Recent voter surveys say between 14% and 22% of under-30s would vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the upcoming European elections. But who are these potential voters?
At an Alternative for Germany (AfD) European election campaign in Berlin, two of the far-right party’s candidates, Dr Alexander Sell and Mary Khan-Holoch, discussed national pride and how the AfD hopes to make Germans proud of being German again.
The crowd was largely made up of pensioners. However, there were also quite a few young people in the mix.
Khan-Holoch herself is 30 years old, and she did not hesitate in her answer to the question of what makes the AfD so attractive to first-time and young voters.
“Germans feel afraid of becoming strangers in their own country,” Khan-Holoch told Euronews.
Two points:
All up, presuming that you’re German, it feels like you and your culture might not know how immigration works. Which I say not just to be argumentative but because the one thing that is likely to prevent the above is an entrenched anti-immigration culture that forces the migrants to feel alienated and form more insular cultures rather than integrate with an accepting culture.
Reality is that migration seems to have worked plenty well in many other places. Europe may just be bad at this. And while there may be something to the issue of “protecting the culture” … I’m just not convinced the finer details of any culture are worth protecting at the expense of being shit to others and conservative about how things have to be.
Whilst I agree with some of your points, the notion that Europe “may be bad at migration” and being “shit” to others whilst protecting their culture comes of as uninformed at best and holier than thou preachy at worst.
No one is under the illusion that a migrant has to speak perfectly. But they should be competent enough to function in order to integrate into the society.
I have plenty of experience in my social circle where this is not the case. Those people rely on friends and family when it comes to simple tasks such as doctor appointments.
So Europeans and/or Germans can’t be bad at something?
For refugees, this seems like a hard ask.
Maybe then it’s fine? This sort of thing is perfectly common for first generation migrants. And in the age of decent AI translation, I’m really not sure stringency on this makes too much sense anymore.
Now you are just misinterpreting my points and starting to sound silly.
Refugees and migrants are two different groups. Migrants are long term residents. Refugees are not.
The fact that it is common does not mean it is a good practice.
IF there was decent AI translation, the whole issue would not be existant, would it?
I am quite happy to be able to discuss with you in a foreign language, without the help of AI. It means I am independent, which is a kind of freedom that, to me, belongs to feeling human.
Ich lebe in Amerika. Ich lerne Deutsche sprechen, aber das kostet Geld. Vielleicht wollen die Migranten Deutsche lernen, haben aber nicht das Geld dafür?
Sorry if the above is poorly worded; I’m still new to the language. My point is that there are lots of reasons that someone might not know a language well, including a lack of money, or a lack of time from needing to work full time to support one’s migrant family on a low wage.
Mexican immigrants to the US are wonderful, but their culture is very different from non-Hispanic US culture. I don’t expect them to learn English. They work like 60 hours per week to support their families. Like the person you’re replying to has said, though, their children learn English and integrate into, but also uniquely contribute to, US culture. Rather than expecting the first-generation immigrants to learn English, I’ve learned Spanish specifically to speak with them. It’s not like there are many more immigrants to Germany than there are immigrants to the US–even discounting the fact that the US has always been a country of immigrants, Hispanic and Latino/a/e Americans (the majority of which are Mexican Americans) are expected to exceed 50% of all Americans within a couple of decades. In some states, they are already the majority.
Diversity is a good thing, and we shouldn’t require immigrants to become like us culturally or linguistically before accepting them.