Immigrant Youth, Hip Hop, and Online Games

Alternative Approaches to the Inclusion of Working-Class and Second Generation Migrant Teens

By (author) Barbara Franz Contributions by Gerit Götzenbrucker, Fares Kayali, Jürgen Pfeffer, Peter Purgathofer, Vera Schwarz

Publication date:

13 August 2015

Length of book:

206 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498500920

Anti-Muslim racism with its attendant xenophobia and (the fear of) Salafist hostility are two of the most essential problems facing Europe today. Both result from the enormous failure of the continent’s integration policies, which have either insisted on immigrants’ rigid assimilation or left immigrants to fend for themselves. This book radically breaks with contemporary approaches to immigrant assimilation and integration. Instead it examines non-institutional approaches that facilitate immigrant inclusion through the examples of three alternative small-scale projects that have impacted the lives of urban working-class youth, specifically with second-generation immigrant roots, in Vienna, Austria. These projects involve online gaming, hip hop as an art form, and social work as emancipatory pedagogic practice (commonly referred to as street work). This book investigates working-class teenagers’ social networks and describes an online game designed to provide a platform for interaction between non-immigrant and immigrant youth who usually either do not interact or display prejudice when they engage each other. Hip hop can provide both a necessary outlet for alienated youth to articulate their frustrations and a highly effective tool for transforming inclusion conflicts. Social work with marginalized youth is crucial for successful inclusion. Specifically individual support in small-scale settings provides a unique opportunity to open up spaces for discouraged and disaffected teenagers to gain self-worth and dignity. While the book focuses on identity formation and the teenagers’ agency, it argues that only projects that include both “newcomer” and “native” can aid in overcoming exclusionary attitudes and policies, eventually allowing some form of social bonding to take place.

Chapter 1: Diversity and Identity: Political History, Immigration Law and Identity Markers —Working with Inner-City Youth
Chapter 2: Social Networks: Stronger and Weaker Ties in Diverse Webs
Chapter 3: Internet Games: Games for Change?
By Barbara Franz, Fares Kayali, Gerit Götzenbrucker, Vera Schwarz, Jürgen Pfeffer, and Peter Purgathofer
Chapter 4: Between Jihadism, Vulgarism and Identity Creation: Turkish Underground Rap in Vienna, Austria
Chapter 5: The Social Worker: Back Bone or How Small Local Programs Can Make Remarkable Differences

This is a fascinating book which reminds us of the pluralism, equality, social classes, interculturalism, and richness of everyday life in modern societies. Migrant-origin youth in Austria are very well depicted in this work referring to their constant struggle in the processes of political, social, and cultural recognition vis-a-vis majority society. The reader can also trace the sources of radicalization of migrant-origin youth as well as the ways in which they translate their ongoing structural exclusion to productive forms of expression such as rap music.