Can somebody shed some light on which sort of immigration is causing an increased support to this party? Are we talking of legal economic immigrants from e.g. the EU, illegal immigrats from wherever, or war refugees? If it’s refugees, where from?
I’m just trying to understand what’s driving this change. I have family in the UK and a lot of the anti-EU sentiment around Brexit seemed to arise from the perceived effect of an influx of legal immigrants from the Eastern bloc of the EU.
It’s mostly just the fear of immigrants in general and populist right wing stuff like “they take out jobs”, “they will replace us” and such. It’s general xenophobia against all kinds of people, be they eastern European, from the Balkans or Mediterranean.
Ironically, studies have shown time and time again that the areas with the highest concentration of AfD-voters are also the ones with the least amount of immigration. Adding to that, the AfD has a very large social media presence and there are a ton of people spreading fear, propaganda and, to a large part, Russian disinformation. They always make the most outrageous claims and offer the most simple solutions that have no basis in reality. Some people are unhappy with rising prices and stagnating economy and are blaming it on the “new” government that hasn’t had a chance to clean up after 16 years of conservative Christian rule and was elected in the middle of multiple global crises.
…might want to add that with the Liberal party being a part of the government, there is no capability to clean up this mess even if the government wanted to, because the liberals will block anything that isn’t tax cuts for big business.
The whole situation is also a result of the blatant failure of the entire political system to get anything useful done. It looks increasingly like the final years of the Weimar Republic.
It’s the good old fOrEiGnErS bAd narrative. They phrase it as “illegal” migration, though, because phrasing it more bluntly would be illegal in Germany for historical reasons.
I think the answers others have given you definitely apply to the very far right voters. They are against all form of immigration. But that doesn’t explain the AFD’s rise in popularity. So I’m going to talk about the more moderate rightwing people here.
There is a lot of immigration into Germany, EU migrants and legal, as well as illigal immigration from outside the EU. Plus Ukrainian refugees. Most people on the right don’t mind EU migrants as well as Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian refugees btw. are mostly women and children. Legal migrants from outside the EU are more complicated, and I’m sure there are various levels of acceptance. The real problem though are illegal immigrants, mostly from the middle east and Africa. They are mostly men with poor education and in many areas the infrastructure to accommodate them are at their limits. It doesn’t help that these places are neglected and violence does break out at some of them every now and then. These stories obviously spread on social media like wildfire.
It’s the immigration of people with darker skin color that Germans don’t like. Nobody ever talks about EU-immigrants. Or Ukrainian refugees. The media don’t mention them, the politicians don’t propose laws to give them a hard time here.
It’s all about African, Afghan, Syrian, and even the quite well integrated people with Turkish roots.
Can somebody shed some light on which sort of immigration is causing an increased support to this party? Are we talking of legal economic immigrants from e.g. the EU, illegal immigrats from wherever, or war refugees? If it’s refugees, where from?
I’m just trying to understand what’s driving this change. I have family in the UK and a lot of the anti-EU sentiment around Brexit seemed to arise from the perceived effect of an influx of legal immigrants from the Eastern bloc of the EU.
It’s mostly just the fear of immigrants in general and populist right wing stuff like “they take out jobs”, “they will replace us” and such. It’s general xenophobia against all kinds of people, be they eastern European, from the Balkans or Mediterranean.
Ironically, studies have shown time and time again that the areas with the highest concentration of AfD-voters are also the ones with the least amount of immigration. Adding to that, the AfD has a very large social media presence and there are a ton of people spreading fear, propaganda and, to a large part, Russian disinformation. They always make the most outrageous claims and offer the most simple solutions that have no basis in reality. Some people are unhappy with rising prices and stagnating economy and are blaming it on the “new” government that hasn’t had a chance to clean up after 16 years of conservative Christian rule and was elected in the middle of multiple global crises.
The old tale of Schrödingers Immigrants.
Stealing our jobs while simultaneously living off welfare.
…might want to add that with the Liberal party being a part of the government, there is no capability to clean up this mess even if the government wanted to, because the liberals will block anything that isn’t tax cuts for big business.
The whole situation is also a result of the blatant failure of the entire political system to get anything useful done. It looks increasingly like the final years of the Weimar Republic.
It’s the good old fOrEiGnErS bAd narrative. They phrase it as “illegal” migration, though, because phrasing it more bluntly would be illegal in Germany for historical reasons.
From what I can tell, not actual immigration but irrational fear of immigration and also a good portion of racism is causing support for AfD.
I think the answers others have given you definitely apply to the very far right voters. They are against all form of immigration. But that doesn’t explain the AFD’s rise in popularity. So I’m going to talk about the more moderate rightwing people here. There is a lot of immigration into Germany, EU migrants and legal, as well as illigal immigration from outside the EU. Plus Ukrainian refugees. Most people on the right don’t mind EU migrants as well as Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian refugees btw. are mostly women and children. Legal migrants from outside the EU are more complicated, and I’m sure there are various levels of acceptance. The real problem though are illegal immigrants, mostly from the middle east and Africa. They are mostly men with poor education and in many areas the infrastructure to accommodate them are at their limits. It doesn’t help that these places are neglected and violence does break out at some of them every now and then. These stories obviously spread on social media like wildfire.
It’s the immigration of people with darker skin color that Germans don’t like. Nobody ever talks about EU-immigrants. Or Ukrainian refugees. The media don’t mention them, the politicians don’t propose laws to give them a hard time here. It’s all about African, Afghan, Syrian, and even the quite well integrated people with Turkish roots.
There are at least a couple of cringe share pics going around WhatsApp. AfD is heavily in Putins pocket.
edit: actually meant to quote that part:
The typical AFD voter doesn’t care about such nuances like skin colour. For them it’s all foreigners and foreigners bad.