Germans: How do you feel about foreigners living in Germany?

Question

What are your opinions of the foreigners in Germany today ? Are most Germans accepting of them? Is there much tension? Do most foreigners living in Germany work to assimilate themselves into the German culture and society or not?

Answer 1

About 15% of the population are first generation immigrants. A lot of foreingers study in the Universities (about 10%).

There is naturally some tension, when immigrants don't even try to adapt to the culture a little bit, but I have travled to a lot of other countries and have seen much higher levels of tension and racism.

Answer 2

I feel fine. I once worked for a company where we had a multinational team, and it was fantastic. Also, while I lived in Berlin for seven years, I got to know some second or third generation Turks who had assimilated themselves pretty good into German culture.

There is some tension, of course, but it's mostly exaggerated by the "yellow press", the tabloids, and some privately owned TV channels. In reality, we come along with each other. In my opinion and experience, coming along with different cultures is just a matter of education. We have a problem here with football (soccer, for the Americans) "fan" hooliganism by young Germans, and that's something that should be solved. But we were all young once, and made our mistakes.

Don't get me wrong: I think everybody travelling to a foreign country,or living there, should be willing to adapt. But there are some things where you just can't. I travelled a lot, and in the end, I'll always be German, some way or the other. You will see it, you will feel it. And I don't expect other people to give up the culture they've grown up with completely. Simply because you can't.

Answer 3

You will be accepted if you are not a turk or an arab.

Answer 4

I lived there and was totally accepted to this day.

I find them open, friendly, down to earth. Sure they may SEEM stand offish at first but do not let that fool you. That is just conservatism. They are great people mostly as we all know every one has their crazies lol.

So I would not worry to much unless you are a fundamentalist and trouble maker you will be accepted just fine, esp if you learn to speak German and use it.

Answer 5

In our street Polish, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Portugese and American people and I don't see them as foreigners but as neighbours. Most of them live here since years and they are assimilated well but they also brought a bit of their culture to Germany...Döner formerly a Turkish dish is now a favourite snack in Germany and there are many Italian, Chinese, Greek etc restaurants Germans like and we also like it to buy foreign food in Turkish or Asian convenience stores. Think that's a real enrichment for Germany. But there are still a few foreigners who refuse to assimilate and that's a bit a problem. We don't expect that they give up their identity and coltute but they should accept German laws and also learn German. There is not so much tension between Germans and foreigners but there's some tension between foreigners themselves e.g. Turkish and Kurdish or Russian and Albanian groups.