Germans or Foreigners?

Attitudes Toward Ethnic Minorities in Post-Reunification Germany

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by Richard D. Alba,

Edited by Richard Alba and Peter Schmidt

Palgrave

Due/Published January 2004, 308 pages, cloth

ISBN 1403963789

This book examines contemporary attitudes towards ethnic minorities in Germany. These minorities include some of immigrant origin, such as Italians, Turks, and asylum seekers, and the principal non-immigrant minority, Jews. While the findings demonstrate that intense prejudice against minorities is not widespread among Germans, many of whom in fact can be considered immigrant- and minority-friendly, a crystallization of attitudes is also evident: that is, attitudes towards immigrants are strongly correlated with anti-Semitism and with other worldview dimensions, such as positioning in the left-right political spectrum. In this sense, the fundamental question of whether immigrants and other minorities should be regarded as fellow citizens or ethnic outsiders remains relevant in the German context.