Rioting Unlikely in Germany, Say Experts
- From: "Captain!" <SpammersMustDie@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 05:09:00 GMT
Rioting Unlikely in Germany, Say Experts
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1765694,00.html
France is facing the worst racial unrest in decades. Could the same happen
in Germany, home to a large immigrant population which has been spared
violence so far? Experts are skeptical.
In an eighth night of violence that for the first time spread to towns
beyond the French capital, rioters torched hundreds of vehicles in
impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris as France grappled with the worst
race riots in decades that have made headlines around the world.
Amid the charred wreckage and mounting anger over what is seen as the
government's slow response, many in France are trying to come up with an
explanation.
Those allegedly responsible -- groups of young Muslim men of largely North
African and black African origin -- have said that they are protesting
economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing.
But while some blame the government's recent hardline law-and-order
policies, others see the root of the problem in broken promises by the
French government to its immigrant communities: The French integration model
insists that all citizens are equal before the state, but has been accused
of leaving cultural minorities without a voice.
In Germany, on the other hand, immigrants have so far lacked a sense of
entitlement. Unlike France, Britain or the Netherlands, Berlin has only
recently opened up citizenship and loosened naturalization laws.
Some say this might be one of the reasons why similar riots have not taken
place in Germany so far. The country is home to Europe's second-largest
Muslim population --an estimated 3.7 million -- after France and has a
2-million strong Turkish minority.
The only thing in Germany that even comes close to the kind of violence
raging in France currently, is the traditional Labor Day demonstration in
Berlin that often ends in cars being set ablaze and clashes between the
police and youth.
"Immigrants feel like guests"
"Immigrants still feel like guests," said Ruud Koopmans, a sociology
professor at Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit, who previously worked at
Berlin's Center for Social Research.
"Turks still see themselves to a large extent as Turks and not Germans. Only
once they start seeing themselves as (citizens), they start making demands
on the society in which they live."
Koopmans added that violence among immigrants in Germany is actually more
common than in France, but still tends to be related to conflicts in their
countries of origins. He named aggression between Turks and Kurds and
between different ethnic groups from the former Yugoslavia as examples.
"In France, you find almost no political violence that is related to
homeland violence," Koopmans said, adding that he expects the situation in
Germany to change as more immigrants start to feel like citizens of Germany.
"Only then will they start making demands and there will be an increase in
the kind of conflicts that you seen in France," he said.
No immigrant ghettos
Others disagreed, saying that since immigrant ghettos like the ones in
France, Britain or the Netherlands didn't exist in Germany, riots were less
likely to happen.
"We don't have these closed clusters of immigrants," said Klaus J. Bade, who
directs the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies at
Osnabrück University.
Immigrant-dominated neighborhoods such as Berlin's Kreuzberg and Neukölln
are undoubtedly social hot spots, but Bade pointed out that they were still
far from being ghettos.
"I don't see any parallel societies developing there," Bade said. "These are
relatively mixed areas."
Better integration needed
But he added that Germans had to realize that they would have to shoulder
major costs in the long run if they do not improve existing integration
programs.
Bade said Germany should set up a three-tier system of intergration: Helping
those willing to come to Germany learn the language before they arrive,
supporting them once they've immigrated and looking after those who have
failed to get on their feet once they're in the country.
"That costs a lot of money, but if we don't do it, we'll pay for it dearly
in the long run," he said.
Mathis Winkler
.
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