2024-09-29 01:33:56
“Unpleasantly stared at or sexualized”
Because of migration: Özdemir is worried about his daughter
Updated on September 28, 2024 – 09:59 amReading time: 2 min.
The Greens should now implement necessary changes to asylum and migration practices, demands Cem Özdemir. He justifies this with his responsibility as a father.
Cem Özdemir spoke out in favor of a stricter asylum and migration policy in a guest article in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Only in this way could the democratic forces regain the trust of the majority of the population. He justifies this with his personal concern as a caring father.
The 58-year-old Minister for Food and Agriculture writes that his daughter, who is graduating from high school next year, has had bad experiences: “When she is out and about in the city, it is more common for men with a migrant background to stare at her or her friends in an unpleasant way or be sexualized.”
She doesn’t like to talk about it “because she doesn’t want right-wing radicals to capitalize on it,” Özdemir continued. “But I feel how it bothers her,” he writes. “And how disappointed she is that what lies behind it is not addressed more aggressively: the patriarchal structures and the role of women in many Islamic countries.”
However, she has also experienced racist hostility and therefore recently had to cancel a vacation on the Baltic Sea.
The denied immigration country
It is necessary to openly address the problems with migration, writes Özdemir. “I am convinced that the AfD will benefit most if we don’t even discuss real problems out of fear and false consideration.” The liberal-progressive camp is now called upon to change asylum and migration practices, “precisely because they can do so credibly without the appearance of false motives.”
At the same time, he also emphasizes that the majority of migrants in Germany work hard and strive to become part of society.
In his contribution, Özdemir also recalls his own migration story and the difficulties that he and his family experienced as immigrants. In the past, migrants in Germany were largely left to their own devices. “The Federal Republic has long been an immigration country, but one that did not want to admit it,” writes the minister.
For years, the conservative camp has been content to complain about the problems with migration instead of defining the framework conditions of a modern immigration society. Immigration is important for the future of Germany given the shortage of skilled workers and the decline in the birth rate. “Our country is dependent on immigration,” says Özdemir.
He therefore advocates making a clear distinction between asylum policy and labor migration. This is often mixed up in the current debate. The minister calls for a return to clear regulations that separate the right to asylum and the need for skilled immigration.
Özdemir is specifically in favor of restructuring the welfare state: “Less transfer payments and more targeted performance incentives and strong public institutions,” said the minister. In addition, the state should no longer be allowed to deport people who have jobs and are contributing, while “obvious problem cases” could outsmart the authorities for years.
“I see this as my duty as a representative and minister of this country and as a father who wants the best future for his children,” Özdemir writes in conclusion.