Conference on 'Integrating the Turkish Minority: a German Dilemma' at the Goethe-Institut, New York,
December 3, 2005

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to welcome you to this conference.

I want to thank Prof. Claus Müller for organizing this conference, those organizations that have provided funding for it and the Goethe-Institut for hosting it. I also want to extend a warm welcome to my Turkish colleague, Consul General Omer Onhon.

Ladies and gentlemen,
A dilemma is a problem offering two solutions, neither of which is acceptable. There are security dilemmas, prisoner´s dilemmas and now there seems to be even a German dilemma.

In game theory the prisoner’s dilemma is a type of non-zero-sum game. In this game, as in many others, it is assumed that each individual player is trying to maximize his own advantage without concern for the well-being of the other player. So I have asked myself, what is a German dilemma?

Ladies and gentlemen,
Integration and migration are two words which belong together. And when migration is referred to in Germany today, it is almost always used in the sense of immigration.

As early as 1955, West Germany began recruiting labour from the countries of Southern Europe. The first treaty was signed with Italy leading to the employment of 50.000 Italiens per year. Later similar treaties were signed with Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal and Yugoslavia. After World War II, the German economic miracle demanded labour, and by 1964 a million foreign workers were living in Germany. I think it is important to take this overall picture into account when you discuss integration today with the sole focus on the Turkish citizens which have come to Germany over the years.

These immigrants were known than as Gastarbeiter – “guest workers” – which indicates what policy-makers expected of them: They were supposed to work in Germany and then return to their home countries. But the policy-makers were wrong: People came with their families, their customs, their culture. The longer they stayed in Germany, the looser their ties to their home countries became, but for the Germans these immigrants were still only “guests”.

Initially, no state intervention was needed to ensure these immigrants became successfully integrated – at the workplace, in sport clubs and in their neighbourhoods. This immigration was essential to Germany’s economic success and brought cultural enrichment. In Berliner cuisine, for example, Turkish döner kebab has established itself as af favourite dish and has displaced the currywurst to the second rank. In the same time money earned in Germany and transferred to the home countries very often contributed to the economic success in these economies.

But as more immigrants began arriving from countries and cultures further and further away, and as economic conditions in Germany worsened, problems related to immigration grew. Today, a disproportionate number of foreigners and young people from immigrant families are unemployed and dependent on welfare benefits.

We have to take into account that,on average, immigrants in Germay have lower levels of education than native Germans, often resulting from a lack of German language skills. This is probably the same in other countries but a challenge the new government is aware of.

Conflicts between Germans and foreigners have also arisen from cultural differences, such as those related to the equality of men and women and to the absence of violence in our society.

In addition to labour force which came to Germany in the 1950s and the 60s an increasing number of economic refugees enterded our country. In the early 1990s, 78% of all refugees in Western Europe went to Germany. But only a tiny proportion of them were victims of political persecution; the majority went to Germany in the hope of improving their economic prospects.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In 2004, there were 7.3 million foreigners living in Germany. That is more than the total population of Ireland, Denmark or Switzerland, and about 9 % of Germany’s total population. These figures should also be kept in mind when speaking about the achievements and failings in integration.
Of the foreign citizens – I prefer not to speak of minorities – 26% are form Turkey, 8% from former Yugoslavia, 8% from Italy; 5% form Greece, 4% from Poland, etc.

Over the last years, the German Government has worked hard to overhaul German immigration policy. I believe we have succeeded in this effort. Germany today is a modern nation and a more cosmopolitan country than ever before. I is increasingly confident in dealing with immigration. And – as I admit – a long period of stagnation we have succeeded in initiating a systematic policy on immigration and integration.

The policy rests on four basic principles:

First: Germany needs immigration, which serves the economic and demographic interests of our country.

Second: with regard to its own history, Germany has a special obligation to take in political refugees. We are grateful that thousands of those persecuted during the Nazi regime on the basis of their race or political convictions were able to find refuge in other countries, for example Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann in the United States, and Willy Brandt in Norway. But the right of asylum must not serve as a substitute for the possibility of legal labour migration. Misusing the right of asylum in this way would undermine society’s willingness to help true victims of persecution.

Third: Immigrants living in Germany long term are entitled to receive help in order to become integrated into society. But they are also obliged and must be willing to become integrated in Germany. The coalition agreement forsees that immigrants have to accept the rules of our basic law.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, we overcame the political division of our country. We do not want a new ethnic division nor any parallel societies in Germany. But social conflicts are unavoidable when a significant part of the population does not speak German and does not accept or even actively opposes our culture, our values and laws. We must therefore not isolate immigrants but take targeted measures to promote their linguistic cultural integration.

The fourth and final principle of our policy is: there is no place in our society for anyone who abuses the freedom and security which he or she enjoys as an immigrant in Germany to support terrorism.

We must however make sure we do not place immigrants and especially Muslims under general suspicion, which would be unfair to the millions of Muslims who live in Germany and abide by its laws. But we refuse to allow foreign terrorists or their sympathizers to operate on German soil.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the second building block of our integration policy is the new Nationality Act. The old law excluded from citizenship all those people whose parents or who themselves had come to Germany as so-called “guest workers”. Although they may have lived in Germany for decades or even have been born there, they did not have German citizenship.

According to the new Nationality Act, a child born in Germany, whose mother or father is a permanent, legal resident of Germany, automatically becomes a German citizen. With this we ended a policy which would have excluded a significant part of the population from citizenship for generations. Their parents and grandparents came from Turkey and the new Nationality Act says to their children and grandchildren: You belong here, you have the same rights and duties as everyone else, you are part of Germany.

Ladies and gentlemen,
over the last years, we have succeeded in overhauling Germany’s immigration policy. Germany today is a tolerant and welcoming country. And the coalition agreement of the new German federal government shows that it will continue this policy. It has stated that a succesfull integration is of fundamental importance for our society as a whole.

So, a German dilemma? I think it is correct to say, that we have – for too long – not paid enough attention to the necessity of integration, but it is surely wrong to say there are no acceptable solutions ahead of us. But: Migration and integration are central challenges of our times and I am convinced they are challenges all countries will face. A world full of dilemmas? I will leave this to you. I hope our discussion will be fruitfull and I am looking forward to hear of the outcome.