Hege Storhaug, HRS
Recep Tayyip Erdogan besøkte Tyskland i forrige uke i anledning 50-årsdagen for en avtale mellom Tyskland og Tyrkia om gjestearbeidere. I motsetning til Norge, gikk tyske myndigheter for et halvt århundre siden aktivt inn for å hente gjestearbeidskraft til landet – som ikke ble gjester, men permanente borgere. I dag er tyrkerne den største minoriteten i landet, og utgjør 3,5 millioner personer. I løpet av seks generasjoner forventes det at den tyske befolkningen vil halveres grunnet en fødselsrate på 1,38 barn per kvinne, mens fødselsraten blant tyrkeren er på 2,4 barn per kvinne. Andelen muslimer generelt i landet forventes å firedoble seg på seks generasjoner. Dårlig integrering av dagens muslimske befolkning generelt, og hvilken rolle islam vi få, bekymrer tyskerne.
Bekymret er også myndighetene, ikke minst for dårlige språkkunnskaper blant barn med innvandrerbakgrunn. Derfor satser regjeringen på språkopplæring i tysk, noe som har provosert Erdogan.
Erdogan turned what was supposed to be a friendly photo opportunity into a platform from which to launch a fresh tirade against Berlin for a long list of perceived slights and shortcomings in its treatment of the estimated 3.5 million Turkish immigrants who now live in Germany.
Erdogan said Germany’s insistence that immigrants who want to live in Germany must learn the German language is «against human rights.» He also demanded that Berlin grant German citizenship to Turkish immigrants regardless of the efforts they make to integrate into German society.
For good measure, Erdogan accused Germany of being «an accessory» to the terror campaign launched by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey. He also blamed Germany for derailing Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the European Union.
Tysklands befolkningsutvikling er dramatisk.
Germany’s demand for foreign labor is being fuelled by a demographic crisis, in which the German population is not only ageing, but also shrinking at a rapid pace. According to recent projections by the German Federal Statistics Office, Germany’s current population of 82 million, the largest in the European Union, is set to decline by as much as 20%, to 65 million, over the next five decades. At the same time, 34% of the population will be older than 65 and 14% will be 80 or more by 2060, up from 20% and 5% respectively in 2009.
The twin challenges of depopulation and aging will have major consequences for the financial sustainability of Germany’s cradle-to-grave social security system. The number of pensioners, for example, that will have to be supported by working-age people could almost double by 2060, according to the Federal Statistics Office. While 100 people of working age between 20 and 65 had to provide the pensions for 34 retired people in 2009, they will have to generate income for between 63 and 67 pensioners in 2060 (min utheving).
I oktober i fjor tok Angela Merkel et oppgjør med ideologien multikulturalisme. Et oppgjør som har provosert Erdogan.
This has angered Erdogan, who during an earlier visit to Germany in February 2011 urged Turkish immigrants to teach their children to learn to read and write Turkish before German. Speaking to a crowd of more than 10,000 immigrants waving Turkish flags and shouting «Turkey is Great!» in the German industrial city of Düsseldorf, Erdogan said: «We are against assimilation. No one should be able to rip us away from our culture and civilization.»
During a similar visit to Cologne in February 2008, Erdogan told a crowd of more than 20,000 Turkish immigrants that «assimilation is a crime against humanity» and he urged them to resist assimilation into the West. In March 2010, Erdogan called on Germany open Turkish-language grade schools and high schools.
Reaksjonene på Erdogan’s siste utspill er unison negative i tysk presse. Han oppfører seg ”som en konge som besøker koloniene”, mener Die Welt. Han bedriver en ”ren kulturell krig” og oppfører seg som han er ”beskytteren av de tre millionene tyrkere i Tyskland”. Han defineres som ikke-demokratisk og nasjonalist. Die Zeit er heller ikke nådig:
The respected newspaper Die Zeit, in an article entitled, «Erdogan: A Curse for Germany’s Turks,» wrote: «The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is a disaster for the Turks in Germany. Once again, Erdogan used his visit to Germany to achieve his national populist aims. Again, it went to the Turkish language: children should first learn Turkish, then German. Of course, it is desirable that children with Turkish roots learn Turkish. The problem of the Turkish educational failures lies not in their first language, but in poor mastery of both languages. Hundreds of thousands of children cannot adequately speak either Turkish or German.»
The newspaper says Erdogan’s use of inflammatory rhetoric all boils down to domestic politics. Die Zeit writes: «Erdogan is not really interested in the fate of Turkish immigrants and their children. His nationalist show is all about playing with the feelings and the frustrations of German Turks. It is a pose which he considers promising: Erdogan wants to tap into the angry Turkish citizen. Why does he want dual citizenship? So that he can campaign for votes in Germany and thereby gain significant percentages among voters abroad. Erdogan’s embarrassing nationalistic pomp makes Turkey’s accession to the EU far less likely.»