‘모범 소수자’와 ‘영원한 이방인’ 사이: 팬데믹 시기의 독일의 반아시아 인종주의와 아시아계 정체성 (Between ‘Model Minority’ and ‘perpetual foreigner’: Anti-Asian Racism During the Pandemic and Asian Identity in Germany)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국이론사회학회
· 수록지 정보 : 사회와 이론 / 48호 / 165 ~ 188페이지
· 저자명 : 김혜진

초록

홀로코스트 이후 독일에서 인종이나 인종주의는 일종의 금기어였다. 그런데 용어에 민감한 만큼 인종차별 문제에 치밀하게 대응했는가에 대해서는 회의적이다. 금기어를 대체한 독일의 ‘회피적인 조어’나 관제상 우익 극단주의에만 조준된 인종주의는 현재 모든 영역에 걸쳐져 있는 ‘사회적 현상으로서의 인종차별’을 호도한다. 특히 ‘모범 소수자(Model Minority)’처럼 간주되어 온 아시아계는 독일의 인종주의 담론에서도 완전한 타자다. 뉴라이트의 자양분이 된 틸로 자라친(Thilo Sarrazin)의 사례처럼 타 인종을 겨냥한 정치적 맥락에서만 활용되었을 뿐, 반아시아 인종주의에 대한 체계적인 조사와 연구는 코로나 19 팬데믹에 기반한 ‘국가 차별 및 인종주의 모니터(NaDiRa)’의 2024년 보고서가 최초다. 편의표본추출에 의한 데이터의 한계는 분명 존재하지만 - ‘모범적으로 통합된 이주자’라는 통념에 가려 - 잘 포착되지 않던 반아시아 인종주의를 범주화했다는 점은 그 시사성이 작지 않다. 특히 신체적 폭행을 포함한 차별의 강도와 유형, 압도적인 미신고율, 그리고 혐오와 폭행 장소 대부분이 공공장소라는 조사결과는 과거부터 존재해온 사회의 승인과 묵인, 방조가 아니면 설명될 수 없는 부분이다. 요컨대 NaDiRa의 데이터는 흑인이나 무슬림 이주자와는 다른 방식으로 철저히 타자화된 아시아계의 취약성을 가시화함으로써, 모범 소수자라는 신화의 함정과 ‘영원한 이방인(perpetual foreigner)’이라는 정체성 문제를 쟁점화하는 단초를 제공하며, 더 나아가 탈식민주의 연구와 연계하여 지속적인 탐색이 이루어져야 한다는 것이 본고의 입장이다.

영어초록

In post-Holocaust Germany, race and racism are taboo words. But as sensitive as the country is to race-related terms, it’s hard to say whether it has been as sophisticated in tackling racism as it should be. The taboo’s replacement, Germany’s “evasive language,” and its controlled focus on right-wing extremists, obscures the reality of racism as a social phenomenon that cuts across virtually all sectors of society. Asians, in particular, who have been considered the “model minority,” have been completely absent from German racist discourse. Thilo Sarrazin’s Deutschland schafft sich ab(Germany is disappearing), which is now the nourishment of the New Right, is only utilized in the political context of targeting other races, and anti-Asian racism itself has rarely been an issue in public discourse. The otherness of Asians is also evidenced by the fact that the 2024 report of the National Monitor for Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa) was the first to systematically address “anti-Asian racism” in Germany. While the data, which is based on a convenience sample, has methodological limitations that make it difficult to apply to all Asian migrants, we believe it is significant that it categorizes and makes visible actual anti-Asian racism, which is often not captured due to stereotypes of model minorities. In particular, the intensity of discrimination, including physical assaults, the overwhelming rate of unreporting, and the fact that most of the hate and assaults took place in public spaces cannot be explained by anything other than social approval, acquiescence, and complicity. The reputation of being a model minority does not translate into acceptance as a contributing member of society, and given the way in which they were labeled as a “yellow peril” group at the onset of the pandemic, even that reputation is far from solid. This thoroughly othered vulnerability of Asians aligns with recent analyses of the “perpetual foreigner” among Asian Americans, where blacks are the “other” in American society, while Asians are the “other” who shouldn’t even be in American society. However, in the midst of what is sure to be an even more chilling time, the voice of Hami Nguyen, a second-generation Vietnamese immigrant writer who wrote Das Ende der Unsichtbarkeit(The end of invisibility)(2023), gives us hope that the pandemic will mark a significant turning point in the fight against anti-Asian racism. In particular, the process of articulating the problems and visions of the migrant integration debate in Germany, proposing the term “inclusion” instead of “integration,” is noteworthy because it reminds us of the ultimate purpose of the debate - which has become tainted by the logic of political camps. It is these remarks that will eventually nourish NaDiRa’s ongoing research on anti-Asian racism.

참고자료

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