Mark Mallokent
21.11.2005, 18:02
Auf diesen schönen Artikel stieß ich in German Joys (einem sehr guten Blog)
geschrieben von einem amerikanischen Gastprofessor in Deutschland, der versucht, seinen Landsleuten die Sitten und Gebräuche jenes merkwürdigen Volkes zu beschreiben, das schon Tacitus nicht ergründen konnte.
Why there were no riots in Germany
Andrew Curry has an interesting piece in The New Republic on why the riots in France did not spread to Germany. It's behind a paywall, so I'll give you the highlights here:
Despite being non-citizens, immigrants in Germany enjoyed a number of rights, such as freedom of movement and speech, basic respect from the police, and limited participation in the political process. Guest workers were represented on labor councils and in German unions. They settled not in isolated housing projects but in war-damaged inner-city neighborhoods. The result was urban revival, and inclusion in the fabric of everyday German life, instead of the physical marginalization of the sterile French housing projects. "The inner city area is easier to take hold of for an immigrant. Little shops and stores represent investment and identification in the neighborhood," says Viadrina University sociologist and Islam expert Werner Schiffauer. And successful immigrants tended to re-invest in the neighborhood, instead of leaving for richer areas. Says Schiffauer: "There's no 'up and away' culture in Germany, so people were more likely to stay when they succeed." In France, by contrast, those who could afford to leave the suburban projects generally left as soon as they could.
There's also history to take into account. Postwar Germany has, for the most part, welcomed difference as part of public life and responded vigorously to racism. The French, on the other hand, have always been deeply suspicious of multiculturalism. French intellectuals have long been too busy pointing fingers at America's social hypocrisies to pay much attention to their own. France never ratified Europe's Charter for Minority or Regional Languages, for instance, arguing that formally recognizing the country's 70-some languages and dialects would threaten the "indivisibility of the Republic" and "the unity of the French people." Likewise, the country stands alone with Turkey and Andorra as holdouts on the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
***
All this isn't to say that Germany is an immigrant utopia. Far from it. In eastern Germany, where unemployment in some towns has reached 40 percent in the 16 years since the wall fell, a handful of far-right anti-immigrant parties have established a foothold in local government. Since German citizenship laws were relaxed in the late '90s, one of the most complex issues for immigrants has been whether to renounce their old citizenship for a German passport. Most have not taken the step. And parts of the Turkish community here remain isolated, with no incentive to learn German or adapt to German mores. Germans were shocked earlier this year by a spate of "honor killings," in which young women who had embraced liberal values were executed by their families.
There's no doubt Germany's relationship with its immigrant population remains a work in progress. But for now, Germany's immigrants seem a lot less resentful of their situation than the marginalized rioters of the French suburbs. Perhaps that's because the society that brought them here promised less--and delivered more.
geschrieben von einem amerikanischen Gastprofessor in Deutschland, der versucht, seinen Landsleuten die Sitten und Gebräuche jenes merkwürdigen Volkes zu beschreiben, das schon Tacitus nicht ergründen konnte.
Why there were no riots in Germany
Andrew Curry has an interesting piece in The New Republic on why the riots in France did not spread to Germany. It's behind a paywall, so I'll give you the highlights here:
Despite being non-citizens, immigrants in Germany enjoyed a number of rights, such as freedom of movement and speech, basic respect from the police, and limited participation in the political process. Guest workers were represented on labor councils and in German unions. They settled not in isolated housing projects but in war-damaged inner-city neighborhoods. The result was urban revival, and inclusion in the fabric of everyday German life, instead of the physical marginalization of the sterile French housing projects. "The inner city area is easier to take hold of for an immigrant. Little shops and stores represent investment and identification in the neighborhood," says Viadrina University sociologist and Islam expert Werner Schiffauer. And successful immigrants tended to re-invest in the neighborhood, instead of leaving for richer areas. Says Schiffauer: "There's no 'up and away' culture in Germany, so people were more likely to stay when they succeed." In France, by contrast, those who could afford to leave the suburban projects generally left as soon as they could.
There's also history to take into account. Postwar Germany has, for the most part, welcomed difference as part of public life and responded vigorously to racism. The French, on the other hand, have always been deeply suspicious of multiculturalism. French intellectuals have long been too busy pointing fingers at America's social hypocrisies to pay much attention to their own. France never ratified Europe's Charter for Minority or Regional Languages, for instance, arguing that formally recognizing the country's 70-some languages and dialects would threaten the "indivisibility of the Republic" and "the unity of the French people." Likewise, the country stands alone with Turkey and Andorra as holdouts on the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
***
All this isn't to say that Germany is an immigrant utopia. Far from it. In eastern Germany, where unemployment in some towns has reached 40 percent in the 16 years since the wall fell, a handful of far-right anti-immigrant parties have established a foothold in local government. Since German citizenship laws were relaxed in the late '90s, one of the most complex issues for immigrants has been whether to renounce their old citizenship for a German passport. Most have not taken the step. And parts of the Turkish community here remain isolated, with no incentive to learn German or adapt to German mores. Germans were shocked earlier this year by a spate of "honor killings," in which young women who had embraced liberal values were executed by their families.
There's no doubt Germany's relationship with its immigrant population remains a work in progress. But for now, Germany's immigrants seem a lot less resentful of their situation than the marginalized rioters of the French suburbs. Perhaps that's because the society that brought them here promised less--and delivered more.