The Willkommen is turning frosty even in Germany’s integration capital
Almost ten years after Angela Merkel opened the borders tensions are visible in Offenbach, the city with the highest proportion of migrants
What’s that “even” doing there?
Think on it, immigration’s a problem or it isn’t. Integration’s a problem or it isn’t. If either are problems then they’ll – logically – be greatest where immigration is highest and therefore integration has the greatest effect – or not.
‘Iran to deport two million Afghans in expulsion programme’
The solutions are there to copy if the Germans are willing.
I think you’re confusing journalists with intelligent life-forms.
Funny use of the word integration. Well, I say funny, more like… entirely dishonest.
Bogan, they obviously took a lead from the Pakistanis who did the same to 1.8 million Afghans. I wonder what the Afghans have done wrong (apart from that bloody coat back in the sixties and seventies)?
Saudi has three million air conditioned tents in the desert for use by ‘pilgrims’ once a year. No refugees allowed into Saudi though…..
Which is all part of their plan – as far as possible flood non moslem countries, not those already under the
jackbootsandal of islam.It’s out there in plain sight, if only people took the time to look.
Immigration is cancer and the politicians who are doing it to you should be made part of the circular economy.
Is that a circular saw you’re referring to, Steve??
Bboy – only if you’re making an ash tray.
It seems old German instincts are stirring. And this time around, they might actually have a point.
I’m trying to think of anywhere in the UK comparable to Offenbach.
Some readers will appreciate the saying “Lieber in Frankfurt sterben als in Offenbach leben.”
Honestly, the nearest I can come up with is Salford. Even Belfast isn’t divided in the way Offenbach is from Frankfurt (if only because Belfast is a bit more patchwork).
Offenbach is separated from Frankfurt by a river (as, I suppose, technically, Salford is from Manchester), but the real divide is much deeper, without being any wetter. In fact, probably, drier.
Germany is a country of big rivers, upon which most of its few hamlets that dare call themselves cities lie, and by which said few hamlets that dare call themselves cities are divided. There is always a good side of the river and a shitty side of the river. In Cologne, for example, Linksrheinisch is good, Rechtsrheinisch is, as everyone, even Düsseldorfers, would agree, totally shit. Even as a few miles down the same river, in Düsseldorf itself, the complete opposite applies.
Offenbach is different to those conurbations in being a totally different city to the actual city, while being on the wrong side of the river. Frankfurters, quite rightly, delight in this fact.
It does sound like Offenbach is an outlier BiG. In the UK large settlements divided by rivers include Liverpool/Birkenhead, Runcorn/Widnes, Hull/Grimsby and Basildon/Gillingham. Not much to choose between them.
Across the Severn, Bristol beats Newport but is cancelled out by Cardiff beating Weston.
Yep, Offenbach wins for anyone wanting to do on the ground research into turdtowns.
“ It seems old German instincts are stirring. And this time around, they might actually have a point”
Nothing special about Germans Julia, in their position we’d do the same and we’ve seen it in Italy and France, although I don’t think they’re as hard right as the AfD at the core.
I’ve just been reading about a report that claims that the firewall against political parties working with the AfD is to a large extent holding.
This means that despite getting 30% of the vote is some areas they, or more precisely their voters, are not only being ignored they are being sneered at. Unsurprisingly Germans on the ground are not best pleased and if this carries on it’s possible that even more will vote for them, or the left wing anti immigrant BSW.
Although the government is now running scared and trying to be seen to be seen to be doing something the Greens and parts of the SPD are opposing the measures and doubling down on pro immigration policies.
https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2024-09/afd-zusammenarbeit-brandmauer-kommunen-studie?mj_campaign=nl_ref&mj_content=zeitde_text_link_x&mj_medium=nl&mj_source=int_zonaudev_Was%20jetzt%3F
BiND:
“I’ve just been reading about a report that claims that the firewall against political parties working with the AfD is to a large extent holding.
This means that despite getting 30% of the vote is some areas they, or more precisely their voters, are not only being ignored they are being sneered at. Unsurprisingly Germans on the ground are not best pleased and if this carries on it’s possible that even more will vote for them, or the left wing anti immigrant BSW.”
This is expected in some ways. When you have a coalition government, it’s usually of the party with the most seats, plus the minimum combination of other parties + seats to get a majority.
The reasoning being that a party with e.g. one seat will not ask for as much for their vote as the larger one, generally because there are other parties with one seat.
So the party with the second most seats often gets more or less nothing, unless they can build their own coalition. In which case they’re running the government, and people complain about the party with the most seats not getting anything.
It’s like with armies – the worst possible position is to have the world’s second best. Generally because you’ve spent a lot on it, and you’ll still lose.