Here for Good: Western Europe's New Ethnic Minorities

by Stephen Castles

No

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Stephen Castles is Research Professor at the Institute for Social Change and Critical Inquiry at the University of Wollongong. William Foster is a consulting economist based in Melbourne. Robyn Iredale is Associate Professor in the School of Geosciences and Principal Research Fellow at the International Business Research Institute at the University of Wollongong. Glenn Withers is Professor and Head of the Public Policy Program at the Australian National University.

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to skim through parts of this book because of thesis-writing, but I hope to come back to it as some later point in time. It's a good overview of migration to western Europe in the 1960-80s, and is especially in-depth regarding what was then West Germany. I know - West Germany? It's incredible, sad and also somewhat cathartic to see how this book, written before I was even born, documents and illustrates problems of racism, discrimination and fear-mongering similar and identical to what we're seeing today, again mostly in Europe. While the data might be out-dated, it's a great resource for historical reasons, and is poignant on several issues relating to racism in Britain and in Germany, and the rebranding of some really nasty views as more acceptable (what we're seeing in Scandinavia today in particular seems to build on this model of making racism more respectable and mainstream). If you're researching modern migration and racism in Europe, it's a good book to have at least skimmed through. Also, it's refreshing how unapologetically anti-racist the scholars are. None of that cold-facts-no-big-deal attitude.