Chronology

 2009

• According to a study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, Turks are the least integrated group of immigrants in German society and are also less successful in securing jobs than migrants from other countries. Immigrants from other EU Member States were ranked as the most integrated.
• In February, a 39-year-old Turkish asylum seeker who had been living in Germany for sixteen years was denied German citizenship. A Higher Administrative Court in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg decided that illiterate migrants could not be naturalized, because they could not prove the necessary command of the German language.
• In the first case of its kind, Berlin’s Higher Labor Court rules in favor of a Dominican woman who accused the Berlin company KunstWerken of discrimination. The company denied the 48-year-old a job, claiming the position was only available for native speakers. In February, the court ruled that such judgment was indirect ethnic discrimination, because it excludes qualified applicants who did not speak German as children and could not retroactively fulfill such a qualification.
• New criticism was waged against the German citizenship test as the pass rate reached 99%. Revision of the test has been called for as many believe that it will otherwise become obsolete. The government insists that even if the pass rate is that high, it does not mean that the test does not actually make people learn about German culture and history.
• Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned of religious conflict in Germany as a consequence of immigration and stated that better conditions for integration and coexistence must be created. At the same time Ali Kizilkaya, the chairman of the Islam Council, called for more dialogue between Muslims and the two large Christian denominations in Germany.
• At the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, a retrospective entitled “1989 – Globale Geschichten” is held reflecting on the momentous events of 1989. A central theme is the impact of German reunification on migrants living in Germany.
• In a survey conducted by Bertlesmann on democracy and integration, 77% of Germans agreed democracy is the best state form. Yet of that group, 45% claimed they were discontent with democracy in Germany. Among citizens who immigrated, the longer they have lived in Germany, the less content they were with its democracy. The study suggests that lack of education and lack of participation in politics could be the main reasons for these alarming responses. While half of the immigrants living in Germany desire communal voting rights for non-EU immigrants, only one-third of ethnic Germans support such a right.
• In Turkey, Haceteppe University and the Ministry of State sponsor a conference in honor of Turks living abroad called “50 Years of Turkish Emigration – an Assessment.” Familiar complaints about discrimination, poor education and unemployment in Europe are heard. However, new hope is voiced that migrants should not have to choose between being “either German or Turkish,” rather they could see bilingualism and possession of dual passports as positive additions to their identity.
• The economic crisis ignites a debate headed by Berlin’s Senator for the Interior Erhart Koerting on Germany’s Right of Residence. Koerting insists the law’s guidelines concerning income must be lessened. The current law, passed in 2006, requires that refugees prove they can financially care for their livelihood. Koerting argues it is unfair to deport refugees who have been living in Germany for nearly a decade because they are unable to fulfill this requirement, which has only become more difficult in light of economic woes worldwide.
• 2,500 Iraqi refugees are expected to arrive in Germany. The refugees will receive a three-year residence and work permit with the option of renewal. In all, 10,000 Iraqi refugees are expected to move to Europe based on a decision made in November 2008.
• In Spring, a controversy breaks out over the awarding of the Hessian Culture Prize for Interreligious Tolerance to Navid Kermani, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Peter Steinacker and Salomon Korn. Due to skepticism on the part of Cardinal Lehmann regarding the selection of Kermani, and the subsequent intervention of the Hessian Prime Minister Roland Koch, Kermani’s nomination is withdrawn. Only after a personal intervention between Kermani, Steinacker and Lehmann, will all four of the nominees accept the award in November.
• The EU approves a directive to introduce the Blue Card to attract highly qualified immigrants to Europe. Holders of the Blue Card will receive favorable conditions with regard to labor market mobility and family reunification.
• On July 1, Alexander Wiens fatally stabs Egyptian Marwa Ali El-Sherbini during Wiens’ appeal proceedings in a Dresden courtroom. The Russian-German offender has already been fined for making xenophobic remarks against El-Sherbini on a playground a year ago. The pregnant El-Shirbini dies on the scene and her husband Elwi Ali-Okaz is seriously injured by Wiens and by a policeman who thought Ali-Okaz was the perpetrator. The incident triggers strong protests in Arab countries, the intensity of which causes the German government and the media to reevaluate the situation. El Sherbini’s death and the subsequent murder charge against Wiens give rise to questions about Islamophobia in the West.
• Data from the German Federal Statistical Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, more people left Germany (780,000 emigrants) than immigrated (682,000 immigrants). The largest group of emigrants (175,000) are Germans who left for Switzerland.
• In August, Mohammad Eke, who was born in Essen and has never lived in Turkey and who does not speak the language, is deported to Turkey. The German court rules that the 21 year-old Eke should “return” to Turkey because his parents illegally immigrated to Germany years ago.
• In September, Lettre International publishes an interview with Thilo Sarrazin about the economic and social circumstances of Turkish immigrants in Berlin. His derogatory remarks – for example, “I don’t have to accept anyone who lives of the government, opposes the same government, doesn’t take care of the education of his children, and constantly produces new, little headscarf-girls (“Kopftuchmädchen”),” or “The Turks conquer Germany the same way the Kosovars conquered Kosovo: with a higher birthrate. I would appreciate such a scenario if it were Eastern-European Jews with a 15 % higher IQ than the German population” – cause a fierce controversy about the rights and duties of immigrants in Germany.
• A study by the Center of Turkish Studies finds that younger Turkish immigrants are considerably better integrated in German society than older generations. Although the study, like previous ones, discovers low educational levels in this group, it also finds an increase in education, particularly in the last few years, among young immigrants of Turkish descent. The study indicates that most adult Turkish immigrants have a rather complex view of themselves as having a mixed or double identity, and also reaches positive conclusions in other areas regarding the integration of Turkish immigrants in German society.
• In October, left-wing extremists prevent the showing of Claude Lanzmann’s film, Israel, Why (Pourquoi Israel) in Hamburg. The demonstrators block the entrance to the building and berate onlookers with anti-Semitic expletives and attack visitors.
• Philipp Rösler (FDP) is made Federal Minister of Health, becoming the first German Minister with an immigrant background.
• At the end of November, the Swiss population votes (57.7%) for a referendum which bans the building of minarets. Currently, there are four minarets in Switzerland. A survey conducted by Der Spiegel after the vote shows that 44% of Germany’s population support the building ban, whereas 45% said they do not. The Swiss election results trigger national and international discussions about Islamophobia in Europe and the issue of integration of Muslims in public life. Observers see these building bans as an indication that Europe is disregarding its own fundamental beliefs regarding human rights, equality, and tolerance.
• Due to the lack of skilled workers in Germany, the German government decides to relax regulations regarding degrees earned abroad.
• On December 1st, following two years of negotiations and several failed referendums, the Treaty of Lisbon Agreement between the 27 member nations of the European Union goes into effect. The Treaty reforms the previously valid Constitutional Treaty as part of the legal fusion of the EU and EC. The Treaty also expands the co-decision procedure to include police and judicial collaboration in criminal matters, strengthens the participation of the national parliaments in EU legislation, and founds a European Citizens’ Initiative. It also gives greater authority to the EU’s Higher Representatives for foreign and security policy, explains the legally binding effect of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and stipulates the conditions for leaving the EU.
• The criminal statistics of this year show a clear increase in violent crimes by right-wing and left-wing extremists. Left-wing extremist crimes increased the most. Even though the number of right-wing extremist crimes decreased by 4.7%, the figure is still twice as high as the number of crimes committed by left-wing extremists.

2008

• In the weeks following the Munich subway attack in December, the Hessian Minister President Roland Koch (CDU) advocates for a crackdown on violent crime among youth of migrant backgrounds, including deportation and revoking citizenship. A group of prominent German-Turkish authors and politicians—including Feridun Zaimoglu and Renan Demirkan—publish an open letter to Koch’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, asking the CDU to distance itself from its Hessian member Koch on the basis that his tactics are fomenting popular xenophobia in the run-up to his bid for reelection. 17 high-ranking members of the CDU respond with an open letter to the newspaper Die Zeit, asserting that “integration politics is so fundamental for the future of our country that it must not be degraded to a campaign theme.”
• In February, immigrants in Cologne protest after a young Moroccan man is killed in an act of self-defense. On February 3, a fire in a Ludwigshafen apartment building occupied by Turkish immigrants kills nine people. Many fear that the fire was set in an act of xenophobic violence. The Turkish news media in particular focus on speculation of an arson attack, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan sends a group of Turkish experts to aid the police investigation. No evidence of arson is found. Amidst the charged atmosphere following the Ludwigshafen fire, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan visits Germany. In a politically controversial proposal, he calls for the establishment of Turkish-language schools and universities in Germany. On Feb 10, 20,000 Turks and Germans of Turkish descent gather in Cologne to hear Erdoğan speak. In his address, Erdoğan calls assimilation “a crime against humanity.”
• Udo Voigt, a former military officer and chairman of the far-right NPD party, is charged with racial incitement (Volksverhetzung) for distributing a pamphlet opposing the selection of a black player for the German national soccer team.
• A Baden-Württemberg court of appeal upholds that the state’s ban on Muslim teachers wearing headscarves, declaring that women who do so violate their obligation to keep religious expression out of the public classroom. Eight other German states have such a law already in effect. In Turkey, the ban on headscarves in universities is lifted by the Turkish parliament, despite widespread protests.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel is welcomed with great ceremony during her visit to Israel in March, reaffirming Germany’s close relationship to and support of Israel. She is the first foreign head of government to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. A survey released in May, however, shows that a majority of Germans do not feel that their country has a special responsibility to Israel because of its history.
• Plans are approved for a museum in Berlin that documents the experiences of German refugees expelled after World War II from land that is now Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish officials, who had worried that some Germans would position themselves as victims and would attempt to minimize Germany’s crimes during the war, agree not to oppose the project.
• In April, Laura Garavini, an Italian politician who has lived in Germany for twenty years, wins a parliamentary seat in Rome with the campaign promise to represent other Italians living abroad. Garavini plans to continue living in Berlin.
• EU justice and interior ministers agree on EU-wide rules for the deportation of illegal immigrants, to be voted on by the EU Parliament by the end of June. Under the new measures, illegal immigrants have the opportunity to voluntarily return to their countries of origin. If they do not, they face removal and a five-year ban from Europe. The articles also sets limits on detention times: authorities may hold individuals for six months in most cases, but this time can be extended up to 18 months in special circumstances.
• A Spiegel report publishes the results of a comprehensive survey on German habits, lifestyles and beliefs titled “What Makes the Average German Tick?”.
• Delegates to the annual Congress of the Christian Democratic Party proposed a Constitutional amendment that would make German an official language in Germany. The proposal was met with widespread criticism as possibly insensitive to minorities living in Germany such as Danes in Schleswig-Holstein, the Sorbs in Saxony and 3.3 million Germans of Turkish origin.
• On September 1, a mandatory citizenship test was introduced for anybody applying for German citizenship, similar to those required in other EU countries such as the UK or the Netherlands. The idea was criticized as the number of applications has been steadily declining over the past couple of years. It was also seen as hurdle that would be much harder to overcome by lower class migrants.
• European Union justice ministers called for more stringent immigration regulations that would discourage illegal immigrants but attract more foreign skilled laborers. The proposal was formed under the French presidency in the EU.
• The United Nations Committee for the Eradication of Racial Discrimination criticized the German citizenship test and found it regrettable that many immigrants who have lived in Germany for years still fail to get citizenship. CERD commended Germany for anti-discrimination laws introduced in 2006 but recommended further steps be taken against racist incidents.
• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Germany that an overhaul of its immigration policies is necessary in order to meet its labor needs. Improving recognition of foreign diplomas was recommended as seasonal worker programs are unlikely to solve the problems arising in the labor market.
• An international ‘anti-Islamification Congress’ in Cologne led to clashes between demonstrators and anti-protesters. The event was criticized by the German interior ministry as well as local authorities in Cologne and many of the city residents as ‘extremist.’
• The EU interior ministers agreed to the introduction of an immigration and asylum pact that seeks to improve the management of legal immigration, tighten controls on illegal immigrants and construct a common asylum policy. However, the plans to introduce a Blue Card scheme for qualified workers remain on hold as the Czech Republic insists that internal EU restrictions on movement of workers be lifted first.
• Cem Özdemir, the first person of Turkish descent to enter Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, became Germany’s first national party leader of Turkish descent as he was elected head of the Green Party.
• The third integration summit took place in Berlin focusing on better opportunities for immigrants. The government aims at all first-graders, including those with an immigration background, havinga good command of German by 2012. Maria Boehmer, the minister responsible for integration matters, also emphasized plans to halve the number of school drop-outs and the need to increase the level of education among immigrants in general.
• The German Bundestag adopted a law easing immigration of highly qualified foreigners. It reduced the income limit for granting residence allowance to highly qualified people and abolished the so-called priority check for university graduates from the new EU states.
• According to the International Organization for Migration Germany is the number one destination country for migrants to Europe with 10.1 million migrants in 2005.
• According to the Federal Office of Statistics, every fifth German citizen (19 %, which means 15.6 million out of the whole population) has a background of migration.
• Turkey is the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Author Feridun Zaimoglu delivers an essay entitled “Volkes Gesänge” in which he voices the fears concerning the European Union that stem from countries included in the EU’s 2004 and 2007 eastern expansions.

2007

• A Hamburg court sentences the Moroccan Mounir el-Motassadeq to 15 years in prison for being an accessory to murder, on the grounds that he aided the hijackers in the September 11th attacks.
• The German Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, suggests an EU law banning the use of the swastika. This proposal, the second one to come from German politicians, provokes criticism from Hindus in Europe, who stress the swastika’s 5000 year-long history as a symbol of peace.
• During the celebrations for the 50 year anniversary of the European Union, EU heads of state sign the “Berliner Declaration” penned by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The declaration includes the following pledge: “We will fight terrorism and organized crime together. By doing so, we will also defend the rights for freedom and civil rights in the fight against their antagonists. Racism and xenophobia shall never again have a chance.”
• During a visit to Ramallah, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke from Eichstätt compares the living conditions of the Palestinians to that of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto of World War II. Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Schimon Stein, reproaches the bishop’s comment, contending that Hanke’s association of Israeli politics with the Warsaw ghetto represents a “moral failure.”
• Mustafa Alcali, who had been kept in custody prior to deportation, commits suicide. Investigations suggest that Alcali suffered from a schizophrenic condition that was not taken into account by the authorities.
• Germany amends its immigration law, adopting a dozen European Union policies that will significantly liberalize immigration requirements for non-EU students, researchers, scientists and independent contractors.
• In August, two incidents of right-wing violence occur almost simultaneously in East and West Germany, reviving debates on right-wing extremism as not only an Eastern German problem, but a problem for Germany as a whole. The first attack occurs in the East German village of Mügeln, where a group of eight Indian men attending a local festival are chased by a mob of fifty, who yell racial slurs and accost the victims with bottles and pepper spray. The second attack on the same weekend takes place in a West German city near Mainz. At a local wine fest, a 26 year-old Sudanese man and a 39 year-old Egyptian man are attacked by a group of young men.
• In October, the 21-year-old Iranian-German soccer star Ashkan Dejagah announces that he will not accompany the German Junior National Team to a tournament in Tel Aviv, where the team is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in memory of the murdered Jews of Europe. “I don’t play in Israel for political reasons,” explains Dejagah to the Bild newspaper, amid ­claims that his abstention indicates racist undertones and lingering allegiances to the policies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After conferring at length with Dejagah about his decision, the president of the German Soccer Federation Theo Zwanziger defends the player’s position on the basis that “Dejagah has credibly assured us that, because of his Iranian origins, he had only been concerned with the well-being of his family and relatives.”
• On October 16, the Heidelberg-based institute SINUS-Sociovision presents a long-awaited longitudinal research study on the life-worlds of migrants in Germany. The institute suggests that heritage and ethnicity play less of a defining role in migrants’ daily lives and cultural affiliations than do their chosen lifestyle milieus, of which Sinus distinguishes eight types: the entrenched-religious milieu, the traditional guest-worker milieu, the status-oriented milieu, the displaced-uprooted milieu, the intellectual-cosmopolitan milieu, the multicultural-performers’ milieu, the adaptive-integrating milieu, and the hedonistic-subcultural milieu.
• In early November, the television network ZDF broadcasts a high-profile week of intercultural programming under the title “Wohngemeinschaft Deutschland” (“Living Community Germany”). Opening TV’s first “integration week” is a documentary road-movie entitled Roots Germania, produced by the Berlin-based Ghanian-German journalist Mo Asumang. The narrator travels around the Federal Republic in pursuit of her own transnational heritage, interviewing Holocaust deniers and right-wing activists along the way. Because of her prominence as a woman of color in German broadcast television, Asumang has been the target of death-threats from an organization called the White Aryan Resistance.
• On the first weekend of December, four men of African descent and one pregnant Iraqi woman become the targets of two separate physical assaults in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The perpetrators are taken into custody and promptly released, while the pregnant Iraqi woman remains in the hospital with complications from the assault. Two weeks later, a 20-year-old Turkish-German male and an 18-year-old Greek-German male beat an elderly man into unconsciousness in a Munich subway, inspiring a new wave of public furor about migrant youth violence.
• On Dec 21, the border between Germany and Poland is opened as Poland joins the borderless EU Schengen zone.

2006

• The province of Baden-Württemberg introduces a test intended to determine whether Muslims applying for naturalization are loyal to the German constitution. The guidelines contain questions about terrorism, democracy and homosexuality.
• In January, two Berlin schools, the Herbert-Hoover-Realschule and the Borsig-Realschule, introduce “German-only” language pledges, resulting in intense discussion on integration and heritage languages. Five months later, the Hoover Schule receives the 75,000 Euro German National Prize for its integration initiative.
• In a February petition printed in the newspaper Die Zeit under the title “Justice for Muslims”, sixty scholars and journalists protest against the portrayal of Islam as a regressive religion in popular non-fiction books such as Die fremde Braut by Necla Kelek and Ich klage an by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
• An alarming open letter from the teachers and administrators of the Rütli School in March incites a nation-wide discussion about integration, education and future prospects for immigrant children in Germany. The school is located in Berlin-Neukölln; 83% of its approximately 300 students come from a migration background.
• Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble announces in April that Germany will be administering inspections on the country’s borders to Schengen countries during the World Cup, in order to prevent the entry of football hooligans and criminals, as well as to protect the country from possible terrorist attacks.
• In May, the federal conference of Interior Ministers decides that future applicants for naturalization must pass a standardized language test as well as successfully complete a course on integration in order to receive a German passport.
• Giyasettin Sayan (Die Linke) a German-Kurdish member of the Berlin House of Representatives is the victim of a violent right-wing attack in the precinct he represents, Berlin-Lichtenberg. This event heightens concern about potential xenophobic activities during the upcoming World Cup.
• The Federal Commissioner for Integration Maria Böhmer (CDU) convenes the first Summit on Integration in Berlin on July 14th. The goal of the summit is to create a plan by mid-2007 for the country’s 15 million residents with a migration background.
• Germany hosts the World Cup, which gives rise to new debates on national pride and patriotism.
• In August, the anti-discrimination law (“Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG)”) comes into effect. The law prohibits the unequal treatment of persons because of their race, ethnicity, sex, religion, personal beliefs, disability, age and sexual orientation.
• In September, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper (German Opera) cancels performances of Mozart’s opera Idomeneo due to fear of possible attacks from Islamic terrorists.
• German television broadcasts live from Dresden, where the ordination ceremony of the first three new rabbis in Germany since the Holocaust is taking place.
• A study conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation at the University of Leipzig concludes that right-wing extremism in Germany is distributed throughout all classes, regions and age groups.
• Under the campaign “Wir sind Hamburg – bist Du dabei?” the city of Hamburg pledges to increase the number of municipal civil service employees with a migration background by 2011 by ensuring that every 5th training position is given to a young person of migrant descent.
• In December, Wilhelm Heitmeyer, social scientist at the University of Bielefeld, publishes a study, which finds that every second German citizen is xenophobic. The study also shows that the percentage of xenophobic views within East German society is as high as 60.2 percent.

2005

• On January 1, the new Immigration Act takes effect, officially recognizing Germany as an “immigration country.”
• Approximately 7.3 million people live in Germany without a German passport. Every fourth foreign national is of Turkish descent; Italian citizens are the second-largest group, followed by Serbs and Greeks.
• One million immigrants have been naturalized since the year 2000.
• Two exhibitions about Germany as a nation of immigration are opened: “Projekt Migration” (“project migration”), curated in Cologne by the Kölnischer Kunstverein, DOMiD (Dokumentationszentrum und Museum über die Migration in Deutschland e.V.), and the research team “Transit Migration,” and “Zuwanderungsland Deutschland: Migrationen 1500-2000” (“Germany as a country of immigration: migration from 1500-2000”) at the German Historical Museum in Berlin.
• About 1.4 million illegal immigrants are documented in Germany.
• A less bureaucratic procedure for issuing visas to foreign nationals seeking to enter Germany from non-EU, Eastern European states, as introduced by Joschka Fischer, leads to the so-called German Visa Affair. Investigations reveal that the embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, alone issued more than 150.000 visas without proper review.This lax and informal procedure of issuing visas facilitated illegal immigration and human trafficking.
• The Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge starts to offer free integration courses, including 600 hours of lessons in German language and 30 hours of a so-called orientation course. The courses are obligatory for new immigrants and foreigners who already live in Germany but do not have sufficient German language skills.
• The birth rate in Germany is as low as it has never been before: only 680.000 children were born in 2004, approximately half as many children as in the mid-60s. Germany has now the lowest birth rate in Europe.
• About 18.000 physicians in Germany are from abroad, while 12.000 German physicians left the country.
• On February 3, Germany announces that more than 5 million people are unemployed, a record high in the postwar period. Unemployment among immigrants lies between 20 and 40 percent.
• On February 7, a 24-year-old Turkish-German woman named Hatun Surucu is shot and killed. The assailants, her three brothers, allege that she had violated the honor of her family by “living like a German.” For the German media, such “honor killings” attest to the dangers of “parallel worlds” and ”misguided tolerance.”
• On May 18, a German court strips three naturalized citizens of Turkish descent of their German citizenship because they failed to disclose their affiliation to Milli Görüş, the largest Islamist group in Germany (with 26,500 members).
• In June, Germany places restrictions on the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Applicants must now obtain a certificate from a synagogue in Germany affirming that they will be accepted into the congregation. The law passes with the consent of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
• At the end of May, popular referenda in France and the Netherlands definitively reject a European constitution.
• In October, the European Union begins accession negotiations with the Turkish Republic. Eventual Union membership for Turkey has been a topic of multilateral discussions since the founding of the European Economic Community in 1957.
• At the end of October, riots among immigrant youth in Clichy-sous-Bois and other low-income neighborhoods in 300 French cities lead to debates about whether similar uprisings could take place in Germany.
• On November 22, Angela Merkel (CDU) is voted in as Germany’s first female Chancellor and as the first Federal Chancellor from the former East Germany.
• On December 20, only a few German newspapers mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first guest-worker treaty with Italy.