Skinheads: Mythologies, Recruitment, and Violent Attacks.
A hate group is "when a group of people join together to oppose and even destroy another group because they believe that the group is responsible for some negative change in their environment" (Barken and Snowden, 2001, p.105). As for skinheads, the negative change in their environment was an increase in immigration. "Coming from Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey, these workers have made up for labor shortages in agriculture and service jobs" (Hayes, 1994, p.2). Immigration's result on employment standards and wages was therefore devastating to white youth in Britain.
As for skinhead mythologies, race, or more specifically, white racial purity is the main item on the skinhead agenda. Skinheads believe minorities are given preferential treatment in schools as well as in the workplace. Skinheads are very threatened by immigrants, not only because of employment, but also because they fear they are inundating the nation and minorities are out-breeding the majority, the white race. Skinheads believe immigrants only harm them and their country, but in fact, "most hold low paid menial jobs, they have been essential for Germany's economic success" (Hayes, 1994, p.2). .
Skinheads have certain recruitment methods; neo-nazi ideology combined with the gang lifestyle provides skinheads with a seductive sense of strength, group belonging, and superiority over others. Strength, belonging, and superiority combine to create the appeal the skinhead movement holds for troubled teens. "Thus, failure in society threatens to trigger the helplessness experienced in childhood, and joining a fearful group defends self-respect" (Virtanen, 2003, p.3). A major aspect of skinhead life is their devotion to oi music, a hard driving brand of rock music whose lyrics send a message of bigotry and violence. No other means of communication compares with oi music's influence on their outlook and behavior.
