National culture,migration & xenophobia: With particular reference to migration and regional development in central Europe

The present paper argues that the phenomenological problems associated with xenophobia stem from social conflict, processes of ethnification, and a misperception of the role of migration in development. It also argues that this misperception is not just something created and exaggerated by politicians and populist media, but stems from the current fixation with the nation‐state framework of policy makers, social groups, economists and other policy advisers. Within this context one should treat national culture as a debatable set of relationships which nevertheless has force at the national level and therefore forms the current focus of different brands of Xenophobic politics.