ASSIMILATE TO WHAT?:

Germany's Immigrants: Integration in Theory, Alienation in Practice (Rose-Anne Clermont, 8/23/06, Der Spiegel)

"The symptoms that led to the riots in France," says Marcus Weinberg, a member of parliament with the conservative Christian Democrats and a former high school teacher in Hamburg, "are very similar to those that caused the Rütli School violence. The youth have a self consciousness of being losers, of having no perspective."

Unfortunately, statistics seem to show that they are right. Though many pupils from immigrant families do make it, there is an alarming gap between children with immigration backgrounds and those from German backgrounds. In Berlin, ethnic minority pupils are three times more likely to drop out of school than their German peers, according to a May report based on the most recent PISA study -- a study of education systems in 41 industrialized nations conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. German pupils are also much more likely to earn a diploma than their classmates with immigrant backgrounds. [...]

But while the PISA report and the Rütli school incident have placed the focus squarely on Germany's schools, there have been other recent events that have shifted attention toward the country's immigrant population as a whole. Rioting among immigrants in city suburbs across France last autumn had many in Germany wondering if the same could happen here. The cartoon riots earlier this year also had some questioning where exactly Germany's largely Turkish immigrant population stood. The foiled terror plot in Britain earlier this month -- and Germany's own recent scare -- have just been the icing on the cake of jitters.

And the uncomfortable answer to all those questions seems to be that Germany -- even if its immigrant population has not so far shown a penchant for violence -- may not be any better at integration than other European countries.

From the cake of custom to the cake of jitters without ever once stopping at the something better.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 23, 2006 8:32 AM