Having made fun of the German guardians of the language choice of GroKo as word of the year, we can now report that their other choice of the "bad", "evil", or "disparaging" word of the year has been announced. In German, the meta term is "Unwort", "un-word", "non-word", or "word non grata".
Sozialtourismus (Benefits Tourism) is their choice.
A nice choice it is, Yoda says.
Not long ago, the fear of being swamped by hordes of foreigners used to be accompanied by "they are coming for our women", or something similar, just look it up on Google.
"They are coming for our jobs" turned out bunk, we cannot holler "they are coming for the jobs we don't want to do", right?
These days, stranger danger manifests itself in apoplectic shrill cries of "they are coming for our benefits".
However, because this phrase is a bit too obviously dumb, the term benefits tourism was born, a Frankenword par excellence, conjuring up tanned, well fed foreigners standing in line for government checks in all of the richer countries of Europe while the natives suffer, abandoned by their own governments.
The rallying cry of politicians we politely call "conservatives" has taken a toll on public discourse and on the views of the people in some EU countries. Preservatives would be so much better. While the debate rages in the media with all the intensity and the trappings of a cock fight, the citizenry has not completely given in to the demagogues.
We won't venture any guess as to the future, but the German people (unlike prominent politicians) are still holding the line with a vast majority accepting that immigrants are not only needed in Germany but should be welcome.
What made us a little sad is not the very simple fact that food fights and exclusion exist.
What saddened us is that, at least as far as we can tell, the German media has failed until recently to provide hard numbers and only now prints hard data on what EU migrants are entitled to as they move across the EU.
The myth of the wildly generous benefits is a myth.
The EU itself, the boogie man of nationalists, has codified the right of member states to send citizens of other EU states home after six months if they misbehave too much.
[Update 10/21/2-16] Fixed missing "to".
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