Really thoughtful piece, thank you. Austrian identity is publicly still very narrowly projected, clinging to a kitsch 1950s image, despite Austria always having been a multi ethnic, multi linguistic & multi faith state -with a tumultuous history (putting it kindly). To modernise we need to start define 'Austrianess' more inclusively - in reflection of reality, and enforce this inclusivity (e.g. reflect it in public posts, in executive functions) and give people the strategies to deal with this multifacetedness (which isn't always easy). However I have the feeling that people shy away from directly dealing with the topic of national identity (perhaps for good historic reasons) - with the consequence that the discourse of what is and isn't Austrian is mostly left to the right wing.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I was at a lecture given by Oliver Rathkolb the other week at which he made a similar point that, after the Second World War, it was difficult to construct an Austrian national identity because left and right couldn't agree on its basic tenets. Imperial nostalgia, which is part of the kitsch you rightly identify re the Sisi movies, didn't really work for the Social Democrats, for example.
Good piece. I guess the problem is inherent conservatism and an unwillingness of many immigrants to fit in. I recently asked a shop worker where he was from. (he asked me first). He replied that he was born in Austria, had Austrian citizenship but was Turkish.
Integration is indeed a two-way street, but inherent in that idea is that immigrants have to be made an offer -- something into which they can integrate. Rainer Bauböck also made the point at Tuesday's seminar that many second- and third-generation immigrants who were born in Austria and possess Austrian citizenship feel reluctant to identify as Austrian because they see it has as being toxic somehow as if Austrianness were the possession of the most conservative elements in Austrian society.
Really thoughtful piece, thank you. Austrian identity is publicly still very narrowly projected, clinging to a kitsch 1950s image, despite Austria always having been a multi ethnic, multi linguistic & multi faith state -with a tumultuous history (putting it kindly). To modernise we need to start define 'Austrianess' more inclusively - in reflection of reality, and enforce this inclusivity (e.g. reflect it in public posts, in executive functions) and give people the strategies to deal with this multifacetedness (which isn't always easy). However I have the feeling that people shy away from directly dealing with the topic of national identity (perhaps for good historic reasons) - with the consequence that the discourse of what is and isn't Austrian is mostly left to the right wing.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I was at a lecture given by Oliver Rathkolb the other week at which he made a similar point that, after the Second World War, it was difficult to construct an Austrian national identity because left and right couldn't agree on its basic tenets. Imperial nostalgia, which is part of the kitsch you rightly identify re the Sisi movies, didn't really work for the Social Democrats, for example.
very good piece — even though I've lived in Austria for a considerable time, I don't see any avenue by which I would be accepted as "Austrian".
Good piece. I guess the problem is inherent conservatism and an unwillingness of many immigrants to fit in. I recently asked a shop worker where he was from. (he asked me first). He replied that he was born in Austria, had Austrian citizenship but was Turkish.
Integration is indeed a two-way street, but inherent in that idea is that immigrants have to be made an offer -- something into which they can integrate. Rainer Bauböck also made the point at Tuesday's seminar that many second- and third-generation immigrants who were born in Austria and possess Austrian citizenship feel reluctant to identify as Austrian because they see it has as being toxic somehow as if Austrianness were the possession of the most conservative elements in Austrian society.