Of Hatricks and Own Goals

The Football World Cup was a great opportunity for countries to advertise and re brand themselves. For me, two countries did a particularly good job at changing people’s views and perceptions: South Africa and Germany.

South Africa proved to the world that it is not a corrupt and crime ridden country.

Germany confirmed that efficiency can be beautiful.

South Africa established that it is capable of hosting a World Class event.

Germany showed what a Mannschaft is capable of achieving.

South Africa demonstrated that Apartheid is truly over.

Germany introduced a new multi cultural generation.

The countries managed to re invent themselves! Goal! Old stereotypes were abandoned! Goal! Peoples’ opinions and sentiments changed Hatrick!

Sadly it seems as if all may have been for nothing as both South Africa and Germany squandered much of the global goodwill rather quickly…

Soon after the tournament, South Africa made the headlines with a new outbreak of xenophobia; proposals to supervise the media and limit their freedom; public sector strikes; and the mysterious ways in which Jay Z’s family made billions from steel price speculations.

And Thilo Sarrazin, member of the German Central Bank, is single handedly jeopardising Germany’s new reputation of being liberal, open minded and multi national by publishing his rather controversial ideas on immigration and Muslims in Germany.

In his book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany Does Away With Itself) Thilo writes:

"A large number of Arabs and Turks have no productive function other than in the fruit and vegetable trade."

“Turks are conquering Germany through a higher birth rate.”

“Young Muslim men in Germany are aggressive due to sexual frustration. The Arab boys can’t get at their Arab girls. In the end, they use the German girls from the underclass who are easier to get, and then they hold them in contempt because they’re so readily available.”

"We are, on average, becoming dumber in a natural way."

The bluntness with which Thilo shares his views has kicked off a new debate about immigration in Germany. Three million people of Turkish origin currently live in Germany and the integration of the former Gastarbeiter into German society has long been a Government priority. Success is questionable.

As fertility rates among Germans continue to decline, immigrant families tend to have more children than German families. At the same time, immigrants in Germany have lower levels of education than in other countries; this is particularly true for those with a Turkish background. And studies showed that overall immigration has been a cost factor to the German economy.

Even though Thilo’s viewed are largely condemned by German politicians, I sadly believe that quite a few people agree with him.

On a recent holiday my grandparents, generally very open minded, logical and by now means racist people, argued that the reason why the German health system is in such a bad state was that Muslim men don’t wear shoes. My other grandmother has long been convinced that Muslims are trying to out birth us (the term she uses is “tod gebähren” which I can sadly not translate; “death bear” probably comes closest…). And the high proportion of immigrant children in the local state primary school has long been a reason for parents from my Cologne neighbourhood to send their children to a Christian primary school.

Regardless of whether some people agree with him or not, Thilo’s radical opinions are clearly not helping to support integration in Germany.

But his comments may still have had a positive side effect: they re started the debate about demographics and immigration in Germany.

Through most of the 20th century Germany attracted immigrants from many countries. In 2000, 10 000 Turks moved to Germany, but by 2010 Germany was a country of net emigration and over 10 000 Turks returned to their countries.

With fertility rates and population growth falling, the Federal Statistical Office predicts that the German population could decline from currently 82 million to 70 million in 2050 and that the average age might rise to 60 years. A commentator analysed this quite nicely when he said that “without outside demographic help we will shrink to a small group of elderly citizens”.

So Germany needs a debate about immigration – a debate about how it can attract more qualified immigrants. The country needs to open its doors and invite workers from all over the world to come to Germany and live and work here. Sadly I feel that Thilo’s comments will not sound very welcoming to many people…


PS: If you thought that Thilo would limit himself to bitch about foreigners, you were wrong. He’s also made some beautiful statements about civil servants saying that they are "pale and foul-smelling because of the amount of work they have to do." Thanks, Thilo!