Racism and Xenophobia in Austria
Richard Parncutt

Politics
Police
Drug dealers
Financial racism
Global and local solutions
Academic racism
Visiting Austria
Racism in Australia

Because Austria is surrounded by so many countries with contrasting languages and cultures, it has always been a multicultural society and has a long history of openness to cultural diversity. The Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) included Croatia and Hungary, and officially recognized 14 languages; the constitution stated that "All races of the empire have equal rights, and every race has an inviolable right to the preservation and use of its own nationality and language". Although most Austrians are Roman Catholics, Islam has been officially recognized in Austria since 1912. Today, Austria is home to very many cultural groups and interculturally oriented NGOs.

Racism and xenophobia also have a long history in Austria. Austrians' traditional dislike for specific groups such as Turks, Serbs and especially Jews climaxed during the Second World War. After the war, things did not improve as fast as they did in Germany. Austrians were regarded both at home and abroad as victims of the Nazis, so denazification was not taken so seriously. Nor did Austrians feel the need to share responsibility for the holocaust.

Today, according to the Eurobarometer survey, levels of racism and xenophobia in Austria are near the EU average. Northern and Western countries tend to be less racist, Southern and Eastern countries more so (presumably due to differences in educational and general living standards). Is that a reason to sit back and do nothing? Consider the following:

Austrian politics. An astonishingly large number of Austrians think it is ok to vote for the two far-right parties, FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) and BZÖ (Alliance for Austria's Future). In the 1999 federal election, the FPÖ received 27% of all valid votes and subsequently entered government in coalition with the centre-right (ÖVP); the EU responded with several months of sanctions against Austria. In the 2008 federal election, the FPÖ got about 18% and the BZÖ about 11% of the vote, together about 29%.

Many Austrians consider FPÖ and BZÖ to be democratically legitimate parties, even if they do not vote for them. But these parties combine nationalism and (a kind of) socialism in a way that is reminiscent of Hitler's National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), which was democratically elected to power in Germany in 1933. Although this connection is apparent to people observing Austria from the outside, in Austria it is a taboo topic, and those who talk about it openly run the risk of being socially and economically marginalised. FPÖ and BZÖ are both nationalistic in the sense that they defend the rights of "genuine" Austrians and restrict the rights of "foreigners". A "genuine Austrian" is generally understood to be a member of a traditional Austrian family, while a "foreigner" is understood to be someone who looks different (e.g. Africans and Asians), behaves and dresses differently (e.g. Muslims) and/or sounds different (speaks German with an accent), regardless of passport. FPÖ and BZÖ are "socialist" in the sense that they want to improve social services for "genuine" Austrians and reduce or eliminate social services for "foreigners", but they are not socialist in the traditional, international, cosmopolitan sense.

FPÖ and BZÖ are reminisent of national socialism in another important way. They encourage "genuine" Austrians to regard themselves as victims of "foreigners", who are perceived to be taking away their money and undermining their culture. In fact, Austria is one of the richest countries in the world; if some people do not have enough money, the problem can only be solved by redistribution of wealth. The first step is to make the rich pay more taxes (where else will the money come from?), and if people want that, they should be voting on the left side of the political spectrum - not the right. In the 1930s in Germany, "the Jews" (a diverse group of independent German citizens) were accused of causing the depression; the Nazis were supported by "genuine" Germans who considered themselves victims of the depression, and hence victims of "the Jews". Today, the scapegoats have changed, but the victim mentality, racially oriented arguments and blatant distortions of the truth have not.

Those in Austria today who vote for FPÖ and BZÖ do so for two reasons, which appear to be about equally important. The first reason is a good one: they want to protest against the failings of the traditional grand coalition government of centre-left (SPÖ) and centre-right (ÖVP). But there are other ways to do that: you can vote for the greens, liberals, communists, or an independent candidate - or not vote at all. The second reason is that FPÖ and BZÖ voters don't like foreigners, and consider themselves victims of an unfair political system (that includes globalization and immigration). What they do not realise is that a vote for the far right is a recipe for disaster. It's about the worst possible thing that you can do for the country that you love - and it's hard not to love Austria, with its rich and diverse landscapes, architecture and cultural traditions. No-one seriously expects a re-united German Reich under a new dictator, a new European war, new concentration camps, or the return of industrialized mass murder. But far-right populist politicians who do not completely reject national socialism are unlikely to constructively address today's most pressing national and international political issues, which include not only migration and cultural integration, but also global warming, the international economy, international shortages of basic resources, international poverty, and of course international armed conflict.

Does that mean that some 20-30% of Austrians are racist? It depends on how you define racism. Many of the far-right voters presumably received an inadequate education, which is the fault of the education system. High school children should be learning more about politics.

Austrian police. Another interesting question is whether the Austrian police force suffers from a similar problem:

In all three cases the responsible police officers were tried but not punished - unless you regard public embarassment as punishment. In each case the court's verdict was several months of bedingte Haft. Although Haft normally means imprisonment or custody, bedingte Haft does not, as one would expect, mean "conditional imprisonment", but merely a suspended sentence. In other words, the responsible police were allowed to continue working provided they did not kill, stand on, or beat up any more people for the next several months. Does that make the Austria police force and legal system racist? Normally, to answer a question of this kind one would compare such cases with equivalent cases in which the victims were white. The trouble is, there are no such cases. As far as I know, in recent years and decades Austrian police have not treated whites in this way. Please tell me if I am wrong!

Austrian drug dealers. A large number of Austrians seem to believe that (i) most drug dealers are black or (ii) most blacks are drug dealers. Because that's what media reports on drug crime have repeatedly suggested over the last few years. Austrians reveal this belief by apparently innocent statements such as "Not all drug dealers are black" or "Not all blacks are drug dealers", which in both cases implies that almost all of them are.

The truth, then, is: (i) the vast majority of drug dealers in Austria are white and (ii) the vast majority of African Austrians are innocent (just as the vast majority of white Austrians are innocent). The facts could be set straight by the media if only they emphasized these simple facts in their stories about drug crime. As long as the media do not do this, thousands of innocent African Austrians are discriminated against as a result of irrational beliefs about the relationship between skin color and drug crime. That's on top of the everyday racism that they have to deal with in just about every country in the world. Does that make the Austrian media racist?

Financial racism. Any discussion about "foreign criminals" or "black drug dealers" should be set in its historical context. The poverty, hunger, disease and conflict that often plague African countries are - to a considerable extent - the legacy of centuries of racism in the form of slavery, colonialism and unfair trade - that is, personal, cultural and economic exploitation. In recent decades, the West has been both politically and financially in a position to pay its moral debts and help African countries to recover (or at least stop indirectly preventing them from recovering). Instead, we have done little more than scratch the surface. The problem evidently lies in our own arrogance, greed, prejudice, negligence and ignorance. These words are carefully chosen and not exaggerated: consider the following comparisons, both of which would seem absurd if they were not part of our everyday life.

• In both Africa and Europe, the right of the rich to amass personal fortunes is evidently regarded as more important than the right of the not-so-rich to adequate food, drink, hygene, medication and education. Since these necessities are so often absent and so many people die as a result, they are essentially equivalent to the right to life itself. That the right to wealth is considered more important than the right to life is clear from the simultaneous existence of famines, plagues and genocide on the one hand, and the means to solve these problems on the other - tax havens and secret bank accounts with enormous balances (especially in and associated with Great Britain, the USA and Switzerland), low rates of wealth tax (particularly low in Austria), and the ease with which the rich in most countries - rich and poor - avoid or evade tax, by whatever legal or semilegal methods. Tax havens cause poverty. They cause developing countries to lose altogether some 800 billion dollars per year in unpaid taxes - almost ten times what they receive in developmental aid; the source of this information is a report in Der Standard on 21.8.08, p. 17 about a presentation at Forum Alpbach by John Christensen, director of Tax Justice Network (TJN). Everyone is talking about tax reforms - but what about solving this, the most important problem? Why is there no public outcry? Why aren't the UN, the G8, the IMF and the World Bank solving this problem? (And by the way - if you want to help developing countries with a donation, it's more effective to donate the money to political NGOs such as TJN than to third-world charities.)

• In 2006, the gross national income per head of population of the countries of the world ranged from $76000 (Luxemburg) to $100 (Burundi). These figures do not necessary reflect the financial well-being of typical individuals, which also depends on the distribution of income within the economy. One can nevertheless safely claim that the average citizen of an industrialized country has over 100 times more money than the average citzen of a developing country. 100 times! That is an enormous difference by any standards. In a fair world, richer countries would be lucky to have twice the wealth per capita of poorer countries. And that is not all: in spite of these stunning differences in wealth, the rich countries claim not to be able to afford 1% of their enormous GNP for international development projects! If the ratio between our wealth and theirs were exactly 100, 1% would reduce that ratio to 99 - surely an imperceptible difference. Why not reduce the ratio from 100 to 90 and invest 10% of GNP in international development projects?

In this context, it is unrealistic to expect foreigners in Austria to adopt Austrian rules of politeness, abide strictly by Austrian laws and so on. (Here, I am not talking about people who sell dangerous drugs, who of course belong in jail or - if they are foreigners and do not qualify for asylum - on an aeroplane.) Of course foreigners in Austria should try to integrate themselves appropriately, and we should do our best to help them do that. But we should not forget that these local matters are trivial by comparison to the enormous crimes being committed constantly by rich players in the global economy, and that these enormous crimes are the ultimate reason why so many people are applying for asylum in Austria. Moreover, it is our responsibility (as much as anyone else's) to address these big global problems.

The bottom line is that we are outrageously rich, other countries are outrageously poor, and we are outrageously greedy. That's how immoral the "civilized", "Christian" West has become. In Germany and Austria it is even possible for a company to attract customers with the slogan geiz ist geil (stingy is sexy). And if you think it's ok and normal for blacks to have less money than whites, for whatever reason - that's racism. Who are we to complain about foreigners? We are the lucky ones - and if we are not, that is the fault not of foreigners, but our own political system. We waste a lot of time and energy complaining about "criminal foreigners" and making it increasingly difficult for foreigners to enter Austria - knowing at the same time that the economy increasingly depends on immigration. (How else will pensions be financed? The birth rate is decreasing at the same time as life expectancy is increasing.)

Global solutions. We should instead be developing long-term plans to reduce the incidence of poverty and corruption, both at home and internationally. There is no easy solution, and progress will in any case be slow, but the problem is so big that it is worth addressing in a big way. The West must collaborate with African governments and NGOs to significantly and sustainably reduce rates of poverty, hunger, disease and conflict. Perhaps the most urgent matter is to close down the tax havens. That would make a big difference. If the IMF and the World Bank are not corrupt, they should announce their intention to do that, work steadily towards this goal. If they are corrupt - and I guess they must be if they are not doing that - we will have to wait until the citizens of developed countries are informed about the extent of this scandal by NGOs such as TJN and it becomes an election issue. Beyond that, many different strategies need to be combined, including investing money in think-tanks, organising academic conferences, supporting appropriate NGOs, UN initiatives etc. The difficulties are significant but not insurmountable (see Wangari Maathai's autobiography Unbowed). The large amount of money that such a comprehensive project will cost is peanuts by comparison to the money that changes hands daily on international markets.

Local solutions. For several years, an NGO called Zivilcourage und Antirassismus Arbeit (ZARA) has been documenting racist incidents in Vienna and legally advising the victims. Hundreds of incidents are documented and hundreds of individuals supported every year. ZARA has enormous difficulties financing this important work, which is almost entirely carried out by volunteers. The federal Austrian government gives them nothing. Does that make the Austrian government racist?

Dear reader: If you observe or experience any kind of racism in Austria, please inform ZARA (Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus Arbeit). ZARA is the best source of legal and practical advice.

Academic racism and discrimination. Is there any academic basis for racism? In the past, scientists have repeatedly wondered whether different "races" have different abilities (I put "race" in inverted commas, because modern geneticists generally reject the concept). In the Olympic games, for example, black athletes seem to have an advantage over whites. Do they really? An article published in Science in 2005 also demonstrated that athletes wearing red win more often - at least in the 2004 summer Olympics in boxing, taekwondo, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. What is going on here? And even if certain whites (from a specific region or culture) and certain blacks (from another specific region or culture) do have different inborn abilities (which ultimately depend on the region or culture and are in fact independent of skin colour), any genetically determined differences are relatively small. And they cannot by any stretch of the imagination justify ignoring the staggeringly unequal distribution of wealth in today's world. Moreover, even the most convinced racist must admit that s/he is not doing her/his children and grandchildren a favor by failing to address global injustice - for the longer the problem is ignored, the more pressure there will be on rich countries to grant asylum to people who were persecuted in their native country for their political opinions or religious beliefs. The DDR was condemned for shooting people along the Berlin wall - but now the entire EU is heading in the same direction.

There is presumably less xenophobia and racism at universities than elsewhere, because people are (hopefully) better informed about xenophobia and racism and therefore more sensitive to the issues. For me personally, that makes a university a pleasant (but somewhat artificial) place to work. As a white male academic, I never thought I would experience discrimination in any serious way, and my political activities in the area of interculturality such as fAIR were never meant to protect me from discrimination. But in recent years it has become clear to me that even I have repeatedly been discriminated against on the basis of my nationality:

Visiting Austria. The aim of this page is to raise awareness of an important problem. It is not to discourage people from visiting Austria. Compared to most other countries, and even Western countries, Austria is a peaceful place - there is relatively little violence. If after reading this page you are afraid that you will be personally affected by racism on your visit to Austria, please remember that it is very unlikely that you will experience a physical threat of any kind. You may also notice some very positive things on your visit, such as a thriving NGO scene in just about every city and frequent multi-, inter- and transcultural events.

PS: Racism in Australia. I grew up in Australia and lived there until the age of 27. Since 1998 I have lived in Austria. It is therefore appropriate that I write something here about racism in Australia. Australia and Austria may both be described as racist countries, but in different ways. Great Britain invaded Aboriginal Australia in 1788, and proceeded to fight a guerilla war against its inhabitants that lasted for most of the following century. Since the British had firearms, they gradually managed to push the frontier back toward the desert, in which many indigenous Australians still live, often in appalling conditions. The land was everything to the Australian Aborigines: it was their source of food, water, medicine and spirituality. The theft of their land destroyed their health, identity, and self-respect. During the first century of "white settlement", many thousands of Aboriginal Australians were murdered at the frontier; and in the second century, many thousands of part-indigenous children - often, the children of white men who had raped black women - were taken from their parents by representatives of the Australian government and assimilated into white society, in an attempt to accelerate the decline of the Aboriginal "race" (the "stolen generations"). At the beginning of the 21st century, Australia is slowly making progress towards reconciliation. But racist attitudes are still astonishingly prevalent.

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