On the Making of the German 'Refugee Crisis': Securitizing Muslim Immigrants in 2015 and Beyond

This paper contributes to solving the following research puzzle: When the influx of refugees from Syria and elsewhere to Germany significantly increased, German society and politics seemed to be rather robust in the face of xenophobic and right-wing populist movements; however, only 2years later, the Alternative für Deutschland made it into the Bundestag, and in late 2018 Chancellor Angela Merkel could solve agovernmentalcrisis triggeredbythe 'refugee crisis' onlybyannouncingher stepwise withdrawal from political offices. The making of the 'refugee crisis' was facilitated by a securitization policy. On three crucial cases of domestic politics-security, socioeconomics, andsocio-cultural politics-it isshownthat right-wingpopulism proved to be capable of dominating the political agenda as it came up with argumentation figures that were-though not hegemonic-also prominent among leading politicians on the whole political spectrum in Germany from the right to the left.