Sampled identities: The micro- and macro-political integration of migrant descendants at the Hamburg HipHop Academy

The former West Germany recruited Turkish Gastarbeiter (guestworkers) from 1961-1973 without intending for them to stay. Additional African, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern migrants and asylum-seekers further changed the social landscape of the nation-state. Due in part to negative media representation of Muslims, German societal perceptions of ethnic Muslim migrants\u27 macro-political integration remain low despite increasing education levels and language competence among migrant descendants. Hamburg\u27s culture bureau funds integration programs that foster intercultural and international exchanges and subsequently bridge migrants and ethnic Germans. Founded in 2007, the Hamburg HipHop Academy transmits shared ethics through hip-hop courses. Students who demonstrate discipline, respect, punctuality, and determination can micro-politically integrate into the Academy and ascend the ranks to the elite Ensemble. Once part of this community of practice, youth act as cultural ambassadors for Germany and Hamburg and display the macro-political integration of migrant descendants through dance theater productions. Based on participant observation and interviews I completed during 2011-2014 with present and former Academy students, trainers, parents, and administrators, integration workers and community members, this dissertation analyzes youth recognition of and responses to the city\u27s use of hip-hop as a tool of social integration, discipline, and soft power, outlining how the Academy\u27s intervention in and censorship of youth self-expression affect their participation, feelings of belonging, sensory memories, and performance. Increasingly, the Academy focuses on training youth to be professional artists and transforming hip-hop from a protest art form into Hochkultur (high culture). I argue that the Academy\u27s transmission of ethics via micro-political integration and censored performances of macro-political integration benefit the city-state\u27s presentation as a cohesive, globally-oriented civic society but impede participants\u27 artistic freedom to sample hybrid identities through sound and movement. Although the Academy produces bonding social capital by bringing migrant youth together, bridging with people from different social backgrounds via the Academy is minimal and primarily occurs through the international exchanges of the Ensemble and Showgruppen (show groups). Looking forward, social integration programs that utilize culture should emphasize bridging and double-sided integration and should encourage rather than suppress participants\u27 abilities to sample their unique identities through artistic expression