{"id":1430,"date":"2014-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/07-06-2014-university-of-leipzig-majority-of-germans-rejects-sinti-and-roma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:48:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:48:18","slug":"07-06-2014-university-of-leipzig-majority-of-germans-rejects-sinti-and-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/07-06-2014-university-of-leipzig-majority-of-germans-rejects-sinti-and-roma\/","title":{"rendered":"07.06.2014 University of Leipzig: majority of Germans rejects Sinti and Roma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Steinmetz (2014) reports \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton the study \u201cThe stabilised centre – right-wing attitudes in Germany 2014\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom the University of Leipzig. The report comes to the conclusion that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tright-wing extremism generally decreases in Germany, however, the rejection of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tindividual ethnic groups has increased. The authors connect the positive trend \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttowards a decreasing number of extreme right-wing positions to \u2013 among others \u2013 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe stable economic growth in Germany. However, the country is an island in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis respect, as in other European countries right-wing nationalist views are strongly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tincreasing. As a right-wing extremism, authors of the study identify advocates \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof dictatorship, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, social Darwinism, trivialization of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNazism and chauvinism. Steinmetz summarizes the findings as follows: \u201cAlmost half of all German citizens want to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tban Sinti and Roma from the inner cities, the study found. 56 percent of the respondents \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstate that this group tends to crime. And almost as many would have a problem if \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSinti and Roma would stay in their neighbourhood. The representative survey is based \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton numbers that the opinion research institute Usuma collected in the spring of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014. Nearly 2,500 people were interviewed in person.\u201d<\/em> The authors of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstudy further detect an east-west division, with East-Germany having five \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpercent higher approval for extreme right-wing positions than in West Germany. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn addition, they show a clear correlation between a lack of education and the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsusceptibility to extreme right-wing positions. Therefore \u201c6.8 percent of people with a high school degree, but 20.8 percent \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twithout A levels [are] xenophobic\u201d<\/em> (Universit\u00e4t Leipzig 2014\/I). Nevertheless, extreme right-wing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpositions are present among the followers of all parties. The susceptibility to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\txenophobic opinions lies among voters of the CDU, SPD and the Left at around 17 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpercent. The authors identify the latent willingness of up to 31 percent of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpopulation to agree to far-right positions as worrying: \u201cThe amount of the undecided suggests that these people could again \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcompletely agree with extreme views in the case of a deterioration of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teconomic situation, said the sociologist Elmar Br\u00e4hler\u201d<\/em> (Locke 2014). That can \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbe interpreted in terms of a passive tolerance and therefore approval of these \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\textreme positions. This tendency is disturbing insofar as the seizure of power \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby right-wing extremists has only been possible in the past, because a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsignificant part of the population passively tolerated it. The phenomenon that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tresentments align against certain groups is called \u201csecondary \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tauthoritarianism” by the authors. This kind of racism can \u2013 among others \u2013 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbe explained with the subordination of society to economic values\u200b\u200b, and with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taggressions toward deviants and weak persons: \u201cNot migrants in general are rejected, many Germans think now: they contribute \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsomething to us. But those that trigger the imagination, that are fundamentally \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdifferent or have a good life without work, attract anger towards themselves.\u201d Scientists \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcall this phenomenon the secondary authoritarianism. The position of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teconomy in Germany plays an important role. \u201c[The Economy] has become something \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlike an unquestionable authority\u201d\u201d<\/em> (Universit\u00e4t Leipzig 2014, compare Ambrosi \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014, Berliner Zeitung 2014, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness-Panorama 2014, Clauss 2014, Conrad 2014, Decker\/Kiess\/Br\u00e4hler 2014, Die \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWelt 2014, Der Westen 2014, Netz-gegen-Nazis 2014, Neues Deutschland 2014, Osnabr\u00fccker \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZeitung 2014, Van den Berg 2014).<\/p>\n

The vice president of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma, Silvio Peritore, suggests in an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinterview on the occasion of the new study that the Rroma, or more precisely a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdeliberately constructed image of immigrant Rroma, was used in campaigning. Many \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpopulist politicians stated that the Rroma come in masses from Southeast Europe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto Germany, in order to live at the expense of the welfare state. Populism \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcompletely negates that there were and are a lot of non-Rroma that migrate to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGermany and Western Europe, as well as that many well-qualified migrants come. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnother problem is the equation of all Rroma, both the integrated living as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twell as the new immigrants, to a picture that doesn\u2019t do justice to reality: \u201cYou must distinguish. We have 70,000 German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSinti and Roma who are completely integrated, have jobs, the children go to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tschool. These people cannot be compared with immigrants who come to Germany to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfind work. Twelve million European Gypsies are just not a homogeneous mass. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat all have in common is the concept of the so-called Gypsy, with which they \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare labelled. […] Many are afraid to be known as so-called Gypsies because \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthey could then face problems at work or in finding accommodation. I myself \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thave concealed my origin for a long time.\u201d<\/em> Peritore is optimistic that one \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcan change the public image of the Rroma to the positive among those who have \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot totally deadlocked their opinion. It is significant in this regard that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsusceptibility to xenophobic opinions is significantly higher where there are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfewer foreigners (Leurs 2014).<\/p>\n