Living Together with Different Backgrounds

Living Together with Different Backgrounds

The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 686

My time in Germany – longer, for medical reasons, than originally intended – provides me with interesting insights into German society; I tried to bring some of them into The Mirror, as far as there are references possible.

One debate which, more than ever before, is in the media almost every day, relates to migration and migrants: the fact that a about 10 percent of the people in Germany are immigrants, and there is another group of people born in Germany, but with immigrant background. A special emphasis is on the role of people from Turkey – more than 4 million persons among the total population – of Germans and foreigners – of 82 million living in the country.

This discussion was triggered by a book published at the end of August 2010 by Thilo Sarrazin: Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany Does Away With Itself). I think this discussion may also be interesting to be observed in Cambodia, where the situation of people with non-Khmer ethnic backgrounds, or adhering not to Buddhism – ethnic Vietnamese, Cambodian citizens mainly in Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri who are not Khmer, or Muslim Cham communities – are also sometimes facing difficult questions about their identity, resulting also in difficulties in society.

Thilo Sarrazin has an impressive career as a public servant, finally at Deutsche Bank. In his book he suggests to restrict immigration, especially from Arab countries and from Turkey, saying that many of the immigrants with these origins are not prepared to integrate into their new environment. And there have been repeatedly cases of so called “honor killings” of women who did not conform to some constraints imposed by their former family traditions.

On Islam he said:

“Integration requires effort from those that are to be integrated. I will not show respect for anyone that is not making that effort. I do not have to acknowledge anyone who lives by welfare, denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides that welfare, refuses to care for the education of their children and constantly produces new little headscarf-girls.”

“No other religion in Europe makes so many demands. No immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state… No group emphasizes their differences so strongly in public, especially through women’s clothing. In no other religion is the transition to violence, dictatorship and terrorism so fluid.”

This trends of the debate was called to factual and reasonable reflection by Christian Wulff, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, in his address at the National Day of Germany, remembering the unification of both East and West Germany in 1990, where he said also, while calling on immigrants to make efforts to integrate, and on Germans to be open and tolerant:

“The Islam belongs by now also to Germany.”

His appeal, intended to rationalize the public discussion, had both effects: efforts to see the reality of German society, where economic well being and economic growth depend on the presence of a large number of immigrants – and, on the other side, there were further warnings against the growing number of foreigners, especially adhering to Islam, and not “to the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

The latter appeal contains very difficult to interpret challenges, as present day Germany has surely such a history, but the present role of this tradition is no longer as deeply rooted as it once was, and some voices that now evoke the Christian tradition do not do so in other respects.

These weeks show again that nationalistic tendencies can quickly find emotional response – but to deal with the underlying challenges seriously and rationally requires much more efforts.

This is obviously so not only in Germany – relations with minorities and with the neighboring countries of Cambodia face similar challenges and require similar careful attention and effort.

This article was first published by The Mirror, [3] Vol. 14, No. 686 - Sunday, 17.10.2010
Have a look at the last editorial - you can access it directly from the main page of The Mirror. [3]

Norbert Klein is the Editor of The Mirror [4] – The Mirror is a daily comprehensive summary and translation of the major Khmer language press - More about The Mirror [5]