TRANSIT 9.1: Foreword Dear Readers, We are pleased to announce the publication of the first installment of texts in our 2013–14 volume: an excerpted translation of Sabahattin Ali’s Kürk Mantolu Madonna (The Madonna in the Fur Coat, 1943); selections from the exhibition on “Das neue Deutschland. Von Migration und Vielfalt (The New Germany: On Migration and Diversity, […]

Multiculturalism (Multiculturality) By Claus Leggewie Translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi Download PDF “Multiculturality” and more specifically “multiculturalism” are words that have not yet managed to receive recognition as serious academic concepts. They have too often been employed as terms of combat (as –isms) for the identity politics of minority and majority groups, and have too infrequently […]

Mobility By Gisela Welz Translated By Courtney Johnson Download PDF Mobility is understood as overcoming geographic distances with movement. When national borders are crossed, one refers to transnational mobility. Some kinds of mobility are freely chosen, such as tourism or study abroad; others are reactions to force and hardship, such as forced migration and poverty-driven […]

Integration By Albrecht Koschorke Translated by Emina Musanovic Download PDF [Integration (from Lat. integrare, “to renew, complete, reconstruct”) designates, on a sociological level, the assimilation of an individual into a group or the incorporation of a minority into the majority. On a more general level, it designates the complete (re)construction of a social unity. Social […]

Guest Faces By Emine Sevgi Özdamar Translated by Erik Born Download PDF As a child in Istanbul, the first European word that I heard was: “Deux-Pièces.” Every Monday, my parents went to a movie theatre called “Teyyare Sinemasi.” In German, this meant, “Flugzeugkino” (Airplane Theatre). This movie theatre only showed European films. My mother told […]

Asylum By Heribert Prantl Translated By Annika Orich Download PDF The tragedy of Lampedusa has a prelude—a “prologue,” as it is properly called in the dramatic genre of tragedy. This prologue began 22 years ago, in August 1991, right in the middle of the Italian tourist season. Ten thousand refugees from crumbling Albania arrived in […]