Tag Archives: Integration

Even “Kevin” Will Do

September 1, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

But you don’t have to name your kid Kevin. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just sayin’.

You can be German even if your name is not ‘Klaus’ or ‘Erika’ -Merkel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

“Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn’t called Klaus or Erika,” Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.

Meanwhile… Germany’s Merkel says some 10-40,000 left in Afghanistan with right to German residence.

It Will Be A Long Debate

January 22, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hype, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Generally, for as long as there is nothing left to debate about.

Migrants

When “Germany” debates something, especially “terminology,” they will do so until the cows come home. And then leave home again. And then come back home again. And so forth.

For 15 years now, the term used by German statisticians and politicians alike to denote foreigners and their descendants has been “people with a migration background.”

That was the label given to people who weren’t born into German citizenship. And to people whose mothers or fathers were not born German citizens. Today, that applies to a quarter of the population.

After two years of discussing how Germany could better acknowledge its status as a society of immigration, a SPECIALIST commission of 24 politicians and academics appointed by the government has submitted its report to Chancellor Angela Merkel. One of its recommendations is to stop using the terms “migration background” or “immigrant background.”

People should use the term “immigrants and their descendants,” commission chair Derya Caglar said. “In my case, this would mean that I am no longer the migrant, but rather the daughter or descendant of migrants.”

Achieved?

August 25, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany has took on more than it can handle. And is continuing to do so (400+ per day). That’s what it has achieved.

Germany

Germany: Five years after the refugee crisis, what’s been achieved? – Five years ago, as hundreds of thousands of refugees came to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel maintained: “We can do it.” How has Germany — and those who sought asylum — managed since then?

…The initial “welcome culture” that Merkel advocated dissipated on New Year’s Eve 2015/16, when women were assaulted by migrants in Cologne’s main railway station.

And then came the Berlin terror attack, foiled terror attacks, all the other crime, disappointment and daily conflicts the German media does its best to ignore. And most Germans just keep on pretending that none of this is really happening. Why? Because Germany is a Moral Superpower? Are Germans that good at denial (see WWII and Communist East Germany)? Maybe it isn’t really happening. If you don’t see it in the news and no one is allowed to express an uncomfortable opinion or inconvenient truth about it maybe it didn’t happen, right? You don’t even need a Big Brother in Germany. Everybody does this voluntarily.

 

German Of The Day: Migrationshintergrund

March 31, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means migrant or immigration background.

Migrationshintergrund

You know, like almost half of the unemployed in Germany have Migrationshintergrund? 46 percent, to be exact, sort of (answering this question at the employment office is not mandatory so the number will actually be higher). Back in 2013 it was 36 percent. Kind of a high percentage, don’t you think? But the talking heads in government and media don’t worry about something like this turning into a larger problem than it already is because they have been told, officially like, that “they can do it.”

Die entsprechende Quote liegt demnach bei 46 Prozent. Ende 2013, vor Beginn der verstärkten Migration nach Deutschland, hatte der Wert noch bei 36 Prozent gelegen.

No Parallel Society Here

March 27, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Not yet anyway.

Kindergarden

But if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Germany: Muslim kindergarten loses appeal against closure – State officials had ordered “Al Nur” to close following revelations that inappropriate literature had been shared at the kindergarten. The day care center is the only Muslim kindergarten in Rhineland-Palatinate…

The state’s decision to revoke Al Nur kindergarten’s license was lawful because evidence showed links between the school’s administrators and the extremist Salafist ideology, an administrative court in the city of Mainz said. The court said the links made it difficult for children at Al Nur to integrate into German society and compromised their independence.

“Efforts by Arab Nil-Rhein, the association that runs the kindergarten, to distance itself from Salafist thought were not convincing.”

German Of The Day: Pessimistisch

December 26, 2018 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means pessimistic. As in pessimism. German pessimism, to be exact.

Optimism

German optimism is already pretty pessimistic so you can imagine what German pessimism must be like. And the Germans going through another pessimistic pessimism phase again these days.

A new survey indicates that a mere 17 percent of the population see the coming year with any kind of confidence or optimism. This is the largest drop in confidence in five years, the polling institute Ipsos says, and the turning point was the Flüchtlingsdebatte (refugee debate) that began in 2015.

2015 hatte die Flüchtlingsdebatte zu einem Stimmungseinbruch geführt. Die Sorgen im Hinblick auf die Integration der Zuwanderer sind noch immer da: 50 Prozent der Befragten befürchten, dass eine wachsende Fremdenfeindlichkeit den sozialen Frieden gefährdet. Das sind vier Prozentpunkte mehr als vor einem Jahr.

German Of The Day: Weihnachten

December 19, 2018 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means Christmas. You know, like the word for Christmas that the German Integrationsbeauftragte (Integration Commissioner) purposely left off of her official Christmas card greeting this year?

Weihnachten

“No matter what you believe in…” She writes, “We wish you a peaceful holiday season and a good start in the coming year.” But no mention of the word Christmas. You know, for like, I dunno, Christians?

You certainly couldn’t call Weihnachten a dirty four-letter word. It’s way bigger than that. But it’s sure dirty enough because in the Germany of 2018 it’s the kind of word you do not to want to put into your mouth, much less into writing, during the Christmas, I mean holiday season. At least not when you’re the Integration Commissioner here.

But wait. Shouldn’t that be one of the first words somebody interested in integration in Germany would want to use?

“Es ist bedauerlich, dass falsch verstandene Toleranz augenscheinlich dazu führt, dass Weihnachten, das Fest der Liebe, unsichtbar wird.”

Germans Need To Become Better Integrated

May 6, 2018 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In Germany. That makes sense. Sort of. Well, if you’re the head of Germany’s Federal Immigration and Integration Council it does.

Germans

I mean, think about it. They are already doing such a smash-up job integrating the millions of non-Germans out there that this phase of integration will soon be over with and then what are the folks who work over at Federal Immigration and Integration Council going to do? Get integrated back into the labor market (for real jobs)? Hardly.

And I have noticed, I must say, that more and more Germans just don’t really fit in here anymore. Worse still, many of these non-integrated Germans aren’t even open to the idea of letting themselves become properly integrated and even get downright hostile whenever you suggest that they do so. Not that I ever would, of course. I believe in cultural diversity. “Andere Länder, andere Sitten,” as the Germans say. Other countries, other manners. Live and let live, that’s my motto. Although I do wish that some of these non-integrated Germans would at least try to become more integrated in Germany society now and then. This parallel society nonsense ain’t cutting it, either.

“Viele Einheimische sind mit unserem politischen System unzufrieden oder finden ihren Platz in der deutschen Gesellschaft nicht.”

German Of The Day: Notfall

March 25, 2018 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

That means emergency.

Notfall

And in case of emergency (whatever that might mean at this point), the German City and Municipal Association (Städte- und Gemeindebund) has recommended to its members that they should refuse to accept any more refugees. These communities are already overwehlmed as it is.

Funny how associations like the German City and Municipal Association are always the last ones to figure things out like this. It has been my impression, and the impression of everybody else I know here, that German communities have been in a state of emergency since 2015.

Der Städte- und Gemeindebund hat die ungleiche Verteilung von Flüchtlingen auf die Kommunen kritisiert. Dadurch würde die Integration der Menschen behindert.

German Of The Day: Parallelgesellschaften

November 28, 2017 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means parallel societies.

Nacla Kelek

And this migration research lady, Necla Kelek, a Muslim herself, believes that Familiennachzug or family reunification policies (bringing in the families of the refugee men who came to Germany alone) would contribute to forming these parallel societies – and put a swift end to all the integration efforts the “correct” Germans out there are all so concerned about. You know, that same old been there done that good intentions blowing up in your face stuff?

At least folks like her are allowed to have this opinion.

Familiennachzug fördert Parallelgesellschaften.