Unfulfilled unification promises triggered xenophobic violence against foreigners

Evidence

Violent anti-foreigner xenophobia exploded especially as the costs of unification mounted. In Eastern Germany, the unfulfilled promises of unification encouraged angry youths to attack contract workers and refugees in the economically depressed towns of Hoyerswerda and Rostock. … In an attempt to assuage popular outrage, a new law in 1993 restricted the once sacrosanct right of asylum by barring the entry of most asylum seekers. As a sop to the center-left, the same legislation included modest steps to ease naturalization for resident foreigners and restrict the flow of ‘late resettlers’, mitigating the blatant favoritism that the government initially extended to them. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 207

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s research goal: when the unifying ‘enemy’ (East Germany/Cold War) disappeared, Germans manufactured a new foreign enemy rather than letting solidarity decay; the state responded by accommodating the xenophobic demand. — connects to: Ethnically absolutist communitarianism produces its own violence; Frustrated mimetic aspiration converts into violence against non-Europeans — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1138; National identification breeds xenophobia only when framed comparatively against other nations — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 447 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Frustrated mimetic aspiration converts into violence against non-Europeans #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1138
• Ethnically absolutist communitarianism produces its own violence #complicates (0.75)
• National identification breeds xenophobia only when framed comparatively against other nations #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 447
• Death reminders inflame xenophobia unless compassionate religious values are primed #complicates (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 550