Visual Representations of Refugees in German Media 2010 - 2020
By: Cassidy Chreene Whittle, M.S. GMC - German
Advisors: Dr. Britta Kallin, Associate Professor of German, and
Dr. Richard Utz, Chair and Professor, Literature, Media, and Communication
Preparations for our first Christmas together: Adrienne, her new roommate Moaaz and the family dog
taz.de / January 1, 2016/ photo by Miguel Ferraz
Turning over the new year into 2016, with many refugees still making their way to Germany and Europe, but many also already settling into their lives in Germany, taz.de published this photo captioned "Vorbereitungen fürs erste gemeinsame Weihnachtsfest: Adrienne, ihr neue Mitbewohner Moaaz und der Familienhund." (Preparations for our first Christmas together: Adrienne, her new roommate Moaaz and the family dog) alongside its article "Zum Freund geworden" (Becoming a friend).
The article details both the lives of Adrienne, a 50-year old German woman from Hamburg who opened her home to a refugee, and Moaaz, who spent five months in transit to Germany from his home town of Zabadani, Syria. The article includes quotes from Moaaz about his journey to Germany, as well as Adrienne and her 12-year-old son Juri about their life together. It is clear from the article that Moaaz is more than merely a roommate to both Adrienne and Juri, especially noted when Adrienne mentions, "We can't imagine him not living with us anymore." The headline of the article is also a play off a direct quote from Adrienne in which she stated "The refugee became a friend." The deliberate choice to remove "the refugee" from the headline indicates to some extent the awareness of the journalists to not refer to Moaaz simply as "the refugee" because he is a person with so much for to his identity than merely his refugee status.
The photograph is credited to an individual photographer who is likely a staff or contracted photographer with taz. By capturing Adrienne, Moaaz, and the family dog in a candid environment, the photographer gives the reader a glimpse into the everyday life of a resettling refugee without the expected environment of barbed wire and chain-link fences or being on a ship coming to Germany. Instead, the photographer chooses to show the after-effects of becoming a refugee and the positive impacts the cross-cultural exchange can have on both the lives of the refugee as well as the lives of the Germans.
Although Moaaz is yet another portrayal of a male refugee, his light-skin does contrast most people's traditional thought of what a refugee looks like and could have him mistaken for another nationality completely separate from the popular refugee countries.