Squatting in Racialized Berlin 1975-2015: Vietnamese Transnational Subjectivity in a Climatic Double Division
Abstract
Diasporic communities and transnational discourses have become important research topics of late, though they have existed for centuries and their studies have remained uneven. I have argued elsewhere that the Vietnamese diasporas have emerged much earlier than the year 1975, but this historic year marks the greatest exodus out of Vietnam and the subsequent formations of Vietnamese diasporic communities around the world. In this paper, I look at the Vietnamese populations in the German capitol Berlin(s). During my four fieldwork trips to Berlin (and other parts of Germany, in March 2005, June 2005, August 2005, and March 2008), I encountered Vietnamese from both East and West Germany, and heeded their expressions on the challenges of the historical 1954 North-South partition of Vietnam and the present East-West division in Berlin. I paid particular attention to how Vietnamese Berliners’ perception that the North-South division, which is felt across the Vietnamese diasporas worldwide, is at its climax in Berlin.
Weaving together excerpts from field notes and oral history interviews, I show that the Vietnamese immigration experiences in Germany – which continues till today – are much more complex and diverse than the perceived East-North/West-South double division. I argue that Vietnam’s colonial history, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and Germany’s history of division have all contributed to the continued North-South opposition found among the Vietnamese Berliners. As such, I argue that Vietnamese are squatting in racialized Berlin(s), forging a borderland-motherland diasporic subjectivity within a climatic double division. Squatting – both physically and metaphorically – is a form of resistance that enables the Vietnamese Berliners to carve out a space for themselves in an exclusionary Berlin, evoking how human bodies are simultaneously sites of trans-national racialization as well as sites of transformation.
OUTLINE:
- Fieldwork and Contextualization
- Historicization of Racialized Vietnamese Berlins
- Excerpted Immigration Oral History Narratives
- Squatting as Resistance and Agency
- Borderland-motherland Diasporic Subjectivity
- Vietnamese Berliners in Climatic Division
Keywords
References
Oral History Interviews in Vietnamese in Chronological Order
These are oral history interviews I conducted across the years since 2004 in Sweden, Poland, and Germany. I conducted the interviews in Vietnamese, transcribed, and translated them into English.
Note: Names in quotation marks (Kay, Uncle Stateless, Mr. Trường Sơn, Sister Autonomy) are pseudonyms for narrators who wish for their stories to be anonymous and without tape recording. The names are based on self-identification characteristics of the narrators. Kay is a name I came up with for a lady who split her time between Germany and Sweden. Uncle Stateless is an undocumented immigrant living in Bandaghen, Stockholm, who calls himself a stateless and had come to Sweden from Eastern Germany. Mr. Trường Sơn speaks about the Vietnam War and posits that the Trường Sơn route (during the Vietnam War) is not justifiable in the face of human loss. Sister Autonomy invokes the difficulty of straddling a Vietnamese-oriented family environment and a German individualistic society. Those names are only mnemonic cues to help me keep track of the narratives and field notes.
From the Vietnamese Stockholm Project:
“Kay” & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. September 30, 2004. Stockholm, Sweden.
Phan Hiển Mạnh & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. November 6, 2004. Malmo, Sweden.
“Uncle Stateless” & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. December 2004. Stockholm, Sweden.
From the Vietnamese Berlin Project, 2005:
“Mr. Trường Sơn” & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 6, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Lê Thắng Lợi & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Owner of Thủy Tiên Wholesale & Cultural Center (non-recorded, with video footage of the Center). Berlin, Germany. March 6, 2005.
Ms. Đào (cloth stand at Ost Bahnhof Station) & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview (at open air market, non-recorded). March 6, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Mr. Dũng & Spouse (China Pan food stand owner) & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview (at open air market, non-recorded). March 6, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
H.P. & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview (at residence, non-recorded). March 6, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Thúy Nonnemann & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 7, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Phạm Đặng Hiển & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 7, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Trần Thị Hồng Sương & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 7, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Nguyễn Đình Tam & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 7, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
Dr. Phạm Việt Vinh & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 8, 2005. Berlin, Germany.
From the Vietnamese Warsaw Project, 2005:
Võ Thành Khánh & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. September 1, 2005. Warsaw, Poland.
Nguyễn Văn Khanh & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview (non-recorded). August 26, 2008. Warsaw, Poland.
From the Vietnamese Berlin Project, 2008:
Phan Đăng Hiển & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 11, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Bùi Ngọc Yến & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 11, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
“Surrogate Grandma” & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 14, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
“Sister Autonomy” & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 14, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Mai Hà Phượng & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 15, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Dương Văn Đá & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 15, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Rev. Anton Đỗ Ngọc Hà & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 17, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Phạm Thị Hà Thu & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 18, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Hà Minh Châu (Mr. & Mrs.) & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 18, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Ms. Bình Phạm & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 19, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Ms. “Guest Worker” (at flower shop, Ost Bahnhof) & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 19, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Nguyễn Sơn Thạch & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 19, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Dr. Nguyễn Văn Hương & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 20, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Đỗ Thế Hoàng & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 21, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Hồ Văn Phước & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 21, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Nguyễn Văn Hưng & Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn. Oral History Interview. March 21, 2008. Berlin, Germany.
Author’s Publications on Vietnamese Berlin
Guest lecture. “Cyber Exclusion in the Global Information Age: Stateless Vietnamese in Tonle Sap, Berlin, and Warsaw.” Women’s Studies 795/ International Studies 795/895: Gender and International Migration. Spring 2012. (Invited by Ms. Erika Frydenlund and Dr. Jennifer N. Fish, Associate Professor and Chair of Women's Studies, Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA).
“Cyber Exclusion in the Global Information Age: Stateless Vietnamese in Tonle Sap, Berlin, and Warsaw.” Internationals Studies Association, Annual Convention.
-2010. “Viet Birds, World Sky,” a commissioned bilingual weekly column, Việt Herald Daily. Orange County, CA, USA.
Bilingual Keynote. “Thuyền Nhân Việt Nam Toàn Cầu trong Thiên Niên Kỷ Thứ Ba: Tìm Lịch Sử, Giữ Tương Lai. Vietnamese Boat People in the Third Millennium: Seeking History, Growing Legacy.” Year-long Project and Multidisciplinary Program: “Ra Khơi: Tưởng Niệm Thuyền Nhân Vượt Biển. Set Sail: Commemorating the Vietnamese Boat People.” Gạch Nối Magazine and Association, UC San Diego.
“Vietnamese Berlins 1975-2010: Historical Inequalities, Contemporary Diversities.”All-Grad Research Symposium, UC San Diego.
“Vietnamese Berlins 1975-2008: Historical Divergence, Contemporary Integration.” Crossing Borders Conference, “Serve the People? Ethnic Studies Between Theory and Practice.” University of Southern California.
“Immigration in the Vietnamese Diasporas: 1975-2008,” Bilingual Keynote. Black April Commemoration, Colina Park, San Diego. VAYA Vietnamese American Youth Alliance.
Radio Multikulti. “Vietnamese Berlin Project.” Interviewed by Mr. Phan Đăng Hiển for the Vietnamese section. (2 consecutive sessions).
“In Their Own Spaces: Children En Route.” Enthnographic Documentary, ftsmj Productions. Premier screening at Anthropology Conference, UC Davis.
Issue’s Feature. “Which Route? Vietnamese Communities around the Globe.” Nhà Magazine, a San Jose-based monthly publication focusing on Life Style, Culture, and Identity.
“The Stateless and the Nameless: Sovereignty in the Liberal World.” 5th Annual Conference of Ethnic Studies in California. “Ghosts, Monsters, and the Dead.” UC San Diego.
"The Subtexts of Conjurals and Construals: Children En Route.” A Documentary, Premiere. Symposium “Midnight University.” University Club, UC Davis.
, Summer. The Funnel, a newsmagazine of the German American Fulbright Commission. Number 2, Volume 41. Pg 15 (Trangdai Tranguyen, Fulbrighter in Sweden, discusses the continuing psychological division of Berlin with André Schmitz during the reception at city hall.)
Interview by Ms. Nguyễn Huỳnh Mai for the New Horizon Radio. “Trangđài Trầnguyễn: Her Fulbright Project in Sweden and Perspectives about Vietnamese in Europe.”
“Contemporary Childhood in the Vietnamese Diasporas.” 37th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology. Stockholm, Sweden.
Radio Multikulti. “A Fulbrighter’s Initial Observations about Vietnamese in Berlin.” Interviewed by Mr. Phan Đăng Hiển for the Vietnamese section. (2 consecutive sessions).
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