Polen Tasche

These cheap Chinese-made plastic-weave bags have become almost synonymous with refugees and poorer migrants the world over, much like the carpet-bags of centuries gone by. Today the movement of these people is as contentious as ever.

The bags are frequently named after the most common immigrant demographic in an area. They are colloquially dubbed things like: ‘Ghana must go’ in Nigeria, ‘Turken Koffer’ or ‘Polen Tasche’ in Germany, ‘Guyanese Samsonite’ in the Caribbean, ‘Bangladeshi Bag’ in the UK, and ‘Shangaan or Zimbabwe Bag’ in South Africa.

– Dan Halter, 2014