Emotions in the Crisis: Mobilising for Refugees in Germany and Sweden

Abstract

This chapter analyses the role of emotions in the mobilisations of support for refugees in Germany and Sweden. While it charts the field of pertinent forms of mobilisations in both countries, the analysis focuses on the predominant form of mobilisation during the so-called refugee crisis—welcome initiatives. In both countries, compassion has been a formative emotion for welcome initiatives. Compassion, in turn, can be traced in the discursive construction of the ‘refugee crisis’ and the first-hand experience of it on the ground. A second formative context for some of the emotional bases of welcome initiatives can be found in nationalism, which welcome discourse has been tangled up with. Differences in the emotional regime of nationalism also explain some of the differences between the Swedish and German mobilisations. In the former, there was also a current of greater politicisation and feelings of political solidarity.