There was a statement by Chancellor Merkel yesterday....preparing folks for a big public statement next week over upcoming policy changes. The emphasis of the change? She's strongly hinting that Germany faces a difficult future with a high proportion of older folks, and currently.....they just aren't in a good position to handle them.
This all revolves around infrastructure, and the declining birth-rate. Germans aren't replacing Germans in the population pool. There is some thought that means more outsiders....more auslanders....more undesirables in the population.
There was this period in the 1960s where Germany openly brought in folks from Greece, Turkey and Italy to work the factory jobs and pump up German industrial strength. A number of Turks came, and eventually a fair number of Turks accepted German life and stayed. From this initial group.....most integrated into society. Over the last twenty years....the Germans have awaken and come to this reality that they absolutely expect integration. You can't pretend to be an Egyptian in Germany and just collecting a German paycheck. Or pretend to be a Syrian in Germany.....pretending to live in German society.
Out of eighty million Germans....the rough numbers say that around six million of those folks are of foreign descent.
I'm guessing that while the Chancellor's programs will center around the aging group and how new community centers might be built in German towns.....it will also center around looking for a program to interest German women into having a second kid. I'm also guessing that someone will suggest a think-tank look at the exit of Germans going on currently (between 100k-150k Germans leave each year) and how it might be decreased.
The key thing to this policy statement for next week? It'll force the news media to discuss the topic and it's bound to be the number one topic of next weekend's political chat groups on TV.
