The more than 600-page report bundles the findings on questions of (political) participation, democracy education and various forms of youth engagement. The core of the 16th report for children and young people is the investigation of the question of how and in what forms young people participate, practice democratic education and what significance civic education has for young people. The report also focuses on aspects of diversity and heterogeneity in the context of political education. In this context, a central question is how young people with migration histories and young people of color participate, find their own ways of getting involved and what hurdles stand in the way of getting involved.
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(Image: BMFSFJ)
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This is where the expertise of Prof. * in Dr. Birgit Jagusch and explores the contributions of associations of young people with migration histories and young people of color (VJM) to extracurricular political education in Germany. The expertise was commissioned by the expert commission for the preparation of the 16th child and youth report. The aim is to give examples of the first insights into the contributions made by young people with migration histories or BPoC and, in an institutionalized context, by associations of young people with migration histories (VJM) for political youth education. The expertise relates only to the field of extracurricular youth work and the activities gathered there and, due to the fact that no preliminary work has been done on this topic, be it scientific studies or practical research projects, it breaks new ground. In a post-migrant society it is necessary to consider the inclusions and exclusions within the arenas of extracurricular youth work and political education and to look for ways in which barriers and exclusions can be prevented. How, where and with what are young people reached by political youth education from a diversity-specific point of view and who has not yet been sufficiently taken into account? How do the topics and content priorities of political youth education change in a post-migrant society? How can we succeed in anchoring diversity sensitivity from declamatory rhetoric in the practice of political youth education? Which providers of measures and offers of political youth education currently exist in Germany and how are these recognized, seen and heard in the specialist discourses on a scientific and political level? These are just some of the questions that arise from a diversity-sensitive perspective in political youth education.
On the basis of a document analysis, which was evaluated by means of a content analysis process, 5 points can be summarized as a balance sheet:
- VJM are the carriers of political youth education measures, but the diverse project landscape is not yet reflected in the specialist discourse
- The practice of political youth education is an indicator of the further development of political youth education in post-migrant society
- Cooperation is a good way to participate in the structures of political youth education
- Empowerment and representation are central motives for youth policy engagement of the VJM
- The thematic focal points of the projects critically question the dominant narratives that young people with migration histories and BPoC mark as stereotyping, deficit-oriented or as not belonging
Finally, some questions arise from the expertise that can provide impetus for politics, science and practice in political youth education for further discussion of the topic:
- How can VJM be promoted even more as an independent agency for political youth education?
- How can a balance be found between the necessary and valuable cooperation between different actors, which generates important synergies and the simultaneously necessary search for ways to strengthen the independent structural anchoring of VJM in the youth-political arenas and committees?
- How can the visibility of VJM’s services in the context of political youth education be increased?
- How can the content-theoretical impulses that are set by the work of the VJM in the context of historical-political, racism-critical or democracy-educational political youth education flow more strongly into the specialist discourses on a scientific and political level?
- How can the desire of the VJM for representation and visibility be sustainably strengthened?
- How can recognition and appreciation be implemented not only on a purely declamatory but on a factual level?
Finally, the conclusion can be drawn for the expertise that extracurricular political youth education in post-migrant society needs an expansion of representation and participation practices. It is necessary to adapt to the realities of postmigrant society both in terms of the providers and the issues of political youth education. The VJM exemplarily show how memory education can be contoured in post-migrant society, how racism-critical empowerment can become part of the canon of political youth education or how important it is to rely on the know-how and expertise of young people in topics such as environmental education or political institutional studies Recourse to people with migration histories. Here it is important to show recognition to the VJM and to open the arenas of youth political education to representational practices of the VJM.
The results of the expertise have been incorporated into the corresponding chapters of the KJR. The expertise will soon appear at: https://www.dji.de/ueber-uns/projekte/projekte/geschaeftsfuehrung-16-kinder-und-jugendbericht.html
Literature: Jagusch, Birgit (2020): Political education in and through associations of young people with a migration history (VJM), Cologne
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