At Monday’s table talk, we began with a discussion on the relationship between migration and discrimination that soon blossomed into a larger conversation on the underlying causes of discrimination and the ways we can combat it in our own lives and as a society. GRF Sam opened the discussion by showing us campaign posters from Germany’s far-right political party, the AfD. These posters were quite shocking, with quotes like, “Burkas? We’ll keep our bikinis” and “New Germans? We’ll make our own,” with images of women wearing bathing suits in the first poster and a pregnant woman in the second. Far beyond the implications of the role of women in these ads, I was struck by the blunt xenophobia expressed. Rather naively, I hadn’t considered how strongly some Germans might feel about immigrants coming into their country. Unfortunately, it was all too easy to connect this with our own country.

Over the course of the discussion, one of the other Rose Scholars expressed her frustration that we couldn’t all recognize the humanity within each other and overcome our slight differences. This prompted a further line of discussion on why native inhabitants of a country might be biased against migrants. I suggested that the people who exhibit the most bias are the people who benefit the most from the status quo, and thus they are the most zealous advocates for preserving it. The fear of change is ubiquitous, especially in tumultuous times such as now, but this fear shouldn’t divide us. Instead, it should galvanize us and bring us together, so that we can work to improve lives for native and non-native inhabitants of our country.

This was a really great table talk considering the current political climate, and I’m glad GRF Sam was able to facilitate a great discussion and give us some insight through his research!

We first started the discussion on talking about the “far right” movement in Germany, and some of their campaign slogans. I think it’s interesting that the far right is not only appearing domestically in the U.S., but also elsewhere in the world as well. However, I also feel like this isn’t anything new. Throughout history, there’s always been a concept of “us versus them”, and this is no exception. I feel like people often feel like immigrants are always here to “steal their jobs” (not really the case) and the people originally there feel threatened and proceed to discriminate against them.

What I find most sad about all of this is that all humans, regardless of ethnicity, background, etc, share 99.9 percent of all their DNA. I think it’s sad that we can’t all get along and politicians continue to perpetuate the “us vs. them” narrative to garner votes.

Sam (and the other Table Talk participants) mentioned this might be due to other factors, such as race/ethnicity/economy, etc, and I totally agree–but that means that the problem is multi-faceted and there’s no easy fix to it. Whatever we do will likely displease another group of people (for example, raising minimum wage will anger others even though it helps a lot of people), and since it’s usually the rich who call the shots in America (the only people who can appeal to politicians/lobby through money), it kind of seems like a hopeless cause. I think, though, that doing nothing/complacency doesn’t help the cause either. I think it’s really important to speak up and more importantly, educate ourselves and speak up for those who cannot. There’s a lot of power in numbers.

During the table talk with GRF Sam, the group touched upon the implications of gentrification for immigrants and political participation. As a collective, we saw a connection between communities being split up, and therefore losing a cultural group, to a loss of identity, a diminishment of unity, and consequently a lack of political participation. Having perspectives from students at the table who come from immigrant families also highlighted the contrasting experience different immigrant groups have, especially depending on the strength of the cultural community one is entering. GRF Sam gave insight into the intersectionality of his research, migrant discrimination, and other topics relevant to us as students. Overall, I gained valuable insight from different perspectives, experiences, and learned more about the relevance of GRF Sam’s research.