Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

need for a stronger context-orientation in preventative work. Their observation that right-wing
extremist Swiss youth are usually “entirely normal”, socially integrated adolescents, also
underlines this need.
At home and abroad, the Netherlands for decades have been considered a model society
in terms of tolerance and anti-racist policy (see also Westin, 2003: 108). Efforts to end dis-
crimination have been an integral part of Dutch politics since the 1980s, and for the longest
time, right-wing extremist and xenophobic attitudes among the Dutch were considered a
minor problem. According to Ge Grubben, the author of the Dutch essay, this is the reason that
research on on and preventative strategies against present-day forms of right-wing extremism
and xenophobia are still relatively underdeveloped in his country. The death of the fi lmmaker
van Gogh and the racist responses it provoked shook up Holland’s self-image and prompted a
questioning of the the previous ways immigration and integration issues were handled. Ge Grub-
ben joins the calls for optimizing and reorienting existing educational approaches, which are
based primarily on the principle of a multicultural society and the acquisition of the requisite
skills. He sees new prospects in more recent educational concepts revolving around “active
citizenship,” which focus on teaching respect and tolerance as central values of Dutch society.
The essay by Peter Rieker provides an overview of the situation in Germany, where, due to
the country’s country’s Nazi past, society remains highly attentive to right-wing extremist developments,
and the debate on prevention is fairly sophisticated. A special feature of this debate – one that
is shared by the German-speaking region of Switzerland – is the treatment of terminology: in
contrast to the rest of Europe, offi cial statements and professional circles avoid using the term
racism to describe current phenomena since it is too closely associated with the biological
conception of race espoused by historical National Socialism. Right-wing extremism has been
followed more closely since the early 1990s, when there was a dramatic rise in xenophobic
violence in the wake of reunifi cation. cation. Since then, different preventative strategies, supported
by special national programs, have been developed, primarily for educational work with
young people. However, these approaches do not focus on the learning environment provided
by schools, where, the author fi nds, there are only hesitant attempts to tackle the problem.
Activities are more concentrated on youth work and out-of-school youth education. Whereas
earlier programs centered on working with (potentially) violent criminals, criminals, current efforts now
seek to develop counter-forces in civil society.
The debate debate in the United Kingdom has been profoundly infl uenced by the country’s national
history. In this former colonial power, the largest migrant groups come from its one-time colo-
nies, and skin colour marks one of the central lines of social confl ict. For this reason, the essay
by Momodou Sallah and Rod Dacombe deals primarily with the topic of “race relations” and
the creation of “race equality”, which dominate the way British scholars and politicians view
the problem. Exclusion and discrimination are primarily seen as the consequence of institu-
tional racism and not of individual prejudices. One expression of this perception is the state
anti-discrimination policy, which requires all public institutions to actively promote equality of
opportunity for all ethnic groups in their organizations. Educational policy revolves around the
institution of the school, where attempts to come to terms with racism are part of the curricu- curricu-
Introduction
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