German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues clicking new ideas and pricking minds with regard to conflict resolution in a cross-cultural environment. Last Wednesday, she and her cabinet met at their Meseberg retreat to approve The Integration Act, which Merkel later called a “milestone” aiming to help migrants integrate with the German culture and market though the critics and human rights activists take it otherwise.
Dr Imran Sabir, a sociologist, who has spent about a decade studying in the cross-cultural environment of France, is apt to observe that the term integration has replaced the term assimilation effectively both at academic and governance levels, an argument endorsed by the name of the mentioned act.
The act basically is a loaded agenda for the migrants to bear in addition to the hate and racism bursting out from certain segments of German society, who are not ready to swallow the historical truth that Hitler is gone and gone with him is his narcissism dressed as German nationalism. Islamophobia is another evil that they face but this term begs definition as much of the most of migrants from Syria and Iraq are fleeing Islamic State (IS) militant group’s atrocities.
Other than a small number of Yazidis and Christians, a mega chunk of the refugees are Muslims under attack by fellow Muslims, whom they fear and abhor. Both the victims and the oppressors are painted with the same brush under the term of Islamophobia, which adds to the miseries of the victims. At the same time, it gives cushion to the oppressors which otherwise is supposed to be meant for the victims. These anomalies indicate towards flaws in the term Islamophobia which is built on a conception and not something more real; hence, it needs to be redefined.
German interior minister justified the act saying, “We do not want to see any parallel societies and we do not want to see any ghettos.” The migrants need to learn German language and culture in classrooms and pass Live in Germany test to be entitled to full government benefits. Now German government departments have run out of space and manpower to carry out this programme resulting into gridlock of applicants waiting for their turn to be admitted to these training centers.
At the same time, German people have not accepted it, which is manifest by the rise in support for nationalist parties like Alternative for Germany and acceptance of ultra-nationalist narrative in society. After the World War II, they had not accepted thousands of Turks who had come there as labourers to rebuilt their war-torn cities. Like Jews, the Turks were reduced to ghettoes and were subject to violence and hate crimes in many cases.
Through the act, Merkel wants to change history. But the real question is: who will educate Germans to integrate with the migrants, understand their culture and develop direct relationship. How many integration courses the migrants take doesn’t matter, since they cannot change the colour of their eyes and hair. What matters Chancellor Merkel is: how strong German society is to absorb cross-cultural and global phenomena. It always takes two to tango.