Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom
<p>In a time when mass-migration across borders is both ubiquitous and heatedly debated, states in Europe turn to civics courses and citizenship tests to govern immigration and integration. Thus far, researchers have criticized civic immigrant education on normative grounds or have focused the...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| _version_ | 1826307561854337024 |
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| author | Gorgen, KT |
| author2 | Hopfenbeck, T |
| author_facet | Hopfenbeck, T Gorgen, KT |
| author_sort | Gorgen, KT |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>In a time when mass-migration across borders is both ubiquitous and heatedly debated, states in Europe turn to civics courses and citizenship tests to govern immigration and integration. Thus far, researchers have criticized civic immigrant education on normative grounds or have focused their investigations on individual countries. This in-depth study compares the content and structure of civic education for adult immigrants in Germany and the United Kingdom through the analytic coding of all official textbooks and test questions, 48 hours of observations in civics courses, and 41 interviews with immigrants and teachers. Operating within the theoretical framework of othering (Mead, 1934; Said, 1978), this research unpacks i) how national and immigrant identities are depicted in official civic immigrant education materials, ii) how immigrants respond to these identity depictions, and iii) what influence the structure of the education process has on immigrants’ civic learning in both countries. </p>
<p>Findings show that national history is emphasized in both countries, albeit from different angles, and that immigrant identity depictions are partly based on othering and stereotyped narratives, which immigrants do not unquestioningly accept. It was also found that immigrants in Germany deflect negative stereotypes onto other immigrants, while immigrants in the United Kingdom challenge British identity narratives as backward-looking. Furthermore, Germany’s state-provided, compulsory civics courses are appreciated, even if the content and scope are occasionally criticised. Contrastingly, immigrants in the United Kingdom demand more support.
for civic education, and the absence of state-provided courses results in immigrants remaining
within their pre-existing communities while preparing for the Life in the UK test. Overall, a
tension between the welcoming rhetoric and the practice of othering immigrants, which exists in
both the content and the structure of civic education, undermines the benefits of immigrants’
civic learning in the two countries under investigation.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:04:58Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:91ce2d1a-13be-44df-a498-520d24537b56 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:04:58Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:91ce2d1a-13be-44df-a498-520d24537b562022-04-26T13:13:35ZWelcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United KingdomThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:91ce2d1a-13be-44df-a498-520d24537b56EnglishHyrax Deposit2020Gorgen, KTHopfenbeck, TGearon, L<p>In a time when mass-migration across borders is both ubiquitous and heatedly debated, states in Europe turn to civics courses and citizenship tests to govern immigration and integration. Thus far, researchers have criticized civic immigrant education on normative grounds or have focused their investigations on individual countries. This in-depth study compares the content and structure of civic education for adult immigrants in Germany and the United Kingdom through the analytic coding of all official textbooks and test questions, 48 hours of observations in civics courses, and 41 interviews with immigrants and teachers. Operating within the theoretical framework of othering (Mead, 1934; Said, 1978), this research unpacks i) how national and immigrant identities are depicted in official civic immigrant education materials, ii) how immigrants respond to these identity depictions, and iii) what influence the structure of the education process has on immigrants’ civic learning in both countries. </p> <p>Findings show that national history is emphasized in both countries, albeit from different angles, and that immigrant identity depictions are partly based on othering and stereotyped narratives, which immigrants do not unquestioningly accept. It was also found that immigrants in Germany deflect negative stereotypes onto other immigrants, while immigrants in the United Kingdom challenge British identity narratives as backward-looking. Furthermore, Germany’s state-provided, compulsory civics courses are appreciated, even if the content and scope are occasionally criticised. Contrastingly, immigrants in the United Kingdom demand more support. for civic education, and the absence of state-provided courses results in immigrants remaining within their pre-existing communities while preparing for the Life in the UK test. Overall, a tension between the welcoming rhetoric and the practice of othering immigrants, which exists in both the content and the structure of civic education, undermines the benefits of immigrants’ civic learning in the two countries under investigation.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Gorgen, KT Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title | Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title_full | Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title_fullStr | Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title_full_unstemmed | Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title_short | Welcoming and othering- civic immigrant education in Germany and the United Kingdom |
| title_sort | welcoming and othering civic immigrant education in germany and the united kingdom |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gorgenkt welcomingandotheringcivicimmigranteducationingermanyandtheunitedkingdom |