I’m from Ukraine and I was forced to move to Austria. I speak German at a B1 level, which I learned in about six months (I also had some basics from school).
What I keep noticing, quite often, is a kind of “white racism” toward Eastern Europeans, especially Ukrainians. Online and in the news there is a lot of sympathy for Ukrainians. In real life, however, we are often treated as if we were mentally backward natives. In one conversation, an Austrian seriously asked me whether we even have the internet in Ukraine. A friend of mine, who already has a child, told me that her child gets bullied at school because of their background, sometimes even indirectly by teachers. Situations like this are not rare.
I’m not here just to complain. I’m genuinely trying to understand why this happens. Why are we treated this way? Is it because Eastern Europe is seen as less economically developed? Yes, salaries are higher here, but not everyone here is a millionaire. I also see many homeless people on the streets who clearly look European, most likely Austrians.
Another friend once told me a story about an Austrian guy she dated. He seemed to come from a wealthy family, with parents working in a big bank. He openly talked about Ukrainian women as prostitutes and Ukrainians in general as homeless people, and his friends supported these views. I’ve also lived in Germany for some time and saw similar attitudes there.
For example, Ukrainians are very often pushed toward jobs like elderly care, as if that’s all we are fit for. Meanwhile, most Ukrainians I know who are now doing hard physical work here actually have higher education. Back in Ukraine they were lawyers, business owners, doctors.
I’m really interested in hearing thoughts on why this perception exists and where it comes from.
As I'm not a victim of this behaviour and don't share those views please treat this more as educated speculation then anything else.
I see three factors coming together in general towards Eastern countries:
Back in the 60s up until the 80s at least in western Germany there was a huge amount of traveling workers from all eastern countries - mainly turkey for the area I've grown up in but from what I know it was not that country specific.
Those workers were very focused in the construction industry in the beginning and then spread out to other physical labor intensive topics.
The "link" between physical work and a lack of intelligence dates back even way further, "go to University or you have to become a construction worker" stuff. I've seen texts in that direction from the Weimar Republic but I guess it's way older.
Those two combined have anchored te link Eastern European == Construction Workers == Dumb.
That's a stupid chain but I've seen it IRL.
And then there is the general "foreign is evil and weird" that seems to be ingrained so deep in German and Austrian culture it's sad. For some reason everything (food, people, behaviours) that are not familiar or "wrong" until proven otherwise often enough. This tendency makes easy targets out of everyone foreign - and if you look even slightly different that's good enough.
All of that said I've never seen or heard Ukraine specific things - but this is more saying about my bubble than that doesn't exist I assume.