3. Producing Integration

The Translation of Non/belonging in Germany and the United States

Catherine S. Ramírez and Christoph Rass

Forum: Translation, Migration, Narrative

History and Theory 64, no. 3 (2025)

This essay examines how the concept of integration has been produced, translated, and institutionalized in Germany and the United States as a key element of policy frameworks that migranticize some people and, thus, translate them as outsiders. By combining conceptual history and translation theory, we analyze how the meaning of integration has evolved within academic and political discourse, tracing its emergence as a key category in migration governance. We argue that the production of what integration means can be read via and as translation, resulting in an ambiguous medium that structures access to belonging in a way that facilitates the reproduction of exclusionary hierarchies. We begin by outlining our theoretical framework, linking cultural translation with conceptual history to examine how integration operates as a dynamic but historically contingent concept. We then explore integration in Germany, tracing its genealogy from racializing notions during the Nazi years to its institutionalization as a migration policy in a multicultural society during the twenty-first century. Next, we turn our attention to the US, where integration remains undefined in official policy but is shaped through differential inclusion in the market and illegality. Focusing on Duldung and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, we argue that the German and US systems translate older forms of exclusion into contemporary governance structures. Far from a neutral or inclusive concept, integration becomes operative as a tool for regulating mobility and non/belonging through a twofold translation: the production of what integration means determines how the concept translates people.

Photo by Todd Trapani