig’s pathbreaking book is the first comprehensive study to engage with the concept of integration and its varied meanings in a range of discursive spaces, specifically its politicization and political instrumentalization across the political spectrum. This meticulously researched, truly interdisciplinary monograph is not only an invaluable resource for inclusion into undergraduate and graduate curricula but also provides critical insights for research on integration and migration politics, race, racism, and whiteness, as well as right-wing nationalism.” Ela Gezen, Associate Professor of German, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“One Word Shapes a Nation shows how the term ‘integration’ has become an obstacle to meaningful migrant incorporation into German society and democracy. Schuster-Craig expertly analyses the way that tropes about migration travel across the political spectrum, showing the links between centrist and far-right discourses on migration. Bristling with insights about history, media, politics, and social work, this book is an indispensable guide to the contemporary political landscape.” Lauren Stokes, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University