ABOUT THIS BOOK

Interrogating Integration explores how international sporting spectacles, media campaigns, and public debates construct racialized national identity in an era of rising right-wing nationalism. Across Europe, “integration” has emerged as a guiding concept to regulate cultural differences, particularly in Germany, where integration became a watchword after the introduction of birthright citizenship in 2000. The legal expansion of German citizenship threatened the homogeneous definition of the nation and spurred increased scrutiny of immigrants and Germans of color, primarily Muslim and Black Germans. This opened a new chapter in the long struggle over German identity. The celebrations, scandals, and debates analyzed here reveal how the admission of new citizens inspired an optimistic cosmopolitanism that claimed to differentiate the new Germany from its fascist past while simultaneously reinscribing racialized hierarchies and providing fuel for rising far-right politics.

Using touchstones of public memory, including events surrounding men’s World Cup soccer and the record-breaking success of a book blaming Muslims for Germany’s decline, Zambon examines persistent problems in European conceptions of race, where racializing projects take place under an “ideology of racelessness” and the atrocities of historical and transnational racisms are used to deny current local forms of racism.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Kate Zambon is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire.

REVIEWS

“Zambon’s book captures the paradox that soccer has often been hierarchical, patriarchal, and authoritarian, and not without elements of sexism, misogyny, homophobia, or racism, but at the same time has clearly and often indisputably emerged as an integrating force in society. Zambon’s critical review is a welcome correction in this regard. She commendably places soccer in its contemporary context and clarifies historical lines of development.”

— Jens Ljunggren, Idrottsforum

“Interrogating Integration is an outstandingly well-written book that offers an incredible overview of the recent politics of integration as well as a wide overview of the problems of the politics of integration in Germany. It also shows the link between the mainstream demands for integration and the emergence of the far right as part of the center of contemporary German political life. Its broad focus will make it invaluable to scholars working in Germany and Europe more broadly.”— Damani James Partridge, University of Michigan

“Interrogating Integration is a well-written book that engages with crucial key events in the German debate on migration and inclusion in ways that will appeal to readers outside of Germany. The book contributes to a broad understanding of media as it examines various modalities of mediated communication while it also introduces students and other readers interested in the present-day German migration debates to the subject in an intriguing way with analysis that is detailed and convincing.”— Karina Horsti, University of Minnesota

“As we grapple with the ‘new’ nationalism, sports and the media are a crucible for debates about race, gender, immigration, religion, and belonging. Professor Zambon has given us empirical, theoretical, and—implicitly—political tools for understanding these complex questions in her bravura account of German football and struggles over that awkward word, ‘integration.’ A triumph!”— Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sentimental Citizenship: Heimat and Being at Home
Selling the Nation on Itself: Transforming the People through Global Sporting Spectacle
“Soccer Patriotism": Rehabilitating Celebratory Nationalism in the 2006 World Cup
Sport Integration: The Promise and Peril of “New Germans”
Immigrant Patriotism: The Redemption of National Pride
Destructive Productivity: The Sarrazin Debate and the Threat of Proliferating Noncitizens
Models and Miscreants: The Integration Bambi Awards

Willkommenskultur

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