Navigating the national imaginary: internalized racism within integration narratives

This paper explores internalized racism by examining how Syrian refugees narrate their social positioning within German society. It conceptualizes integration as part of a hegemonic social imaginary – collectively shared and affectively charged frameworks of meaning that shape understandings of belonging. The findings show how participants adopt the guest–host metaphor, positioning themselves as recipients of German benevolence. Moreover, they often relativize experiences of racism, shifting critique away from structural inequalities toward inter-migrant dynamics. Boundary-making practices emerge as strategies for inclusion that simultaneously reinforce forms of differential inclusion. The analysis further highlights the role of affects as both shaping and being shaped by imaginaries. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that internalized racism is not only shaped by dominant integration discourses and coercive policies but also by pre-existing imaginaries rooted in the Syrian context. In this sense, participants’ navigation of Germany’s national imaginary is a negotiation of various political frameworks and affective registers.