Integration: The socio-romantic cloak must not hide the facts

Maybe you should start with the Bambule after the semi-finals of the Moroccan national team during the World Cup in Qatar in early December 2022. The large Moroccan community celebrated the surprising success of their team in French suburbs of the big metropolises, in problem districts in Brussels and Dutch cities.

But the mood soon changed. Firecrackers flew, a whipped-up crowd rioted through the streets and attacked the police force with pyrotechnics and stones. In Rotterdam, the mayor issued an emergency order to get the situation under control.

Scenes that are strikingly reminiscent of the New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin, in the Ruhr area, in Bonn or in other federal states. Videos from the night of the turn of the year together with investigations by the police point to two findings: on the one hand, young men let their hatred of the uniformed state power and rescue workers of the fire brigade run free. And secondly: The proportion of chaotic people with a migration background is similar to that of the violent excesses in our neighboring countries. The symptoms are the same.

“Marocaine Islands” in the Netherlands: “They carry out a contract killing for three to five thousand euros”

Anyone driving through the “Marocaine Islands” in the suburbs of Utrecht, Rotterdam or Amsterdam will experience a fatal development. Some of the efforts made by the 400,000 Moroccan immigrants to integrate have failed miserably. Some parts manage to come to terms with their new home. However, there are also those groups that have drifted into religious-militant circles. A small part of the second and third generation chose a criminal career. First bank machine demolition, then the rise to drug dealer in the so-called “Mocromafia”.

Experts like the criminologist Robin Hoffman from the University of Maastricht describe the causes in clear terms: For a long time, the Netherlands made the rise of drug syndicates possible with a liberal drug policy. “These people feel left behind. They carry out a contract killing for three to five thousand euros.” The higher the success rate, the faster the killers climb up the gang hierarchy.

The government in The Hague is now trying to counteract this. For the criminologist Hoffmann, however, the mistakes are in the past: “People looked the other way for too long, that’s very clear.”

In Essen, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, Hagen and Bonn, entire districts have long been in danger of tipping over

If you look at the Ruhr area or the Rhine, you will see similar trends: In Essen, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, Hagen or Bonn, entire districts have long been in danger of tipping over. Marxloh, Hochfeld, Hochheide, Bruckhausen, Bergmannsfeld, Altenessen, Altendorf, Tannenbusch, Medinghoven, Altenhagen – the cities are divided into solvent quarters and in dependent quarters with a high migration and unemployment rate. This is where the young men grow up, who also caused riots on New Year’s Eve, this is where the precariat lives. Violence against police and firefighters also escalated in these neighborhoods on New Year’s Eve. An accident? Not at all.

Crime is rampant here, for example through south-eastern European family syndicates or Kurdish-Lebanese clans. 40 percent of the clan members have a German passport. The majority of the gang that lured the police into a trap in Bonn at the turn of the year in order to cover them with pyrotechnics and stones was born here, but has Arabic-North African roots. No one would suspect these young men discussing climate change or the ins and outs of capitalism. These guys were driven by only one thing: hatred of state power.

It looks similarly explosive in Cologne. Most stabbings are registered by the police in districts such as Kalk, Mülheim or in Chorweiler. Neighborhoods that have a high migration rate. But when the Cologne police chief publicly denounces the increasing crime rate caused by foreign groups from Algeria or south-eastern Europe entering via the Balkan route, the refugee lobby groups immediately step into action. The word stigmatization then circles like a club of racism over the police.

It is easier to delight your own green clientele with new cycle paths than to pursue an efficient integration policy

The clubs don’t come up with facts, only with attitude. It’s just not allowed to be something that doesn’t suit your taste. The Cologne city leaders then usually wrap themselves in silence. After all, it is easier to delight one’s own green clientele in well-off neighborhoods with new cycle paths than to pursue an efficient but costly integration policy.

After the massive sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve 2015/16 in Cologne by a large number of Arab young men, a lively discussion began about the consequences for the stream of refugees and their integration into local society. Apart from full-bodied statements by politicians, little has happened.

In the meantime, the immigration rates of Syrians, Afghans and people from North Africa are increasing again. The additional exodus from Ukraine is driving most municipalities into financial collapse. According to the Federal Labor Office, two-thirds of Syrian migrants live wholly or partly on Hartz IV, followed by working-age Somalis with a good 37 percent. Among Afghans, the proportion was 43.7 percent. The low employment figures are therefore due to the low level of education of this clientele.

But two-thirds of those arrested in Berlin are Germans? Why that says little

The most recent studies on the level of knowledge in elementary schools also revealed an alarming result: every fifth child between the ages of three and six can hardly speak German because the families do not speak the language. A factor that leads to social marginalization early on. But if you grow up as a young man in this milieu with little chance of advancement, an archaic macho demeanor from home and a degrading image of women, you often tend to be big on the outside and vent your frustration with the state authorities. A causality that unfortunately finds little attention in view of the hardened ideological fronts.

Politicians reacted with astonishment when, in the summer of 2020, a male mob ganged up in Stuttgart and Frankfurt/Main to make a real fuss in the city centers and shower the hated police with firecrackers and stones. Again nothing happened.

In Berlin, a parallel society has long since formed in large problem areas such as Neukölln. Here it rattled particularly violently on New Year’s Eve. In the meantime, the “Tagesspiegel” reported that two-thirds of the chaotic people arrested directly because of gun attacks on the police and fire brigade were Germans, although the migration background remains unclear here as well.

In addition, it is not clear why arson, serious breaches of the peace and violations of the explosives law should have nothing to do with the New Year’s Eve riots. The fact remains that there were 145 arrests, including only 45 Germans.

We must not cover up the obvious integration problem with the socio-romantic cloak

In Cologne, too, conditions are not as they should be: Anyone who walks across Neumarkt or Ebertplatz in the evening is afraid of encountering dealers from the Arab or sub-African regions. In the Rhine metropolis, too, it is only a matter of time before the anger of young migrants who have been left behind erupts openly again.

So you shouldn’t cover up the obvious integration problem with the socio-romantic cloak, but tackle it instead. Otherwise, the big cities in this country will experience outbreaks of violence comparable to those in Paris, Lyon, Marseille or Belgium, warns the political scientist Hans Vorländer.

There are difficulties above all with young men and in a certain environment, since “where there are problems with accommodation, where the level of education is low” and a “widespread street culture of showing oneself, where the desire for recognition also through acts of violence prevails”, explained the member of the Advisory Council for Integration and Migration.

In order to counteract this, no special projects are needed, but the “strengthening of the control systems school, work, housing” as well as criminal prosecution and the judiciary. There is nothing more to add.