‘Harlem in Germany’: Race, Migration, and the American Analogy in the Federal Republic

Organized by German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley, Center for German and European Studies, UC Berkeley Department of History, UC Berkeley Department of German, UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender, Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, UC Berkeley Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley Department of Ethnic Studies

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As West Germans discussed “difference” after 1945, they sought out a self-consciously “Western” and liberal way to discuss difference. The talk examines different examples of how US social science on race shaped policies on migration in West Germany, including how invoking “Harlem” as a racialized space shaped urban housing policy for migrants in Germany, and how how a theory of child development borrowed from US social science was used to justify new restrictions on child migration.

Lauren Stokes is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University and author of Fear of the Family: Guest Workers and Family Migration in the Federal Republic of Germany (Oxford, 2022).

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Ray Savord at rsavord@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-4555 with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event.