Civil Society Organizations and the Challenges of Migration and Diversity: Agents of Change (SP Trade Unions)

The joint project investigates how and by what means civil society organisations change in the face of migration and social diversity. Civil society organisations play a central role in social self-organisation and participation processes; they are indispensable for social integration in developed democracies. In general, we know today that migration processes also change the receiving societies. At the same time, however, we know about the persistence of institutions and organisations and the processes of exclusion and discrimination that are often associated with them. The project explores this tension with a focus on conditions and actors that drive change towards more openness, diversity and participation. The focus is on organisations for whose identity difference and participation are constitutive, as they represent specific, potentially disadvantaged population groups. This subproject deals with “ver.di”, the second largest single trade union in Germany. It examines whether and in what way this organisation changes in the course of migration and migration-related diversity. How does an organisation that defines itself primarily through questions of social difference deal with other, culturally coded forms of difference? What role do different organisational levels, member groups, regional influences and, for example, workplace co-determination play in this?