Limits of solidarity?

Salman Rushdie’s remark that “The problem with the English is that their history happened overseas and as a result they don’t know what it means” is well known. A comparable ignorance of history also dominates attitudes to colonialism in German-speaking countries. In my lecture I will counter this “amnesia” with historical analysis of specific articulations of racism, sexism, classism and migration and how these were linked to Europe’s colonial history. I will also analyse current European migration policy and make a detailed presentation of the (im)possibility of solidarity with gendered refugee subjects.