Sounding Like Refugees: Intercultural Music-Making and Syrian Refugee Integration in Northern Germany

Following the large-scale migration of Syrian refugees to Europe in 2015, German music organizations and professional Syrian refugee musicians established intercultural music activities throughout the country. Ethnographic inquiry reveals that these activities develop under the pressure of a variety of social and political forces. Systemic racial inequities in Western Europe have shaped supranational and national intercultural policies, as well as the German public, to visually and sonically perceive Syrian refugees as non-European Others. Professional musicians Aeham Ahmad and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra perform musics that defy generic classifications that categorize people by race or place of origin. Yet German media consistently ties these musicians’ performances to their refugee status and relation to the “Orient.” Within this network of intercultural activities, three amateur ensembles in Hamburg differ in choosing to be open to all refugees regardless of background, or exclude refugees based on Western perceptions of musical skill. This dissertation finds that integration through intercultural music-making in northern Germany is a process that Germans sometimes use to distinguish themselves from racialized refugees. Even so, Syrian professional musicians and amateur ensembles resist essentialized identities and model more equitable and compassionate ways to welcome refugees through intercultural music performance.