Police officers detain people during carnival celebrations in Cologne, 4 February 2016. Getty/Volker Hartmann. All rights reserved.After the reports about the string of sexual assaults during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne, media outlets across Europe followed with the news about refugee and migrant sex crimes – groping at swimming pools, verbal abuse and throwing of stones on the streets, or harassment at a music festival. Responding to these events, local authorities issued warnings to women to avoid certain places, towns barred migrants from entering swimming pools, thousands of police personnel were readied to patrol carnival marches, and pink security zones for women were proposed.
This reaction is deeply frustrating. Groups of men sexually assaulting women in public spaces is a new form of violence against women which needs to be condemned and punished. But this wave of reporting on Cologne has increased an already existing anti-immigrant fervor and has given fresh impetus for further violent xenophobic attacks, as another stereotypical image of a migrant, this time as a rapist, is settling in our imagination and exacerbating our fears.
Thus, the vulnerable, and yet single most important resource for a successful integration of a diverse society is now being eroded, perhaps beyond the point of return. This resource can be called civility, characterized as respectful, polite, and friendly behavior toward strangers, regardless of whether they are one’s own compatriots or foreigners.
