There is No Xenophobia in Germany: Chinese and Taiwanese Immigrants’ Perception on Racism in Germany

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in the German Context

Abstract

Asian immigrants are usually considered as the racial minority in Germany, who are frequent targets of racist crimes. However, through in-depth interviewing first-generation Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants who have lived in Germany for more than ten years, the author found out that none of the interviewees identify themselves as racial minority in Germany, and most of them deny the existence of racism in German society, which is highly contradicted to the findings of empirical studies regarding racism in Germany.

The author argues that this specific phenomenon is the result of the prevalent “raceless racism” in German society. Many researchers have pointed out that race and its related concepts are usually “unmentionable” in German context, while different racist crimes are incessantly perpetrated on the non-white people. However, these Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, who are socialized as the dominant ethno-racial group in their countries of origin, are usually unfamiliar with racism in the western context when they immigrated. As a result, they learned and internalized the dominant raceless racism and its discourse from German society, incorporating it with their old knowledge to produce a specific understanding of racism that makes them unable to perceive and read the racism in German society. This situation leads to four serious outcomes: first, these Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants generally have problems perceiving and recognizing the racist incidents happening on them. Second, it consolidates these immigrants’ belief in raceless racism and the denial of existence of racism in German society. Third, most of the interviewees cannot recognize the white racists and often have empathy for white people. Fourth, most of these Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants believe that they are more often being discriminated against by other non-white people in Germany.

Author

• Chen Liang, Humboldt University-Berlin