Should the rise of the Afd and anti-immigration stances deter me (a Canadian) from seeking a post-doc in Germany? Are these tensions fueled by racism or is it driven by other societal factors (eg housing/employment) that are negatively affected by immigration?

TLDR: Based on what I've seen through various media sources, the mass influx of refugees and immigrants to Germany over the past few decades has lead to political tensions in the country. Accordingly, nationalist/right-wing politics is rising and seem to have its foundation in anti-immigration views. What are the main targets of these views? Is this rooted in pure racism (eg race, religion, social norms etc) or is it driven my societal factors like less housing and employment availability? Id like to get the opinions from locals rather than from the media. For context, I am a born and raised Canadian with Indian background that is hoping to move to Germany for a post doctoral fellowship after I finish my PhD. Should the political tensions in Germany make me reconsider my options? Sorry in advance for the long post. Below, I give more context and offer my own views on immigration from what Ive seen in Canada.

First off I hope this post is allowed and know that I dont seek to offend anyone. I'm hopefully nearing the end of my PhD and am starting the search for a post doc. The many excellent research institutions (and the excellent resources available to them) in your country are a major reason why I'm interested in moving to your country for the next phase of my career (amongst many others). I've been to Germany twice in my life for short stays but I found people very friendly and loved the cities I travelled to.

Talking to a few German expats living in Canada, they all tell me I should avoid Germany because of rising political tensions within the country. I saw today that the Afd won a state election in the country for the first time in half a century and IIRC right wing nationalist parties in Germany won several EU elections earlier in the year. I'm not saying that this mentality is going to be widespread in Germany during the time I'm there but its a concerning trend. Is their platform primarily anti-immigration or is it really just anti-colored people? The narrative seems to change based on what news site I use, so I wanted to hear first hand from locals.

Its my understanding that Germany has been hit hard by waves of refugees over the last decade (particularly since the Arab spring movements). Likewise the country has seen increased waves of violence committed by (or blamed on) recent immigrants so I think its at least somewhat understandable for locals to lean towards an anti-immigration stance. In a different but related fashion, I see the same thing here in Canada where I live. My country has faced massive immigration problems over the past 5-6y, particularly from India. India has a massively different culture than Canada, and without getting into all the details, the large influx of Indian immigrants and their concentration in various cities has lead to quite a bit of tensions lately as there's less pressure to adopt the social norms of Canada. It also doesnt help that we have a huge housing crisis atm and rising unemployment is fueled by cheap govt subsidized labor coming from India.

For context, I am a born and raised Canadian with heritage that comes from India and was raised catholic. I feel both myself and my family are very westernized as my family really valued the importance of integration into Canadian culture when they moved here in the 70s. I truly believe that if one is to move to a new country, it is imperative that they make every effort to learn about the new countries language, culture and social norms (while still respecting their own heritage of course). If I were to move to Germany, I would do the same. Its necessary for social cohesion imo. Unfortunately, the rise of anti-Indian racism here is alarming to me…but I can 100% see where its coming from. I never once had issues with racism growing up and am fortunate to see that I still don't really experience it. But I see the hate online growing and in many ways I agree with some of their views (not the racist stances but the anti-immigration ones) as the new Indians give the rest of us a bad look. Many other Canadian-Indians feel the same way.

Sorry for all the rambling just wanted to provide some context. Does the situation here in Canada have any parallels with whats going on in Germany? Should I think twice about coming to Germany for a post doc? I don't want to be targeted by locals but at the same time, I also don't want to contribute to problems faced in your country. That said, if I do come, I'd have every intention to integrate myself into German culture, do my best to contribute to your society without interfering in matters I have no place to interfere with.