25 February, 2016
In a recent interview with Der Freitag newspaper, renowned German migration expert Naika Fouroutan discussed the current volatile state of affairs in the area of immigration and integration. Of Iranian heritage, Fouroutan is Professor of Integration and Social Policy at Humboldt University Berlin, as well as deputy chairwoman of the Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Integration and Migration. She also advises the German federal government on migration issues. She characterised contemporary German society as marked by a profound ambivalence, torn between competing impulses of ‘welcome culture’ (Willkommenskultur) and national isolation. As evidence for this almost schizophrenic juxtaposition, Fouroutan cited a recent poll in which 29 per cent of respondents asserted that they would support a shoot-to-kill order at the German border to prevent uncontrolled immigration, while at the same time 73 per cent of those questioned were of the opinion that men and women had a right to flee and be granted asylum.
Fouroutan linked the rejection of immigration above all to the question of ‘visible minorities’, especially Muslims: there is “integrational optimism on the one hand – and on the other hand its limitation as soon as it’s about visible minorities. People are saying ‘yes’ to diversity – but please without Muslims! And without refugees. And without the homeless. And without whoever doesn’t conform to the majority’s image.” For her, this view is crucially linked to media representations of Muslims: questioned about the utterances of Rüdiger Safranski, a leading German intellectual who recently warned of the arrival of ‘millions upon millions of Muslims’, Fouroutan observed that “in his perception the issue of Islam is so present in every day affairs that he simply overestimates the number of Muslims and of refugees.” She pointed to a poll she had conducted, which had shown that half of Germans dramatically overestimate the number of Muslims living in the country. In this respect, she demanded more honesty from German politicians, and the acknowledgement that, like other important migration destinations around the world, Germany would have to expect annual immigration levels of roughly 1 per cent of the existing population (800,000 individuals) for the foreseeable future.
These numbers are not in themselves problematic, according to Fouroutan: “integration is something that does not fail because of the numbers but because of its acceptance [among the population].” While conceding that old preconceptions and stereotypes were slow to change, she also contended that recent years had seen considerable changes for the better in Germany. Positive signs, according to her, include legal changes (such as the recognition of dual citizenship), as well as an evolution in social attitudes. Among the latter she counts the unprecedentedly welcoming reception given to refugees in the summer and autumn of 2015, as well as the gradual realisation that Muslim women wearing a headscarf are not necessarily oppressed individuals that need to be liberated and saved. Fouroutan averred, however, that the focus of insecurity and prejudice has now shifted from Muslim women to (young) Muslim men, to whom too little positive role-models were made available by German society.
