Gulcin Kazan Doger
10 January 2024•Update: 10 January 2024
ISTANBUL
The German police categories "southerner" and "southern appearance" for suspects or criminals violate the basic constitutional right of individuals "not to be racially discriminated against," according to a scholar and researcher specializing in language and migration.
Clara Ervedosa from the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, told Anadolu about the concept of "southerner" in German police reports and how this concept feeds the already existing prejudice against immigrants.
Ervedosa said that the category is used as a form of racial profiling to characterize the appearance of perpetrators.
She continued: "The Southern category basically stigmatizes people as non-white and therefore non-German, regardless of where they were born, where they are originally from and what religion they belong to."
Expressing that the term "Southerner" was first used in the 1950s with the increase in migration from Southern European countries to Germany, Ervedosa said that the ethnic groups included in this category changed according to the dynamics of the period.
"Who is included in this category depends on the groups that are the focus of politics and the media. Italians in the 1950s, Turks since the 70s, and the predominantly Arabic-speaking population since 11 September and 2015 are included in this category,” Ervedosa said.
Pointing out that people in the Southern category have a common appearance such as black hair and beard, dark skin and brown eyes, Ervedosa said: "Separating people on the basis of their appearance, skin color and attributing innate characteristics to them is one of the broadest and most common forms of racist thinking and behavior.”
‘Fueling prejudice against migrants’
Ervedosa said that the concept of "southerner" can trigger racist attacks by fueling prejudice in society, especially against immigrants, and reminded the racist murders committed by the terrorist organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany between 2000 and 2007.
"Numerous studies show that in Germany people who are perceived to be from the south are the targets of racism. If we look at the events in Solingen, the NSU scandal or the events in Hanau, the victims of the most important racist attacks in recent years were from the south from the German point of view. In the Hanau attack in particular, the attacker himself used this term and even mentioned it in his racist manifesto,” Ervedosa continued.
Speaking about the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany after 2017, Ervedosa said: "A major contributor to this rise was the media perception of the one million refugees who came mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in 2015. These refugees were 'Südlanders' in the eyes of the Germans.”
On the other hand, Ervedosa underlined that the media's treatment of migrants is similar to the police's characterization of southerners.
‘German police's use of the southerner category is unconstitutional’
Saying that according to the German constitution, everyone who is a citizen of Germany is German regardless of race or skin color, Ervedosa said that the German police acted against the basic principles of the constitution by using the southern category.
Ervedosa said that the police alleged that they had good intentions in using the southern category and this practice facilitated the identification of criminals, adding: "Whether the police had the intention to discriminate intentionally is of secondary importance. What matters is the effect of using this category.”
She added: “By means of its high reputation and its ability, in the words of (French philosopher Michel) Foucault, to make statements and take action, the police not only encourage and institutionally legitimize racism, but also act unconstitutionally.”
Ervedosa also emphasized that the German authorities alienated the community by continuing to use the term "southerner."
She added: "Ending the use of the terms 'Südlander' and 'Südlandisches Aussehen' in police reports would not be an act of charity, but rather an act of respect for constitutional and human rights, which Germany, as a democratic country after the catastrophe of Nazism, committed to when it enacted the Basic Law on 23 May 1949.”
Ervedosa said: “As a state institution, the police and its supervising ministry must adapt their language and terminology to the German constitution. The use of categories such as 'Südlander' in police reports should be banned and condemned in anti-discrimination work at European and United Nations level."
*Writing in Istanbul by Zeynep Cetin
