Week two reflection

1) Berlin as a city of wall 2) Berlin as a global city 3) Berlin as a city of the European union 4) Berlin as a city of immigrants b) How do you see these narratives as a reflection of German identity? How does this compare to an American identity?

When people are considering Berlin as a city of wall, everyone knows the wall is the Berlin Wall. However, the impact the wall has brought to this historical city is so deep that it remains unknown and untraceable to everyone. As talked about in the book “Age of migration”, “at least 1 million East Germans moved from the opening of the Wall to the end of 1991”(10). The Wall has opened up Germany into a migration country within the country after the Wall was taken down. After the Wall was taking down, it was like a symbol of communism’s failure. “The spectre of uncontrolled mass emigration from Eastern Europe became a public issue in the West”(10), The Wall again opened up German to became one of the countries that accepted many refugees from the East side of Europe after the Cold War. As much as the benefits immigrants are contributing to a country, there are many issues came with the moving as well. The immigration is becoming global as well, except it only comes in certain directions—generally from less developed countries to more developed countries. The immigration is “reshaping societies and politics around the globe”(7). I think one of the evidence is the flees from communism dominant countries are still continuing, and more and more people are fighting for their freedom and democracy. Berlin has been played a great role in a globe city these years that it has been recovering from the separating. Many important international meetings were hosted in Berlin. Berlin is becoming more important not only in economics perspective, but also in art and immigrations. While USA is considering as one of the “classical countries of immigration”, “our current people are the result of histories of large-scale immigration- often to the determinant of indigenous populations”(7). We are said to be have more encouraged immigration rules, while Germany is on the more rigid side with “’guestworker’ models”(221). I was surprised to see that after many families were separated by the wall, Germany seems did not to be very welcoming to other immigrants to have family reunion and become citizens. The joint of Germany into European Union also made it more exclusive for non-EU citizens to immigrate in. The EU members are becoming more solidary while non-EU members are more far parted. The tone of this narrative seems very Berliner that, taking from the historical perspective, is more excluded towards other immigrants. Although we have heard many news about the unfair or exclusive laws towards legal permanent residences or even illegal immigrants in America, the truth is the case is even worse in else countries. When people grow up in US that they see the deeper core different things in people, the identities inside of them are more American than their own original countries. Berlin just has not been a mature model of “melting pot” yet.