Protestantism and questions on social integration and national identity

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Migration and integration have been a political and social challenge for the federal republic of Germany since its establishment and at the same time have been providing potential for economic, social and cultural changes. There was admission to a society which had gone through fundamental changes and which had gone on a quest for the development of its own self-conception. For the West German Protestantism migration has been cause for diaconic humanitarian commitment, but as well for social ethical response and influence. In Protestant contributions to the discussions on migration and integration, according to the particular migrant group and the moment of immigration, rather different ethical and political issues have been negotiated explicitly and implicitly. Likewise the Protestant agents of discussion varied as well as their chosen forms of action and their social forms. Discussions on a continuous immigration of migrants of most different origin and their individual motives will be focused on in the second funding phase. Thereby the emphasis is shifting to the particular situation and procedure of admission as well as to the (West)German receptiveness in the stress field of national interests and humanitarian solidarity. The research project documents and analyses the so far undefined part of Protestantism in the (West)German debates on refugees and asylum as conflicts of values, interests and democracy. It will be shown how Protestantism evaluated the refugees conditions of admission and acceptance procedures, which of its ethical issues and lines of argument have been impacting the debates of the host society and how Protestantism influenced decisions of refugee and asylum politics. The research project offers valuable clues to the estimation of migration motives and ideas of refugees by Protestantism, his handling of refugee hierarchies and solidarity hierarchies, his religious and secular argumentation and his balancing of areas of conflict between individual human rights and common welfare as well as Protestant self-conception, forms of action and forms of socialization in a constitutional democracy. Emphasis will be placed on Protestant reasoning with human dignity and human rights and so will be planted on one of the new junctions. The time focus lies, corresponding to the core area of the entire research group, now on the 1970ies and 80ies.