German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has spoken out in favour of further immigration to Germany and warned against a return to ethnic nationalist thinking. “We need immigration as a country, we need it if we want to function,” Steinmeier said on Tuesday in a keynote speech in Berlin. But this realisation also includes the question of “how much immigration we can manage without overwhelming everyone involved,” he said. “Immigration brings strength, and immigration also costs strength.”
“Questions surrounding immigration, migration and integration have stirred up our society, even divided it,” Steinmeier said. “And not only sometimes do I have the feeling that our country had actually come further than this.” People with a migration background had told him “that they feel under pressure, more than before, yes, that they are even afraid of whether they can continue to feel at home here,” he said.
At the same time, Steinmeier said he heard from people whose families had lived in Germany for generations “that immigration is overwhelming our society, that the feeling of being a stranger in your own country has become too great.” “This fear is, first of all, simply one thing: It is there.”
The German president strongly rejected ethnic nationalist positions according to which only people of German ancestry are truly at home in Germany. “There are simply no citizens of first or second class,” he said. “Our constitution does not define the German people as an ethnic community based on ancestry; it recognises neither a national community of people of the same blood nor citizenship privileges for the so-called ‘Bio-Germans’.”
“The German people in the sense of our constitution” also includes “Germans who have come here,” he said.
Steinmeier made his remarks during the event “At Home in Germany. How We Live Together.” It was his first speech at his new official residence in Berlin, to which he had moved because Bellevue Palace was undergoing renovations. He said he wanted to deliberately open his new official residence “with a declaration”: “Our country is now as diverse as the people who live in it. But more unites us than divides us,” Steinmeier said.
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
