3 Main Points:
1. Germany is experiencing a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, and public figures such as Thilo Sarrazin have argued that “with the country’s population shrinking overall, immigrants and the underclass are having too many children, well-educated native Germans too few. Biologically, culturally and professionally Germany is dumbing down.” This is alarmingly reminiscent of the political climate in Nazi Germany.
2. Many Germans have expressed that they are in favor of sharply restricting Muslim religious practice, and think that the country has been overrun by foreigners. In addition to the sentiment of the general public, many politicians have bandwagonned onto this idea and stressed that Germany is not an immigrant land and does not need more Arabic or Turkish immigrants.
3. Initially, Germany expected its large immigrant population to work for a time and then leave and return to their original countries. This has not been the case, and the German government has begun to promote a national integration plan, “which mandates German language courses and seeks to shepherd immigrants into employment.” The program emphasizes that integration is a two way street, and immigrants may be forced to choose between their actual identity and a German one.
2 Questions:
1. How is it possible that Germans are experiencing and expressing this type of racist and xenophobic sentiment again, less than a century after the Holocaust?
2. What are the consequences for Germany from the international community should these sentiments and policies continue?
1 Observation:
“Multi-kulti” is actually an Islamophobic racial slur, and its usage here is rather strange.
I think the use of a racial slur here is also interesting on many levels. Not only in its usage to begin with, but with the implications it provides that the German identity is created purely through race rather than naturalization. This is basically saying that the culture in Germany must be uniform with “pure” German heritage. Continuing on that, it is even more surprising that many immigrants are being attacked for not fitting the stereotypical German profile- even people that have lived there for generations. There are many Muslim immigrants that have lived in Germany for generations- and thus their families are raised German- and yet, this racially created profile prevents them from ever completely being accepted.
This is also the time period in which the young Nazi Germans are now functioning adults in society. They were being taught in the early 40s in schools that race and purity were the foundation for a perfect society. These ideals were ingrained in their mentality especially if they were elementary school age at the time of Nazi rule. These children were brain washed into thinking that racism and ill feelings towards foreigners was normal. These children were leading the work force and the political stage in the late 1980s and so this could have provided a platform for some of the racism going on in Germany at that time.