Mobilizing images of welcome culture and Holocaust postmemory in Germany

Chapter 4 analyzes visual border politics during Germany’s long summer of migration. It examines how political actors mobilized photographic images after the country accepted a large number of refugees-migrants in September 2015 and unpacks how the mobilization of images influenced bordering practices. I argue that visual memories of the Holocaust centrally affected how images of the ‘refugee crisis’ were discussed in the German policy discourse and became politically performative. Understanding visual border politics as situated processes of meaning-making, the chapter first sets out the contextual terrain on which these visual politics arrived by mapping policies adopted in the field of migration and asylum, the public discourse, and political and migratory developments until September 2015. Although commentators in media and academia widely relate Germany’s policy reaction to the image of ‘Alan Kurdi’ going viral, the chapter will illustrate that the iconic image was not the key motif in Germany. Instead, political actors primarily referred to images of welcome culture, train stations, and the ‘Balkan Route’ when legitimating appropriate policy responses. The chapter concludes by arguing that this humanitarian framing and focus on German ‘welcome culture’ contributed to create conditions of possibility for restrictive policies in the aftermath of the ‘crisis’.