Product Description
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.
About the Author
RICHARD ALBA is Professor of Sociology at SUNY Albany. His books include
Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America (1990) and
Italian Americans: Into the Twilight of Ethnicity (1985). He has also served as vice-president of the American Sociology Association.
PETER SCHMIDT is Professor in the Institute for Political Science, University of Giessen. He is the author of four books in German.
MARTINA WASMER works at ZUMA (The Center for Survey Research and Methodology), Mannheim.