Integration myths both obscured and drove postwar absorption of expellees

Evidence

While ‘flight and expulsion’ and the ‘exodus’ of Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs have been remembered extensively, the integration of these groups in postwar Germany and France has not. Myths have obscured how conflicted and protracted this process of assimilation actually was. Fictions of national unity and ethnic homogeneity have disguised the cultural differences and diversity that these two groups brought to the two postwar societies, which were further augmented by concomitant or subsequent immigrants who were not considered an integral part of the national community. Such myths were the driving forces of the remarkable integration efforts in Germany and France vis-à-vis these peculiar groups of migrants. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 104

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to reader’s learned example that ideological fictions can be productive social forces — manufactured narratives serve practical functions. — connects to: Irredentist homeland claims paradoxically sped expellee integration — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 83; Expellee organizations sustained West German revanchism by reinforcing refusal to accept the postwar border — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 190; The postwar boom both enabled displaced integration and was itself fueled by that workforce — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 38 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The postwar boom both enabled displaced integration and was itself fueled by that workforce #expands (0.80) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 38
• Irredentist homeland claims paradoxically sped expellee integration #corroborates (0.78) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 83
• Successful economic integration did not dissolve expellee political communities organized around lost-homeland grievance #qualifies (0.78) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 33
• Expellee organizations sustained West German revanchism by reinforcing refusal to accept the postwar border #complicates (0.75) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 190