Michael Neureiter – författare

This book brings new insight from social psychology to explore migrant integration in Western Europe. Through a series of survey studies it illustrates the importance of sociopolitical conditions, such as political polarization and discriminatory climates, for understanding cross-national variation in migrant integration outcomes. The author investigates how migrants integrate; what factors facilitate or hinder successful integration; and how successes and failures along the way affect subsequent integration outcomes. An inspiring read for researchers and students alike interested in migration studies, political behaviour, social psychology, and international policy, this book aims to promote more effective migrant integration policies within the European Union and elsewhere.

This book brings new insight from social psychology to explore migrant integration in Western Europe. Through a series of survey studies it illustrates the importance of sociopolitical conditions, such as political polarization and discriminatory climates, for understanding cross-national variation in migrant integration outcomes. The author investigates how migrants integrate; what factors facilitate or hinder successful integration; and how successes and failures along the way affect subsequent integration outcomes. An inspiring read for researchers and students alike interested in migration studies, political behaviour, social psychology, and international policy, this book aims to promote more effective migrant integration policies within the European Union and elsewhere.

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - War and Peace, Military, grade: 1,0, University of Pittsburgh, language: English, abstract: This study aims at examining the reasons why foreign countries (or third parties) militarily intervene in civil conflicts. To better illustrate its argument, I begin with a brief discussion of two contrasting examples: the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002) and the Casamance Conflict in Senegal (1982-2014). Sierra Leone and Senegal are very similar on a number of dimensions. Both countries are located in West Africa, possess ample natural resources including diamonds and gold (but no oil), and are former colonies of Western powers. In addition, both Sierra Leone and Senegal have small economies without significant ties to the West, are militarily weak, and have little geopolitical importance. Therefore, if we only focus on such material factors, as Realists often do, it seems somewhat puzzling that the civil war in Sierra Leone triggered a military intervention by its former colonizer, Great Britain, whereas the one in Senegal did not. If we extend our focus beyond material factors, one can see that the Sierra Leone Civil War differed from the Casamance Conflict in one important respect, which might help explain the difference in intervention outcomes: the level of violence against civilians. While all intrastate wars are tragic and involve substantial human suffering, there is substantial variation in the extent and nature of the atrocities committed by the warring parties. Some civil conflicts experience widespread and even systematic violence against civilians such as rape, torture, and targeted killings, whereas in others this kind of violence is relatively rare. The Sierra Leone Civil War is an example of the former type of conflict. More than 50,000 people died as a result of the war, the majority of them civilians. The years between 1997 and 2000 were marked by systematic atrocities committed against the civilian population, to the extent that some observers called it genocidal violence. In contrast, the Casamance Conflict was an intense but rather localized civil war. Fighting was largely restricted to the southern part of Senegal, and both warring parties showed relatively great restraint in their targeting of civilians.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2014 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: 1,0, University of Pittsburgh, language: English, abstract: This study deals with the question: do capitalist values increase or decrease xenophobia?There has been much scholarly debate about the impact of capitalism on xenophobia. While it is widely accepted that capitalist economies create values which then in turn influence xenophobic attitudes, this debate is in large part not settled yet. As previous studies on the subject have failed at providing comprehensive conceptualizations of and quantitative evidence on capitalist culture and values. To address this gap in the literature, the latest wave of the World Value Survey will be used to inductively develop a set of capitalist values from individuals responses to questions on economic issues. Through this inductive approach, four distinct values associated with capitalism will be identified: materialism, economic individualism, a belief in small government, and a capitalist work ethic. Then, OLS will be used to assess the relationship between these four values and individuals attitudes toward immigrants as well as people of different race and religion. It is found that materialism and capitalist work ethic increase hostility toward people different from oneself, whereas economic individualism decreases it. Belief in small government does not have a statistically significant impact on xenophobia. These findings have important implications for both the scholarly debate on the effects of capitalist culture and the public discussion about economic reform.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Topic: International relations, grade: 1,0, Eastern Illinois University, language: English, abstract: Over the last decades, the foreign policies of the European Union member countries have become more and more consistent. However, up to date, the European countries differ significantly in their views on Israel, Palestine and the Middle East conflict. This study tries to explain these differences by focusing on a factor that has been largely ignored by existing literature on foreign policy making: culture. More precisely, this study tests the argument that anti-Semitism as a cultural trait influences a state's foreign policy toward Israel. In order to test this argument, we are examining the levels of anti-Semitism in five European states (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) as well as the quality of their relations with Israel. The findings suggest that the countries with the highest levels of anti-Semitism indeed have the worst relations with Israel and vice versa. Thus, anti-Semitism (and, more generally, culture) seems to be an important factor that deserves greater attention from scholars that are trying to understand the process of foreign policy making.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Sociology - Law and Delinquency, grade: 1,0, Eastern Illinois University, language: English, abstract: This study examines the underlying causes of the 2011 England Riots. In order to do so, it proceeds in six steps. The introduction, which lays out the design, merits and limitations of this study, is followed by a brief description of the 2011 England Riots. This description demonstrates that the recent disorders in Britain are a prime example of rioting, and as such pose a perfect test for existing theories which try to explain the occurrence of collective violence. The third section consists of a review of the scholarly literature on the causes of rioting. This review reveals that the single most prominent explanation of collective violence has been relative deprivation theory, which therefore serves as a basis for deriving the hypotheses of this paper. The fourth section lays out the methodology of this study; in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the unrest and its underlying causes, a dual approach is employed: this paper analyzes both the socioeconomic structure of the neighborhoods in which the riots occurred as well as the background of the rioters that were arrested. The results yielded by this approach are presented in the fifth section. The findings strongly support relative deprivation theory; however, some of the alternative explanations controlled for in this study also seem to have played an important role in the occurrence of the 2011 England riots. This shows that collective violence is a multi-causal phenomenon, one that cannot be sufficiently grasped by resorting to a single explanation. The sixth and final section summarizes the main findings of this study, connects them with the broader theoretical debate and indicates the direction for further research on this topic.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: 1,0, Eastern Illinois University, language: English, abstract: Scholars have suggested a number of different causes of political tolerance and intolerance. Using data from the 2008 American National Election Studies (ANES), we test seven of the causes frequently mentioned in the literature (age, gender, education, religion, ideology, social capital and perceived threat) while controlling for class and ethnicity. We find that religion, ethnicity and especially ideology explain variation in attitudes toward fringe groups quite well, while class and especially social capital appear to be rather poor predictors of an individual's level of tolerance. We also find that of our nine independent variables, only gender affected tolerance levels precisely as predicted. For all other independent variables, the relationship with political tolerance is not entirely in line with the predictions of previous research; in some cases, it is even the complete opposite. Thus, our results partially challenge the findings of previous studies and demonstrate the need for further research on political tolerance.

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Cultural Studies - GLBT / LGBTIQ, grade: 1,0, Eastern Illinois University, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the course of the homosexual liberation movement in Weimar Germany (1919-1932). The study is guided by the following research question: what were the goals of the gay rights movement in the Weimar Republic? In order to answer this question, the main actors who belonged to this movement will be identified. This brief description of the homosexual emancipation movement in Weimar Germany is followed by an examination of its four main goals, which includes the context in which they were pursued, the means which were employed to achieve them and how successful the movement was in its efforts. A concluding section then summarizes the main findings of this study and connects them with the broader theoretical context of this topic. It is commonly viewed that the struggle for gay rights is a rather recent phenomenon. According to this view, the Stonewall riots of 1969 mark a turning point in the advocacy of equality and tolerance for homosexuals as well as the birth of the gay rights movement. While it is important to stress the significance of Stonewall for the LGBT community, it would be wrong to perceive of the gay rights movement as an entirely contemporary phenomenon. In fact, the struggle for equality and tolerance for gays and lesbians has been going on for quite some time now, more than 150 years to be precisely. Thus, it is important to historicize the course of the early homosexual liberation movement, not only to give credit to the pioneers in the fight for the advancement of sexual minorities but also to better understand the origins and therefore the tactics and obstacles of today s gay rights movement and social movements in general. Germany is of special importance to the history of the homosexual emancipation movement: it is both the birthplace of the gay rights movement and the country in which the most gruesome atrocities against homosexuals were committed. Over the last two or three decades, the Nazi crimes against sexual minorities have been examined by an increasing body of literature. The course of the gay rights movement and homosexuals in Germany before the Third Reich has also received quite some coverage in scholarly literature, but by far not as much as the Hitler years.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: 1,0, Augustana University of Applied Sciences Neuendettelsau, course: U.S. History: From World Word II to Present, language: English, abstract: In 1947, when U.S. President Harry S. Truman and his key foreign policy aides finally became aware of the threat posed by Soviet expansionism, they decided to stall the spread of communism and to halt Stalin's aggressive ambitions. Their strategy became known as the "e;policy of containment"e;, which was first outlined by President Truman in his 1947 "e;Truman Doctrine"e;, stating that Soviet expansionism poses a serious threat to the freedom of peoples all over the world. Therefore, it must be the goal of the United States to prevent the Soviet sphere of influence from expanding, but also to prevent a third world war by not intervening in the already existing Soviet sphere of influence. But not everyone in America was happy with this way of dealing with the Soviet threat. Different actors opposed the policy of containment for different reasons and came up with their own, alternative ways of how to deal with the worldwide spread of communism. Main critics of the containment policy included parts of the Republican Party, various isolationists and famous journalist Walter Lippmann. In this essay, I will uphold the view that there were no promising alternatives to the policy of containment by first rejecting these three alternatives and then showing that the policy of containment was a rather efficient and safe way to face Soviet expansionism.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: 1,0, , course: U.S. History: World War II to Present, language: English, abstract: For many reasons, the Vietnam War poses an outstanding chapter in the history of the United States. First, it proved to be America's longest war, involving mass casualties (over 58,000 U.S. soldiers died during the Vietnam War) and gobbling up billions of dollars. Second, the Vietnam War is said to be the only war America ever lost. Therefore, it eroded morale within the military and influenced U.S. foreign policy for many years to come. Third and probably most important, the effects of the Vietnam War were not limited to foreign affairs, as it also had a great impact on American domestic affairs. The escalating war generated intense political criticism and social protests, as people questioned both the integrity of the South Vietnamese government and the credibility of American military claims that the war was going well. Moreover, the Vietnam War significantly altered the political landscape of the United States, as it, for example, caused a great change in the relation between the U.S. Congress and the presidential office. All too frequent, this aspect of the Vietnam War seems to be ignored, as people are way more concerned with questions regarding the war's necessity and legitimacy. However, in order to get the whole story of the Vietnam War, one must also have a look at its effects on the U.S. polit-ical system. Therefore, in this essay I will examine how the powers of the U.S. President and the U.S. Congress, as well as their relation, changed during the Vietnam War, as they were significantly affected by events that took place in Vietnam.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: 1,0, , course: Contemporary Political Ideas, language: English, abstract: Human rights, civil rights, minority rights, animal rights, etc. - rights seem to affect every part of human life, and it appears that everyone is talking about them. Since the writings of ancient Greek philosopher Plato, rights have been an essential topic of philosophical and political as well as public debate. But what exactly are "e;rights"e;? One German philosophical encyclopedia, edited by famous scholar Otfried Hoeffe, defines rights as a normative set of rules which organize and regulate social coexistence by defining both what is allowed of people and what is owed to people. In other words: rights allow people to perform certain actions, but also restrict them from performing others, therefore imposing order and structure within human society, as well as reducing complexity. Still, the question remains how such an order created by rights might look like, since there is no universal consensus about the origin, nature, and distribution of rights. Where do these rights derive from? Is every person endowed with equal rights? What is there to do if the rights of one social entity interfere with those of another social entity? It is because of the importance of rights to social life that virtually every political ideology has been dealing with those and other questions, and every single one of them has come up with different answers. Thus, it turns out to be vital to one's general understanding of rights to assess what different ideologies have to say about this topic. Additionally, one's ability to judge different ideologies and therefore take (or consolidate) a political stance might be improved if he is aware of how these ideologies conceive of rights. Hence, in this essay I will contrast the different views of liberalism and fascism on political as well as on economic rights. Moreover, I will critically assess the implications of these two ideologies based on their protection of individual rights and come up with a conclusion why I favor the one mode of thinking about rights over the other.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History - America, grade: 1,0, , course: U.S. History: From World War II to Present, language: English, abstract: This essay addresses the following scenario: You are a staffer for NCHE (National Council on History Education). The Board of Trustees has directed NCHE staff to submit proposals for books that could provide the basis for a national conversation on American history. Preliminary discussions have narrowed the choices down to either Howard Zinn's "e;A People's History of the United States"e; or Paul Johnson's "e;A History of the American People"e;. The NCHE Board wants a recommendation from you. Your memo should summarize the different "e;stories"e; told by each historian, comparing and contrasting them, and make a case for why you think one book would be a better choice than the other.