Von Unworten zu Untaten: Kulturängste, Populismus und politische Feindbilder in der deutschen Migrations- und Asyldiskussion zwischen 'Gastarbeiterfrage' und 'Flüchtlingskrise' [2016]

The immigration society in Germany is divided: Cultural pragmatists, on the one hand, have long since accepted cultural diversity as a very normal day-to-day experience. Cultural pessimists, on the other hand, are driven by the historically mistaken search for a way back to cultural homogeneity; a situation that has never existed in German history. Virulent defensive attitudes against an Islam which is equated with terroristic Islamism, against refugees and asylum seekers as well as against so-called poverty migrants, especially Roma people from south-east-Europe, are today’s connecting themes that keep together all culturalistic, radical racist and right-wing extremistic ideas and movements in Germany and Europe. On top of that, a new and growing anti-Semitism is widespread even among Muslim immigrants. Such defensive attitudes provoked a growing xeno-phobic aggressiveness among radical groups and were a motivating factor for attacks on accommodations of asylum seekers, mosques, and synagogues. In this context even more dangerous than populist attitudes of politicians is their tacit consent with hate speeches about immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and so-called poverty migrants.