Humanitarian immigration and German national identity in the media

Immigration can be an important component in the formation of national identity. I draw on Hegelian dialectics to interpret media debate of the recent German immigration law and the role of humanitarian immigration in constructing Germany's national identity. A discourse analysis examines 609 articles published in five daily newspapers between 2001 and 2005. The media represents the German state as safeguarding human rights and international law, but a truncated dialectical process fails to resolve the boundary between the national self and the refugee and asylum seeking Other.