There are seven million foreigners living in
Germany. What if the dreams of xenophobes came true and they all left? A
new book examines the vision – as James Gheerbrant discovers, no aspect
of life would remain untouched.
Gomez. Podolski. Khedira. Boateng. If a symbol was needed of Germany’s
increasing cultural and national diversity, few could be more potent or
public than the exotic names that adorn the shirts of the German
national football team, currently competing at Euro 2012.
On the pitch, this model of modern-day diversity seems to work so well,
as players of Spanish, Polish, Tunisian and Ghanaian heritage link
harmoniously and work for a common cause.
But in schools, streets, offices, where the mechanics of co-operative
society are not greased by fame and fortune, the multinational
Bundesrepublik is not such an unqualified success.
That was the verdict of a survey commissioned by the Berliner Morgenpost
newspaper in the wake of SPD politician and former Bundesbank executive
Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial 2010 bestseller Deutschland schafft sich
ab "Germany abolishes itself".
The survey found that more than half of Germans supported Sarrazin’s
ideas – that immigrants were guilty of a widespread refusal to integrate
(people estimated that "70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the
Arab population in Berlin" were not trying); that they presented an
increasingly intolerable burden on the state, relying more on social
services than their own productivity; and that a highly restrictive
immigration policy was the solution.
As many as 18 percent of Germans told the paper they would vote for
Sarrazin if he started a political party. But what if that figure
doubled, prompted, say, by the increasingly tight grip of austerity,
which in other European nations has seen a pronounced shift towards the
right? Chancellor Angela Merkel won the 2009 election with just 33.8
percent of the vote.
In their book Deutschland ohne Ausländer “Germany without
Foreigners”, Matthias Thieme and Pitt von Bebenburg imagine a Germany
where a right-wing populist government has taken expelled all residents
without a German passport. That’s seven million people – accounting for
one in ten residents of North-Rhine Westphalia, one in eight Berliners,
and one in four of Frankfurt residents.
Certain extreme sections of public opinion might be placated, argued
Thieme and von Bebenburg, but the disastrous effects of such an exodus
would quickly become apparent. Overall tax revenue would be shorn of €50
billion, and the federal budget would be denuded of €25 billion – which
equates to the current allocations for the ministries of family,
education, economy and research put together, say the authors.
Moreover, the idea that German residents of foreign heritage are a drain
on state finances is wide of the mark, according to the book. True
enough, people of non-German descent pay less tax than their "native"
counterparts (€7,400 per year per head to €10,800), but they also
receive less in pensions and benefits. What’s more, the authors say, "As
a proportion, more migrants are productive than native Germans."
Entire industries would be driven to the verge of collapse. Interviewed
in the book, ergonomist Gerard Bosch says that the care, craft and
catering industries would be decimated, with the latter losing over a
fifth of its employees.
Worse still, Bosch says, the "dramatic workforce shortage" could only be
solved by an autocratic labour policy, where "the unemployed would be
forced under almighty pressure into the cleaning services."
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