The case of Thilo Sarrazin is a puzzling one indeed. It’s not often I am left completely flummoxed by a certain institutional or public reaction to events, but in this case that’s exactly the position I am in. Dr Sarrazin is a senior board member of Germany’s Bundesbank who recently published a book on immigration issues and has since been widely condemned for racism. The contents of this book I have not read but I am familiar with many quotations from the book and comments he has made.
A wave of fury has descended on Germany with poor Dr Sarrazin being placed in the firing line of political and public opinion. The Social Democratic Party of whom Sarrazin is a member has promised to expel the gentleman. The Bundesbank have also handed out statements condemning him for his words as has German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Thilo Sarrazin’s book, ‘Deutschland schafft sich ab’ which translates to ‘Germany does away with itself’ is a 464-page study of the effects immigration has had and continues to have on modern-day Germany. The book is heading for the best-seller lists and Dr Sarrazin has insisted “It’s very balanced”.
Below I address the words which have caused so much anger and add my penny’s worth on each.
“most of the cultural and economic problems are concentrated in a group of the five to six million immigrants from Muslim countries”
This is true. Whether it’s politically incorrect or not to say so is irrelevant. An interesting article on this can be found here: Study says Turks are Germany’s worst integrated immigrants.
A particular study mentioned in the above article found that, “Immigrants of Turkish origin were also found to be the least successful in the labour market: they are often jobless, the percentage of housewives is high and many are dependent on welfare.”
Last year in a magazine interview Thilo Sarrazin stated:
“I do not need to accept anyone who lives on handouts from a state it rejects, is not adequately concerned about the education of their children and constantly produces new little headscarf-clad girls.”
A 1996 book called Turkish Culture in German Society Today (Culture & Society in Germany) by Eva Kolinsky and David Horrocks found that while 2nd and 3rd generation Turks usually adhered to German culture in school, outside of school, Turkish culture was still very dominant even for those who’d been born in Germany. They found the self-desired “segregation line remains just as effective as ever”.
This fits into my own experiences of living in the German capital city of Berlin. I lived in the centre of the city for 15 months and found little to no shared community between the Germans and the Turks, regardless of whether the latter had been born there or not. I never saw what could have been a Turkish girl walking hand in hand with a German boy, nor did I see Turks generally conversing with their German neighbours. Most spoke Turkish and very poor German.
My own experiences tell me another of Sarrazin’s comments was also based in reality:
“I don’t want the country of my grandchildren and forefathers to be in broad swathes Muslim, where Turkish and Arabic is widely spoken, where women wear headscarves and where the daily rhythm of life is set by the call of the muezzins,”
Apart from the call of the muezzins, this quote sums up exactly what I saw and heard on the streets of Berlin. I attended German classes with young Turks whilst living in the city and became acquainted with a number. The girls mostly wore headscarves and a few of them were met at the gates of the school by their parents, dressed in Islamic Turkish attire who gave rather unsavoury looks to myself and East European friends I was with. These were girls of 19 or 20 who could easily have made their own way home on the very safe German transport system.
“A large number of Arabs and Turks in Berlin have no productive function other than selling fruit and vegetables”
Dr Sarrazin’s words again echo with my experiences. I lived in a very Turkish neighbourhood of Berlin and so saw first-hand what society was like. Turks and Germans lived completely separate lives except when it came to fruit and vegetable stalls. There were hundreds of these stalls all over the city and all, without fail, were manned by Turks or Arabs. The only occasion when the lives of Germans and Turks collided was during shopping and the asking of particular portions of fruit and veg. This was, really, the only period where the two peoples acted as though they were one.
Another comment by Thilo Sarrazin was one about Jews and genetics. As a strong Judeophile, I briefly squirmed at the following sentence and thought the anti-Semite accusations might be sticking for good reason.
“All Jews share a particular gene, Basques share a certain gene that sets them apart,”
This single line has caused fury and delirium in Germany and for reasons I don’t particularly understand. Is he not right? Is what he said merely scientific fact? According to Jewish religious law, “a child is not Jewish if the child’s mother is not Jewish.” and is best known as matrilineal descent. Most Jews I know agree with this. If this isn’t a shared genetic heritage, then what is?
What are your thoughts on this?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Relieved to hear the voice of reason speak again. Once again the media over reacts to quite simply sensible based on fact comments. It’s not just Germany either, the whole of Europe has an immigration problem..check that…*western* Europe has an immigration problem where people either won’t or are unwilling to integrate. The old saying is so true: “truth hurts”