Transculturality and perceptions of the immigrant other : "from-heres" and ''come-heres" in Virginia and North Rhine-Westphalia

No other issue in our times of globalization has aroused such passionate debate as the increasingly complex transborder movements of people of all ethnicities, with the self-perceived “from-heres” often struggling to maintain the illusion of separateness from intruding “come-heres.” The paradigm of transculturality offers prospects to rethink, demystify and represent cultural unity and difference, assimilation and alterity, in a manner that acknowledges the fissures and the fictions in traditional cultural dichotomies such as the melodramatically instrumentalized “national” vs. “foreign.” The interdisciplinary essays compiled in Transculturality and Perceptions of the Immigrant Other focus on the ways in which new diasporic and migrational patterns arouse ill will and conflict, but also negotiation and transcultural impulses, resulting in transformed meso-structures in media, schooling, and business. Investigating regional immigrant groups in the states of Virginia and North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the discourses and images in public media, films, literature, and cultural events, the studies both document the contest for geographical, work, and community space and place it in larger theoretical and specific historical contexts. Arising from an international project undertaken by senior and junior scholars from the fields of cultural studies, history, and sociology at Norfolk State University in Virginia and University of Siegen in Germany, these essays suggest that cultural citizenship can embody dynamic expressions of belonging and strategies of empowerment which shape political and economic communities, engendering in the process innovative forms of constantly negotiated, hybrid identity and transmigratory affiliation. Part I: Historical Perceptions And From-here Memory -- 1. Our Own Boat People: The Norfolk Journal And Guide And The Haitian Refugees, 1979-1986 / Charles H. Ford -- 2. School Integration As Internal Immigration: The Journey Of The Norfolk Seventeen / Stephanie G. Walker -- 3. Transcultural Remembrance: Stolpersteine, Silent Promises, And The European Capital Of Culture Ruhr.2010 / Sonja Georgi -- Part Ii: Immigration And Citizenship -- 4. Integration Courses And The German Naturalization Test: Creating Good Citizens? / Janine Werner -- 5. Linguistic Identity And Ethnic Transformations In The United States: The Hispanic Community In The Media / Isabel Hermosín Killough -- 6. Broken Mirrors: Race, Historical Memory, And Citizenship In 20th/21st- Century France / Geoffroy De Laforcade -- Part Iii: Growing Up Other -- 7. Ethnic Transformations At School In North Rhine-westphalia, Virginia, Pécs, And Autobiographical Novels -- Or Can Transcultural Impulses Serve/save Our Schoolchildren? / Cathy Covell Waegner -- 8. German Turkish Teens: Second And Third Generation Transcultural Identity / Melanie Jäger -- Part Iv: Come-heres At Work -- 9. When Jobs Become Ethnic / Frankie Copeland -- 10. Coming Out Of The Dark: An Examination Of How Social Capital Is Used In Hispanic-owned Small Businesses In Virginia / Robert K. Perkins -- Part V: Transcultural Encounters In The Media -- 11. Race Matters In Cologne: Migration, Aesthetics, And Popular Culture / Mita Banerjee -- 12. Wallraff's 2009 Schwarz Auf Weiss: Investigative Journalism In Cinematic Blackface / Susanne Engelmann And Florian Nölting -- 13. Cinema Of Acceptance: Changing Perspectives On The Immigrant Other In Recent American And European Film / Page R. Laws -- Prospects / Geoffroy De Laforcade. Edited By Cathy Covell Waegner, Page R. Laws And Geoffroy De Laforcade. Includes Bibliographical References.