Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Court to 61-year old: Learn German

Wouldn't you know it? Life is going fine, and then some administrative folks get you in their sights...

An administrative law court in Southern Germany just ordered a 61-year old Turkish mother to attend a German language course.

Neither the defendant's note that she was actually illiterate, nor the fact that her kids all grew up to be fully German speaking, productive members of society, nor her age combined with her having lived in Germany for 30 years, could sway the court.

We have experienced German class first-hand and have seen older students struggle, so her outlook is not the best. My dear German officials, if you feel she must be "integrated" into German society, provide her with a private tutor.

Alternatively, our host country could adopt another U.S. policy: let her be.

Personally, I find the German style copied U.S. Immigration policies sub-optimal because they tend to try and implement them more thoroughly than their U.S. counterparts.
Take, for instance, the history and language requirements. My Japanese co-worker stateside became a U.S. citizen despite his English being crap after ten years in the U.S.

The Germans took the U.S. policy, and the result is: you will not get that German passport with the same level of language skills.

Heck, stateside, we even translate tons of election ballots.

Your best hope, in Germany as well as stateside, is to remain under the radar or find an official who is capable of weighing requirements against results.

The example of the Turkish woman shows one thing: even minor rules can become a lose-lose situation in a heartbeat.

Germany's image is tainted, as the existence of this blog post demonstrates.
The woman has to endure more stress. The courts and the officials waste money.








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