anders deutsch

The US want to fortify their borders to Mexico. The European Union continues to do so with its Mediterranean border. But to no use. The 'refugees' come nonetheless. They risk their life and invest lots of money to come to the West. And they will continue to do so irrespective of the fortifications. The West should start to accept this - also as a direct result of their colonial history - save money and lives by reducing the fortification.

It is just the same as all the time: Blacks and Muslims are constructed as terrorists, danger to our society, are deported and beaten up.

A new problem in Germany. Two girls in one school have appeared in a full burka. They were suspended from school and can only return if they take of the burka. The media have not given much information about the case. But I guess one has to look at this special case (the only one in Germany) and find a solution to this problem. Our minister for justice, however, has recommened to introduce a school uniform to prevent further cases like this. Now, this is really solving the core of the problem, is not it?

The German ministers of the interior have agreed on a compromise how to regulate naturalisations in future. Or rather they have decided how to make the barriers to naturalisation even higher. Othering in its purest form.

One of the reasons - which is hardly talked of - why 'forreigners' should not be naturalised is that once they have the German citizenship they cannot be deported anymore. And 'we' love to deport our problems rather than deal with them ourselves.

BBC reported about the death of a Pakistani in a German prison and the reactions in Pakistan to this. I searched the net for German reports on this and hardly found any. The few reactions there are came only after the Pakistani media reported. Nobody seems to be really interested in what happened. Only one of those who commit suicide in German prisons?

The discussions about the planned mosque in Berlin continue. Racist and islamophobic opinions are still being publicly articulated. The minister of the interior has now remarked that the initiative against the building of the mosque is violating the constitution because it violates the freedom of religion. This, however, does not convince the oponents. One said at a meeting: "How is the constitution linked to the mosque?" Clearly there is someone who does not know the constitution. If he was a 'foreigner', he could not become a German. But he is a 'German' ...

Since several years Germany is failing to put an EU regulation into practice. So far we do not have an anti-discrimination law in this country. But finally something seems to move. And there seems to be even some improvements to the EU regulation, also discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and religion will be persecutable.

Currently the two government parties in Germany are discussing new regulations for naturalisation. While the Conservatives openly want to restrict naturalisation, the Social democrats still claim that they want to encourage naturalisation. But it seems that the regulations are made even more restrictive. Even if there will not be in the whole of Germany test about your values and 'facts' about Germany, other regulations are tightened. For example you have to absolve a language test as well attend a course on citizenship and pass a test an on it. Furthermore even minor penalties in your police record will make it impossible for you to apply for German citizenship. The othering continues even though the regulations so far where already othering enough (see for examples my MA dissertation on citizenship and identity or a case study about a naturalisation.

The last weeks, months, probably years have brought a lot of evidence for racism, discrimination and othering in Germany. Some of the instances get public recognition. Then the 'White' public is surprised. The othered, however, are hardly surprised. The experiences of racism, othering and discrimination are normality for them. Each event is only a confirmation of it, but no surprise.

Last week again several racist and/or islamophobic attacks were reported. But as usual the police is not sure wheter these were really xenophobic or just normal quarrels.

Politicians and media have made racist and/or islamophobic remarks. As usual.

And this also seems to become usual: International organisations criticise Germany for othering and discrimination. This time it was the OSCE which criticised a questionaire for naturalisation.