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Monday, October 16, 2017

German Towns Filled With Refugees Ask, ‘Who Is Integrating Whom?’

SALZGITTER, Germany—Late this summer, Nadine Langer took her six-year old to her first day at school. The girl was one of two German children in her class, she said, amid 20, mostly Syrian, refugees.

“I am not against foreigners,” said Ms. Langer, 41. “But there is a point where we have to wonder who is integrating whom.”

Germany’s 2015 refugee crisis has largely disappeared from the headlines. But in this and other midsize towns, it is continuing to unfold, putting communities under stress, pressuring local coffers and feeding concerns about safety, jobs and the quality of education.

Some 140,000 asylum seekers have entered Germany so far this year—a sharp drop from the 1.2 million who arrived in the past two years. But in places such as Salzgitter there is a sense that the government, having housed and fed the newcomers, is failing in the longer-term effort to integrate them into German society.

This unease, pollsters say, boosted the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany at last month’s election, making it the first far-right party to enter parliament in half a century.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a growing anti immigrant sentiment growing in Europe. Watch as the upcoming elections go hard to the right. Austria was only the first. Lines are being drawn.

Anonymous said...

Germany has nobody to blame other than themselves for electing that liberal Merkel into office too many times.

Anonymous said...

There is no integration into european society for these people, they are invaders! Western culture is being exterminated in Europe. We need to be vigilant in the US. Look at Dearborn Michigan.

Anonymous said...

Looks like jmb high school.