Irredentist homeland claims paradoxically sped expellee integration

Evidence

In several respects, they lobbied, mostly successfully, for similar goals such as housing, employment, and material compensation. Yet, the specific Heimatpolitik (‘homeland policy’) pursued by the Vertriebenenverbände marked a notable difference between the two cases: from the outset, expellee associations sought to promote distinct expellee cultures and lobbied to return to their homelands as their main (long-term) goal. Ironically, it was this very core of separatist Heimatpolitik that, according to Ahonen, expedited the expellees’ integration into West German society. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 83

Categorization

• QUESTION: How exactly did focusing on an unachievable return to homelands speed integration rather than block it? The narcotic/emotional-compensation mechanism is worth unpacking.
• DEEPTHINKING: A group’s own most polarizing myth can serve as the emotional vehicle for its quiet assimilation — the very ‘defeat’ of the demand is what made living in the new society bearable.
• XREF: connects to: Integration myths both obscured and drove postwar absorption of expellees — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 104; Clinging to lost-homeland identity actively blocked expellee assimilation — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 381; Return-homeland promises to expellees sapped their will to integrate economically — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 382 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Clinging to lost-homeland identity actively blocked expellee assimilation #contradicts (0.85) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 381
• Return-homeland promises to expellees sapped their will to integrate economically #contradicts (0.82) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 382
• Diaspora-based ultranationalists can undermine a peace process their own state accepted #expands (0.72) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 821