By DER SPIEGEL Staff
Many Germans experience unusual inward their ain province too are afraid that immigration is changing their homeland rapidly. Every 5th someone inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany comes from an immigration background too that number volition move along to climb. What does that hateful for the country? Maike Manz runs her manus across the patient's belly too hopes that the immature adult woman inward the infirmary bed volition at to the lowest degree take away hold an inkling of what she's trying to tell her. "We're going to comport an ultrasound directly too and so nosotros volition create upward one's hear how to proceed," the gynecologist says, piece of cake too every bit clearly every bit she can. The pregnant adult woman is from Republic of Guinea-Bissau too has only been living inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany for the past times ix months. She peers on helplessly every bit the physician does a miming gesture to seek to assist her to understand. Adhered to her tum is the sensor of a CTG device that measures babies' pump rates. She's inward her 36th calendar week of pregnancy too is expecting twins. Aside from the tidings "baby," she hasn't understood anything, because she doesn't beak whatever German.
Manz looks at her mobile telephone display inward the hopes it volition render some relief. It's quarter to 5 too the translator, a relative of the patient, was supposed to hold out hither 45 minutes ago. She shrugs her shoulders. "Different cultures, unlike understandings of time," says Manz, who has worked at the motherhood ward of the Mariahilf Hospital inward Hamburg's Harburg district since concluding year.
During prenatal checkups too the actual birth, Manz, who is the primary physician here, ever carries index cards with basic vocabulary inward Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Romanaian too Turkish. When she chooses novel staff, Manz also tries to brand hires that tin assist her subdivision create practise with the novel challenges.
Indeed, that is i ground why Sufan Abdulhadi has move something of a star at the infirmary over the past times 3 years. The Libyan began his physician residency inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany inward 2008 too he has been working at Mariahilf since 2014.
Abdulhadi is something of a span betwixt the cultures. Arab families experience they're inward goodness hands with Abdulhadi too it's piece of cake for them to explicate things to him. "I've spoken to a greater extent than Standard Arabic hither inward recent years than German," he says. "It's unbelievably of import for women who come upward to us that during the most of import instant of their lives, at that topographic point is a physician nearby who tin empathise them."
Unique Challenges
Close to forty per centum of the mothers who give nascency at Mariahilf were born exterior of Germany. Harburg, where the infirmary is located, is neither i of Hamburg's to a greater extent than prosperous areas nor is it peculiarly poor. The statistics are similar at many other large urban heart too soul hospitals unopen to the country. In many parts of Germany, obstetrics has move a multicultural career field, with the unique challenges that come upward along with it.
The latest numbers from the Federal Statistical Office demonstrate that almost every 4th kid born inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany inward 2016 had a unusual mother. Female immigrants are indeed contributing significantly to the fact that Germany's nascency charge per unit of measurement is rising again. Already today, i out of 5 people living inward the province has immigrant roots.
Germany has plainly move a province of immigration - too i that is changing rapidly. And although economists too politicians are fond of emphasizing all the positive aspects of this evolution - Germany's aging society, for example, has been an number for decades - there's also a large segment of monastic tell that is anything but pleased past times the development.
These people are call for themselves what their heimat, or homeland, volition facial expression similar inward 10, 20 or xxx years. They harbor doubts that the authorities is able to solve the problems already arising out from the lack of integration with some immigrant groups. Some fright that German linguistic communication Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading the province toward a bleak futurity with an aimless immigration policy - a policy that allows migrants to come upward to Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany too apply for asylum rather than a policy that actively seeks to convey inward highly skilled workers. H5N1 policy that ultimately agency that fifty-fifty those whose asylum applications are rejected are ultimately allowed to rest anyway.
Average Number of Children
1.21.41.6Women with no immigrationbackgroundWomen with immigrationbackground**Of that group, women whoimmigrated themselves00.511.52
Source: 2016 micro census; Women born betwixt 1940 too 2001
Such fears of uncontrolled migration are zip new. They helped catapult populist German linguistic communication politico Thilo Sarrazin's 2010 mass "Deutschland schafft sich ab," which tin mayhap best hold out translated every bit "Germany Is Doing Away With Itself" to the top of the best-seller lists. But at the fourth dimension when Sarrazin was promoting his theories virtually Muslim immigrants' fondness for procreation, only 40,000 novel asylum-seekers were entering Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany each year. At the peak of the refugee crisis inward 2015, that many people were arriving inward the province inside but a few days.
Swapping Out the Germans
Since then, but nether 1.4 1000000 refugees take away hold arrived inward Germany. One indication of how deeply the anger too rage are simmering inward many people is the unsafe ability of the conspiracy theory which holds that the chancellor, together with other sinister powers, is planning to swap out the ethnic German linguistic communication population too supplant it with foreigners. Michael Butter, a professor of American Studies at the University of Tübingen, who is also an adept inward conspiracy theories, says it is currently i of the most pop conspiracy theories circulating inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany correct now.
Part of the ground it became so pop is that society, politicians too the media haven't discussed some of the developments openly too factually - at times out of fright of playing into the hands of xenophobes. Too often, the debate is driven past times people to a greater extent than focused on showing off their ain worldliness too tolerance than genuinely addressing the problems. But hopes that the conflicts created through poorly managed immigration powerfulness somehow disappear behind the optimism take away hold been dashed.
Large segments of the German linguistic communication population are suffering from a sort of stress relating to identity. Germans without whatever immigration background inward their ain families fright that immigrants could strip them of their Heimat, their sense of home. At the same time, Germans with immigrant backgrounds experience marginalized too foreign. But it's an altogether unlike phenomenon for refugees arriving here. When they retrieve virtually home, it tends to hold out the i they but lost.
'Rampant Feelings of Rootlessness'
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sis political party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), reacted to that sentiment with his recent remarks that Islam doesn't belong to Germany. Of course, the judgement inward too of itself is nonsense: Around 4.7 1000000 Muslims telephone phone Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany home. Many were born hither too are rattling good integrated into society. There's at to the lowest degree i mosque inward almost every large urban heart too soul inward Germany.
German every bit a Second Language
Elementary schools where the bulk of children beak piddling or no German linguistic communication at home
43%41%22%14%14%11%4%BerlinBremenHamburgHesseNorth Rhine-WestphaliaBavariaSchleswig-Holstein05101520253035404550
Schools oft determine the portion of children from families who don't beak German linguistic communication at dwelling job solid past times call for parents during registration. As such, the results aren't ever exactly comparable. Among pupils who come upward from homes where German linguistic communication isn't spoken, some of them may beak goodness German. Source: DER SPIEGEL queries sent to states
But fifty-fifty weeks after Seehofer uttered those words, the debate over his comments soundless hasn't abated. In fact, polls demonstrate that large parts of the German linguistic communication population grip with Seehofer. But why? Because maxim "Islam doesn't belong to Germany" is a way of expressing discomfort with the ways inward which the province is changing. H5N1 way of maxim they would similar the evolution to stop.
Merkel's respond to Seehofer, though, namely that Islam does belong to Germany, also isn't helpful, says Cornelia Koppetsch, a professor of sociology at the Technical University of Darmstadt. She argues that both politicians sought to "create a sense of community inside their political camps," but ultimately ended upward promoting "rampant feelings of rootlessness."
Germany is fond of such symbolic debates, which ultimately ony serve to determine which side people autumn on rather than genuinely addressing the existent issues at hand. There are constant debates over whether to ban the burqa, fifty-fifty though rattling few women genuinely vesture them inward Germany. These discussions serve largely to render supporters of a ban with a vehicle with which to limited their see that tolerance has gone far enough.
As Christianity Shrinks inward Germany, Islam Grows
The CSU has directly promised worried Germans that the province volition remain i shaped past times Judeo-Christian traditions. At the same time, though, it's also truthful that membership inward Christian churches inward the province has been shrinking for years. In 2016 alone, 350,000 people left the church.
As Christian churches unopen inward many places inward the country, Muslims are edifice novel mosques - or they are taking over buildings that are otherwise empty.
In Hamburg's Horn neighborhood, the Islamic Center al-Nour community is fifty-fifty inward the procedure of converting a one-time church building into a mosque with the assist of funding from Kuwait. The church building had been empty for to a greater extent than than xvi years with its members having either died, left the church building or moved. Nobody is existence pushed out. And it also provides the Muslim community with a convenient chance to brand occupation of an empty space. Some withal run into the conversion every bit symbolic.
"Allah" is directly emblazoned inward gold, Standard Arabic letters where the cross was i time located on the 44-meter-high tower of this one-time church. The Muslims desire to motility into their novel job solid of worship subsequently this year. Until that time, they volition hold out praying inward a one-time hole-and-corner parking lot. Initially, an investor had bought the building, but his plans for the holding didn't pan out too he sold it to the Islamic Center al-Nour inward 2012.
Former pastor Wolfgang Weissbach tenderly refers to the one-time church building every bit "my get-go love." Weissbach, who is directly 80, began his career every bit a pastor here. It's a recent Tuesday inward Apr too Weissbach has come upward to the see the structure site together with ii one-time parishioners, Ellen too Heinz-Jürgen Kammeyer. The pastor of a abrupt grows uneasy. "There's the baptismal font," Weissbach calls out, pointing to a white pedestal that has been upended inward the middle of the structure debris behind the fence.
The 3 aggrieved retirees stare at the sacrilege earlier them. Weissbach i time baptized children with H2O from a copper bowl that had been placed on this pedestal. It was standing side past times side to the Kammeyers when they married inward 1985.
The Kammeyers are members of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) too say they would never vote for the right-wing populist Alternative for Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany (AfD). Even though they experience a fleck strange virtually the fact that Muslims volition before long hold out praying inward their one-time church, they did bring together a demonstration organized past times the Citizens' Initiative Pro Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany 5 years agone to defend the Muslims' correct to convert the church building into a mosque.
Since their marriage, the yoke has lived inward a cerise brick residential complex where they raised their ii children too the yoke soundless has a framed photograph inward their living room of the church building they used to attend. These days, one-half the names on the doorbells hither are directly Turkish or Arabic. The ii SPD members seek to keep goodness relations with their neighbors, but the extent to which their neighborhood has changed has non been lost on them.
"When you're inward the minority, yous experience foreign," says Heinz-Jürgen Kammeyer, his married adult woman nodding inward agreement. On some coach lines inward the neighborhood, she says, she hears to a greater extent than "Swahili than German linguistic communication - people cutting inward line too demonstrate piddling consideration."
"Immigration isn't the only matter that makes it experience similar nosotros are losing our home," says Ellen Kammeyer. She says the neighborhood's social hubs take away hold lost their meaning. "What, should I play span at the senior center?" she asks. She says at that topographic point is a lack of infinite inward monastic tell for the novel generation of senior citizens to which the Kammeyers belong.
Graphic: Share of population with immigration background.
Ellen Kammeyer has since left the Protestant Church, but every fourth dimension she goes past times the structure site, she gets a lump inward her throat. Her husband, especially, is bothered past times the thought that men too women volition before long hold out divided every bit they pray inward the mosque. "Turkish families alive hither whose daughters are covered every bit before long every bit they start to menstruate," he says. He has zip against Islam, he says, but the way some Muslims process women is inward his see "incompatible" with the German linguistic communication constitution. "This mental attitude that a adult woman is a whore but because she wears a bikini!"
A recent survey taken past times Forsa, i of Germany's most respected pollsters, showed that to a greater extent than than i out of iv Germans grip that Islam is something that "arouses fear." With its reign of terror in Syria too Republic of Iraq too its numerous attacks inward Europe, the terrorist organization Islamic State has succeeded inward increasing fears of the religion. Hardly a twenty-four hours passes inward which the media doesn't study virtually cases of anti-Semitism with Muslims or virtually how Muslim children at simple schools are bullying those who retrieve differently.
A Failure to Differentiate Between Islam too Islamism
Often enough, the rejection of Islam manifests itself inward the shape of vandalism or violence. Statistics from the German linguistic communication Interior Ministry demonstrate at that topographic point were at to the lowest degree 950 attacks on Muslims too mosques concluding year. That includes loathe oral communication inward the internet, but also threatening letters too Nazi symbols or slogans daubed on buildings. In almost all of these cases, it is assumed that the perpetrators had right-wing extremist motives.
Many Germans brand piddling seek to differentiate betwixt Islam too Islamism. Muslims are constantly nether pressure level to justify themselves, fifty-fifty if they take away hold fully integrated into German linguistic communication society. That, too, leads to a province of affairs inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany inward which many experience similar the province that they telephone phone dwelling job solid is existence taken away from them.
The fright inward Hanan Kayed swells over again after every unmarried terrorist assail - each fourth dimension a self-proclaimed Islamic State stooge shoots or stabs people - or drives a semi-truck into a crowd. When that happens, she says, she would rather but curl upward into a ball too rest inward her bird until things take away hold quieted down.
Kayed, 26, but passed her get-go province exam inward police force too plant for a little organization that helps refugees uncovering rooms inward shared apartments. She also happens to hold out a pious Muslim. On the nighttime of Easter Sunday, she's sitting inward a Berlin café with exposed brick walls, worn-out leather couches too colorful metallic stools. She wears a blazer, a floral-themed shawl too an olive-green headscarf. Born inward Cologne every bit the missy of Palestinian refugees, she has lived inward Berlin for the past times 8 years.
"I take away hold never had whatever incertitude virtually the fact that I am German," Kayed says.
It was after the assail on the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo that, for the get-go time, she heard someone on the develop say: "You Muslims deserve to die."
A Hefty Headscarf Debate
Kayed's headscarf oft causes her problems. The police force educatee says she wants to apply for a traineeship inward the world sector, but that her chances of getting i are low, fifty-fifty though she passed her get-go province legal exam with distinction. "If I didn't vesture this slice of stuff on my head, they would osculation my manus too hire me - but every bit things are, I volition take away hold to worry the nobody volition take away me," she says.
Berlin is currently embroiled inward a hefty debate over whether the city-state should allow a neutrality police force that bans woman someone teachers from wearing the headscarf inward story to remain on the books unchanged. The electrical flow province government, a coalition of the center-left SPD, the far-left Left Party too the Green Party, is considering eliminating the legislation, but a drive that has to a greater extent than than 2,000 supporters is also trying to forestall that from happening.
DER SPIEGEL
Graphic: Most frequent citizenship.
Last week, Serap Güler, a senior official at the province Ministry for Families too Integration inward North Rhine-Westphalia too a fellow member of Merkel's CDU party, launched the latest salvo inward the ongoing headscarf debate. "It's absolutely perverse to describe a headscarf over a immature girl," she said. "It sexualizes the child. And nosotros take away hold to take away a clear opinion against that." Her boss, province Integration Minister Joachim Stamp of the business-friendly Free Democrats is considering a headscarf ban for girls nether the historic flow of fourteen similar to the i announced past times the Austrian authorities to prohibit them inward pre- too simple schools. The scarf has symbolic pregnant for many because it provides a visible symbol of what they see every bit the threat of Islam, making the number a lightning rod for debates that, fifty-fifty after decades, soundless haven't dissipated. Bülent Ucar, a professor of Islamic theology at the University of Osnabrück, speaks of a "pathological fixation" on all sides over the headscarf.
That may partly explicate why Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany seems so worked upward over the issue. Few other conflicts demonstrate every bit clearly how hard it tin hold out for a province of immigrants to found the correct rules.
Because if yous allow teachers to vesture the headscarf, yous are accepting the peril that girls volition experience increasing pressure level from the community to practise the same. People of authorization are also role models. At the same time, if yous prohibit women similar Hanan Kayed from existence able to move every bit a judge, yous are creating barriers for Muslim women who are self-confidently seeking to pursue a career. Ultimately, this requires tough decisions over who is worthier of protection.
Law educatee Kayed soundless dreams of i twenty-four hours becoming a approximate or a prosecutor. She also hopes that, at some point, she volition hold out able to alive to a greater extent than freely inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany than has thence far been possible.
Only i calendar month ago, she was over again attacked on the street. She was on her way to the academy library when a human being jostled her at a develop station inward cardinal Berlin, almost pushed her to the Earth too insulted her. "Headscarf-wearing bitch, piteous Muslim whore - larn the fuck out of my country." It's wasn't the aggressor who scared her the most - it was the passersby who stood unopen to too stared but didn't practise anything. Kayed has already made changes to her life inward response. She never leaves the academy past times nine p.m., she avoids world transportation too uses a machine whenever possible.
What Is 'Heimat'?
There are many definitions for the German linguistic communication tidings Heimat, which doesn't quite hateful dwelling job solid or homeland every bit a literal translation would suggest, but genuinely mixes the feeling of dwelling job solid with a sense of belonging. Each someone has their ain thought of what it means. Most of the time, the feeling of familiarity plays a role. Hermann Bausinger, a retired cultural studies professor at the University of Tübingen i time wrote that "Heimat is the production of a feeling of conformity with a person's ain little world. When people are no longer secure inward their surroundings, when they are constantly exposed to irritations, too so that Heimat is destroyed."
It's a judgement that Hanan Kayed would probable grip on, every bit would tile store possessor Ralf Fessler.
The 48-year-old is leaning on the railing of his balcony, which offers a sweeping see of the Swabian town of Sigmaringen too he tin fifty-fifty run into the tops of the towers of the Hohenzollern Castle, a symbol of the entire region. "It used to hold out so squeamish here," says Fessler. In the yard downstairs, ii rabbits nibble blades of grass inward their cage side past times side to a pond.
"Wait, there's some other i coming," he says. H5N1 dark caput of pilus is bobbing side past times side to the hedge, which Fessler says he concluding trimmed earlier the refugees moved into the one-time armed forces barracks upward on the hill. It's an African man walking toward the town oculus wearing headphones. "OK, at to the lowest degree he was quiet," says Fessler. "But commonly that's non the case." He says they used to yell over to "please hold out quiet." Usually, though, he says, the response he received was something similar "fuck you" or "I kill you."
'We're Afraid'
Fessler has lived for the past times 28 years inward the dwelling job solid that his virile someone parent built. In 2015, the province of Baden-Württemberg repurposed the one-time armed forces barracks into an initial reception oculus for refugees inward the state. It's located but a few minutes past times human foot from Fessler's dwelling job solid too unopen to 350 people alive inward the facility, with most coming from Nigeria, Kingdom of Morocco too Gambia. The road they take away into town invariably leads correct past times Fessler's hedge.
At 4 p.m. a calendar week agone Monday, men could hold out seen passing past times on the street every few minutes. "It's hell at night," Fessler says. "They purchase booze at the discount supermarket, larn drunkard or stoned at the develop station too inward the commons too and so stagger past times us on their way back." He says he's unable to slumber one-half the nighttime too that he feels similar he's existence terrorized.
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