The Bavarian city of Munich is experiencing another record weekend of refugee arrivals, with around 13 000 by midnight on Saturday, Sep 12, and a busy Sunday ahead.
Officials have taken to social media and asked for donation of blankets and mats, and preparation of shelter space in the Olympic stadium of Munich is under way.
Government fatigue?
The German federal government has acted surprisingly fast, allocating billions of additional funds for the states, preparing changes to the asylum laws, and even raising the question of mandating that landlords rent empty buildings to house refugees. Talks about a European wide distribution quota made the rounds, more efficient processing was debated, too. Someone apparently asked officials to do a brainstorming session, at least that's the only conceivable explanation for floated simplifications to the German building code. There is a joke at the K-Landnews that Germans will put a man on the moon before they simplify their building code - and this is only a mild exaggeration.
Serious criticism erupted early in the week within the Siamese twins party of Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU). Note: Ms. Merkel's CDU is active in all states except Bavaria, while the CSU is active only in Bavaria, and both have been joined at the hip at the federal level since after World War II. With the CSU typically more brazenly populist, at time looking like a Tea Party in government, fissures were to be expected.
In fact, we were somewhat surprised that a whole week of refugee arrivals went by without the Bavarian CSU reps bitching about the end of Germany as we know it.
They made up for the temporary onset of rationality and sanity, though.
Even the bellweather tabloid BILD, recently converted to using the #refugeeswelcome hashtag ad nauseam after decades of rambling anti-migrant pieces has taken to criticizing Ms. Merkel in person for letting refugees stranded in Hungary into the country. Those blaming the current welcome for "attracting" more people are becoming a lot more vocal again.
And, of course, there are the paranoid "security experts" harping about potential Islamist sleepers.
At the same time, the governments of the other states began to slow down the intake of refuges from Bavaria, with the Social Democrat - Greens coalition in neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg the first to announce a stop in new intakes.
The issue we at the K-Landnews are vexed about is the bottleneck at the intersection of intake shelters and accommodation "in the communities".
Government and the large charities handling refugee intake and distribution simply do not have a low overhead process for getting people out of shelters and into homes.
The barriers to renting out a house or just a room or two are substantial, and it is left to recent initiatives like this one, dedicated to getting people out of shelters, to try and relieve the bottleneck.
In our hills, there is not a single small town without one or more empty residential houses or empty farms - after all, lots of young Germans move to cities, and the rural population is on the decline.
Why is it next to impossible for the authorities to let people out of shelters quickly? In theory, once the intake process is finished, there shouldn't be any reason to make them hang around mass shelters, shouldn't there?
It seems to be a combination of administrative inertia and the traditional need to control the whereabouts of "the Other".
If you think we are making too much out of the argument "traditional need to control the Other", there is something you should know about the treatment of Germans by Germans.
Jobless Germans who receive benefits under the means tested Hartz IV regime are subject to restriction of their freedom of movement within their own country.
Here's how it works. As a recipient of Hartz IV benefits, you must be available for placement by the jobcenter and are therefore allowed to be away from your residence for a maximum of 21 days a year - after prior approval of an application for "leave". Not filing an application or leaving for more than three weeks ends entitlement to benefits.
Regarding life of refugees in the community, we can expect all of the usual everyday native-on-native conflicts to be cast as "problems with refugees", and despite some optimism, there will be nasty headlines.
Just yesterday, we heard a story of conflict cast in this manner. In a small nearby town, a house has been rented out to refugees. Some 11 young men in their twenties moved in. A week or two later, the town held one of the typical small town fests, and the refugees attended, as you'd expect.
As the evening progressed, we were told that the youngsters began to show interest in the local young women and tensions flared up. We have no report of violence, but the tone of the story was: see, that's what happens.
But that's the same as native on native!
Really?
Yes, if some strangers from out of town show up at a bar in Smalltown USA, they are generally treated okay until they cast an eye on the women. Some locals, even though they may not be involved with the ladies at all, will become slightly hostile.
We'll soon find out if the Munich Oktoberfest will be marred by similar scenes. As of this post, the countdown on this website reports just over 6 days until the start of the "World's Booze Bonanza".
[Updated 10/27/2015] We have some real life examples of building code requirements in Germany, thanks to Der Spiegel.
If water or electricity service is disconnected for just a day, landlords may have to remodel to the latest water/electricity codes - remember, this is Germany, so no "yes, we grandfather this in" sor so.
Another landlord's house was declared unfit because the two story building had a wooden staircase.
A container village in Cologne had to be postponed because of nearby nesting birds - any birds, it's Germany!
No comments:
Post a Comment