Past years were wasted to prepare Germany organizationally for migrants as well as refugees, the interior minister has said. De Maiziere also warned that asylum seekers should not be used to fix demographic problems.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Warnand
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Opening a conference on Germany's demographic challenges in Berlin Thursday, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the nation's future hinged on integrative practices that required effort, rules and time.
Opportunities had been wasted and tasks overlooked in past years because many in Germany had thought that integration happened by itself, with just "beautiful words," he told 800 participants from Germany's social welfare, health, housing and business sectors.
Are Klaus Bade's urgings finally bearing fruit?Image: Imago/Müller-Stauffenberg
Despite increasingly "raw and violent" resistance exhibited by some Germans anxious about Chancellor Angela Merkel's acceptance of refugees, Germany now had to decide how it would tackle integrative tasks and "which resources we have available," de Maiziere said.
1993 Manifesto
The interior minister's remarks were reminiscent of a 1993 German manifesto issued by 60 professors who urged conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl's then-government to drop long-held aversion to immigration - underscored by arson attacks in towns such as Lichtenhagen, Mölln and Solingen.
The main author of the "Manifesto of the 60," migration researcher Professor Klaus Bade in 2013 described the 1980s in Germany as a "lost decade" in terms of integration.
Effort rewarded
De Maiziere, in his keynote speech, beginning the two-day Berlin demography conference, said Germany should not take in refugees specifically to fix its multifaceted problem of demographic aging - with more elderly and less income-generating youngsters.
A young Merkel as family minister in Kohl's cabinetImage: picture-alliance/dpa
The two topics of refugee flight requiring humanitarian assistance and career-based migration into Germany should not be confused, he said.
Referring to new arrivees, de Maiziere said those willing to be integrated through effort - such as learning the German language and constitutional structures - had "every opportunity."
"Whoever is not willing, will find in difficult in Germany," he added.
Multiple issues
The Berlin conference will examine issues such as "baby boomers reaching pensionable age," integrating refugees into Germany's work force, affordable housing for the elderly, new forms of living together, rejuvenating rundown town centers, dementia, and how to maintain medical services in depopulated rural areas.
Until last year's arrival of some one million asylum seekers, experts had said Germany's population was shrinking from generation to generation by roughly one-third, because of falling birthrates alongside more or less constant death rates.
Germany's federal and regional state governments expect the overall population to shrink from its current 82 million to about 77 million by 2030, but with increasing numbers of persons aged 65 years and older. The trade union Verdi recently warned that up to 12 million workers were at risk of retiring in poverty, amounting to a "ticking social time bomb."
ipj/kms (dpa, kna)
Refugees learn by doing on German language course in Bonn
Grappling with a new language and alphabet while living in a strange place is hardly a simple task. DW joined a class for asylum seekers on a practical exercise aiming to combine lessons about German - and Germany.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Refugees head to language school
A new language and alphabet are among the chief challenges awaiting asylum seekers arriving in Germany. Most need help, at least to get started. The good news on this day, however, is that they can leave their satchels, their exercise books, and even their teachers behind - it's time to hit the streets and learn proactively.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Appetite for learning
The ACB Lingua language school's new "Integration Course" is aimed at recent arrivals. The school sent students on a "treasure hunt" to teach them about Bonn, and to get students to try out some German with strangers. Task 1: "Go to the market - find this stall - what types of fruit and vegetables does it sell?"
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Teaching aids
Do you know the German for "pineapple?" While French and Italian-speakers have no excuse for getting the wrong answer, the students, most of whom speak Arabic, had a harder time. Thankfully clues abound! The team DW accompanied seemed keen for bonus points; they noted down prices, too, though that information was not required.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Cheating? More like a shortcut
Students were urged not to use their phones and to ask people in German for directions and information instead. However, on finding a passer-by who spoke both German and Arabic, the temptation was too great. Bassam (holding the paper) was kind enough to talk the team through several sentences they couldn't understand.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'When was Beethoven born?'
Ludwig van Beethoven is arguably Bonn's most famous native. The house where he was born, near the city-center marketplace, serves as a small museum. Radwan Ajouz and his son Ali, originally from Aleppo in Syria, work on their next task. They find magic number: 1770.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Pick up the pace
Bonus points were on offer for groups that completed the treasure hunt the fastest - with competitors keeping a keen eye on the clock. Still, within around two hours, the tour took them to a string of places they're likely to visit again. One question asked them to find out and note down the opening hours of Bonn's foreign nationals' office (Ausländeramt).
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Getting around town
"Go to Friedensplatz," the team's instructions say, pointing them to another major square in central Bonn. "What is the final destination for bus number 608, and when will the next one arrive?" The 608 also stops fairly close to the Paulus-Heim in Bonn - a former old people's home converted into a refugee shelter, where many in the class live.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Staff coffee break
Next stop: the city library. There, students should find books in Arabic, Persian or Kurdish, and ask for information on what paperwork they need to borrow books. However, on entry, our reporter was distracted by the sight of the class' teachers chatting over coffee - while their charges did all the hard graft! One of them proudly scrolls through photos of other recent class outings.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Greetings from Bonn!
"Sit down somewhere," and write a postcard, the class was told, nearing the end of their assignment. "Go to the main post office, buy a stamp and send the postcard. Keep your receipt for the stamp." Another means of communication unlocked - though the task of buying the right stamp for a postcard was a challenge.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Waiting for the stragglers
This was a longer lesson than usual - with some teams needing more time than others. Early finishers, though, had a game of Pictionary awaiting them: draw something on the board, and whoever names it first (in German, of course!) gets the pen. This game showed quite a gulf between the students; some couldn't contribute, the more advanced were even getting the right genders for the nouns.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Points mean prizes
ACB Lingua's Alev Erisöv-Reinke had laid on rewards for the groups who scored best on her fact-finding mission around the heart of Bonn. Our team didn't quite make the top three - quite possibly because they were handicapped by a chatty reporter, who was also under orders not to help.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Victory from jaws of defeat
A surprise to end the day: a bonus prize does go to Radwan Ajouz after all, as the oldest competitor to finish the challenge. Ajouz was all smiles throughout the exercise, shouting "Foto! Foto!" (photo) at all and sundry on DW's behalf, after realizing our need to ask permission. His wife and four of his children are still in Lebanon, having fled Syria.
