Democracy, Unfinished

After a recent visit to Washington, Sergey Lagodinsky, head of the EU/North America Department at the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin, reflects on Americans’ understanding of the European refugee crisis and the failure to anticipate long-term repercussions for US foreign policy interests.

Media Fellow Dawid Krawczyk reports on workers' self-organization in New York's Chinese community, showing that unions are not the only way to represent workers' interests. 

With thousands of refugees coming to Germany every week, local administrations are overstrained with the provision of basic needs. In many cities, civil society groups have stepped in to the fill the gaps.

In a speech in November 2014, President Obama announced the increased deportation of illegal immigrants with a criminal record because they threatened the security of Americans. He emphasized that this only concerned felons, not families - but felons have families, too, counters the organization Families for Freedom.

A few weeks ago, Germany erupted in outrage over reports of sexual harassment and attacks on women during the New Year’s festivities in Cologne and other German cities. But new legislation in the German Bundestag highlights just how short-lived the commitment to women’s rights and so-called “German values” really is.

Integration practitioners to share best practices and develop concrete efforts to establish welcoming infrastructures in local U.S. and German communities: hbs North America, in partnership with Welcoming America and Cultural Vistas, is pleased to announce the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange! 

The New Year's Eve attacks and the subsequent anti-migrants protests in Cologne have refueled the debate about German values, whether all of the migrants that have entered the countery share those values, and if they can be successfully integrated into society. Yet what exactly these values might be remains unclear - to many Germans and asylum seekers alike.

#hbsMigration study tour participant Yvanna Cancela and her colleagues from the Culinary Workers Union in Nevada wrote a letter to Governor Brian Sandoval to express their disappointment about his request to halt Syrian refugee resettlement in Nevada.  

The mass-scale sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany have inspired a political blame-game—but condemning women’s conduct or Europe’s open border policies won’t serve the victims of Cologne or the refugees who continue to need our protection. 

Hbs media fellow Dawid Krawczyk talked to Arun Kundnani, author of The End of Tolerance: Racism in 21st Century Britain and The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror, about terrorism, ISIS, and Islamophobia in the US.