Veiled women and moustached men weave in and out of small food shops, and a forest of kebab kiosks gives off the intense aroma of roast meat, onions and hot sauces. Those who happen to set foot in the Kreuzberg borough of Berlin may initially think they are in Istanbul. It is in this district, where most of the large Turkish-Berliner community lives. It was from here that kebab conquered Europe, inch by inch, earning the status of a global food—at least according to the legends.
Not just Turks
The Turkish community is the largest foreign group in Berlin, and in Germany generally. The Turks came in the ‘50s and ‘60s, employed as Gastarbeiter (seasonal workers) by companies and factories. They were supposed to stay a few months and then return home. Instead, they planted their roots and multiplied. But in Berlin there are many other foreign communities: Arabs, citizens of the Maghreb, Italians, Africans and people from southeast Asia who, like the Turks, arrived as seasonal workers and then simply stayed on. With the opening of borders after 1989, Russians and Poles joined the Turks, as well former Yugoslavs who took refuge in Germany as exiles fleeing from the war.
This, however, was not the end of the story. “In recent years a new group of citizens coming from E.U. countries, among them many Italians and Spaniards, unable to find jobs in their own countries, settled here in the capital’s most fashionable districts, such as Prenzlauer Berg or Mitte,” says journalist Pierluigi Mennitti, Lettera 43’s Berlin correspondent. Today Berlin is a crossroads of languages, alphabets, experiences, styles, people, cuisines, cultures, and traditions. It is a “multikulti” Berlin, one might say, a European version of New York. It is a global-city.
But how many foreigners are there in Berlin? It is not easy to calculate. “The point,” says Mennitti, “is that it is hard to distinguish between new immigrants, foreigners born in Germany to non-German parents, and the Migrationshintergrund, those “with a past as immigrants,” as the former Gastarbeiters are called. In 2006 data indicated that 24% of Berliners [800-900,000 people] are born to non-German parents.” And where do the non-German communities live? “There is an enormous difference between eastern and western districts. It is the western districts that host the highest number of foreigners, and in Kreuzberg, Schonberg and Tiergarten the figure rises to 40-50% and in Neukolln even to 80%.” This depends on the fact that it was the wealthy and free former West Berlin and western Germany in general that attracted the Gastarbeiter. Of course, the situation on the other side of the Wall was decidedly different.
Tension and integration
Berlin is known to be a welcoming city, but a host of problems nevertheless exist. In some cases integration is lacking. The problem is that Berlin and Germany still need to move on from the old model, that of Gastarbeiter and ius sanguinis, to a new model, based on ius soli and increasing the right to citizenship. The transition is proceeding, but in this stage of “limbo” and adjustment, a number of issues have emerged. Schools reflect these transitional issues with the greatest accuracy. “In the district where there are many immigrants, ‘small ghettoes’ have appeared. In Neukolln I it is difficult to teach German. In Kreuzberg, which more than any others is the district that represents integration, the former protestors of 1968 now take their children and move them to schools in upper-class districts. Some young immigrants are unable to enter the labour market, which is extremely competitive. This means that education isn’t working and there is the risk of alienation or ending up in criminal circles,” explained Mennitti.
Recently, huge controversy arose from a book that sold four million copies, entitled Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany abolishes itself), written by the former finance minister for the city-state of Berlin, Thilo Sarrazin. Sarrazin’s thesis is that Turkish and Arab immigration will destroy the country, because Turks and Arabs have no qualifications and survive on welfare. “Sarrazin assumes a strong and radical position, so much so that the SPD wanted to expell him and Merkel rejected him. Although it is an exaggeration, the book caused a debate about the fact that in everyday life immigration does not always work and that Berlin’s charm risks being excessively mythicised. That said, I believe that the desire to become integrated continues to dominate the scene and that the Berlin and German authorities do not intend to give up developing the multikulti model.” A multicultural Berlin is also inevitable. Not everything works perfectly, but that happens everywhere, in all global-cities. Or does it not?
Translated by Francesca Simmons