The country is struggling to cope with the huge economic and political costs of integrating East and West. The social and economic difficulties of this integration have unleashed a vicious wave of rightwing extremism and antiSemitism that has horrified most thoughtful Germans as well as the international community. Not only in Germany but in the remainder of Western Europe. growing numbers of migrants and refugees from North Africa and Eastern Europe are swelling inner cities. While some Europeans welcome the diversity and richness that these new residents bring. others are threatened by the rapidity of change and see the new migrants as a threat to their jobs and way of life. The unfortunate result again has been the rise of antiSemitism and the growth of an intolerant. antiimmigrant backlash. In the republics of the former Soviet Union and in the newly emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. the morally bankrupt Communist ideological. political. economic. and social system has collapsed. Citizens of these countries are now attempting an unprecedented adjustment to the harsh realities of free market economics. but they are still awaiting the promised benefits.
Keywords matched
refugees antiimmigrant migrants