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A 22-year-old anti-Nazi song tops German charts again – to welcome refugees
- jkot 11y agoLovely, Germany invites people, but demands other countries to take care of their guests. Social support for immigrants in Germany is higher then median salary in many EU regions.
- weland 11y agoOutrageous that they'd bring European solidarity into this. /s
- h7780 11y agoFunny how "solidarity" reappears now after a prolonged absence during the banking meltdowns in Ireland and Greece.
- leaveyou 11y agoIf Germany wanted to really help those refugees as it pretends then it should have allocated X millions of euros from its budget and should have sent humanitarian aid in Turkey where these immigrants are living currently. Encouraging those immigrants to continue to trample all the borders and countries between Turkey and Germany at great risk of dying on the road and complete chaos, is not a wise thing to do if Germany really cared about "european solidarity".
- Squarel 11y agoSo you think it is better that Turkey shoulders 1.6m extra inhabitants, while Europe gets all excitable about a few hundred thousand?
- leaveyou 11y agoAs a neighbor and active participant to the destabilization of Syria, yes Turkey should shoulder the consequences. Those people have to return to their homes after the war and not wander in a hostile Europe where they can't integrate.
- weland 11y agoArguably, at least NATO countries should shoulder some of those consequences as well. ISIS didn't just spring out of the ground.
- onli 11y agoThat is not true. First, Germany has a problem with social support even for Germans, Hartz 4 is horribly low and injust. Financial social support is one of the problems currently with the immigrants: It is basically non-existant. No EU region has a lower median salary than this. Second, Immigrants are not guests, they are immigrants or fugitives, and possibly supposed to stay. Third, Germany demands nothing new from other countries. It is EU law that they shall be registered in the countries where they arrive, and it is new and a helping offer to allow those fugitives to continue onwards to Germany. Otherwise they would have to stay in the country they arrived in. Given the tone of your comment, I doubt you would prefer that option.
- leaveyou 11y agoYou are lying at "Third". Angela Merkel publicly encouraged immigrants to come (and die trying) by promising that Germany will host all the people who arrive in Germany and several days later when the reported numbers of immigrants became alarming, Germany and France announced "a plan" (IMPOSSED behind scenes) to distribute the immigrants to other EU states because "solidarity and bla bla bla". That is extremely unfair to other EU states who can't afford the high and long term costs of Merkel's declarations and looking at the lost lives, insanely irresponsible.
- moe 11y agoAngela Merkel publicly encouraged immigrants to come Bullshit.
- generic_user 11y agoThe EU has been encouraging migration for years for there supposed 'demographic crisis'. This is reported on regally in the press if you care to research.
- moe 11y agoThe EU has been encouraging migration for years for there supposed 'demographic crisis' Oh, so now it's not Merkel but the EU. This is reported on regally in the press if you care to research. I'm not the one making bullshit claims here. The onus is on you to name your sources.
- danbruc 11y agoIf you become unemployed in Germany you get unemployment benefits depending on your previous salary for one year I think. After that you get social benefits based on the existential minimum, roughly 400,- Euro plus your actual rent and you can request additional support for special circumstances like getting a baby. And because this is defined as the existential minimum refugees receive the same. Not sure what you mean with inviting refugees and letting others care for them. Germany surely doesn't ask for more refugees but we will take care of the ones coming here.
- prodmerc 11y agoI thought of applying for benefits, but seeing how my fellow countrymen abuse them ("woo, the stupid Germans give me an apartment and pay me while I also work illegally"), decided not to. Maybe I made a mistake, I sure could use more money :-). We should bring more Germans into the government, they can take care of things, lol
- scotty79 11y agoSo he's right that social support for immigrants (and other jobless people in Germany) is higher than median (even average) salary in some regions of EU? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...
- quonn 11y agoClearly almost all countries have far higher averages. Also, the immigrants have to live in Germany, where the cost of living is much higher than the parts of Europe with a low salary.
- scotty79 11y agoMedian salary is lower than average. Also 400 euro + rent was mentioned. I believe that given this almost all of "new" EU countries have median salaries below German welfare check.
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- generic_user 11y agoThere is a coordinated media attempt across the EU to spin positive 'messaging' onto the refugee crisis. But make no mistake this is a total disaster for the refugees, member state Citizens and the EU bureaucracy. The EU has been exposed once again as an incompetent overreaching poorly though dangerously romantic mistake. Continuous failures of ECB policy, the collapse of Greece under the EURO, the PIGS in serious trouble, add a totally uncontrolled mass refugee crisis, the entire EU project looks like an incompetent bureaucratic mess. The damage is so great that Even China and Russia have managed to claim the moral high ground and quit rightly blame the crisis on the EU itself and NATO adventurism in Syria. I do not think rehashing WW2 German collective guilt as a media spectacle is going to change the perceptions of anyone paying attention to this horrible situation.
- mahouse 11y agoWhat I don't understand is why us Europeans have to pay for the adventurism of the NATO; I wish all the refugees moved to Israel and the US, to be honest. Once again Putin is right, and this uncovers how a permanent conflict at the arab world is in the interest of the NATO and the US/Israel-aligned world overall.
- mineshaftgap 11y agoYou do realize that Europe is part of the US aligned world and the only thing preventing Europe from becoming Putin's playground is NATO?
- mahouse 11y agoI would rather allow Europe to become Putin's playground than to allow the current situation to continue.
- mineshaftgap 11y agoI hope you get your wish.
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- hwh 11y agoTo make it clear: that song is not really focused on welcoming refugees (though the band playing it really supports that cause, too). That song is very specifically targeted at pointing towards the haters and criticizing their hate.
- cronjobber 11y agoThe whole situation is extremely close to being a civil war. The "haters" are ridicuously outgunned with the full power of both the media and the state arrayed against them, so they will lose. The imbalance serves to mask the nature of the conflict, makes it look unlike a classic civil war. Not enough carnage.
- Asbostos 11y agoHas there ever been a case where a country received too many refugees and its economy deteriorated as a consequence? People provide labor which is what causes economic growth. They're the most valuable thing a country can have if it's not flooded with oil or similar natural resources. Of course there may be a lag as skills don't match demand, but that'll close up over time.
- 1337biz 11y agoSome people would probably point at the fall of the Roman Empire as the most classic example of culture conflicts leading to deterioration. http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-why-rome-fell http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-why-rome...
- babuskov 11y agoYes. During the recent civil wars in Balkans, Serbia received many refugees from ex-Yugoslavian republics at war and it had huge impact on the economy as unemployment and criminal rates rose significantly. It took about 17-18 years for economy to recover to pre-war years.
- cabalamat 11y ago> Has there ever been a case where a country received too many refugees and its economy deteriorated as a consequence? One possible example is when the Roman Empire let in a load of Goths in 376.
- marincounty 11y ago"Has there ever been a case where a country received too many refugees and its economy deteriorated as a consequence? People provide labor which is what causes economic growth." I'll get hammered for this, but it depends on the country? I probally shouldn't comment because I'll be labeled a racist? Right now Canada is offering certain refuges $8000 to leave. I don't think they are being mean? They are just concerned about the long term consequences? Or, they are racists? See--there's just no way to discuss it? I see the way the good liberal people of San Francisco step over the Homeless, constantly complain, harass, and arrest these poor people; what would that liberal city do with thousands of broke refugees arriving daily, all using the Starbuck's restrooms, and sleeping in Golden Gate Park? Those rich Arab countries should be doing what Jordan is doing? Then again, their economies are horrid, and have huge unemployment rates. (horrid for the average citizen)
- babuskov 11y agoMeanwhile, Hungary has finished building the wall and is now adding more soldiers to EU-Serbia border and blocking the central train station in Budapest to stop people from going further. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/migrants-hungary-border-fence-wall-serbia http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/migrants-hungar... http://news.sky.com/story/1544753/migrants-spend-night-outside-budapest-station http://news.sky.com/story/1544753/migrants-spend-night-outsi...
- dogma1138 11y agoWhat I'm wondering about is if Germany and other EU countries don't mind taking the migrants with Merkel pledging to absorb as much as 800,000 of them why did Hungary closed it's rail system? Hungary doesn't want them, they use trains to get to Austria and Germany why close their only effective route to transport them to where they would be apparently accepted? As some one who loathes conspiracy theories even I'm starting to wonder if Germany is pretty much threatening Hungary to prevent them from releasing the flood into central Europe while declaring that they'll take anyone who gets to Germany to appease voters. Because honestly I don't really see any other explanation to why countries like Hungary and even Italy (which prevents them from getting on trains to Switzerland) actually seem to keep the migrants forcibly within their territory while clearly not wanting them anywhere near it.
- nonidit 11y agoBecause it is against European law to forward them. The so called "Dublin regulation" states, that refugees have to seek asylum in the first European state in which they arrive. Obviously this law largely benefits the midlands and wouldn't work with the current crisis. But nevertheless it is still the official law. So Hungary can only lose in this situation, either by stopping the trains or by breaking the law.
- dogma1138 11y agoHungary has suspended the application of the Dublin Regulation a month ago, it wasn't a signatory either. But non the less the Dublin regulation stated the the country in which the refugees register is responsible for them, it didn't state that they should be denied freedom of movement and the suspension of the train system by the Hungarian authorities was seen as a breach of the Dublin agreement as well.
- jfaucett 11y agoThere is so much media coordinated bull floating around in the EU and Germany right now it makes me sick. As a tax paying immigrant to Germany myself, I decided to look up the stats a little while ago and here's what the down and dirty actually looks like: From 01.01.2015 until 31.07.2015 - we've gotten a total 195,723 Refugees, an estimated 500,000 will arrive for 2015.[1] Estimated costs will be around 5 Billion. For a comparison the Hartz 4 (Social Welfare System) had a total of about 32 Billion in 2013. [3]. Of all the refugees the majority come from Syria (~22%), and Irak / Afghanistan (~10%), which are countries with ongoing conflicts. [2] 39% of the refugees are coming from (Serbia / Kosovo / Macedonia / Albania), which have no listed ongoing conflicts according to wikipedia. The rest come from various countries the world over with around 1.7% from Nigeria and another 1.7% from Pakistan, which also both have ongoing conflicts. So those are the facts, according to wikipedia and the BAMF (Office for Refugees and Immigration). Now for the IMHO part :) The biggest problem currently with the whole thing is that we've known about this issue for a very long time [4], and no one prepared at all. Even now nobody seems to have a plan about what to do with the refugees once they get here except give them food, housing, and living money, which personally I have no problem with as long as there is a plan to assimilate them into society, teach them german, get them jobs, etc. Why do I think some germans are upset? I think a lot of people have problems with the fact that this seems like another Hartz 4 type system where german tax dollars are going to pay for people who sit in the house all day and sponge off the system. Also, I think the media is just making this perception worse by showing thousands of refugees sitting around in camps or walking into Germany where they immediately get handouts. Also its easier to rationalize a Harz 4 system when its for "yourself" i.e. family or other native germans who have also paid money and hard work into the system. It becomes less and less easier to rationalize this goodwill when you're giving handouts to people from other european countries (yes, as a EU citizen you can get on german Harz 4 if you want), and even less still when the people don't aren't even part of the EU. At least thats what I think is actually going on here with the negative attitudes... There are open commercials against "foreigner hate" but seriously who would have a problem with this if instead of those commercials they would just show the refugees getting jobs and starting to work? References: 1. https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Downloads/Infothek/Statistik/Asyl/statistik-anlage-teil-4-aktuelle-zahlen-zu-asyl.pdf?__blob=publicationFile https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Downloads/Infothek... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflict... 3. http://biaj.de/archiv-kurzmitteilungen/36-texte-biaj-kurzmitteilungen/330-hartz-iv-ausgaben-des-bundes-2012-1274-mrd-euro-weniger-als-2011-974-mio-euro-unter-soll.html http://biaj.de/archiv-kurzmitteilungen/36-texte-biaj-kurzmit... 4. http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article132511959/Die-schmerzhafte-Wahrheit-zum-Fluechtlingsproblem.html http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article132511959/Die-s...