CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Abu Assaf, Abdo |
|---|---|
| Title | From Integration to Alienation: Promises of Inclusion, Practices of Exclusion |
| Summary | This thesis critically interrogates the concept of integration, revealing it not as a neutral or inclusive process, but as a deeply politicized and exclusionary practice. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of Mein Leben in Österreich: Chancen und Regeln—the official brochure used in Austria’s integration courses—it illustrates how integration narratives reproduce societal hierarchies and sustain national imaginaries rooted in colonial legacies. By examining the brochure as a concrete site where these dynamics are enacted, the thesis shows how refugees are positioned as permanent outsiders: invited to mimic an idealized national identity, yet perpetually excluded through subtle mechanisms of language, representation, and state discipline. Integration thus emerges not as a pathway to belonging, but as a form of governance shaped by surveillance, conditionality, and what Berlant terms “cruel optimism. Grounded in critical theories and critical migration studies, this thesis argues that integration functions less as a vehicle for inclusion and more as a technology of governance, managing difference while reinforcing national boundaries under the guise of belonging. |
| Supervisor | Strausz, Erzsebet |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/abu-assaf_abdo.pdf |
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