No German, No Benefits: Turkish Family Fights Language Requirement

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Imhan K., a Turkish woman living in Germany, had her welfare benefits slashed after her husband refused to let her take German courses. Now a court must decide whether immigrants can be forced to learn the language and adopt Western mores.

After three-and-a-half years of legal wrangling, there's still no end in sight. At least officially, the case centers on €290.70 ($392). The K. family, thus identified to safeguard its privacy, is made up of ethnic Turks living in Germany. They claim that the state owes them the money. But, in reality, it's a matter of principle.

The questions at the heart of the dispute are: Can immigrants be forced to learn German? Can people who decline such an offer be denied welfare benefits? Or, viewed from the other perspective, can immigrants who live off state benefits refuse to integrate into society, or can they live as a group as if on an island and free of societal obligations?

The case of the K. family is typical of the problems German authorities face in dealing with immigrants from countries such as Turkey who don't want to integrate. » | Bruno Schrep | Tuesday, September 24, 2013

German Finance Minister Says Too Many Gastarbeiter Were Allowed In
THE GUARDIAN: Wolfgang Schäuble enters multiculturalism row, saying problems of integrating Turkish guest workers have grown with third generation

Germany's finance minister has waded into the country's simmering row over multiculturalism, saying it had been a mistake to bring in so many Gastarbeiter, or guest workers, from Turkey during the economic boom years of the 1960s.

In an interview with the Guardian, Wolfgang Schäuble said Germany had expected its 3.5 million Turkish minority to integrate better in the decades that followed the wave of immigration.

"We made a mistake in the early 60s when we decided to look for workers, not qualified workers but cheap workers from abroad, Turkey," said Schäuble. Some people of Turkish origin had lived in Germany for decades and did not speak German, he said.

"When we decided 50 years ago to invite workers from Turkey, we expected that their children would integrate automatically. But the problems have increased with the third generation, not diminished, therefore we have to change the policy," Schäuble said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's plain-speaking finance minister was adding to comments she made last year, claiming multiculturalism had been a disaster for Germany. More recently her new interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, stoked the debate by saying that Islam did not belong in Germany. The foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, has also spelled out the new, tougher message from Berlin, declaring that children of immigrants should learn German before the language of their parents and grandparents. » | Larry Elliott and Julia Kollewe in Berlin | Friday, March 18, 2011

Immigration in Germany: Multikulturell? Wir?
THE ECONOMIST: How a fresh debate on multiculturalism in Germany clashes with the country’s need for more immigrants

Photograph: The Economist
HOW well does Halime Cengiz fit into Germany? A “typical guest worker’s child”, she wears a hijab and spends much time at the Mevlana mosque in Gröpelingen, a Bremen neighbourhood with many immigrants. She has a German passport but “would never say I’m German” (or Turkish). She calls herself “a Bremer with Turkish roots”. Yet she also speaks flawless German. Neither her marriage nor her veil was forced on her. Part of her mosque work is with churches, lowering barriers between Muslims and Christians. She urges parents to send their children to kindergarten to improve their German. The parents fret about their children becoming “too German”, but Mrs Cengiz allays such fears. She may be a model migrant after all.

Good immigrants and bad, how many and of what kind are all worrying Germany just now. A book claiming that Muslim immigrants and the underclass were bringing about Germany’s downfall by breeding too fast had a print run of over a million by the end of September (and cost its author, Thilo Sarrazin, his job on the Bundesbank board). Seeing its success, politicians abandoned political correctness. Further immigration from Turkey or Arabia is no longer welcome, said Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s premier and head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian arm of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. The CSU asked that immigrants embrace the Leitkultur (dominant culture). Even Mrs Merkel joined in. Multiculturalism—the idea that immigrants can recreate their culture in Germany—has “utterly failed,” she said last month. New polls confirm Germans’ hostility towards immigrants, especially Muslims. >>> | Bremen | Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wilders Makes Half of Dutch Muslims Want to Emigrate
EXPATICA: More than half of the people with Turkish and Moroccan backgrounds in the Netherlands say they would consider leaving the country due to the growing popularity of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders. A third say they would definitely like to emigrate.

The figures emerge from a survey by research bureau Motivaction for public service broadcaster NCRV’s current affairs programme Netwerk. The programme commissioned the survey in response to the success of Mr Wilders' rightwing Freedom Party in the recent European parliamentary elections. Since March this year, leading pollster Maurice de Hond's Peil.nl has measured support for the populist Freedom Party at more than 30 percent, which would theoretically make it the largest party in the Dutch parliament if there were an election.
 


Discrimination



Although three quarters of the Turkish and Moroccan Dutch people questioned in the Motivaction survey said they felt at home in the Netherlands, 57 percent said they now felt less comfortable in the country due to the growing popularity of the Freedom Party. Two out of five said they felt they were now discriminated against more often, and almost a quarter said they regularly experienced discrimination. Nearly three quarters said they thought Mr Wilders had intensified negative feelings towards Muslims among the Dutch public.


Nearly twenty percent said they agreed with Mr Wilders on some points and could appreciate why people would vote for him. However, half of the respondents said the growing support for Mr Wilders made them feel angry and disappointed, and 22 percent said he aroused feelings of fear and hatred. Ninety per cent said they thought a Wilders government would be a fiasco, and only 4 percent thought he would be able to offer any solutions to the country's problems.
 


The survey asked respondents what they saw as the best strategy to counter Mr Wilders. Forty percent thought the best policy was simply to ignore the Freedom Party. Thirty-five percent favoured entering into debate with Mr Wilders and his supporters. Twenty five percent saw vociferous protest as the answer, and 11 percent wanted to see a Muslim political party established to represent their interests. >>> | Monday, July 06, 2009

Turks Interviewed on EU for French State Television

A Possible Three-Year Jail Term for for Ragip Zarakolu for Promoting Reconciliation Between Turks and Armenians!
THE GUARDIAN:
· British author fears attack over Armenian book
· Ankara accepts need for change, says Labour MEP

Nearly two years after the internationally acclaimed author Orhan Pamuk narrowly escaped imprisonment for statements that were thought to "insult Turkishness", the publisher of a British writer goes on trial today accused of the same charge.

Ragip Zarakolu is facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book - promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians - by George Jerjian, a writer living in London.

Jerjian's book, The Truth Will Set Us Free, which was translated into Turkish in 2005, chronicles the life of his Armenian grandmother who survived the early 20th century massacres of Armenians thanks to an Ottoman soldier. The historical account has prompted as much controversy among the Armenian diaspora, not least in the US, as it has in Turkey. Trial of publisher revives row over Turkish 'insult' law >>> By Helena Smith in Athens

Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)

Integration of Turks into German Society High on the Agenda
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Four groups representing Germany's Turkish population have refused to take part in Angela Merkel's integration summit being held Thursday. German commentators are divided over whether the groups have a point or whether they are just proving that Turks in Germany don't want to integrate.

The boycott by four major organizations representing the Turkish community in Germany of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's much-vaunted integration summit (more...) threatened to overshadow the event as it took shape on Thursday.

Their main bone of contention is a new immigration law which contains measures they consider discriminatory -- for example, a stipulation that future spouses can only come to Germany if they can prove knowledge of German, a rule that does not apply to Americans, Japanese or European Union citizens and seems to have been created with Turks in mind. "That is discrimination," said Kenan Kolat, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) organization.

He announced Wednesday that his group would not be taking part in the summit. "We have determined that it makes no sense to participate because the government has not understood the seriousness of our concerns and doesn't appear to be willing to seriously discuss possible changes to the immigration law," Kolat told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Three other major Turkish organizations also said they were boycotting the summit -- which will still go ahead as planned.

The refusal to participate was criticized in some quarters. "You don't solve problems by staying away, but rather by speaking to each other," commented Maria Böhmer, Merkel's commissioner for integration. Observers suggested that the federations had shot themselves in the foot by refusing to participate, and that they were lending weight to the view that immigrants do not want to integrate. Immigration Law 'Hits Turks Below the Belt' (more)

Mark Alexander