We have written several posts about thinly veiled or total in your face xenophobia in Western Europe. The United Kingdom, as the canary in the coal mine, and Austria as "little Germany" have been the butts of our jokes.
But there is more.
You can get an unfriendly "go home to your own country" in other places. The old German expat couple, having been robbed three times in as many years, the man hospitalized after being stabbed in the last robbery, were given a brash "go home to your own country" by an African official.
However, we made the choice to hang on to the belief that for every such dumb ass official, many more do their job correctly, maybe not with big, welcoming smiles all the time, but at least without aggression.
Waiting at the arrival gate of the airport, seeing almost exclusively white folks come through the opaque sliding glass doors while, at the same time, noting that the small crowd waiting for passengers was about half white and half black, the thought "does this mean anything" crept up.
Two planes out of Africa had landed about five minutes apart, and the stream of white people, with a handful or so of blacks mixed in, was getting almost eerie about 45 minutes after arrival.
Our passenger arrived, and we headed out. On the way to the parking lot, the passenger explained: German immigration comes on board before they let any passenger disembark. This time, officials had hardly put their feet on the plane when they took two blacks off. The officials then continued to methodically check the papers of all black passengers as the whites get off.
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