Guest Contributor

By Dr. Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi – Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice

“The European way of life is built around solidarity, peace of mind, and security,” – writes Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in her mission statement to Margaritis Shinas, Commission Vice-President for “Protecting Our European Way of Life.” Von der Leyen has assigned Shinas’s office a range of tasks in three main areas: skills, education, and integration; finding common ground on migration; and security union. Linking the protection of “our” European way of life to migration and security prompted backlash from Members of European Parliament (MEPs) and civil society – including myself.

Many MEPs slammed the title of the position as a “dog-whistle” of right-wing extremists and threatened to reject the position as is. Still, Shinas was approved for the office in October 2019. Shinas held that he does not share the view that the title of his office indicates an “us-versus-them culture.” The language and content of von der Leyen’s mission statement however suggests otherwise. 

Using a “protection frame” to ensure solidarity, peace of mind, and security follows a simple logic: one needs protection from something. In the case of protecting the European way of life, this something is the “non-European” or those perceived as such. Over the last years, protection frames have been used by right-wing and nationalist parties to foster support for anti-migration policies across Europe. 

In Germany, protection frames have been notoriously employed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). In 2017, the AfD became the third strongest party in the Bundestag and has since made headway in state elections, becoming the second strongest party in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. But it is not only the AfD that has used protection frames in their politics. The Ministry of Interior, Building and Community has been most recently led by a proponent of German Leitkultur – dominant culture – (Thomas de Mazière – Christian Democratic Union) and a vocal critic of Islam’s “place” in Germany (Horst Seehofer – Christian Social Union). 

In the midst of debates surrounding the office of “Protecting our European way of life,” I was part of the first ever Anti-Racism and Diversity Week at the European Parliament organized by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and the European Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI). I joined a delegation of anti-racist civil society leaders in four days of advocacy around issues such as Islamophobia, gender equality, and justice. In my meetings with MEPs, I expressed my concerns about the title of the office and shared insights from five years of being executive director and founder of WoW e.V., an UN-awarded human rights NGO that addresses intersectional discrimination in the German labor market.

WoW e.V. stands for “with or without the headscarf” and draws from my encounters with state interventions on women’s bodies. As a German-Iranian woman, the fixation of controlling women’s bodies carries personal meaning: in Iran and in Germany alike, restrictions on women’s freedoms are centered around their bodies. Freedoms to access employment and education, freedoms to move, and freedoms from discrimination, hate, and violence. While in Iran, women are protesting state-mandated Islamic garb policies, in Europe, organizations like WoW e.V. demand for an end to restrictions on Islamic garb in public and private spaces. 

I established WoW e.V. as one of ten winners of the 2015 Global Diversity Contest hosted by the United Nations Academic Impact. My work as a scholar-activist has since developed significantly and has found a new home in the Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice e.V. (CMGJ). The CMGJ is a non-profit NGO that addresses human rights at the intersection of migration and gender. We believe in gender justice beyond borders. Our focus is on shrinking spaces, figuratively and literally, between migrant communities and governing bodies. 

Throughout my years of doing grassroots work in migrant communities – that I am simultaneously part of and serving – I have met hundreds of inspiring women. They have taught me how to be a guide, a resource, and a learner at the same time. Many of their experiences resonate with that of my own family. Experiences of discrimination, hate and violence. Experiences of being talked about and not talked with. And experiences of a lack of protections. These experiences have been amplified with the rise in nationalist and right-wing politics.

Since 2017, I have noticed a severe uptick in reports on discrimination and violence. In many of the anti-discrimination trainings that I have led, migrant women have increasingly shared incidents of hostile attacks, ranging from verbal slurs to physical attacks. Many of these incidents however remain unreported due to lack of trust towards authorities and a general perception of a lack of safety in the host country.

I have also noticed a trend of increased concerns regarding media portrayals of migrants and the way that these portrayals have influenced politics. This was of particular distress to refugee women. In Germany, media portrayals have largely played into protection frames of migrants being presented as a threat to a certain way of life that requires migrants to be integrated – or yet, assimilated – into German Leitkultur. 

A further dynamic that has become increasingly important pertains to knowledge of the legal-institutional framework that governs migration. With ever-changing laws and policies, “Know Your Rights Courses” have been fundamental in my grassroots work. Germany’s 2016 Integration Act significantly altered much of the regulations that were in place when the largest numbers of asylum-seekers arrived. And yet, more changes are to come with the 2020 Migration Package. 

These three dynamics provide a snapshot into how protection frames such as the office title of “Protecting our European Way of Life” are not simply a rhetorical tool, but rather a political reality for migrant communities. This reality is understudied, undertheorized, and alarmingly neglected in scholarship and policy. To address the lack of knowledge that feeds protection frames, a fundamental re-think about agency, representation, and accountability in migration politics is necessary in which migrant communities are involved in the planning, implementation, and assessment of policies and laws that are to govern them. This is especially pressing now as the EU conceives of a New Migration and Asylum Pact.