4 ms·

There 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

There 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...

mercer 11y ago
It's indeed a problem. I've lived with flatmates who basically lounged around for 3+ years on Harz 4, and despite the fact that I am rather left-leaning (to put it mildly), there were moments where I thought 'if I paid taxes in Germany, I'd be really pissed off about the fact that my flatmate is using my tax money to get high all the time and not improve his life in any way'. Of course, when my rational mind took over I realized that 1) he had some serious psychological issues that he was trying to address, 2) he lives on practically nothing, to the point of collecting and returning empty bottles to get himself a beer, and 3) he's a really warm, caring, awesome guy who shares what little he has whenever he can, even with a well-paid person like me. But imagine the situation when 1) someone is not as left-leaning as I am, 2) someone is faced with 'strangers' benefitting from their tax money, rather than people they can easily identify with, 3) this 'stranger' is easily associated with crime and cultural practices and religious beliefs that baffle me, and, perhaps most importantly 4) I am not working in one of the few areas of business that still does well (IT) and I'm feeling the economic problems myself. I suppose I could add 5) I have a partner and kids and a mortgage and a car that I cannot just 'ditch' when times get lean. None of what I'm saying should be taken as any kind of ethical judgment or opinion. I'm simply expressing my fear of what might happen because of these issues, and a desire to work toward solutions that benefit all parties involved, or at least prevent serious consequences.

mercer 11y ago

It's indeed a problem. I've lived with flatmates who basically lounged around for 3+ years on Harz 4, and despite the fact that I am rather left-leaning (to put it mildly), there were moments where I thought 'if I paid taxes in Germany, I'd be really pissed off about the fact that my flatmate is using my tax money to get high all the time and not improve his life in any way'. Of course, when my rational mind took over I realized that 1) he had some serious psychological issues that he was trying to address, 2) he lives on practically nothing, to the point of collecting and returning empty bottles to get himself a beer, and 3) he's a really warm, caring, awesome guy who shares what little he has whenever he can, even with a well-paid person like me. But imagine the situation when 1) someone is not as left-leaning as I am, 2) someone is faced with 'strangers' benefitting from their tax money, rather than people they can easily identify with, 3) this 'stranger' is easily associated with crime and cultural practices and religious beliefs that baffle me, and, perhaps most importantly 4) I am not working in one of the few areas of business that still does well (IT) and I'm feeling the economic problems myself. I suppose I could add 5) I have a partner and kids and a mortgage and a car that I cannot just 'ditch' when times get lean. None of what I'm saying should be taken as any kind of ethical judgment or opinion. I'm simply expressing my fear of what might happen because of these issues, and a desire to work toward solutions that benefit all parties involved, or at least prevent serious consequences.