German Towns Filled With Refugees Ask, ‘Who Is Integrating Whom?’

Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 15, 2017 2:11 p.m. ET | Andrea Thomas

[suthener]

SALZGITTER, Germany—Late this summer, Nadine Langer took her six-year old to her first day at school. The girl was one of two German children in her class, she said, amid 20, mostly Syrian, refugees.

“I am not against foreigners,” said Ms. Langer, 41. “But there is a point where we have to wonder who is integrating whom.”

Germany’s 2015 refugee crisis has largely disappeared from the headlines. But in this and other midsize towns, it is continuing to unfold, putting communities under stress, pressuring local coffers and feeding concerns about safety, jobs and the quality of education.

Some 140,000 asylum seekers have entered Germany so far this year—a sharp drop from the 1.2 million who arrived in the past two years. But in places such as Salzgitter there is a sense that the government, having housed and fed the newcomers, is failing in the longer-term effort to integrate them in German society

[Yaelle]

And they don’t allow homeschooling in Germany. I couldn’t imagine sending my daughter to school with only Syrian Muslims in her class. It wouldn’t be my choice for a six year old western child.

[Cecily]

“But there is a point where we have to wonder who is integrating whom.”

I don’t have to wonder. I have KNOWN for years that Germany is being invaded and its local and national culture is being changed by the invaders. You are being colonized, Germany, and they will likely outnumber you one day if you don’t put a stop to what is happening.

[Oatka]

Sounds like the Germans ought to leave Germany and become refugees if they want to save their lives.
Maybe the Poles will be nice and let them settle in Silesia and Pomerania.

And the French might offer Alsace and Lorraine.

[pepsionice]

Homeschooling is illegal for a major reason. Probably sixty-five percent of society is finished with regular schooling by what you would call the 9nd to 10th grade and doing apprentice work.

If you wanted mom and dad (maybe both finished up their regular school at the 9nd grade) being your instructors...how capable do they think they would be?

[DungeonMaster]

If you wanted mom and dad (maybe both finished up their regular school at the 9nd grade) being your instructors...how capable do they think they would be?

That's the oldest anti homeschooling excuse in the book. Parents aren't smart enough to teach their kids. Nonsense.

[pepsionice]

I’ll ask it again...do you want your parents (who may have wrapped up the bulk of regular schooling at the 9nd grade) to be your instructors?

The Germans have had this apprentice-schooling program in place for decades. Forty years ago, it would have been near 70-percent of kids who went the apprentice route. Today, it might be nearer to 60-percent.

Trying to compare the US system to the German system simply doesn’t work. On the positive side, by age 19, you’ve got awful competent and smart German kids in various skill crafts and very capable. If you measure the knowledge level....on skill-craft, they are way ahead of American kids. If you used the basic high-school knowledge....the American kids might be ahead.

[DungeonMaster]

I’ll ask it again...do you want your parents (who may have wrapped up the bulk of regular schooling at the 9nd grade) to be your instructors?

Absolutely. First I reject your claim that the parents aren't smart enough to teach their kids to a point where they can start an apprenticeship program. Second, academics is the lowest level reason that we homeschool our kids. The fact that homeschooling is always academically superior is just a nice side effect.