Far-right gains, economic stagnation and increased political focus on migration can be major drivers of racial discrimination in European countries such as Germany.
The ongoing political focus on migration in Germany could have spillover effects. Decades of progress in making the country more inclusive of Black people could be rolled back, Tahir Della, of the rights organization Initiative of Black People in Germany, told DW.
“We already notice that, especially when there are debates related to migration, the presence of Black people and people of African descent in Germany is called into question,” Della said.
Germany, the European Union’s most-populous country, has had the bloc’s biggest reported increase in anti-Black racial discrimination, according to the 2023 “Being Black in the EU” report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
I was about to say that they have the causality backwards but then I thought about it and realized that it’s both ways:
Racist demagogues complain about immigrants, which makes people more racist, which makes people more anti immigrant, which makes people more racist etc until everything is so fucked that fascists take over.
The only way to stop the process is to have highly influential politicians and journalists who are both ethically principled and at least as skilled at effective rhetoric as the fascist demagogues and their astroturfed echo chamber.
Which means that the US, Germany, the UK, India, Russia, Israel, and several other influential countries are COMPLETELY fucked right now.