Fabienne Woelki“Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable”

About this book deutschenglish

“Human dignity shall be inviolable“ – not only Article 1 of the German basic law, but a promise made to all humans to be treated equally fairly by the democratic government. However, migration policies have been criticised for disregarding human rights and human dignity alike. Specially migration management campaigns provide evidence of the unequal treatment of different groups of people.

This thesis investigates migration management campaigns by the German government towards their discursive implications of valuing potential migrants unequally. For this research, three representative German migration campaigns are analysed in a cross-case study: Make it in Germany, Germany4Ukraine, and Rumours about Germany. The aim is to discuss how the interfaces and contents discursively establish different values for people potentially migrating to Germany. The work uses a mixed-method approach of Interface Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis on the theoretical basis of Racial Capitalism.

The findings show that the value of potential migrants is reflected in the resources and information provided through the campaigns. Furthermore, potential migrants’ value is built upon their economic and political worth for Germany, constructed along racialised hierarchies and power dynamics. While skilled, professional workers and Ukrainian refugees were provided with accessible, comprehensible resources for migrating to Germany, racialised asylum seekers and potential migrants from the Global South were denied feasible sources for migration.

Finally, this book discusses the monetary and commodifying value imposed on migrants, before shading light on the discursive construction of In- and Out-Groups to depict people as more or less welcome to Germany. Afterwards, the representation of border securitisation and permeability is discussed, which leads to the critical question of correspondence between democratic values and migration policies.