12: Us and Them – A comparative perspective on immigration, integration, and segregation

The seminar will be dealing with the social history of European racism in general and anti-Semitism in par-ticular, as well as with the causes of growing ethnocen-trism or “xenophobia” in many European countries at this time.
Central topics of the lectures will be politics of immigra-tion and integration, particularly in connection with the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, minority problems, e.g. the Muslim communities in Germany, France and England, and the social mechanisms of stigmatization and segregation.
The main issues of the seminar will be presented from an international point of view, comparing related historical developments in Europe and the USA. Moreover, the recent rise of anti-Americanism in “Old Europe” has to be analysed from a historical perspective and in view of the political situation in the Middle East.