Theoretical perspectives on anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism in the post-migrant society

While there is a long tradition of joint research into racism or various racisms and anti-Semitism in international research (cf. Rothberg, 2009), these two fields of research have so far remained largely separate in Germany. This is partly due to the way in which these fields have developed against the backdrop of German history. Both originate from social movements that began around the same time, but were institutionalized at very different points in time.

Since the 1990s in particular, Germany has developed a high level of awareness of its own post-Nazi character, including at state level. The analysis of anti-Semitism and the diverse manifestations of right-wing extremism and right-wing radicalism first became established in close connection with research into the history and post-history of the Holocaust. In this context, racism was usually viewed as part of right-wing extremist ideologies or as a set piece of National Socialist world views and was (historically) empirically investigated accordingly.

The development of a German-language analysis of racism, on the other hand, is largely attributable to anti-racist, Black and migrant networks and civil society struggles. These confrontations with institutional and everyday forms of racism emerged primarily outside of university structures - for example in social work or political education work - and have only found broader academic and state recognition in recent years. This belated institutionalization is taking place in the context of a growing willingness to systematically research the post-colonial and post-migrant character of German society.

Intertwined analyses of anti-Semitism and racism have therefore only been found sporadically in Germany to date. The conceptual gaps between the two fields of research have been described in various places (cf. Biskamp, 2021). The first publications now explicitly deal with the interconnections between antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism (see Shooman, 2014; Hafez, 2019; Ünal, 2016; Rohde, 2005; Kartika & Saksono, 2018). These works form important points of reference, as they illustrate that the two ideologies - despite their different geneses - fulfill common social functions: They stabilize boundaries between an imagined "us" and the "others" and structure belonging in postmigrant society (cf. Arnold & Karakayali, 2025; Fava, 2024).

Current empirical studies also confirm significant correlations between anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attitudes (Berghan et al., 2016; Zick, Küpper & Hövermann, 2011). These findings point to overarching mechanisms of inequality based on fear, threat perception and social hierarchization.
At the same time, they show that existing survey instruments - which were predominantly developed in post-war West German society - do not adequately reflect the complex interrelationships between the two phenomena. For example, for certain items on secondary or Israel-related antisemitism, higher approval ratings can be observed in groups with migration experience, without it being sufficiently understood which social or cognitive mechanisms are actually being captured (cf. Detzner, 2013; Haury, 2023).

Against this background, the project focuses on the empirical and theoretical closure of this gap:

Critically reviewing existing measurement instruments on antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism in terms of their theoretical foundation, context sensitivity and empirical viability.

• Development of new, context-specific items that capture anti-Semitic attitudes and their intersection with anti-Muslim racism in a differentiated, non-additive way.

• Linking the levels of discourse and experience in order to capture the relationship between the two phenomena relationally and make it empirically accessible.

In this way, the project contributes to systematically exploring the nexus of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism in the German context and to strengthening the theoretical and methodological basis for future research as part of the NaDiRa Racism Monitor.

The project deals specifically with the empirical, discursive and disciplinary points of contact between racism and anti-Semitism. Firstly, it aims to facilitate and promote exchange with researchers who are explicitly researching both phenomena in their entanglements and connections. Secondly, it aims to approach concrete dynamics in the field of tension between racism and anti-Semitism against the backdrop of migration in Germany.

The project thus contributes to relating Anglophone works on racism theory to the European forms, practices and after-effects of National Socialist and racist extermination and imperial ideology. The focus of the theoretical work in the NaDiRa is thus shifted from the transfer of racism theory concepts from the US to the exploration of a theory formation that is oriented towards a new contouring of racism theory concepts from the empirical-historical contexts of Germany.

The project pursues a multi-stage research design that combines theoretical and empirical approaches. The focus is on linking discourse and experiential perspectives in order to analyze the nexus between anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism from different social positions.

The first step is a systematic review of theoretical and empirical approaches to the relationship between the two phenomena in the German context. Building on this, expert interviews will be conducted with representatives from academia, practice and the media in order to capture current discourse logics, conceptual understandings and areas of tension. In addition, qualitative focus groups will be conducted with those affected by anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim discrimination in order to make the dimensions of experience of these phenomena visible and to reconstruct their interrelationships.

The insights gained are then transferred into new, context-sensitive measurement instruments in a co-design process together with the NaDiRa ItemLab. This combination of theoretical reflection, empirical analysis and participatory development will create a basis for systematically recording the complex interrelationships between anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism in future surveys of the Racism Monitor.

The project runs from the beginning of January to the end of December 2024.

The sub-project is based at the DeZIM Institute as part of the National Discrimination and Racism Monitor (NaDiRa) and works on an interdisciplinary basis with researchers, practitioners and community representatives.