V.
Living in a multicultural society is indeed difficult and hard work. Anyone who denies or does not wish to admit it has no credibility when they preach greater tolerance, amity and receptiveness.
It does not help to turn a blind eye to the problems or to label those who merely talk about them xenophobes.
It is not difficult to act in a xenophile manner in well-off areas. It is harder in places which are being changed more and more, where a "local" can no longer read the shops signs, where families from all over the world live together in the same building, where the odors of various cuisines mingle in the corridors, where foreign music is played loud, where we encounter totally different styles of living and religious customs.
Life together becomes difficult when old-established Germans no longer feel at home, when they feel like foreigners in their own country.
It is one thing to enjoy multicultural radio programs in air-conditioned cars. It is another to sit on the underground or the bus and be surrounded by people whose language one cannot understand.
I can understand parents who are concerned about the educational future of their children in schools with a high percentage of foreign pupils. I have come across it myself.
I can also understand that people are worried by the above-average crime rates among young foreigners and ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Europe.
I can understand how girls and young women are not the only ones afraid of being harrassed or intimidated by gangs of young foreigners.
Anyone who does not take such fears and concerns seriously is talking past their audience, making them ask "what do they know".
Where fears and concerns are justified, an attempt must be made to find a remedy. We must explain and be able to explain why there is no alternative, at least no better one.
Where fears and concerns are not justified, we must inform and enlighten.
Life is like school – unfortunately one tends to remember best the things where one got the wrong end of the stick. Mistakes are the hardest to dislodge.
In order to prevent prejudices taking root and spreading, they must be contradicted time and again.
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