| Abstract | Children of Arab heritage represent a growing proportion of the German population. Following the recent conflicts in the Arab region, many children and their families – mainly from Syria – have fled their homes to find refuge in Germany (Federal Statistical Office 2019). With this, the notion of “integration” has become a key concept, within policy, scholarship and the media, when it comes to discussions of the experiences of Arab families living in Germany. For example, governmental initiatives to help forcibly displaced Syrians learn German and find employment have been identified as key to preventing the aggravation of social problems that, in turn, may fuel discourses of xenophobia and nationalism in the country (Trines 2017). In turn, the media have been ascribed a key role in helping children recently arrived in Germany learn a new language and feel as though they belong to their “host” community (Götz et al. 2017). However, these ideas and practices of “integration” have also been critiqued for devaluing the social, symbolic, and cultural “capital” (Bourdieu 1984: 170, 466) of Arab people with a history of immigration, while feeding discriminatory ideas that construct them as responsible for unemployment and violent crime (Sreberny and Gholami 2019; Wodak 2018). Situated within these debates, this chapter explores the problematique of “integration” by analysing a selection of German children’s television programmes focused on racial, linguistic, and religious diversity. They include Berlin und Wir (Berlin and Us, 2016), Dschermeni (2017), JoNaLu (2008-2014), Neuneinhalb (Nine-and-a-half, 2017), and Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten (The Programme with the Elephant, 2018), which aired on the country’s public service broadcasters, Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Runfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD) and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF). The chapter will explore representations of children of Arab heritage living in Germany within these programmes, drawing from the findings of a recent research project exploring European children’s media addressing forced migration and interrelated issues (www.euroarabchildrensmedia.org, 2017-2018). It will examine different ideas of “integration” that emerge from the selected television programmes, while exploring the ways in which overlapping narratives and theories of integration, childhood, race, gender, and religion intersect. |
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