International Women Space (IWS) is organising a two-day conference with six panel discussions focusing on the experiences of women who came to West Germany as guest workers, to East Germany as contract workers, as migrants and refugees to the reunified Germany and of German women who are affected by racism.
28th October 2017 | 09:00 - 18:0029th October 2017 | 09:00 - 18:00 (+ Chillout until 21:00)
The invited speakers will talk about and compare their experiences of arriving and settling in Germany as well as working and organising as women here. We want to put the knowledge of multiple generations of migrants into a historical perspective, and create a space where we can exchange our individual and collective experiences in order to counteract false ideas of victimhood related to migrant women, whose voices are too often ignored in German society due to racism, xenophobia and sexism.
We want to counteract the mainstream narrative. We will not only focus on the problems that migrant and refugee women, as well as German women who are affected by racism are constantly confronted with. We also want to highlight the many and various forms of women’s resistance; in the workplace, in society and against institutional oppression.
IWS is a Berlin-based, feminist political group, fighting and documenting everyday violence, racism, sexism, patriarchy and all kinds of discrimination. We are committed to creating empowering and supportive women’s spaces. This conference is open to women only. We particularly want to encourage migrant and refugee women as well as German women who are affected by racism to attend.
The panels will be held in multiple languages with simultaneous translation into German, English, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish and Vietnamese. Childcare can be provided. Attendance is free.
2
Days
6
Panels
200+
Women
Location
Flutgraben e.V., Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin
The Programme
Day 1
Saturday 28th October 2017
9:00
Registration
10:00
Welcome & Introduction
11:00
PANEL 1: Guest workers in West Germany and Contract workers in East Germany
The postwar history of Germany cannot be told or understood without considering the role of migrant workers who began to come to Germany. From South and Eastern Europe workers came to West Germany from 1955 and to East Germany from socialist countries from 1961. Women who came as guest workers and contract workers will talk about and compare their experiences and struggles of arriving and settling in Germany as well as organising themselves.
12:30
Lunch break
14:00
PANEL 2: Refugee women in East and West Germany
The process of applying for asylum in the two countries, the access to studying, working, housing and health care, the interaction with the local society. Did women self-organise themselves?
15:30
Coffee break
16:00
PANEL 3: Waiting Time
Four refugee women will speak about their experiences with the asylum process in Germany, the constant risk of deportation, and the power of resistance and self-organisation.
18:00
Close
Day 2
Sunday 29th October 2017
09:00
Registration
10:00
Welcome & Introduction
10:30
PANEL 4: Racism & racist violence in Germany from the 90s until now
The beginning of the 90s saw the start of a new wave of racist attacks on migrants in the reunified Germany. In the first decade of the 2000 there were the right extremist killings of the NSU, followed by an increasing number of racist assaults on „foreign looking people“. Against all of this, resistance was formed. Campaigns were developed, initiatives were created and action was taken. Recent examples are the „Ban Racial Profiling!“ campaign and the NSU-tribunal in Cologne this year.
12:30
Lunch break
14:00
PANEL 5: German, BUT with a migration background
What does the expression „German with a migration background“ even mean? Why are these people not just seen and accepted as Germans? Two women with a so called „migration background“ will talk about this racist term imposed by others to differentiate and divide them from the other „real“ white Germans and how this type of discrimination has affected their identity as Germans.
15:30
Coffee break
16:00
PANEL 6: Self-organisation and feminist work in the context of migration
The road to self-determination and mutual encouragement: Women with experience of building groups and initiatives describe the process of creating space for different generations and backgrounds to work together.
