Workshop on Understanding Xenophobia in E. Europe

Workshop papers can be downloaded from:
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/eve/eve_xenophobia.htm


June 21-22, 2002
Central European University,
Budapest, Nádor Street 9

In co-operation with the Humanities Center at the CEU

Xenophobia - discrimination or hatred of foreigners - has received
significantly less attention in research on current Central and
Eastern Europe than discrimination or hatred toward "indigenous"
ethnic groups. Yet, with increasing flows of migration, investment,
and tourism in the region, xenophobia is becoming an important
phenomenon and policy issue. Cavalier explanations of its dynamics
that treat it as an innate cultural characteristic of the region or as
a consequence of economic malaise are no longer sufficient. Social
research has also remained thin in producing convincing conceptual
frames to connect the problem of hatred of foreigners to a broader
interpretation of xenophobia that embraces ideas on incommensurability
or incompatibility of cultures within society.

The workshop intends to compare in-depth analyses of the processes
underlying the differentiated growth of xenophobia in the region over
the past decade, to explore the meanings of the various manifestations
of xenophobic currents, to critically examine the application of
traditional and innovative methodological devices, and to consider the
major policy relevance of comparative social research in the topic.
Organizers are interested to discuss cutting edge research revealing
the relationship between xenophobic tendencies and the overall level
of intolerance in society, and between the legitimacy of public
xenophobic rhetoric and the levels of everyday xenophobic practices.


Program

Friday, June 21st
10:00 - 11:30 Xenophobia: concepts and laws (Panel Discussion)
Gellner Room

Welcome address: Yehuda Elkana, President and Rector of CEU
Paper: Wilhelm Heitmeyer (University of Bielefeld); Boris Tsilevich
(MINELRES, Riga); Judit Tóth (Centre for Migration and Refugee
Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

11:30 - 11:45 Coffee break
11:45 - 1:00  Panel Discussion continued
Gellner Room

Respondent: Andrea Krizsán (Center for Policy Studies, CEU, Budapest);
Vera Messing, Budapest
Discussant: Margit Feischmidt (University of Pécs)

2:00 - 2:45  Exhibition tour of the Open Society Archive's Exhibition:
Forced Bathings
Galeria Centralis, CEU Nador 11 Building
3:00 - 5:30 Marketing Tolerance / Hogyan adjuk el a toleranciát?
(Public Roundtable)
Auditorium

(The language of the workshop is English, simultaneous translation
will be provided in Hungarian)

Moderator: Imre Furmann (Legal Defense Bureau for National and Ethnic
Minorities, Budapest)
Participant: Uli Geiger (Scholz & Friends Berlin); Oliver Handlos
(Scholz & Friends Berlin); Pál Nyíri (Menedék - Hungarian Association
for Migrants); Anthony M. Bennett (Metropolitan Police Service,
London); Péter Geszti (ARC, Budapest)


Saturday, June 22nd
10:00 - 11:30 Xenophobia in practice: measuring and comparing (Panel
Discussion)
Gellner Room

Paper: Andrej Skolkay (University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius,
Trnava); Galina Vitkovskaya (International Organisation for Migration,
Moscow)
Respondent: Bori Simonovits (TÁRKI, Budapest)

11:30 - 11:45 Coffee break
11:45 - 1:00  Panel Discussion continued
Gellner Room

Respondent: Antal Örkény (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest);
Krystyna Iglicka (University of Warsaw); Borbála Kriza (Budapest)
Discussant: Pál Nyíri (Central European University)



Workshop Papers

Tatiana Bogushevich - Boris Tsilevich: Many Faces of the Monster.

Wilhelm Heitmeyer: Group Focused Enmity and Processes of Social
Disintegration.

Tonci Kuzmanic: Group Focused Enmity and Processes of Social
Disintegration.

Andrej Skolkay: Xenophobia: A Catalyst of Hate Speech in Slovakia and
Slovenia.

Judit Tóth: Discrimination in public administration - is it a source
or evidence of xenophobia in Hungary?

Galina Vitkovskaya: Forced Migration and Migrantophobia in Russia