Status: 09.09.2021 5:48 p.m.
Immigrants and their direct descendants make up a large proportion of the electorate – but issues related to migration only play a small role in the election campaign. How do the Bundestag candidates feel about this?
The Turkish community has hoped that the candidates for the Bundestag will provide answers to questions about the immigration society. Do the parties want to do something against racism and disadvantage? Do you want to remove barriers to naturalization? Introduce a public service quota for immigrants and their direct descendants? Multilingualism in the education system? Far less than half of those who were contacted answered.
Disinterest in the Union?
The Union is at the bottom. There were only 21 candidates who took the trouble. The chairman of the Turkish community, Atila Karabörklü, is disappointed: “We perceive the Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet as very interested and competent when it comes to shaping the immigration society and were somewhat shaken by his party’s lack of interest.” Even with the AfD more responded: namely 24. Candidates from the Greens, Left Party, FDP and SPD reported back particularly often.
Majority in favor of easing the issue of naturalization
According to the Turkish community, the hurdles to obtain German citizenship and thus the right to vote are too high. The co-chairman Gökay Sofuoglu appeals: “We have to stop putting obstacles in the way of people if they have been living here, working here for years, being part of society and contributing to the common good.” After all, Sofuoglu has a majority of the candidates on his side, at least according to the survey. 98 percent of the Greens, 95 percent of the Left, 93 percent in the SPD and 86 percent in the FDP want to remove bureaucratic hurdles when it comes to naturalization. The few answers from the Union: undecided. The AfD candidates are against it with 90 percent.
The picture is completely different with a quota for people with a migration background in the public service. Various migration organizations have been calling for them for a long time. But really only the left-wing candidates are in favor of a majority – with 83 percent. The majority of the interviewed candidates from the other parties reject it (SPD: 49 percent against, Greens: 57 percent, Union: 86 percent, FDP: 91 percent, AfD: 96 percent).
Your own Ministry for Immigration and Integration?
Sofuoglu explains it with a defensive reflex: “The keyword quota triggers counter-reactions, as if a quota would undermine the performance principle.” For him, it is about compensating for disadvantages, as he says: After all, people with a migration background are disadvantaged: when looking for a job, even when making recommendations for higher schools – even if they have good grades.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently responsible for many issues relating to immigration and integration. The focus there is on internal security, complains Sofuoglu. The result is a “lack of innovation, ambition and assertiveness”. That is why migration associations keep bringing up a ministry for immigration and integration. According to the current survey, however, only green (96 percent) and left-wing candidates (90 percent) are mostly in favor.
Extremely low turnout
According to social scientists, the turnout among people with a migration background is only around 20 percent. Deniz Yildirim from the Citizens For Europe initiative argues that this quota could be increased if parties make a better personal and programmatic offer in which the issues of immigration society appear more, argues Deniz Yildirim from the initiative “Citizens For Europe”: “In addition, politics would have to decouple voting rights and citizenship, so that more Immigrants and their descendants are allowed to vote. ”
The initiative demands that those affected be made aware of their own power potential so that they can see that their voice counts and that they use it. The Turkish community has published all of the candidates’ answers to the individual questions on their homepage. In turn, people with a migration background can give their own answer – using a voting slip.