A SPIEGEL ONLINE opinion piece on xenophobia in Germany has elicited strong reactions among foreigners living here. Although some say racism is not a problem, many have experienced xenophobia in their daily lives.
Immigration has -- once again -- become a hot political topic in Germany after Hesse Governor Roland Koch called for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners" as part of his campaign for re-election. Immigrant groups have criticized his rhetoric for being xenophobic, but Koch's populist stance did strike a chord with many voters.
In a recent opinion piece, SPIEGEL ONLINE editor David Crossland wrote that Germany is doing a bad job of integrating its immigrants. "Maybe it's the Germans' romantic yearning for purity and cleanliness, for a 'Heile Welt,' a 'Perfect World,' that renders them prone to a collective xenophobia," he wrote. "This nation of dog lovers goes for pure breeds."
SPIEGEL ONLINE International invited readers who have experience of living in Germany as a foreigner to write in to share their views. Here is a selection of their letters on being an Ausländer in Germany.
Dear Spiegel Online,
I am an Asian scientist working in Munich. I lived in China and Singapore before I moved to Germany. I was offered a pre-doctorate position in Singapore from a private research institution with full pay before I came to Germany. But I still decided to look for a position in Germany, because I wanted to live in Europe. The major motives for such a move were firstly, the freedom of expression that European countries offer; secondly, the superior infrastructure of the German research system; and thirdly, the European values of tolerance and integration.
I was not disappointed at all when it comes to freedom of expression and the infrastructure in Germany. But I was utterly shocked when it comes to integration and tolerance. I never suffered explicit racist attacks like those which happened in eastern Germany. But I was exposed to a subtle yet stubborn kind of racism on a daily basis. This mostly takes the form of social exclusion -- I always felt that I am not and will never be allowed to become a normal member of society, despite holding a promising academic record and decent linguistic skills.
In the beginning, I regarded social rejection as a result of linguistic insufficiency. Therefore I spent a large amount of time improving my German. At the moment my spoken German is close to fluency. But I was completely disappointed about the results of my effort. Instead of feeling more integrated in the society, I actually discovered even more xenophobia around me, because now I understand what is written in newspapers and on street placards. Also, I became aware that people throw me angry looks when I mispronounce German, or give me suspicious looks on the U-Bahn. It is a constant battle on my side to handle such things. I am determined to move to another country once I finish my studies. It is hard to leave such a good working environment behind, but I see no hope for real integration here.
I have spoken with other colleagues of mine, who are either foreigners or have a foreign background. Many of them suffer the same kind of social rejection. There are very few things we can do except opting to leave the country when we finish our training. But it is detrimental to the intellectual progress and economic growth of Germany when even people of higher education fail to integrate into the society.
I am not saying that there should be any kind of favoritism towards intellectual foreigners, or that there should be immediate and absolute equality among Germans and foreigners. What I hope to see is more cultural sensitivity and inter-cultural communication. People should start to understand that foreigners are assets, not threats. And the only ones who can push for cultural sensitivity and exchange on a large scale are the mass media and the government.
-- Name withheld
'Germany Is not Where I Want my Kids to Grow Up'
Dear Spiegel Online,
As an Asian, I felt so much discrimination in all aspects of life, especially in school. I came to Germany at age 16 and was hoping to go to university. Almost all the high schools we went to rejected me solely for the fact that my German wasn't good enough. German relatives kept telling me that I should do an apprenticeship instead because attending a Gymnasium (university-track high school -- Ed.) is hard and that I might not be able to handle it.
People thought I was dumb just because my German was elementary. I never got encouragement from anyone because it was always made clear to me that either my German was not good enough or I was not good enough, without even knowing that I graduated in the top percent of my class. Due to my own and my family's persistence I went to an all-girl Gymnasium in Freiburg and eventually attended university in Tübingen.
Everyday I am reminded to my face that I am an Ausländer. No matter how I try to explain to people that I have nothing left in my home country and my new life is here, they always treat me as if I am exotic and that everything in German life is still new and novel to me. I have a German name, I have a German passport, but I look Asian, and therefore am a foreigner.
I immigrated to the US now and am attending university here. Here, I am not treated as a foreigner but as a person and my skin color doesn't matter as much as in Germany. I have a lot of opportunities that weren't possible in Germany as a foreigner.
I have lived in three different continents. For all the historical charm and romance of Germany, it is for me now only a place I will regularly visit but not a place where I want my kids to grow up in.
-- Veronica
'There Were Times When I Feared for my Life'
I am an ex-British soldier, my wife is German and I have lived in Germany for over 20 years. I am a truck driver in a big German firm. About 80 percent of the drivers are German-Russian, the rest are German and British. I am sick to death of hearing how the Russians should go home and how they are all criminals.
I don't care where people come from, there is good and bad in every race. I myself suffer name calling and intolerance. I have lost count of the times I have been called an "island monkey" (German slang for British people -- Ed.) and told I should go home. There were a couple of times in eastern Germany when I feared for my life -- and I don't scare easily.
Unless we all learn to live together, I really do fear for the future of Germany. Even today when I speak German, I still sound British and, yes, people are funny in shops when they hear this. When I talk to a fellow Brit over the CB radio in my cab we are told to go home and that we are English pigs. Some even play Hitler tapes -- how sad is that? Still, this is a minority and I still love the country and I know some great Germans.
Even so, in some parts of Germany I would not like to have dark skin -- sad, don't you think?
-- Name withheld
'I'm Sorry, Are You Black?'
Dear Spiegel Online,
I am a German, married to a Polish woman. We met in the USA about 10 years ago and have now lived in Germany for about 9 years.
We lived in Heidelberg and Frankfurt and have had many international friends over the years. During these years, a lot of things have happened that have made me see my fellow countrymen in a different light. First of all, my wife speaks fluent German, but since that wasn't the case when we met, we of course talked English to each other and it has remained that way until today. So over the years we had to defend our speaking English to each other many times, even to close friends. People said: "Why aren't you talking German to each other? You live in Germany, you should speak German!"
Just after we got married, my wife was in charge of finding us a new apartment. Imagine our surprise when my wife called realtors and found there were no places available, but when I called, we were able to look at three apartments in a day. In one case where we went to look at the apartment, the owners clearly didn't want us to move in there because of my wife's foreign accent. I was flabbergasted by this and I thought I must have misunderstood, but at the same time there was a Polish NATO soldier looking at one of the apartments and they didn't want him either. In his case, they used an excuse that they do not take soldiers since they move too much (with us, the excuse was that a "nice academic couple" had apparently called dibs on the apartment).
In a related case, I had a South African friend who spoke fluent German. In a telephone conversation with a possible landlord, it somehow came up that he was from South Africa. He was promptly asked the question: "I'm sorry but I was wondering and I really need to ask -- are you black?"
When I was a 16-year-old kid living in the United States, my friends around me were surprised to learn that I didn't consider myself American. Some of them were first-generation Americans as well, born to foreign parents, but they never considered themselves not to be Americans, although of course they would proudly say "I'm German, Irish, Greek..." or whatever when it came to their heritage.
In Germany, I have friends who were born, lived, went to school and worked in Germany. Still, one of my friends frequently starts a conversation with a sentence like "the village where I am from in Croatia" even though she was born here and lived here all her life. Another friend, born in Germany to Turkish parents, was seriously discussing with me that she wasn't even sure how and if living in Germany has had any impact on her in terms of giving her a German identity.
The only chance I see for success is the integration of our society into a European society as a whole where immigration, cross-border movements and "foreignness" are considered to be assets for a functioning society.
-- York Weyers
Dear Spiegel Online,
I read Mr. Crossland's opinion piece and I do agree that Germany needs to change its attitude towards foreigners.
I am a student from India currently pursuing my Master's here. I have been living in Germany for two years now -- 11 months in Cottbus, and the rest in Berlin. While it is true that I have met some wonderful human beings in my two years here, it is also true that by and large we, the foreigners, are regarded way too suspiciously.
Fortunately for me, despite my dark skin, I have not faced any pushed-into-a-corner kind of incidents that I keep hearing about. That may be because I take things in my stride, go out of my way not to offend people or simply because I choose to ignore things most of the time. But I experienced a couple of incidents when the ugly face of racism was bared to one and all. And every time I am shocked anew before a helpless rage takes over me, which I need to glaze over with indifference for my own survival here.
Once in Cottbus, during a hip-hop night at a student bar, which of course attracted the black students from our university, someone threw a stink bomb inside the bar forcing all of us to run towards the exit, eyes hurting and throats constricting due to the nauseous gas. While we were waiting outside for the smell to diffuse, a man with his hood up ran up the stairs, screamed "Ausländer raus!" ("Foreigners out!") and ran away before we could react.
And the other time, a club in Prenzalauer Berg, the happening district of Berlin, denied us entrance because there were three black people amongst us (well, four if you count me). We were just told that they have the right to deny anyone they want and that the club was filled to its capacity. The funny part is they did not even try to wait for us to get out of sight before they let others in.
It would be easy to handle if it is only a certain bunch of people -- say the neo-Nazis -- out to get you. What makes it difficult is the fact that the average people that you meet have so many prejudices against you that everything you do, even before you do it, is written on the debit side of the balance sheet. If my friend, who is white, crosses a street when the light is red, she is in a hurry. And if I do the same, someone is waiting to say "schwarze Schlampe" ("black slut") or something similar.
And you would think that in a university, things might be different. But oh no! It gets worse there. You have to start battling prejudices from the word go. If you come here from the developing world, you are here to squander the precious resources of Germany, while all along you want to stay on in the country by hook or crook.
Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to say I have nothing but bad experiences in Germany. I have had times when the unexpected generosity and helpfulness of strangers reduced me almost to tears. To be fair, perhaps, things are not so different anywhere else.
I came here with an open mind and I see what I see. Tomorrow I will leave because I can afford to. But I see around me a lot of people who will hang on, despite racism, despite prejudices, despite everything. And if something is not done right now, I am afraid it may be too late. History already showed us what could happen if we let malcontent grow.
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