Abstract
The ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015, prompted in part by the sheer scale of those fleeing the conflict in Syria, elicited mixed responses from the public, media, and governments of Germany and the USA. Narratives of fear arose within various clusters of both societies, with xenophobic and racist sentiments directed towards the bodies of refugees. I argue that these narratives are created and sustained by a collective cultural emotional residuum of fear that exists in certain silos of the societies of Germany and the United States. Fear is accretive - it extends and perpetuates itself. The narratives of fear that surround refugees in both nations between 2015-2019 stem from cultural fears that have been built up over generations. By examining key political and social moments within the histories of each nation, I suggest that these fears take on certain patterns and topoi, which dictate responses to cultural and social ‘others’ throughout time - and that reactions towards refugees represent the latest ‘other’ created and targeted by these fears. The historical narratives examined all arose at times of vast social and cultural change. I argue that these narratives of fear of refugees are an expression of the uncertainty created by the dissolution of ‘traditional’ boundaries and identities experienced within neoliberal globalisation, and are a symptom of the movement towards nationalism and right-wing populism across the globe. It is suggested that fear has gained such traction within certain pockets of both societies, because shared emotion provides sites of belonging, within a system where many struggle to belong.