Daily Times

On June 23 this year, the German Parliament (Bundestag) passed a new law, which modified the Skilled Immigration Act of 2020. The new law aims at attracting immigrant workers to Germany from outside the European Union. This was how the gamut of immigration reached from Pakistan to Nigeria. The new law, meant to modernize German immigration laws, would be fully effective on March 1, 2024.

Currently, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), in coalition with the Green Party and Free Democratic Party, has been ruling over Germany since December 8, 2021. The coalition made easing immigration rules one of its flagship policies. The situation is a throwback to 1998 when, led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the SDP-Green coalition held the reins of Germany and eased immigration rules. The coalition won the next elections of 2002 with a narrow margin but then fell prey to Angela Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner, Christian Social Union (CSU), in 2005, without completing the four-year tenure.

Chancellor Schröder’s immigration initiative proved the undoing of the SDP-Green rule. However, under Chancellor Merkel, the centre-right CDU-CSU coalition reigned over Germany from 2005 to 2021 (sixteen years). Merkel’s four terms indicated the strength of her position: Germany is not a land of immigration (Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland). Her presence at the helm of affairs also permitted the rise of far-right ultranationalist political parties such as the Alternative for Germany and the National Democratic Party. The point is simple: Right-wingers ruled over Germany for four consecutive terms of Chancellor Merkel. It is not possible that they vanish from the political sight to make all is well in Germany.

How to lure the skilled and educated workforce of developing countries is one thing and how to offer immigrant workers an equitable working and living environment in Germany is altogether a different proposition.

Currently, Chancellor Scholz has poured old wine into a new bottle: modernizing immigration laws. Either Chancellor Scholz refuses to learn from Germany’s history or he assumes that the world is incompetent to fathom his gimmicks. The ancillary tragedy is that nationals of developing countries are sitting ducks vulnerable to exploitation overseas. Use them and discard them is the motto, as depicted in the decoy called German immigration laws. No developing country holds Germany accountable for exploiting its nationals, as happened during the tenure of Chancellor Schröder. His was a crime against the nationals of developing countries, as he discounted the ground reality of German society’s predisposition and launched the immigration policy, which not only cost him his government but also spoiled the time and career of immigrant workers.

Time’s cycle has taken Germany back to 1998. Like Chancellor Schröder, Chancellor Scholz is disregarding the immanent social bent of the Germans who hate foreigners considering them criminals: Foreigners are criminals (Ausländer sind verbrecher). The Germans openly say that foreigners pollute our living space (Ausländer verschmutzen unseren Lebensraum), and hence foreigners are not welcome in Germany (Ausländer sind nicht willkommen in Deutschland). The question is simple: Has the German Parliament condemned the German thinking about foreigners (Ausländer) before passing any such immigration law? Similarly, has the new immigration law offered protection to immigrant workers against German highhandedness? The answers are in negative. As the past serves the present, inviting immigrant workers to Germany is tantamount to committing a heinous act that is bound to consume the time and career of the workers.

How to lure the skilled and educated workforce of developing countries is one thing and how to offer immigrant workers an equitable working and living environment in Germany is altogether a different proposition. Those who had been to Germany during Chancellor Schröder’s tenure (from 1998 to 2005) still recall the horrible days spent in Germany especially after 2002, when the German right-wing was rearing its head. Prospective Chancellor Merkel’s supporters forgot that immigrant workers had been invited to work and live in Germany, as is happening now. Even Chancellor Schröder fled the scene and stopped responding to distress calls of immigrant workers, who got marooned in Germany.

The situation was so grave that, even before 2005, the whole German system turned against immigrant workers considering them the sin of Chancellor Schröder. They were thrown out of workplaces illegally. Some resorted to courts but to no avail. The German system grew so fierce that almost all of them left Germany. The question is this: Has the German Parliament made an appraisal what was the fate of the previous immigration policy and what happened to the then immigrant workers? The answers are in negative.

Presently, Chancellor Scholz is driven by the fallacy that Germany could be Canada. This is not the case. Canada has an established track record of human rights, civil liberties, democracy and equality. Canada thrives on diversity – racial, ethnic, religious, and colour – which is still a stigma in Germany. A relevant question is this: Has the German Parliament tendered an apology to the victims of the previous immigration policy formulated by the SPD-Green coalition led by Chancellor Schröder? Apparently, the German Parliament is part of the problem. It knows that foreign professionals and skilled workers are condemned publicly as bread snatchers (Ausländer sind Brotschnäpper). Instead of passing a law to ameliorate German society, it has passed a law to expose immigrant workers to German malice.

Around 2003, Chancellor Schröder abandoned his immigration policy and left immigrant workers at the mercy of right-wing German hounds. Back in Pakistan, German Ambassador Christoph Brümmer sprang into action to pacify the victims by writing: “As far as I understand, your experiences with Germany and the Germans were not of the best of all natures – to put it mildly, and I do feel sorry for that”. In other countries as well, German Ambassadors considered that “sorry” was enough to serve the purpose of tapering off the issue, even though the fundamental problem with the German society – non-acceptance of immigrant workers – was refractory. Has the German Parliament passed a law that immigrant workers would be respected in society and would not be shunned without due legal process? The answers are in negative.

The broader question is this: what is the guarantee that Chancellor Scholz’s government would complete its term and that the opposition (led by the CDU-CSU coalition) would not dismiss the immigration law on coming to power? No guarantee. It means that the past will soon repeat itself.

The writer can be reached at qaisarrashid @yahoo.com.