["I came as a stranger, will leave as a stranger." From alienation to hostility to foreigners in the young...

After a historical review of the discussion of the concept of strangeness and alienation since the beginning of the 19th century, the question of the background of the current discussion of "the alien" arises. The assumption is that the experience of strangeness and self-alienation took a qualitative and quantitative leap at the point in technological development when the dialectic between human and machine was resolved in favor of the machine's domination, and when the "mega-machine" made the end of the human species conceivable and probable. Findings from empirical research on children and youth support this assumption. The causes are traced why the younger generation in particular is affected by the structural violence of strangeness that permeates all areas of life. Its inflating influence on the development of the ego and self is depicted. In accordance with the assumption, hostility toward and hatred of foreigners are to be grasped as symptoms of a loss of identity, caused by experiences of alienation deeper and more comprehensive than current societal triggers reveal.