''Überfremdung'' (pronounced ), literally 'over-foreignization', is a German-language term used in politics to suggest an excess of immigration. The word is a

nominalization In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase. This change in functional category can occur through morphological tr ...

compounded from ''

über ''Über'' (, sometimes written ''uber'' in English-language publications) is a German language word meaning "over", "above" or "across". It is an etymological twin with German ''ober'', and is a cognate (through Proto-Germanic) with English ' ...

'' meaning "over" or "overly" and ''fremd'' meaning "foreign".

Political uses

The German term has had several meanings over the years, all of which have reflected the sense of "too foreign" and "threatening", and are generally negative. Successive editions of the Duden dictionary illustrate how the meaning has changed since the term was first used in 1929, then meaning "taking on too much foreign money" (especially loans made from 1924-1929 to rebuild Germany, following the First World War). In 1934 (one year after the NSDAP came to power in Germany), the meaning changed to "immigration/imposition of

foreign races Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

", and in 1941 it became "immigration/imposition of foreign peoples". Following the Second World War, the 1951/1952 version of the Duden returned to the strictly economic definition. In 1961, the term "foreigner" came to replace "foreign races" or "foreign peoples". In 1986, the term was no longer used in economics. Since 1991, primarily the verb "überfremden" has been in use, and one could speak of a country being ''überfremdet'' (). In 1993, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache () declared "Überfremdung" to be the

Unwort des Jahres Un-word of the year (german: Unwort des Jahres) is an annual selection of one new or recently popularized term that violates human rights or infringes upon democratic principles, made by a panel of German Linguistics, linguists. The term may be one ...

(), as it makes "undifferentiated xenophobia" sound more argumentative and clinical.
Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort!
' on Spiegel Online (in German). Linguists, philologists, political scientists and social scientists criticise the concept for its vagueness, its use under national socialism, and its continuing negative connotation. The word is related to terms in various languages: "

foreign infiltration Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

", "

foreign penetration Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

", French "", "", "", Spanish "", Italian "", and "" (), which have all been used at various times to rally xenophobic sentiment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uberfremdung German words and phrases Immigration to Switzerland Anti-immigration politics in Europe

Political uses

See also

References