He reliably triggers controversial debates: the term “clans”. While security authorities in Germany naturally use “clan crime” as a detection category, scientists repeatedly point out that the term is unclear. They also warn that this stigmatizes many members of extended families with Arab or Turkish roots who have nothing to do with crime.
The discussion about the “clan” term is also currently brewing. A paper with proposals for more efficient deportations from the Federal Ministry of the Interior was a trigger for this – the role of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser as the SPD’s top candidate in the upcoming state elections in Hesse makes the topic even more explosive.
While some media question the use of the term or even clearly distance themselves from it, it is constantly present in other media.
In the current episode of “quoted” we therefore shed light on the career of the “clan” term: How did it become a media favorite in countless TV documentaries, non-fiction books and headlines? How does the reporting on criminal members of Arab extended families really look like? And would abandoning the controversial term really downplay the crime it describes?
The communication scientist Nadia Zaboura and SZ journalist Nils Minkmar will discuss. The guest is the sociologist Özgür Özvatan from the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research. Together with his team, he analyzed media discourses about “clans”.
“quoted. the media podcast” is a cooperation between CIVIS Media Foundation for Integration and Cultural Diversity in Europe and Süddeutsche Zeitung, funded by Stiftung Mercator.
The next issue will appear in 14 days, on Thursday 14 September 2023.
For further reading:
https://www.bim.hu-berlin.de/de/aktuelles/nachrichten/new-article-the-arab-clans2019-discourse-narrating-racialization-kinship-and-crime-in-the-german-media201d
https://verfassungsblog.de/about-the-so-called-clan-crime/
https://www.fr.de/politik/clan-kriminalitaet-deutschland-gefaehrliche-diskurse-ueber-kriminalitaet-analyse-92460442.html
https://www.ardaudiothek.de/sendung/clanland/88563834/