Kompensation oder Konflikt?

Xenophobia is a central element of “modern right wing extremism”. Different approaches try to give reasons for this. In the perspective of an empirical theory comparison the explanatory impact of these different approaches is discussed. An important component of negative attitudes toward immigration are xenophobic motives. Two mechanisms are distinguished as basic processes for the mobilization of these xenophobic attitudes: conflict and compensation. Approaches that are concerned with the impact of competition for resources or status like deprivation or intergroup concepts stress the aspect of conflict. Other mechanisms are addressed by approaches that deal with aspects of anomia or authoritarism — they stress indirect processes and see xenophobia as a consequence of compensation processes. In this context individuals use rassist ideologies to compensate their own feelings of personal or social insecurity, disorientation and disintegration. The impact of both explanatory factors is examined on the basis of a representative population survey (ALLBUS) conducted in Germany in 1996.