One of my favorite readers just sent me a personal email in regards to the thoughts my blog and other expats have inspired in him. I’ve posted his thoughts in the past on my blog because I think he makes really good points. Also, I think it is fair to post an Austrian view point. Below you’ll see his comments.
Helimax, his user name, is making a reference to my first ever blog post Fashion – Or the Lack Thereof The rest of his thoughts seem to be something he just wanted to share with us.
Hi Britta!
I was just talking to a friend about Austrians and I thought I should write my thoughts down for you. Maybe you can use them in your blog.
One of the major differences to eg. France or the US is that thereare no ‘ghettos’ – of course there some neighborhoods with more immigrants from ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, etc.. and some with more poorpeople and some with less and so on, but it is still mixed up. And people don’t stay in their neighborhood. Poor people got to Kärtnertstrasse and native Austrians go to Brunnenmarkt for fresh vegetables etc..
This leads to some points you mentioned in your blog. eg. bad-dressed people. Lower educated or poor people usually dress differently (may call it ‘not so good’). but eg. in Paris you will not see them – they stay in their banlieue. Dress code and knowing how to dress is mainly depending on the social status. So of course in Vienna’s 1st or 19th district the people are generally better dressed, but there are a lot of non-good-dressed people because there are no social- or other barriers for the people with lower status to enter these areas.
Another – for me – big difference between US and Austria is the definition of social-status. In the US money is a big status-factor. In Austria people with money are always ’suspicious’ – ‘where do theyhave the money from?’ ‘is it legal?’ or if you borne with money -everybody thinks you got no problems and anything comes to you without work. In general money is only accepted if someone works really hard for it and is known for doing so – anything else is socially not accepted. that’s why only few people drive really expensive cars. The real rich don’t do it, because the don’t want to be recognized and don’twant to be socially unaccepted. Only the ‘Neureiche’ show their wealthand got therefor a really bad reputation.
On the other side in Austria, reputation is defined by titles, that’s why they are so important. But there are also differences. ‘Real’ titles from universities esp. Mag.,Dipl.Ing. and Dr. have a high reputation because you had to work for some years to earn it. Bachelor, FH-titles, etc.. got quite low reputation. Honorary titles are seen in the mid-range, because you must have done something to get them.
To get back to clothing: if you got a title you don’t have to dress good to show your status. That’s another reason why dressing is considered not so important in Austria.
Some – maybe confusing – thoughts collected from my chat with a non-Austrian friend.
Greetings from the snowy mountains 
and a happy new year!
Helimax
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