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Where's the Welcome Mat?

Turks Feel Unwanted in Germany

A new poll finds that the majority of people of Turkish descent living in the country feel unwelcomed by Germans. A full 78 percent say that Angela Merkel is not their chancellor.

DDP

A woman wearing a headscarf walks past grafitti in the German city of Ludwigshafen that reads: "Dirty Turks."

Over half of the Turks living in Germany feel unwelcome in their adopted country, a survey has found. An even larger majority believes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), does not represent them.

According to the survey, conducted by pollster Emnid for the respected weekly newspaper Die Zeit, 58 percent of German-Turks questioned did not feel welcome -- amongst women that feeling was even more pronounced: 68 percent. And over two-thirds, 78 percent, did not believe Merkel's promise that she was also their chancellor. The vast majority of people questioned, nine in 10, called on German society to be more accommodating of the customs of Turkish immigrants.

Although they feel Germans have done little by way of rolling the red carpet out for them, two-thirds of Turks surveyed said they felt they had made the right choice by moving to Germany.

The federal government's commissioner for integration, Maria Böhmer, also of the CDU, said on Wednesday that the survey showed that more needed to be done to integrate immigrants. "The collective opinion shown in the poll shows that we need to do a lot more to strengthen the feeling of belonging of migrants to Germany of Turkish origin," she said. "The 2.7 million people living in Germany from Turkish families are a part of us and an important part of our society. With their diverse culture, their geniality and their zest for life, they enrich all of our lives."

In light of the poll's findings, Kenan Kolat, chairman of the group Turkish Community in Germany, urged Merkel to act on the results, saying it was urgent the government undertake "trustbuilding measures." He called on Merkel to hold a major event similar to the one recently held by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Cologne in February, saying it would send a "good signal."

Merkel had originally planned to attend the event, but then distanced herself from it. At the time, relations between Turkey and German were tense after initial suspicions of arson in a deadly fire in an apartment building in the western German city of Ludwigshafen inhabited by Turkish immigrants. The fire, it turned out, was an accident, but it still created political tensions between Turkey and Germany after Turkish newspapers immediately pegged it as a racist incident and Ankara demanded that Turkey be able to send investigators to the scene of the fire.

In an interview with the center right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published Thursday, Erdogan said: "If we had stood her together on stage, It would have sent a message to German society and it would provided inspiration for Turks living in Germany. But we can do this again, whenever Merkel is ready."

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