Abstract
Reviewed by: Ulf Brunnbauer, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany
European societies, the German among them, currently believe they live in an era of unprecedented immigration. This sentiment is factually not correct, and even if it was, why would it matter? After all, people have moved all the time, and, actually, the overwhelming majority of people do not migrate to another country at all. The present book makes an excellent case for the relevance of the topic, even if one questions the salience of migration as a social process. Christopher Molnar, a historian at the University of Michigan, shows that migration offers a lens to understand cultural change among the majority society.
This book is not so much about Yugoslavs, in their historically different designations, in West Germany – although the reader learns a lot about their fate. Its main thrust is also not limited to the succinct analysis of attitudes towards Yugoslavs in post-war Germany, which is the main theme of the book. The author’s important contribution, instead, consists of his ability to trace in attitudes towards immigrants the ideas that German policy-makers and the public had of what Germany was meant to be. Molnar sets an ambitious goal: he wants to ‘illuminate important transitions in West Germany’s politics and culture’ (2). He succeeds in this in every respect.
On the one hand this is an excellent study of changing perceptions of ‘foreign’ immigrants in West Germany. Yugoslavs are a perfect though often overlooked case for such an exercise. There is a long continuity of immigration from Yugoslavia to Germany, going even beyond 1945. At times, Yugoslavs were among the most numerous in different categories of immigrants. Best known are the Gastarbeiter, who came in the 1960s and 1970s, when only Turkey sent more migrant workers to Germany. Less well known are asylum seekers from Yugoslavia in the 1950s and 60 s, or mostly Croatian refugees who fled from Yugoslavia when the communists took power. In the early 1990s, around 350,000 Bosnian refugees sought protection in Germany. So, the relative stability of the immigrants’ origins gives Molnar the chance to focus on the dynamics of German attitudes at specific historical moments, as the Yugoslavs were seen as more or less the ‘same’ people.
Molnar provides a thoroughly researched analysis of the factors shaping the attitudes towards the Yugoslavs. Each chapter is rich in detail, but without overwhelming the reader. The narrative focuses on Bavaria, an obvious choice given the importance of the province for Yugoslavs as place of settlement. The author manages to connect concrete utterances about Yugoslavs with larger discursive frames and political agendas; one learns, for example, about alliances between representatives of the expelled Volksdeutsche from Czechoslovakia, the Catholic Church and fascist, or at least ultra-nationalist, Croatian refugees in the late 1940s. Rampant anti-communism provided an opportunity for these immigrants if they employed Cold War tropes skilfully. Yet, German attitudes changed. One of the most important drivers was the transformation of memory culture, especially the growing awareness of German responsibility for Nazi crimes. This reduced sympathy for former collaborators such as the Croatian fascists. Willy Brandt’s New Ostpolitik meant another momentous change in the framework that guided perceptions and policies towards Yugoslav migrants.
When the Bosnian refugees arrived, the historical moment had changed again: after reunification, nationalism was rampant in Germany. Interestingly, refugees from Bosnia, most of them Muslims, were not ‘othered’ in cultural terms. Still, most of them were forced to leave – or pushed to ‘voluntarily’ return. Molnar gives an interesting explanation – apart from the fact that at that time Germany’s asylum law became much more restrictive – policy-makers and the media urged refugees to rebuild their war-torn country in the same manner, they said, as Germans had rebuilt their country after 1945. Again, a change in collective memory translated into new perceptions of immigrants, and in policy action.
On the other hand, this book is a powerful reminder that perceptions of the majority society have real-life consequences for the migrants. Right-wing Croatians first benefitted from extreme anti-communism, then suffered from Germans’ newly found consciousness of guilt. Asylum-seekers in the 1960s fell victim to the new understanding of Yugoslavia as a relatively liberal communist country. The authorities branded them as ‘economic refugees’. In the 1990s, the refugees from Bosnia, though enjoying general sympathy, were seen as another drop making the ‘boat full’ – the powerful metaphor used by anti-immigrant voices ever since.
This is an excellent book, informative, rich in insights, and well written. It should be read by migration scholars as well as those interested in post-war Germany and in the emigration history of Yugoslavia. Migration matters – because majority societies turn it into a problem, and because policy-makers continually divide immigrants into the wanted and the unwanted.