Study shows: Unemployment aids extremism

Public release date: 26-Aug-2005

Contact: Professor Armin Falk
Falk@iza.org
49-228-389-4112
University of Bonn
Study shows: Unemployment aids extremism
East-West divide mainly due to higher jobless levels in Eastern Germany
This press release is also available in German.

In Eastern Germany there are three times as many right-wing extremist crimes per inhabitant as in Western Germany. Is this the result of differing socialisation patterns, as politicians and others keep maintaining? Certainly not: the reason is primarily higher unemployment levels in former East Germany. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Bonn, the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) and the University of Zurich.

We are on a tram at night. A few people are dozing, one of them is African. Then two skinheads get on and start harassing him. "What do the others do? Do they look away, or do they help?" asks Professor Armin Falk, an economist at the Institute for the Study of Labor and the University of Bonn. He adds: "My theory is that it depends on the economic situation, among other factors. When the economy is in trouble latent racist attitudes begin to surface, and the willingness to stand up for non-German fellow citizens wanes. In this sort of climate right-wing extremist crimes flourish.