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Fear & loathing in the Vaterland: hate crimes and immigrant political engagement in modern day Germany

Morgan, Carolyn, Morgan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1498210134564422

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.
This dissertation asks: what are the effects of anti-immigrant hostility on immigrant political engagement? Can we assume that immigrants are affected by antiimmigrant activities in their region? And are all immigrants affected equally, or are there other factors mediate the basic relationship? In addressing these questions, identity, migration status, and socio-economic status will also be taken into consideration; but given that these factors have been examined in previous studies, the main academic contribution of this project is the focus on the effect of hate crimes on immigrant political engagement. This dissertation uses of a multi-method approach with qualitative methods to establish the theory, which is evaluated using quantitative methods. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific task in examining the effect of hate crimes on immigrant political engagement. My dissertation explored the notion that threat and its effects on immigrants plays a pivotal role in the political and social decision-making processes of ethnic minorities and immigrants. In facing hostility, the simplest action would be to withdraw into one's own community as a source of safety and security. This hinges, however, on the assumption that one identifies with their minority community. The first empirical chapter examines how hate crimes, as measured by annual rates of Bundesland-level measures of right-wing politically motivated crimes, influences immigrant political participation. I use two statistical approaches: an ordered logistics regression model that evaluates political participation on a four point scale, and a binomial mixed-effects model that measures political participation as a function of the previous year's participation, and records increases in political participation. In both analyses I find that hate crimes do not have an effect on immigrant political participation. However, I do find that individual-level factors, such as concern about hostility toward immigrants, being a Muslim, and generational status do play a role. In the ordered logit model, among both Germans and immigrants, those who espoused higher levels of concern about hostility toward immigrants were more likely to participate on a local level. If we think about this in terms of battling anti-immigrant hostility and rising xenophobia in western Europe --- and Germany in particular --- this is a promising finding. It's not just immigrants who are motivated to political participation by concern about hostility against immigrants. Germans are also spurred to action by hostility too. In the mixed effects model, Muslims seem to be less likely to experience an increase in political participation. This may be because of a ceiling effect or it may be because of alternative channels to participate --- Muslim or community organizations, for example. Generational status --- the component theorized to play a large role in political engagement -- only plays a role when interacted with Gastarbeiter heritage. Second generation immigrants, those who are born and raised in Germany yet face anti-immigrant hostility on a regular basis, are not affected by hate crimes --- at least when the crimes are measured on the Bundesland level. The second empirical chapter uses an experiment to delve deeper into this and investigate the underlying psychological mechanisms driving the effect (or lack thereof) of hate crimes on immigrant political engagement. Using an experimental manipulation to expose respondents to xenophobic treatments, I tested whether immigrants who identify strongly as German responded differently to hate crimes, compared to immigrants who do not have a strong German identity. Additionally, I look at emotional responses. The focus of the experimental analysis was to understand the role of emotions in the decision to engage politically, particularly in response to hostile acts, such as hate crimes. I focused primarily on the effect of negative emotions, which not only help to explain whether people participate politically, but also how. The experiment tests the notion that negative emotional responses that hate crimes trigger lead to (dis)engagement. The results show that exposure to xenophobic treatment does increase the likelihood of political participation for immigrants when compared to their German peers. Furthermore, levels of identification with Germany among immigrants can have a significant effect in subjects' political response to exposure to xenophobic treatments: for immigrant respondents with a high level of German identification, while the treatment itself only had a positive effect on negative emotions. Between both the German and immigrant samples, there are comparable results. With that, the experimental findings substantiate the survey findings. In both cases, hate crimes do not influence political participation or engagement.
Anthony Mughan (Advisor)
Thomas Nelson (Committee Member)
Philipp Rehm (Committee Member)
Watson Sara (Committee Member)
198 p.
Political Science

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Morgan, Morgan, C. (2017). Fear & loathing in the Vaterland: hate crimes and immigrant political engagement in modern day Germany [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1498210134564422

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Morgan, Morgan, Carolyn. Fear & loathing in the Vaterland: hate crimes and immigrant political engagement in modern day Germany. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1498210134564422.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Morgan, Morgan, Carolyn. "Fear & loathing in the Vaterland: hate crimes and immigrant political engagement in modern day Germany." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1498210134564422

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1498210134564422
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.