City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Hunter College 2003 Protest and Reform in Asylum Policy: Citizen Initiatives versus Asylum Seekers in German Municipalities, 1989-1994 Roger Karapin CUNY Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/654 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] Published as Roger Karapin, "Protest and Reform in Asylum Policy: Citizen Initiatives versus Asylum Seekers in German Municipalities, 1989-1994," German Politics and Society 21 (Summer 2003), pp. 1-45. Protest and Reform in Asylum Policy Citizen Initiatives versus Asylum Seekers in German Municipalities, 1989-1994 Roger Karapin Political Science, Hunter College, City University of New York April 2003 Introduction Many writers have argued that anti-immigration politics in Germany1 and other West European countries have been driven by radical-right parties2 or the electoral maneuvering of national politicians from established parties.3 Others have argued that waves of violence against immigrants and ethnic minorities have spurred anti-immigration politics,4 or that racist ideologies and socioeconomic inequality are the root causes.5 By comparison, authors have paid relatively little attention to anti-immigration mobilization at subnational levels, including the public positions taken by subnational