Contemporary society thrives on the participation of the many. Accordingly, participation in a society increasingly works through claiming acceptance through difference and no longer through adaptation to the majority. In this sense, successful integration means that a growing number of migrants represent their interests, demand rights and assert claims. With this in mind, the increasingly vocal controversies about racism and anti-Semitism can be understood as evidence of a society that reacts more sensitively to every form of discrimination. But the claims of the many also trigger defensive reactions. What, therefore, is needed is a social path that is capable of taking along both: people who are afraid of the role of a loser as well as those who would like to cast it off.
Aladin El-Mafaalani is a sociologist and holds the Chair of Education in the Migration Society at the University of Osnabrück. At the same time, as a representative of the Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration (MKFFI) in NRW, he oversees the "Coordination Office for Muslim Engagement in NRW" and is a member of the Advisory Board for Participation and Integration of the State of NRW. His books "Das Integrationsparadox" (2018), "Mythos Bildung" (2020) and "Wozu Rassismus?" (2021) were on the bestseller lists. For his research, Aladin El-Mafaalani was awarded, among others, the Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Public Effectiveness in Sociology of the German Sociological Association.