Abstract
A different legal and social framework regulates the rights of autochthonous and immigrant minorities in Austria. Austria has a pluralistic citizenship model vis-à-vis its historical minorities. There are six officially recognized ethnic groups (Volksgruppen) in Austria. These are the Slovenes in Carinthia and Styria, Croats in Burgenland, Hungarians in Burgenland and Vienna, Czechs and Slovaks in Vienna and the Roma (together with Sinti) for the whole of Austria.1
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Fabian Georgi, ‘Nation-State Building and Cultural Diversity in Austria,’ in Nation-State Building Process and Cultural Diversity, ed. Jochen Blaschke (Berlin: Parabolis, 2005), 36. Janoski, ‘The Difference that Empire Makes,’ 387. Sinti is an ethnic group living in Austria that speaks a Romani language.
Michat Krzyzanowski and Ruth Wodak, The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2009), 60.
Wodak et al., ‘On Austrian Identity: The Scholarly Literature,’ 58. On the 23rd of December 1993 the decision was officially published as governmental decree. ‘Verordnung über die Volksgruppenbeiräte [Decree pertaining to the Ethnic Groups Advisory Board],’ Federal Law Gazette 23, no. 895/1993, December 1993. When the Ethnic Groups Act was originally enacted, Roma and Sinti had not been officially recognized as an ethnic group because they were ‘incorrectly assumed that as a traditionally migrating group they could not claim to be autochthonous to the territory of Austria,’ even though in fact, they did fulfill the relevant criteria such as Austrian citizenship, own language and culture, and autochthonous character just like the other recognized ethnic groups. Only after the Roma and Sinti associations, with the help of historians, proved that they had lived in permanent settlements in Austria for centuries was this objection dropped. Gerhard Baumgartner and Florian Freund. Roma Policies in Austria, (Vienna: Cultural Association of Austrian Roma. 2007), 17.
Tom Priestly, ‘The Position of the Slovenes in Austria: Recent Developments in Political (and other) Attitudes,’ Nationalities Papers 27, no. 1 (1999): 103.
On July 12, 2000, the former President of Finland and Martti Ahtisaari was appointed, together with Professor Jochen Frowein and Doctor Marcelino Oreja to deliver, on the basis of a thorough examination, a report covering the Austrian Government’s commitment to the common European values, in particular concerning the rights of minorities, refugees and immigrants and the evolution of the political nature of Haider’s FPÖ. The report can be found here: Martti Ahtisaari, Jochen Frowein, and Marcelino Oreja, ‘Report On The Austrian Government’s Commitment to The Common European Values, in Particular Concerning the Rights of Minorities, Refugees and Immigrants, and The Evolution of the Political Nature of the FPÖ (The Wise Men Report),’ International Legal Materials 40, no. 1 (January 2001): 102–123.
In 1984, 54 percent of the respondents of a sample of 1800 people were in favor of the use of these minority languages in the public sphere, while 53 of 1774 respondents in 1996 agreed with them. Those who opposed this idea were 41 percent in 1984 and 44 percent in 1996. Hilde Weiss, Nation und Toleranz [Nation and Tolerance] (Vienna: Braumuller, 2004), 57.
Source: World Values Survey. Numbers sampled in each country: Austria 1460, Hungary 999, Poland 982, Czech Republic 931, and Slovakia 466. Cited in Claire Wallace, ‘Opening and Closing Borders: Migration and Mobility in East-Central Europe,’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28, no. 4 (October 2002): 620, table 6.
Nora Gresch, Leila Hadj-Abdou, Sieglinde Rosenberger, Birgit Sauer, ‘Tu felix Austria?: The Headscarf and the Politics of ‘Non-issues’ Social Politics,’ International Studies in Gender, State and Society 15, no. 4 (Winter 2008): 416.
Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, ‘Ethnic Segmentation in School and Labor Market: 40 Year Legacy of Austrian Guestworker Policy,’ International Migration Review 37, no. 4 (Winter, 2003): 1123.
Ruth Wodak and Teun A. van Dijk. ed. Racism at the Top: Parliamentary Discourses on Ethnic Issues in Six European Countries (Klagenfurt: Drava Verlag, 2000), 99;
Alice Ludvig, ‘Why Should Austria Be Different from Germany? The Two Recent Nationality Reforms in Contrast,’ German Politics 13, no. 3 (2004): 502.
Rainer Baubőck and Dilek Çınar, ‘Nationality Law and Naturalisation in Austria,’ in Towards A European Nationality: Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality Law in the EU, ed. Randell Hansen and Patrick Weil (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 259.
Heinz Fassmann and Rainer Münz, Einwanderungsland Österreich? (Vienna: Dachs-Verlag, 1992), 521–522. As a reflection of this attitude at the societal level it is important to note that Austria does not officially see itself as an ‘immigration land’ even though more than 10 percent of its population came from outside of Austria.
Heinz Fassmann and Rainer Münz, ‘Migration und Bevolkerungspolitik: Österreich im internationalen Vergleich [Migration and Population Policy: Austria in International Comparison],’ in Bevőlkerung und Wirtschaft [Population and economy], ed. Bernhard Felderer (Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt, 1989), 521–522. See also Herzog-Punzenberger, ‘Ethnic Segmentation in School and Labor Market.’
Oswald Panagl and Peter Gerlich, eds. Wőrterbuch der Politischen Sprache in Österreich (Vienna: Őbv, 2007), 51.
Ruth Wodak, ‘The Development and Forms of Racist Discourse in Austria since 1989,’ in Language in Changing Europe, ed. G. Graddol and S. Thomas (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1994), 15.
FPÖ grew from barely 5 percent voter support (1986) to 26.9 percent (1999). It entered a coalition with ÖVP in February 2000. The positioning of the party changed considerably after Haider became its leader in 1986. The party leadership had directed the party toward liberalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Haider embraced nationalism and populism. Many liberals left the FPÖ and right-wing extremists flooded the party. Rudiger Wischenbart, ‘National Identity and Immigration in Austria: Historical Framework and Political Dispute,’ in The Politics of Immigration in Western Europe, eds. Martin Baldwin-Edwards and Martin A. Schain. London: Cass, 1994, 75;
David Art, Reacting to the Radical Right: Lessons from Germany and Austria. Party Politics 13 (2007): 333, 344.
Art; Reinhard Heinisch, ‘Right-Wing Populism in Austria: A Case for Comparison.’ Problems of Post-Communism 55 (May/June 2008): 40–56.
Kurt Richard Luther, ‘Austria: A Democracy under Threat from the Freedom Party?’ Parliamentary Affairs 53 (2000), 429–430.
Ruth Wodak, ‘The Genesis of Racist Discourse in Austria since 1989,’ in Texts and Practices: Reading in Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard and Malcolm Coulthard (London: Routledge, 1996), 107.
Dilek Çınar and Harald Waldrauch, ‘Austria,’ in Acquisition and Loss of Nationality, vol. 2 Country Analyses, ed. Rainer Baubőck, Eva Ersbøll, Kees Groenendijk, Harald Waldrauch (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 21.
Krzyzanowski A and Wodak A, The Politics of Exclusion, 44; Thomas Janoski, The Ironies of Citizenship: Naturalization Processes in Advanced Industrialized Countries (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 153.
Claus Hofhansel, ‘Citizenship in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland: Courts, Legislatures, and Administrators,’ Faculty Publications 103 (2008): 169–170.
GFK-Fessel, Meinungsumfrage zu Österreich [Survey for Austria] (Vienna: Fessel Institute, 1991), cited in Wodak, ‘The Genesis of Racist Discourse in Austria Since 1989,’ 115.
The petition called for a constitutional amendment stating that Austria is not a country of immigration, the freezing of immigration until problems of illegal immigrants are solved and until there is no problem with housing and the unemployment rate is less than 5 percent. It also proposed to reduce the number of students with foreign mother tongues in primary and vocational schools and refused early access to citizenship while making satisfactory knowledge of the German language mandatory. The petition was signed by 417,278 Austrians (7.4 percent of those entitled to vote), half the number expected by Haider, who was expecting more than 1 million votes. See Reinhold Gartner, ‘The FPÖ, Foreigners and Racism in the Haider Era,’ in The Haider Phenomenon in Austria, ed. Ruth Wodak and Anton Pelinka (London: Transaction Publishers, 2002), 23;
Martin Reisigl and Ruth Wodak, Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism (London: Routledge, 2001), 145; Ruth Wodak and Teun van Dijk, Racism at the Top, 99.
Heinz Fassmann and Rainer Münz, Einwanderungsland Österreich? Gastarbeiter – Flüchtlinge – Immigranten [Austria: Country of Immigration? Guest Workers, Refugees, Immigrants] (Vienna: Dachs-Verlag, 1992)
and Theo Van Leeuwen and Ruth Wodak, ‘Legitimizing Immigration Control: A Discourse- Historical Analysis,’ Discourse Studies 1, no. 1, issue 1 (1999): 87.
Rainer Baubőck, ‘Migrationspolitik [Migration Policy],’ in Kulturen in Bewegung [Cultures in Movements], ed. Hans Barkowski und Maria Hirtenlehner (Vienna: Verband Wiener Volksbildung, Alpha & Beta Verlag Edizioni, 1997), 678.
Reinhard Heinisch, ‘Right-Wing Populism in Austria: A Case for Comparison,’ Problems of Post-Communism 55, no. 3 (May/June 2008): 44.
Christian Karner, ‘Austrian Counter-Hegemony: Critiquing Ethnic Exclusion and Globalization,’ Ethnicities, 7, no. 1 (2007): 82–115.
David Art, ‘Reacting to the Radical Right: Lessons from Germany and Austria,’ Party Politics 13, no. 3 (2007): 334;
Karner A, ‘Austrian Counter-Hegemony’; Kerstin Hamann and John Kelly, ‘Party Politics and the Reemergence of Social Pacts in Western Europe,’ Comparative Political Studies 40, no. 8 (August 2007): 986.
Rudiger Wischenbart, ‘National Identity and Immigration in Austria: Historical Framework and Political Dispute,’ in The Politics of Immigration in Western Europe, ed. Martin Baldwin-Edwards and Martin A. Schain (London: Cass, 1994), 75; Art, ‘Reacting to the Radical Right,’ 333.
Hamann and Kelly, ‘Party Politics and the Reemergence of Social Pacts in Western Europe,’ 986 and Kurt Richard Luther, ‘Must What Goes Up Always Come Down? Of Pillars and Arches in Austria’s Political Architecture,’ in Party Elites in Divided Societies, ed. K. R. Luther and K. Deschouwer (London: Routledge, 1999), 53–55.
Reinhard Heinisch, Populism, Proporz, Pariah: Austrian Political Change, its Causes and Repercussions (New York: Nova Science, 2002), 219, cited in Hamann and Kelly, ‘Party Politics and the Reemergence of Social Pacts in Western Europe,’ 986.
Peter Ulram, ‘Political Culture and Party System in the Kreisky Era,’ in The Kreisky Era in Austria, ed. Günter Bischof and Anton Pelinka (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1994), 92, cited Heinisch, ‘Right-Wing Populism in Austria,’ 45.
As Luther, in his 2000 article (i.e. before FPÖ became a main coalition partner) writes, FPÖ has influenced government parties’ policies foremost on issues related to tightening Austria’s immigration regime. Kurt Richard Luther, ‘Austria: A Democracy under Threat from the Freedom Party?,’ Parliamentary Affairs 53 (2000): 429–430.
Das Program der Freiheitlichen Partei Ősterreichs [The Program of the Austrian Freedom Party], cited and translated in Andrej Zaslove, ‘Closing the Door? The Ideology and Impact of Radical Right Populism on Immigration Policy in Austria and Italy,’ Journal of Political Ideologies 9, no. 1 (February 2004): 105.
Brigitte Hipfl and Daniela Gronold, ‘Asylum Seekers as Austria’s Other: The Re-Emergence of Austria’s Colonial Past in a State-Of-Exception,’ Social Identities 17, no.1 (2011): 32.
In Berkhofer’s words, ‘contextualism… postulates a holism that is purposely left vague.’ Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., Beyond the Great Story: History as Text and Discourse (Cambridge: Harvard, 1998), 34.
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Cinar, M.U. (2015). Historical Narratives in Action: The Austrian Case. In: Collective Memory and National Membership. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137473660_5
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