Germany ‘unimaginable’ without immigrants, says President Steinmeier

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised immigrants on Friday for helping build up Germany’s economy and society. His comments came on the 60th anniversary of the day Berlin signed a migration deal with Ankara that allowed tens of thousands of Turkish citizens to find jobs in Germany. At the time, the European country desperately needed workers to power its post-war economic reconstruction.

That deal led to what is now a 2.7 million-strong Turkish German population, the largest ethnic minority community in the country.

What did Steinmeier say?

“The people who came back then, the so-called ‘guest workers’: They, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they are now Germany,” Steinmeier said in a speech to immigrants at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin. “A Germany without them is simply unimaginable.” 

The German “economic miracle” would not have happened without Turks, Italians, Greeks, and Spaniards, the German president said.

But the contribution was more than just economic, the president added, nothing that German society had been enriched as well.

“This country has a lot to thank you for,” Steinmeier said, addressing immigrants and their descendants.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Self-portrait

  In 1990, Istanbul-based photographer Ergun Cagatay took thousands of photographs of people of Turkish origin in Hamburg, Cologne, Werl, Berlin and Duisburg. These will be on display from June 21 to October 31 at the Ruhr Museum as part of a special exhibition, “We are from here: Turkish-German Life in 1990.” Here he’s seen in a self-portrait in pit clothes at the Walsum Mine, Duisburg.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Seeking their fortune

  Two miners shortly before the end of their shift in an old-style passenger car at Walsum Mine, Duisburg. Due to a rapid economic upturn in the ’50s, Germany faced a shortage of trained workers, especially in agriculture and mining. Following the 1961 recruitment agreement between Bonn and Ankara, more than 1 million “guest workers” from Turkey came to Germany until recruitment was stopped in 1973.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Germany’s economic miracle

  Shown here is the upholstery production at the Ford automobile plant in Cologne-Niehl. “Workers have been called, and people are coming,” commented Swiss writer Max Frisch back then. Today, the Turkish community, with some immigrants’ families now in their fourth generation, forms the largest ethnic minority group in Germany, with 2.5 million people.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Demanding more rights

  During his three-month photo expedition through Germany, Cagatay experienced a country in transition. Between the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, Germany was in the process of becoming a multicultural society. Here a demonstrator is seen at a rally against the draft of the new Aliens Act, in Hamburg on March 31, 1990.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  At home

  The photos provide an insight into the diversity of Turkish-German life. Seen here is the eight-member family of Hasan Hüseyin Gül in Hamburg. The exhibition is the most comprehensive coverage on Turkish immigration of the first and second generation of “guest workers.”

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Taste of home

  Today, foodstuff like olives and sheep’s cheese can be easily found in Germany. Previously, the guest workers loaded their cars with food from home during their trips back. Slowly, they set up their culinary infrastructure here in Germany, to the delight of all gourmets. Here we see the owners of the Mevsim fruit and vegetable store in Weidengasse, Cologne-Eigelstein.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  ‘Like a forest in brotherhood’

  Children with balloons at the Sudermanplatz in Cologne’s Agnes neighborhood. On the wall in the background is a mural of a tree with an excerpt of a poem by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet: “To live! Like a tree alone and free. Like a forest in brotherhood. This yearning is ours.” Hikmet himself lived in exile in Russia, where he died in 1963.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Quran lessons

  At the Quran school of the Fatih mosque in Werl, children learn Arabic characters to be able to read the Quran. It was the first newly built mosque with a minaret in Germany that was opened at that time. People no longer had to go to the backyard to pray.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  ‘May you grow old with one pillow’

  Photographer Cagatay mingles with guests at a wedding at Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In the Burcu event hall, guests pin money on the newlyweds, often with the wish “may you grow old with one pillow”; newlyweds traditionally share a single long pillow on the marital bed.

• ‘We are from here’: Turkish-German life in pictures

  Mashallah!

  Traditions are maintained in the new homeland too. Here at a circumcision party in Berlin Kreuzberg, “Mashallah” in written on the boy’s sash. It means “praise be” or “what God has willed.” This exhibition is sponsored by the German Foreign Office, among others. In addition to Essen, Hamburg and Berlin, it is also being held in cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Izmir, Istanbul and Ankara.

  Author: Ceyda Nurtsch

Steinmeier calls out past, present discrimination

The president also touched on the discrimination and racism immigrant communities have faced in the past and still grappling with today. Steinmeier specifically mentioned the body searches workers faced at the hands of police when they first arrived decades ago.

“There were no language courses, no support, no integration policy, and in fact for the simple reason that integration was not desired,” he told the audience. 

He also referenced the “vile” murders by the far-right National Socialist Underground (NSU) in the 2000s and the xenophobic attacks over the past decades in the towns of Mölln, Solingen, and Hanau. 

“It’s the duty of the state to protect every human being,” Steinmeier said. “Xenophobia is the hatred of human beings. And we will never tolerate this hatred in Germany!”

New idea of ‘being German’

The president then turned to former East Germany, where immigrants from Mozambique, Cuba, and Vietnam had also contributed to making Germany “a more open, diverse…and prosperous society today.”

Steinmeier called for an end to the well-documented housing and educational discrimination immigrant communities are still subjected to. 

The German president said the term “German” has changed due to immigration from Turkey.

“Being German today can mean having grandparents from Cologne or Königsberg as well as from Istanbul and Diyarbakir,” he said, referencing German and Turkish cities. He said that German identity now includes “all those who want to live peacefully in this land of law and freedom.” 

es, wd/dj (AFP, dpa)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-unimaginable-without-immigrants-says-president-steinmeier/a-59144074?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf