There are a number of German news units that are telling the story, and I'll reference most of this essay to the Deutsche Welle 'slant'.
Over the weekend, the FDP Party had a big meeting, and their 'boss' (Christian Lindner) delivered a speech. For recognizing Lindner....remember, the FDP is a middle-of-the-road political party....mostly pushing a pro-jobs, pro-business and anti-tax effort.
Lindner told an introduction story to discuss immigration and foreigners in Germany. The 'slant'? Some foreigners were in front of a couple of Germans at some bakery.
Lindner: "When you're standing in line in the bakery and someone in front of you orders a sandwich in broken German," Lindner said, "you can't discern whether he is a highly qualified artificial intelligence engineer from India or a foreigner who is being tolerated here illegally."
Lindner's hype? The migrants need to be in Germany legally. If they are here legally....then the German in line won't observe the guy in a negative way or be questioning their status.
The introduction story, I thought....was a two-star effort and lousy. But he has a key point in that a fair number of Germans do believe there are illegal aliens in the county. Focus (the news magazine) brought that issue.
Among FDP minded voters....90 percent of them believe in the hype that Lindner suggests. AfD folks? 95-percent. CDU folks? 80-percent. The negative perception comes from mostly Linke Party, SPD, and Green Party folks....all being closer to 40 to 50 percent believing in his talk.
What all this pro and anti discussion on Lindner leads to?
An open door policy in 2013, and leading onto today....lead off with a stunning amount of enthusiasm for foreigners. What no one confessed in this remarkable period is that Germans tend to have critical reviews and perceptions of various ethnic groups, and categorize people. So they were trying their very best to pro-migrant and pro-immigrant....while they still had skeptic view of various peoples and cultures.
After the passion has worn off, Lindner is asking the question in a poor way, I admit. Germans want to know....out of a thousand that enter through the door, and get some support....some language training....are they contributing to society....earning a pay-check....and quietly integrating? They'd like a feeling that all of the thousand are meeting that expectation. So when you have a guy who has been on welfare for six months, and his job training isn't going well....why? If you had forty of the thousand folks, who've been picked up as street drug vendors....why?
Why use the Indian IT guy in this story? Well....the Germans are short on IT folks, and the news media has been suggesting that thousands will likely get visa cards to enter and join the work-force. It won't surprise me if you start to see three thousand Indians a month by the end of 2019...entering the country for IT projects.
And the negative news criticism of Lindner? The hype is to suggest absolutely no criticism should occur with migrants or immigrants in Germany. 'Dignity should be preserved' will be thrown around a good bit. But I would counter and suggest that Germans are honest at perceptions, and want to always lay down the criticism as much as it might hurt.
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