Integration with gentle pressure – a special case, deviation from the norm or a new quality? The discursive representation of the idea of integration in the German political debate on multiculturalism

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the integration discourse in the years 2006–2014 from the perspective of the key term integration. This period defines several important events for the German and European policy such as: integration summits (2006–2013), conferences on Islam (2006–2014), and Angela Merkel’s speech in Potsdam on 16th October 2010, in which the German Chancellor officially announced that the idea of integration promoted in the German politics had become obsolete and that ‘multiculturalism is dead’ (Multikulti ist tot). The scope of the research comprises texts which are articles from the most influential German daily and weekly newspapers: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, Der Spiegel, Der Stern, Die Zeit. Over the years, the concept of integration determined as union or cooperation, hence the relationship formed on an equal footing, evolved into other terms such as integration with gentle pressure, forced integration etc., to be eventually defined anew as integration as assimilation. The analysis of the discourse on the issues of integration in Germany has shown a significant trend existing not only in German but also in European politics towards sanctioning a new understanding of the key concepts of integration. The term integration with gentle pressure (Integration mit sanftem Druck) has permanently entered the public discourse, and though expressed differently, it has already a status of a norm, rather a deviation from it, bearing features of a new political quality.