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Überfremdung (pronounced[ˌyːbɐˈfʁɛmdʊŋ]ⓘ), literally 'over-foreignization', is a German-language term used to refer to an excess ofimmigration. The word is anominalization compounded fromüber meaning 'over' or 'overly' andfremd meaning 'foreign'. In thatalienation also translates to "Entfremdung", there exists at least one other political dimension to this term as well though.
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 theDuden 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 theFirst World War). In 1934 (one year after theNSDAP came to power in Germany), the meaning changed to "immigration/imposition offoreign races", and in 1941 it became "immigration/imposition of foreign peoples". Following theSecond World War, the 1951/1952 version of the Duden returned to the strictly economic definition. In 1961, the termforeigner came to replaceforeign races orforeign peoples. In 1986, the term was no longer used in economics. Since 1991, primarily the verbüberfremden has been in use, and one could speak of a country beingüberfremdet (German for 'over-foreignized').
In 1993, theGesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (German for 'Society for the German Language') declaredÜberfremdung to be theUnwort des Jahres (German for 'Un-Word of the Year'), as it makes "undifferentiated xenophobia" sound more argumentative and clinical.[1]
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 penetration, Frenchsurpopulation étrangère [fr],déculturation [fr],envahissement par des étrangers [fr], Spanishextranjerización [es], Italianinfiltrazione straniera [it], andהסתננות מאפריקה לישראל [he] (Hebrew for 'infiltration from Africa to Israel'), which have all been used at various times to rally xenophobic sentiment.
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