If you follow German news, especially by the state-run news media (Channel One and Channel Two).....you will get a healthy dose of lecture about the woes of Xenophobia. Before you get all excited on the topic....you might want to sit back and do some research and understanding.
To be Xenophobic....you need to have the irrational fear of foreigners. That's the plain and simplistic definition of the term.
So you might ask.....if you had a rational fear or distrust of foreigners.....what would that be called? Well....it's not Xenophobic. So far, at least through all my reading of the topic.....there is no word to describe a rational fear of foreigners. Would Islamophobia (the fear of Muslims) fall into this category? Well....no....that's a totally different situation.
The general lecture that one gets via intellectual Germans is that any discomfort or lack of acceptance of foreigners....equals Xenophobic and therefore irrational (not meeting the standards of intelligent behavior such as you would see from a intellectual). Most will kindly note that intellectuals cannot possibly be Xenophobic because they accept everyone and everything, with no borders or limits. Well.....they say this but they aren't the type to live in a ghetto area, hang out with heron-users, name any friends who are ultra-conservative, question the ulterior motives of politicians, or effectively run large organizations.
After you look over the opposition of some Germans to foreigners.....you come to this odd conclusion....there are various degrees of opposition, and some have sat down to think about this for a while....so it's not exactly something of a illogical or irrational thought process.
In some ways, it's a dozen-odd degrees of lack of acceptance over the idea of an open system of immigration, asylum-seekers, and refugees. Each degree involves a brief statement and a logical conclusion by the individual. Some people might claim just one single opposition point...some might claim several points.
The idea of connecting the Xenophobic German to a Nazi-tendency German? It's fairly comical but I've sat and watched some German state-run TV 'experts' who did their best to manufacture the conclusion. Oddly, if I drew up the thirty-odd platform points of the Nationalists Socialist Party of 1932 and passed the platform points around news journalists without noting they were Nazi-points.....probably over fifty percent of German journalists would be very agreeable to at least half of the points. Does that make the journalists Nazis? No.
The opposition points?
(1) There's a limit (at least perceived) to how many refugees you can take in and safely handle in one single year. Unlimited reception ends up with thousands sitting in marginal camps or centers.....thinking for months they will be approved to stay....then wake up one day to realize they weren't approved. The opposition perception is that you don't need to lead people around like this and play some pretender game.
(2) History has proven that the bulk of refugees don't stay, so how invest billions into this effort? It is a scientifically proven subject that from each refugee crisis that Germany has participated in.....within five years....the bulk (over fifty percent) will return to their host country. This has been one of the big arguments about accepting the million from 2015.....but if this were the trend....why spend a lot of money on integration, job-training, or language classes? Well throw fifty-odd billion into a four-year period into this?
(3) Unchecked entry via a border that appears to be non-existent makes people question the legit nature of the border. Bavarians usually hype over this topic the most. Either you have a border that is maintained, or you play the US-imaginary game where no border exists and people just walk where they want....without any control.
(4) Cultural differences (way beyond the typical differences of Greeks/Germans, French/Germans, Americans/Germans, etc). The topic here plays a role when talking about a 'Christian Germany' (something in existence for sixteen-hundred years). The behavior demonstrated by ISIS in Syria bothers a number of Germans and it leads them to ask stupid questions about Islam and how a member of that religion can fit into Germany.
(5) There aren't an unlimited number of new jobs sitting there for the approved refugees or immigrants. This argument comes up a good bit and revolves around the fact that various areas of Germany still has a high unemployment count (some areas in eastern Germany still have near ten-percent unemployment).
(6) Schooling. When some director wakes up and notes that he has thirty new students in his school with a migrant or immigrant background.....within weeks....there's some comment from teachers that the students aren't at the same level and tutoring is a major requirement. Well....German schools don't typically hire up tutors......so it'll be a cost-factor that the state has to assume. If they take that step....some regular parents (Germans naturally).....will come to ask why tutors weren't hired last year when their son or daughter was having issues, and they had to pay for the tutors out of their own pocket. It'll also be a problem as teachers try to find some way motivate a student who feels left-behind by the system or not able to fit into the new school environment.
(7) Acceptance of women in positions of authority. Across German bureaucracy, schools, business and general society.....women have moved up and taken leadership positions. They run operations and make decisions. For some migrants and immigrants.....this isn't something they are grasping or quickly motivating themselves to accept. Just having some woman doctor show up at a refugee center and tell some guy that he needs treatment or he needs to stop abusing his wife or kids.....well....it'll be a problem.
Accusations of these people noting these comments being Xenophobic? It's a easy task for some intellectual to pull a short two-liner out and make the accusation. You don't have to be wise, informed, reflective, or insightful to just go the short route and make a stupid game out of the word Xenophobia.
Oddly, the same intellectual crowd won't pounce on people who show some signs of Coulrophobia (fear of clowns).....to note they are acting irrational, uneducated, and uninformed.
To end this essay, I will admit that I have this phobia.....it's not generally listed or counted by the mental health gurus. It's the fear of intellectual bad behavior. I get hyped up.....aggravated....nauseous....and amused when I see someone desperately trying to be a giant of an intellectual.....yet showing total disregard for common sense. I suppose there's treatment for people like me, but I've yet to come across the diagnosis.
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