Die Konstruktion der Ausländerfrage in Österreich Eine Analyse des öffentlichen Diskurses 1990. The issue of foreigners in Austria. An analysis of public discourse in 1990. IHS Political Science Series 35, June 1996

In Austria, until 1990 public debates about migration policy were rare events. In March 1990, however, the search for accommodations for Rumanian asylum seekers in a small provincial town created the perception of an immigration problem (“Ausländerproblem”) from one day to another. From that time onwards, immigration and policies towards foreigners have become one of most salient issues in Austrian politics. Many observers explain the rise of the immigration issue by the breakdown of the Iron Curtain and/or the xenophobic campaign waged by the Austrian Freedom Party. This paper puts these common interpretations into question. It argues, first, that the problems resulting from the open borders were different from the concerns that dominated the public debate. And, second, it claims that it was the Social Democratic Party and its Minister of Internal Affairs (and not the Freedom Party) who put the immigration issue on the political agenda, also shaping its concrete form and expression