Foreigners? Crime!
In recent months, there have been increasing reports of rising numbers of foreigner crime in Germany, as if we were facing an apocalypse? What is the reason for this? Are the figures really rising significantly all of a sudden or are there other reasons why people are talking about it?
To answer this question, we need to analyze several things at once. Who are we talking about when we talk in general terms about foreigner crime? What does crime mean? Where are the crimes being committed? And if the figures really have risen, what are the reasons and causes for this?
Above all, however, the question arises as to why reporting on this issue and discussions in politics and society are being conducted with such vehemence right now, as if there were an urgent need for action. So let's attempt the impossible and delve into the details of these superficial debates.
By Serdar Somuncu
To answer this question, we need to analyze several things at once. Who are we talking about when we talk in general terms about foreigner crime? What does crime mean? Where are the crimes being committed? And if the figures really have risen, what are the reasons and causes for this?
Above all, however, the question arises as to why reporting on this issue and discussions in politics and society are being conducted with such vehemence right now, as if there were an urgent need for action. So let's attempt the impossible and delve into the details of these superficial debates.
By Serdar Somuncu
Who is a foreigner?
Around 12.3 million people in Germany did not have German citizenship at the end of 2022. This corresponds to a foreign population of 15 percent of the total population. The population with a migrant background even comprised 24 million people. However, foreigners are distributed very differently regionally.
The proportion of foreigners is particularly high in large cities and in some cases in their surrounding areas as well as in some border regions. The Hessian city of Offenbach am Main had the highest value among all districts and independent cities at 39 percent, followed by the neighboring city of Frankfurt am Main at 31 percent. In contrast, comparatively few foreigners live in rural areas and in eastern Germany in general. In many East German districts, less than five percent of the population did not have German citizenship.
Traditionally, foreigners are mainly drawn to cities because they can find a job or study more easily here. In contrast to German citizens, as wealth increases, they often stay in the cities and migrate to the surrounding areas less often - this increases their share of the urban population. In addition, the so-called chain migration is of central importance: Foreigners prefer to go to places where relatives, friends or others from their nation already live. This leads to a concentration on certain places and regions. (Source: Federal and State Demographics Portal)
In addition to these 82 million, there are around 200,000 to 400,000 asylum seekers every year who come to us from different countries. On the one hand, there are war refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and on the other hand, there are so-called economic refugees from the North African region of South America and from West Africa, although a distinction must also be made between people who come to us from crisis areas such as Nigeria , because they are fleeing the terror of Boko Haram or from Ghana or other West African countries that are doing relatively well, the so-called safe countries of origin. Ghana e.g. B. had economic growth of 4.9% in the last ten years. Immigration from these countries is therefore relatively low.
Refugees from Turkey, on the other hand, come to Germany because they are either politically persecuted or suffer from the Erdogan government's restrictive conditions. Because Turkey is also doing relatively well economically. Of the top 10 nationalities in the period January to October 2023, Syria is in first place with a share of 31.2% of all initial applications. Turkey takes second place with a share of 16.9%. This is followed by Afghanistan with 16.4%. These three nationalities account for almost two thirds (64.5% or 172,380 initial applications) of all initial applications submitted during this period. (Source: Tagesschau.de)
There are also refugees who come to us from Eastern Europe, primarily from poorer countries such as Romania, Moldova, Kosovo or the former states of Yugoslavia. Another large number of refugees come from Ukraine. Last year alone, almost 1 million people fled to us from the war in eastern Ukraine. The composition of the people who come to us is definitely inhomogeneous.
This becomes particularly clear when you look at the official figures from the EU Commission and compare them.
According to UNHCR figures, worldwide there were:
* 36.4 million refugees in mid-2023 and
* 62.5 million internally displaced persons (due to conflict and violence) at the end of 2022.
Note: At the end of 2021, 10% of all refugees worldwide and only a fraction of internally displaced people lived in the EU. By the end of 2022, the proportion of refugees living in the EU rose to over 20% as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The proportion of refugees in the EU was 1.5% of the total population.
(Source: UNHCR)?
Although irregular migration is often discussed, in reality irregular entries only account for a fraction of migration in the EU.
In 2023 there were 281,872, of which 184,612 were sea crossings and 97,258 were by land.
The return of rejected asylum seekers must also be taken into account and is often left out in the media's sensational reporting.
In 2022, 73,600 non-EU citizens were returned to a third country. This represents 17% of all return decisions made during the year - up from 18% in 2021.
In 2022, the ratio between voluntary and forced returns was 54:46. 75% of cases were assisted returns, i.e. H. the repatriated persons received logistical, financial and/or other material support.
In the first half of 2023, 217,100 non-EU citizens were asked to leave the EU; A total of 38,900 were returned to a non-EU country under a return order. Compared to the same period last year, the number of return orders increased by 16%; the number of returns increased by 21%.
(Source: UNHCR)
So when you talk about foreigners in general terms, you deliberately ignore the different reasons and motives why people flee. The question also arises as to whether there can be a qualitative difference in the reasons for fleeing if people generally leave their homeland out of dissatisfaction, fear or desperation. The real question is why one would undertake the hardships of an escape and travel into uncertainty. Because in our imagination escaping is often easier than it really is in reality. Apart from the fact that it is a great psychological burden and involves an enormous risk to leave your homeland, perhaps leaving your family and relatives there, it also costs a lot of money and involves great dangers.
Most refugees, e.g. Those who come to us from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, join gangs of smugglers and pay large sums of money to organize a passage across the sea to the promised land. They are often inflatable boats in which refugees crowd together with hundreds of others to sail across the sea in night and fog, storms and waves. And they are not welcomed with open arms, but if they manage to get to land, they are quartered in reception camps from where they are then deported to other countries.
The impression given that all refugees come to us illegally is usually exaggerated. In 2015, when Angela Merkel arbitrarily opened the borders, there was a refugee movement that deviated from the norm, and it could not be ruled out that people who did not mean well for us also came to us. But that is certainly not the reason why the numbers of foreign crime have suddenly increased in recent months. It is downright absurd to talk about mass immigration and waves of refugees to suggest that we are dealing with a disproportionately large influx into our country. The impression is even more reinforced when one uses incomplete and reduced figures to justify one's unfair claims.
If we take another look at the statistics, we will see that it is primarily administrative offenses and violations of asylum requirements that are recorded in the crime statistics and that the alleged increase in knife crimes and acts of violence only accounts for a small part of them. The number of serious crimes committed by foreigners has actually fallen in recent years, but the type of crime has become more serious. However, rapes and stabbings also occur among Germans; they are no more part of everyday life than physical attacks in the football stadium or school shootings. Rather, these cases are exaggerated by the media in order to create an image that is intended to create the impression of an acute need for action.
According to police statistics (PKS), an increase in violent crimes in which a crime scene was recorded was recorded from the first half of 2022 to the first half of 2023, especially in public spaces and less in private living spaces. For example, the number of cases of violent crimes on public streets and squares increased by around 14 percent compared to the first half of 2022. There was only an increase of around three percent in private living space. The BKA crime researchers have identified three central factors for the increase in the number of cases:
Mobility was severely restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that people generally spent more time at home and in their immediate surroundings. With the removal of the last corona-related restrictions in spring 2023, people are out and about more again; tends to increase in public spaces. This creates more opportunities and reasons for crime. However, the pre-Corona level in terms of mobility had not yet been reached at the end of 2022.
For the first time in years, inflation is perceived as a major problem among the population. This correlates with the number of violent crimes. The number of cases and suspects is higher in economically weaker regions. In addition, there are burdens in the social area. Children and young people in particular are struggling with increased psychological stress as a result of the Corona measures, which can also affect their susceptibility to committing crimes.
Germany is currently recording a high immigration rate. As a result, the population is increasing and the proportion of non-Germans in society as a whole is increasing. It can be assumed that many people seeking protection have several risk factors that make violent crime more likely. These include the living situation in initial reception centers as well as economic insecurity and experiences of violence.
When it comes to violent crimes, there is a greater increase in the number of non-German suspects. However, in relation to the significant increase in the number of non-German people in the total population due to immigration, the relative increase in German and non-German suspects is similar:
Increase in violent crimes in % from H1 2022 to H1 2023 (rounded)
Source: BKA
There is also a noticeable overall increase in the number of suspects among minors. So-called "corona catch-up effects" probably also play a role, particularly among young people. Exceeding norms that are relatively typical for this age group were only possible to a limited extent during the pandemic and may now be increasingly being practiced.
If you compare the number of suspects from the first half of 2022 with the numbers from the first half of 2023, the Federal Criminal Police Office has also noticed a greater increase in non-German suspects in child and youth violent crime. Similar to the adult non-German suspects, this increase is put into perspective when one looks at the numbers in relation to their share of the total population:
Change in suspects in % from H1 2022 to H1 2023 (rounded)
Source: BKA
Compared to the pre-corona years, the increase is relative and can also be justified plausibly. The stories of foreigners becoming increasingly criminal are deliberately politicized in order to achieve a different purpose.
After the painful years of the Corona crisis and the subsequent war in Ukraine, the German population is deeply divided. A large part is now turning to the radicals and voting for the AfD, another part is dissatisfied and at a loss, while another part is putting their hopes in newly founded parties, such as Sahra Wagenknecht's BSW.
The political competition is coming to a head on key issues. Suddenly the bourgeois parties are also occupying issue areas that they previously refused to address. Because the parties in Germany are more disoriented than they have been for a long time. The government acts without a plan or leadership and the discontent against government programs is so unpredictable that a scapegoat is urgently needed.
After vaccination opponents and East Germans were initially declared deviants during the Corona crisis, thereby creating an ideal image of the enemy, this simple categorization into good and bad was not enough in the long term.
With the start of the Ukraine conflict, the anger of the centralist camp shifted from the intellectual establishment to the middle class. Suddenly it was the Putin trolls and those who understood Russia who could be accused of being apostates in order to exploit the warning sign of creeping radicalization, while the opinion makers on the other side were creating distorted images of the demise of the multicultural idea. So the idealization of a unified nation made up of Germans of origin and useful immigrants became the language of those who are convinced of the idea of a cross-camp, neo-nationalist reform idea.
Both are exaggerated. While one side used this to warn of a new right-wing danger, the other side fueled fear of the downfall of the West. The more one side found itself in the dilemma of further division, the more the other side benefited from it. Only the issue of immigration paradoxically united both sides again. Because it has become a universal political issue for parties that are not concerned with differentiation, but rather with votes and moods.
This development has meant that the debates have not become more constructive or objective, but on the contrary, the surveys have continued to confirm the increase in extremes, so that the AfD in particular, as a partly right-wing radical party, is now on the verge of winning elections and governments to build. An alarm signal. The established parties have now also realized that they only have a chance if they do not create further barriers within the German electorate through conflicts that require an ultimate and one-sided view of the situation, but rather need an independent terrain on which they can can radicalize their politics and manifest their apparent claim to want to occupy even the unpleasant areas of day-to-day political business.
So the refugee issue, which traditionally comes up again and again before elections across all parties, once again became the ideal subject to let off steam and give large parts of the population the feeling that there is someone to blame for the misery and that you are the only one We must take consistent action in order to find a solution to our economic and social problems.
"Germany is overwhelmed, Germany has no more space, Germany is no longer ready to be the number one destination." (Sahra Wagenknecht BSW)
"In order to prevent more and more people from arriving and to actually relieve the burden on municipalities in the long term, we now need the migration and repatriation agreements anchored in the coalition agreement." (Ricarda Lang, GREENS)
"A quarter of a city may not have more than 25 percent migrants." (Wolfgang Kubicki FDP)
"Our fundamental right to asylum was not designed for today's form of irregular mass migration." (Jens Spahn CDU)
"The caliphate is proclaimed in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Berlin the Neptune Fountain is first "conquered," then the police are attacked. What they both have in common: They are governed by a CDU, which has been responsible for migration chaos in the federal government since 2015 and in the states to this day, which not only endangers the welfare state, but above all the security of citizens." (Alice Weidel - AfD)
"We finally have to deport people on a large scale!" (Olaf Scholz SPD)
"We demand a massive limitation in immigration policy!" (Markus Söder CSU)
Refugees who lie in our pockets and collect money without justification are an ideal prospect for envy and resentment and at the same time a simple explanation for economic decline and concerns about survival. In this narrative, we in the rich industrialized countries are not the exploiters, but rather the immigrants. It is not us who take the right to oppress other countries, abuse them as a market and then deny them access to equal status, but rather they steal these rights without really having any claim to them.
A working demagogic principle. Because refugees cannot defend themselves or argue. Furthermore, they cannot vote. They depend on our favor. Above all, the issue of crime caused by increasing immigration is a perfect field to stir up fear and create resentment. At the same time, by shifting responsibility for causing this problem back and forth between political opponents, one creates the impression that we are dealing with a political elite that deals with this problem too laxly and sees it as part of their ideological and historical indoctrination limitless tolerance does not see that a rigid approach to immigration is part of a contemporary policy.
This is wrong and unfair in several respects. Because most of the people who come to us have no bad intentions and many of them have never been criminal in their lives. And the actual crimes committed by illegal immigrants probably cannot be recorded at all. It is primarily the spectacular cases that are reported on, giving the impression of a spiral that can only be stopped through radical measures.
A large part of the population now has the feeling that every foreign person who comes to us is a potential violent criminal and is just lurking to get at the Germans, enrich themselves from them or get back at them in some way injustice has happened to them. This is not only paranoid, but downright stupid and ignorant. Apart from the fact that the reasons why people come to us are often because we in this country have still not learned to combat the causes of flight instead of complaining about the effects of our misguided policies, it is also a It's a mockery that in a time of globalization we still believe that we have to seal ourselves off from all foreign influences and consider it a God-given privilege to be able to live in prosperity and freedom, while other people have been living at war for years and suffering from hunger and so on In need and out of desperation they see no other solution than to ask us for help. We would therefore have to think carefully about whether distributive justice, which the UN has cited for years as the cause of refugee movements, could not be avoided by no longer generating our material prosperity by exporting weapons to crisis areas without thinking about it. what consequences it can have for the demographic development of western affluent societies.
German weapons, war technology and components made in Germany are distributed globally. According to the Federal Government's arms export report, between 116 (2021) and 131 (2020) countries receive war weapons and other military equipment from German production: around 75 to 100 so-called third countries, 27 member states of the European Union and 13 of the group of NATO countries or NATO-equivalent countries .
These numbers have actually increased significantly in the last two years. So there is obviously a connection between our economic interest in making profit from other people's suffering and our need for security, the increasing number of refugees and the crime rate. However, the conclusion that an asylum seeker per se has more potential for crime is criminally wrong and malicious.
To the radical, this sounds like a kind of social romanticism and today many people ridicule you for making these arguments. Some also call it whataboutism and thus drift even deeper into categorical defensive positions of anachronistic chauvinism. Even our politicians have known for a long time that coexistence between societies has become more complicated and complex, especially in the last 100 years since industrialization, and we can no longer assume that dividing the world into nation states still makes sense and is justified. Rather, cultures and religions as well as people's origins are mixing, so we have to learn that contemporary society is heterogeneous and no longer monocultural.
Remember how, in 2015, massive politics were pursued to welcome refugees to Germany. In some ways, this way of dealing with the situation was just as exaggerated as what we are currently experiencing. There is no balance between extremes in this country. Sometimes the international agreements that have been made to distribute the refugees fairly among all countries in the European Union are ignored, and sometimes the responsibility for this is shifted to others. This was also the case in 2016, when Turkish President Erdogan was paid billions to hold back refugees at the European external border.
Perhaps it is also the insight into our own failure to deal with the developments of the times that is now leading to politics creating pressure to make the population believe that there is an ultimate solution to all of our problems it means closing the borders and isolating yourself. And that is deceptive. Because as long as the aforementioned distributive injustice exists, as long as we continue to benefit from the fact that we make money from crises, people will also try to come to us and achieve the same standard for a life in peace, freedom and prosperity. This cannot be denied to anyone. And there's nothing immoral about it either. Our actions and thoughts are immoral if we believe that the world works according to our rules. Because that hasn't been the case for a long time.
Many countries in the so-called Third World are now highly developed and are on the way to overtaking us economically. In Europe we still think that we are the crown of creation and have the arrogance to judge others. We haven't had the reins in our hands for a long time. Europe is highly dependent on the US and East Asian markets. As an industrial and export nation, Germany needs trade with foreign countries as well as exchange with other cultures. Immigration is not a threat to our society or our economy, but is still vital. Uncontrolled mass immigration is a distortion of reality and limiting the benefits of immigration to its usefulness is nothing more than hidden colonialism.
Our competitiveness depends on our openness to change. Immigration is an important factor here. We are currently experiencing a shortage of skilled workers like never before. After the Corona years, many things have changed. People have left their original careers and are now working in completely different areas to earn more. This means that in the catering industry, for example, there is a lack of service staff and staff everywhere. If our government managed to create a more positive awareness of immigration among the population, then many people would realize that immigration always represents a great opportunity. To get people into work, to maintain social structures, to create understanding through exchange and not through isolation and, above all, dialogue and not to stir up fear.
But as long as we cling to the ways of thinking and methods of the past and use xenophobia and xenophobia as a means to conceal our own inadequacy in dealing with the changes of the modern world and blame those who cannot help it, we will remain at the mercy of the consequences of our narrow-mindedness and have to live with the fact that the reaction to a changing world does not work according to arbitrary conditions, but must always only be an appropriate and fair response to the circumstances.
03/22/24
©Serdar Somuncu
Current program "Soul Heil" can now be downloaded in the shop
*Serdar Somuncu is an actor and director
Around 12.3 million people in Germany did not have German citizenship at the end of 2022. This corresponds to a foreign population of 15 percent of the total population. The population with a migrant background even comprised 24 million people. However, foreigners are distributed very differently regionally.
The proportion of foreigners is particularly high in large cities and in some cases in their surrounding areas as well as in some border regions. The Hessian city of Offenbach am Main had the highest value among all districts and independent cities at 39 percent, followed by the neighboring city of Frankfurt am Main at 31 percent. In contrast, comparatively few foreigners live in rural areas and in eastern Germany in general. In many East German districts, less than five percent of the population did not have German citizenship.
Traditionally, foreigners are mainly drawn to cities because they can find a job or study more easily here. In contrast to German citizens, as wealth increases, they often stay in the cities and migrate to the surrounding areas less often - this increases their share of the urban population. In addition, the so-called chain migration is of central importance: Foreigners prefer to go to places where relatives, friends or others from their nation already live. This leads to a concentration on certain places and regions. (Source: Federal and State Demographics Portal)
In addition to these 82 million, there are around 200,000 to 400,000 asylum seekers every year who come to us from different countries. On the one hand, there are war refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and on the other hand, there are so-called economic refugees from the North African region of South America and from West Africa, although a distinction must also be made between people who come to us from crisis areas such as Nigeria , because they are fleeing the terror of Boko Haram or from Ghana or other West African countries that are doing relatively well, the so-called safe countries of origin. Ghana e.g. B. had economic growth of 4.9% in the last ten years. Immigration from these countries is therefore relatively low.
Refugees from Turkey, on the other hand, come to Germany because they are either politically persecuted or suffer from the Erdogan government's restrictive conditions. Because Turkey is also doing relatively well economically. Of the top 10 nationalities in the period January to October 2023, Syria is in first place with a share of 31.2% of all initial applications. Turkey takes second place with a share of 16.9%. This is followed by Afghanistan with 16.4%. These three nationalities account for almost two thirds (64.5% or 172,380 initial applications) of all initial applications submitted during this period. (Source: Tagesschau.de)
There are also refugees who come to us from Eastern Europe, primarily from poorer countries such as Romania, Moldova, Kosovo or the former states of Yugoslavia. Another large number of refugees come from Ukraine. Last year alone, almost 1 million people fled to us from the war in eastern Ukraine. The composition of the people who come to us is definitely inhomogeneous.
This becomes particularly clear when you look at the official figures from the EU Commission and compare them.
According to UNHCR figures, worldwide there were:
* 36.4 million refugees in mid-2023 and
* 62.5 million internally displaced persons (due to conflict and violence) at the end of 2022.
Note: At the end of 2021, 10% of all refugees worldwide and only a fraction of internally displaced people lived in the EU. By the end of 2022, the proportion of refugees living in the EU rose to over 20% as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The proportion of refugees in the EU was 1.5% of the total population.
(Source: UNHCR)?
Although irregular migration is often discussed, in reality irregular entries only account for a fraction of migration in the EU.
In 2023 there were 281,872, of which 184,612 were sea crossings and 97,258 were by land.
The return of rejected asylum seekers must also be taken into account and is often left out in the media's sensational reporting.
In 2022, 73,600 non-EU citizens were returned to a third country. This represents 17% of all return decisions made during the year - up from 18% in 2021.
In 2022, the ratio between voluntary and forced returns was 54:46. 75% of cases were assisted returns, i.e. H. the repatriated persons received logistical, financial and/or other material support.
In the first half of 2023, 217,100 non-EU citizens were asked to leave the EU; A total of 38,900 were returned to a non-EU country under a return order. Compared to the same period last year, the number of return orders increased by 16%; the number of returns increased by 21%.
(Source: UNHCR)
So when you talk about foreigners in general terms, you deliberately ignore the different reasons and motives why people flee. The question also arises as to whether there can be a qualitative difference in the reasons for fleeing if people generally leave their homeland out of dissatisfaction, fear or desperation. The real question is why one would undertake the hardships of an escape and travel into uncertainty. Because in our imagination escaping is often easier than it really is in reality. Apart from the fact that it is a great psychological burden and involves an enormous risk to leave your homeland, perhaps leaving your family and relatives there, it also costs a lot of money and involves great dangers.
Most refugees, e.g. Those who come to us from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, join gangs of smugglers and pay large sums of money to organize a passage across the sea to the promised land. They are often inflatable boats in which refugees crowd together with hundreds of others to sail across the sea in night and fog, storms and waves. And they are not welcomed with open arms, but if they manage to get to land, they are quartered in reception camps from where they are then deported to other countries.
The impression given that all refugees come to us illegally is usually exaggerated. In 2015, when Angela Merkel arbitrarily opened the borders, there was a refugee movement that deviated from the norm, and it could not be ruled out that people who did not mean well for us also came to us. But that is certainly not the reason why the numbers of foreign crime have suddenly increased in recent months. It is downright absurd to talk about mass immigration and waves of refugees to suggest that we are dealing with a disproportionately large influx into our country. The impression is even more reinforced when one uses incomplete and reduced figures to justify one's unfair claims.
If we take another look at the statistics, we will see that it is primarily administrative offenses and violations of asylum requirements that are recorded in the crime statistics and that the alleged increase in knife crimes and acts of violence only accounts for a small part of them. The number of serious crimes committed by foreigners has actually fallen in recent years, but the type of crime has become more serious. However, rapes and stabbings also occur among Germans; they are no more part of everyday life than physical attacks in the football stadium or school shootings. Rather, these cases are exaggerated by the media in order to create an image that is intended to create the impression of an acute need for action.
According to police statistics (PKS), an increase in violent crimes in which a crime scene was recorded was recorded from the first half of 2022 to the first half of 2023, especially in public spaces and less in private living spaces. For example, the number of cases of violent crimes on public streets and squares increased by around 14 percent compared to the first half of 2022. There was only an increase of around three percent in private living space. The BKA crime researchers have identified three central factors for the increase in the number of cases:
Mobility was severely restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that people generally spent more time at home and in their immediate surroundings. With the removal of the last corona-related restrictions in spring 2023, people are out and about more again; tends to increase in public spaces. This creates more opportunities and reasons for crime. However, the pre-Corona level in terms of mobility had not yet been reached at the end of 2022.
For the first time in years, inflation is perceived as a major problem among the population. This correlates with the number of violent crimes. The number of cases and suspects is higher in economically weaker regions. In addition, there are burdens in the social area. Children and young people in particular are struggling with increased psychological stress as a result of the Corona measures, which can also affect their susceptibility to committing crimes.
Germany is currently recording a high immigration rate. As a result, the population is increasing and the proportion of non-Germans in society as a whole is increasing. It can be assumed that many people seeking protection have several risk factors that make violent crime more likely. These include the living situation in initial reception centers as well as economic insecurity and experiences of violence.
When it comes to violent crimes, there is a greater increase in the number of non-German suspects. However, in relation to the significant increase in the number of non-German people in the total population due to immigration, the relative increase in German and non-German suspects is similar:
Increase in violent crimes in % from H1 2022 to H1 2023 (rounded)
Source: BKA
There is also a noticeable overall increase in the number of suspects among minors. So-called "corona catch-up effects" probably also play a role, particularly among young people. Exceeding norms that are relatively typical for this age group were only possible to a limited extent during the pandemic and may now be increasingly being practiced.
If you compare the number of suspects from the first half of 2022 with the numbers from the first half of 2023, the Federal Criminal Police Office has also noticed a greater increase in non-German suspects in child and youth violent crime. Similar to the adult non-German suspects, this increase is put into perspective when one looks at the numbers in relation to their share of the total population:
Change in suspects in % from H1 2022 to H1 2023 (rounded)
Source: BKA
Compared to the pre-corona years, the increase is relative and can also be justified plausibly. The stories of foreigners becoming increasingly criminal are deliberately politicized in order to achieve a different purpose.
After the painful years of the Corona crisis and the subsequent war in Ukraine, the German population is deeply divided. A large part is now turning to the radicals and voting for the AfD, another part is dissatisfied and at a loss, while another part is putting their hopes in newly founded parties, such as Sahra Wagenknecht's BSW.
The political competition is coming to a head on key issues. Suddenly the bourgeois parties are also occupying issue areas that they previously refused to address. Because the parties in Germany are more disoriented than they have been for a long time. The government acts without a plan or leadership and the discontent against government programs is so unpredictable that a scapegoat is urgently needed.
After vaccination opponents and East Germans were initially declared deviants during the Corona crisis, thereby creating an ideal image of the enemy, this simple categorization into good and bad was not enough in the long term.
With the start of the Ukraine conflict, the anger of the centralist camp shifted from the intellectual establishment to the middle class. Suddenly it was the Putin trolls and those who understood Russia who could be accused of being apostates in order to exploit the warning sign of creeping radicalization, while the opinion makers on the other side were creating distorted images of the demise of the multicultural idea. So the idealization of a unified nation made up of Germans of origin and useful immigrants became the language of those who are convinced of the idea of a cross-camp, neo-nationalist reform idea.
Both are exaggerated. While one side used this to warn of a new right-wing danger, the other side fueled fear of the downfall of the West. The more one side found itself in the dilemma of further division, the more the other side benefited from it. Only the issue of immigration paradoxically united both sides again. Because it has become a universal political issue for parties that are not concerned with differentiation, but rather with votes and moods.
This development has meant that the debates have not become more constructive or objective, but on the contrary, the surveys have continued to confirm the increase in extremes, so that the AfD in particular, as a partly right-wing radical party, is now on the verge of winning elections and governments to build. An alarm signal. The established parties have now also realized that they only have a chance if they do not create further barriers within the German electorate through conflicts that require an ultimate and one-sided view of the situation, but rather need an independent terrain on which they can can radicalize their politics and manifest their apparent claim to want to occupy even the unpleasant areas of day-to-day political business.
So the refugee issue, which traditionally comes up again and again before elections across all parties, once again became the ideal subject to let off steam and give large parts of the population the feeling that there is someone to blame for the misery and that you are the only one We must take consistent action in order to find a solution to our economic and social problems.
"Germany is overwhelmed, Germany has no more space, Germany is no longer ready to be the number one destination." (Sahra Wagenknecht BSW)
"In order to prevent more and more people from arriving and to actually relieve the burden on municipalities in the long term, we now need the migration and repatriation agreements anchored in the coalition agreement." (Ricarda Lang, GREENS)
"A quarter of a city may not have more than 25 percent migrants." (Wolfgang Kubicki FDP)
"Our fundamental right to asylum was not designed for today's form of irregular mass migration." (Jens Spahn CDU)
"The caliphate is proclaimed in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Berlin the Neptune Fountain is first "conquered," then the police are attacked. What they both have in common: They are governed by a CDU, which has been responsible for migration chaos in the federal government since 2015 and in the states to this day, which not only endangers the welfare state, but above all the security of citizens." (Alice Weidel - AfD)
"We finally have to deport people on a large scale!" (Olaf Scholz SPD)
"We demand a massive limitation in immigration policy!" (Markus Söder CSU)
Refugees who lie in our pockets and collect money without justification are an ideal prospect for envy and resentment and at the same time a simple explanation for economic decline and concerns about survival. In this narrative, we in the rich industrialized countries are not the exploiters, but rather the immigrants. It is not us who take the right to oppress other countries, abuse them as a market and then deny them access to equal status, but rather they steal these rights without really having any claim to them.
A working demagogic principle. Because refugees cannot defend themselves or argue. Furthermore, they cannot vote. They depend on our favor. Above all, the issue of crime caused by increasing immigration is a perfect field to stir up fear and create resentment. At the same time, by shifting responsibility for causing this problem back and forth between political opponents, one creates the impression that we are dealing with a political elite that deals with this problem too laxly and sees it as part of their ideological and historical indoctrination limitless tolerance does not see that a rigid approach to immigration is part of a contemporary policy.
This is wrong and unfair in several respects. Because most of the people who come to us have no bad intentions and many of them have never been criminal in their lives. And the actual crimes committed by illegal immigrants probably cannot be recorded at all. It is primarily the spectacular cases that are reported on, giving the impression of a spiral that can only be stopped through radical measures.
A large part of the population now has the feeling that every foreign person who comes to us is a potential violent criminal and is just lurking to get at the Germans, enrich themselves from them or get back at them in some way injustice has happened to them. This is not only paranoid, but downright stupid and ignorant. Apart from the fact that the reasons why people come to us are often because we in this country have still not learned to combat the causes of flight instead of complaining about the effects of our misguided policies, it is also a It's a mockery that in a time of globalization we still believe that we have to seal ourselves off from all foreign influences and consider it a God-given privilege to be able to live in prosperity and freedom, while other people have been living at war for years and suffering from hunger and so on In need and out of desperation they see no other solution than to ask us for help. We would therefore have to think carefully about whether distributive justice, which the UN has cited for years as the cause of refugee movements, could not be avoided by no longer generating our material prosperity by exporting weapons to crisis areas without thinking about it. what consequences it can have for the demographic development of western affluent societies.
German weapons, war technology and components made in Germany are distributed globally. According to the Federal Government's arms export report, between 116 (2021) and 131 (2020) countries receive war weapons and other military equipment from German production: around 75 to 100 so-called third countries, 27 member states of the European Union and 13 of the group of NATO countries or NATO-equivalent countries .
These numbers have actually increased significantly in the last two years. So there is obviously a connection between our economic interest in making profit from other people's suffering and our need for security, the increasing number of refugees and the crime rate. However, the conclusion that an asylum seeker per se has more potential for crime is criminally wrong and malicious.
To the radical, this sounds like a kind of social romanticism and today many people ridicule you for making these arguments. Some also call it whataboutism and thus drift even deeper into categorical defensive positions of anachronistic chauvinism. Even our politicians have known for a long time that coexistence between societies has become more complicated and complex, especially in the last 100 years since industrialization, and we can no longer assume that dividing the world into nation states still makes sense and is justified. Rather, cultures and religions as well as people's origins are mixing, so we have to learn that contemporary society is heterogeneous and no longer monocultural.
Remember how, in 2015, massive politics were pursued to welcome refugees to Germany. In some ways, this way of dealing with the situation was just as exaggerated as what we are currently experiencing. There is no balance between extremes in this country. Sometimes the international agreements that have been made to distribute the refugees fairly among all countries in the European Union are ignored, and sometimes the responsibility for this is shifted to others. This was also the case in 2016, when Turkish President Erdogan was paid billions to hold back refugees at the European external border.
Perhaps it is also the insight into our own failure to deal with the developments of the times that is now leading to politics creating pressure to make the population believe that there is an ultimate solution to all of our problems it means closing the borders and isolating yourself. And that is deceptive. Because as long as the aforementioned distributive injustice exists, as long as we continue to benefit from the fact that we make money from crises, people will also try to come to us and achieve the same standard for a life in peace, freedom and prosperity. This cannot be denied to anyone. And there's nothing immoral about it either. Our actions and thoughts are immoral if we believe that the world works according to our rules. Because that hasn't been the case for a long time.
Many countries in the so-called Third World are now highly developed and are on the way to overtaking us economically. In Europe we still think that we are the crown of creation and have the arrogance to judge others. We haven't had the reins in our hands for a long time. Europe is highly dependent on the US and East Asian markets. As an industrial and export nation, Germany needs trade with foreign countries as well as exchange with other cultures. Immigration is not a threat to our society or our economy, but is still vital. Uncontrolled mass immigration is a distortion of reality and limiting the benefits of immigration to its usefulness is nothing more than hidden colonialism.
Our competitiveness depends on our openness to change. Immigration is an important factor here. We are currently experiencing a shortage of skilled workers like never before. After the Corona years, many things have changed. People have left their original careers and are now working in completely different areas to earn more. This means that in the catering industry, for example, there is a lack of service staff and staff everywhere. If our government managed to create a more positive awareness of immigration among the population, then many people would realize that immigration always represents a great opportunity. To get people into work, to maintain social structures, to create understanding through exchange and not through isolation and, above all, dialogue and not to stir up fear.
But as long as we cling to the ways of thinking and methods of the past and use xenophobia and xenophobia as a means to conceal our own inadequacy in dealing with the changes of the modern world and blame those who cannot help it, we will remain at the mercy of the consequences of our narrow-mindedness and have to live with the fact that the reaction to a changing world does not work according to arbitrary conditions, but must always only be an appropriate and fair response to the circumstances.
03/22/24
©Serdar Somuncu
Current program "Soul Heil" can now be downloaded in the shop
*Serdar Somuncu is an actor and director
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