Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1183920
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 NOVEMBER 2019 7 NEWS ANALYSIS while remaining rooted to the spot". The analogy is loose, given that easterners did not face racism. Nonetheless, the per- ception of second-class status was hard to avoid. Perhaps, they thought, we are not "one people"? Scapegoating immigrants Grievances at discrimina- tion can translate into a desire to rebuke elites and central government. And to some ex- tent the Left Party Die Linke is the beneficiary. But where labour institutions and soli- darities are weak, as in much of the east, non-German im- migrants can be scapegoated. Labour and immigration policies pre-1989 explain the east-west distinction here. In the FRG, racism and sexism were dominant ideologies in the postwar decades. There was appalling discrimination meted out to economic im- migrants and asylum seekers. But rapid economic growth combined with the sluggish rise in women entering the workforce from the 1960s through the 1980s meant immigrants were recruited on a substantial scale. Dec- ade after decade, they fought for their livelihoods, made friends with colleagues and neighbours and won their in- tegration from below. Bigotry was pushed back. The GDR experienced the reverse. The official ideology was egalitarian and, on the face of things, anti-racist and anti-sexist. Women entered the workforce during boom times. But few immigrants ar- rived and those that did come were subject to brutal state discrimination and segrega- tion. Few were permitted to settle, and the post-1989 eco- nomic collapse ensured the picture did not change. Trade unions were banned, and soli- darity in workplaces centred on the (invariably white, Ger- man) work team. Given that contact with im- migrants generally under- mines xenophobia, far-right parties are enjoying success in areas of low immigration, es- pecially the east. Against ex- pectations, the AfD receives strong support from some im- migrants, but of a specific cat- egory: the German-heritage "late re-settlers" from Russia and Eastern Europe. Many of these trends exist in Germany's western states too, including the rise of the AfD. There is also a longstanding distrust of mainstream poli- ticians and institutions. This is nourished by a perception that elites have feathered their nests and dumped the consequences of unification and economic crisis on the rest. The west has also expe- rienced a rise in poverty – in- deed, the east-west poverty gap is actually lower now than ten years ago. Similarly, an "overwhelming majority" of people in Ger- many, according to a recent Eurobarometer report, hold that income inequality is ex- cessive. So, together with an- ti-racist activism in East and West alike, the potential for a politics that cuts across "eth- nic" divisions is clear. Germany persist 30 years after reunification Helmut Kohl oversaw German reunification n AfD rally tittled 'protect borders, provide social security', in Erfurt, a town formerly in East Germany Inequality and poverty are relevant to the higher levels of racism found in the east. So too are the recurring crises and insecurity that have wracked eastern Germany since unification