Re: Euro-Immigrants was: Anti-Americanism

> That would mean "There seem to be a lot of Turks and Kurds in Germany,
> why is that?"  I'd wondered that too--not so much "why does Germany
> have a lot of immigrants" but more "why does it appear that so many
> are Turkish" when they might just as well be from a mix of countries.
> On reflection, though, I'd think most of the Arabs would go to
> England, France or Italy (depending on their country of origin), most
> of the Balkan/Slavic people probably couldn't emigrate during the cold
> war, so the most convenient source of labor nearby would be Turkiye.

Some observations about my 6 years in Germany:

When in the office, I said "Ich bin Gastarbeiter" at least
half-serously,
the more staid people contradicted me: "Gasterbeiter" = "Guest Worker"
has the same connotations as, say Mexicanos working in the US. And
I mean Mexicanos as opposed to Latinos. What I was trying to express
to them was that there is no difference from a white, Australian
Engineer
who knew at least as much as they did, and a semi-literate Turk or Khurd
who cleaned out the room. We were both non-Germans living in a foreign
land,
Guests if you will, there to earn a living and send it home, and
expected
to behave in a civilised manner and obey the local laws.
Apart from a very small loony rightist fringe - who gather a lot of
publicity
for a very few very terrible acts like firebombing migrant hostels -
there's
not a lot of racism in Germany now. There's more Loony Green/leftists
who
are
so PC (Politically Correct) that they'd allow anyone non-German to get
away
with murder simply because any sanction would be "racist".
OTOH there's more low-level racism both in Australia and Germany than
I'd
like.

Over 50% of the blacks that I met in Germany where a) Nigerian and b)
Drug
Dealers. They made it really hard for the rest of the Black population,
who
seemed to be "just folks", like any cultural splinter group you'd find
in
Australia. Then again, maybe it was because I had to travel by tram
(strassenbahn,
streetcar in USAian) to get to work, and it passed through the drug
quarter.
And because they spoke mainly English, I could understand what they
said.
Unlike my impression of US and Australian drug dealers, they weren't the
violent type. So much so that I gave one kid, a teenager who was just
learning
the ropes, a good dressing-down after some plainclothes cops had just
left
after
searching him. Something along the lines of "I could have been a Narc
who
understands English, and you could now be facing 10 years in a German
Jail.
You're being STUPID if you continue with this racket. The guy next to
you is
exploiting you. You WILL be caught. Aren't you ashamed of the reputation
you're
giving all Blacks here in Germany? I bet many of the other passengers
understood
what you were saying."
Doubt that it did any good. And I'm not stupid enough to try the same
thing
in LA,
or Cabramatta for that - er- matter.
Nigerians were given a really, really hard time by Customs (Zoll) in
Germany.
It was assumed that they were carrying drugs. All too often, the Customs
agents
found something. But all too often, innocent travellers got the 3rd
degree.
Africans from other nations were treated quite differently. Maybe this
was
just
that particular time and place, maybe things have changed since then.
But I
calls
em how I sees em.