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German Parties Wake up to Migrant Votes SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 INTERNATIONAL German parties wake up to migrant votes Parties scrambling to reach growing migrants BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel once alienated many immi- grants by declaring “multiculturalism has failed,” but as elections near her conservatives and other parties are scrambling to reach the growing migrant vote. The question, say ana- lysts and immigrants, is whether the nearly 10 percent of voters with for- eign roots will buy the message or ISOLA DEL GIGLIO: A file photo shows workers of the US salvage company Titan and smell a rat, mindful of having long Italian firm Micoperi removing the swimming pool slide from the Costa Concordia being treated as a problem, not an upper deck near the harbor of Giglio Porto. — AFP opportunity, for Germany. Merkel, who faces elections on September 22, met with an awkward The Globe-trotting South moment in a recent TV town hall- style meeting, when an ethnic African behind Italy salvage Chinese German confronted her with the comment she made three years ROME: After rescuing a burning ship from factors about the ship. We’ve made a lot of ago. “Until your speech, I felt like a pirate-infested waters off Yemen and a sink- assumptions,” he admits. German,” architecture professor ing oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, South Sloane has warned that the hull is slowly Wilfried Wang told Merkel. “Since African salvage master Nick Sloane faces his compressing in on itself and that now is the then I feel like a Chinese with a biggest test off an idyllic Mediterranean last chance to lift the Costa Concordia before European passport issued in Berlin.” island. The 52-year-old says the attempt to it collapses too much. “You can’t afford to Merkel assured Wang she had raise the Costa Concordia cruise ship from its wait. Time is your worst enemy,” he says, meant no offence, explaining that watery grave, due to begin tomorrow, is his warning about the large swells expected “everyone with different cultural “most challenging” yet in a career that has once winds known as the sirocco hit the BERLIN: Three veiled women walk along a street in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg - Neukoelln. It is a roots can contribute to our culture, conundrum for second-generation Turks in Germany that the SPD and the Greens have promised to resolve taken him to six continents and two war- island in autumn. Sloane, who had initially but we have to live under the same zones. The Zambia-born Sloane was flown to hoped to right the ship in time to float it in by allowing dual nationality, a concept Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposes. It’s an issue laws and speak the same language.” close to the hearts of many in Kreuzberg. — AFP the Italian island of Giglio last year from New time for US Independence Day on July 4 She stressed that multilingual citi- Zealand, where he was working on a spill with a big fireworks display, said he had a zens were well-positioned for the is a conundrum for second-genera- grant origin, while the ethnic exclude him from the party, to send from the MV Rena oil tanker, for the biggest celebratory cigar at the ready. globalised economy. If the chancel- tion Turks in Germany that the SPD German population is ageing and a clear signal.” Kosemen said that ever salvage operation of a passenger ship. “I’m going to stand on deck and smoke lor’s message is inclusion, it has not and the Greens have promised to shrinking. “Demographic change “now the SPD and CDU are changing He has led an international operation with this as she’s finally towed away,” he said dur- yet reached Abdullah, a maths stu- resolve by allowing dual nationality, and the growing number of immi- course. The SPD is having to fight for 500 salvage workers including divers, ing one recent visit, pulling the cigar out of dent from Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, a concept Merkel’s Christian grants will have an increasingly a voting group it previously consid- welders and engineers operating 24 hours a his pocket at a port-side bar. Sloane is no a centre of Germany’s three-million- Democratic Union (CDU) opposes. important role in future elections- ered safe. And the CDU has noticed day around the rusting 290-metre (951-foot) stranger to spectacular accidents at sea. He strong Turkish community. It’s an issue close to the hearts of especially in time of narrow majori- there is an emerging voter bloc it hulk, which is bigger than the Titanic. began his career in 1980 working on the “In this district, I feel like a human,” many in Kreuzberg. ties,” Kosemen said. “It’s a change must reach out to.” Wang, who asked When the lifting of the 114,500-tonne tugs of Safmarine, a South African salvage said the 23-year-old, who asked not “I’ve lived here for 41 years and I German political parties have taken Merkel the tough question on TV, ship gets under way, Sloane will be the one company. His first major job was the salvage to have his surname published. still can’t vote,” said Ihsan Aktamar, note of.” Merkel’s CDU-which wants later told AFP that to him the CDU giving the commands from a control room of the Castillo de Bellver, a burning Spanish “When I get on the train, I feel like a 49. He recounted how, when dual to modernize its image with young, message still lacked credibility, and on the shore and monitoring the unprece- tanker filled with 252,000 tons of crude foreigner.” He said in the election he citizenship was an option in the urban and female voters-has pro- that he sensed a lingering “under- dented operation through eight monitors. stranded off the coast of South Africa. He would probably settle for the oppo- 1980s, he was handed a thick wad of moted more members with foreign current of xenophobia” in its right The ruddy salvage master hit a low point last worked his way up the ranks in the industry sition Social Democratic Party (SPD) forms, asked to pay a non-refund- roots. “We will do more for integra- wing. He cited projections that year when storms hampered the operation and was promoted to the position of salvage - the traditional working-class party, able fee and quizzed on whether he tion,” Merkel pledged last month on Germany’s population, unless more and there were serious difficulties drilling master in 1991. close to the labour unions-like his knew the German national anthem. Turkish community TV. The SPD-long immigrants are welcomed, will fall into the granite seabed to install a metal He was part of a team that went in with “guest worker” father had done. “I just walked out and never went the choice of the foreigners who 10 percent by mid-century, forcing platform to hold the ship stable. the US Navy’s salvage division to repair dam- Abdullah’s fiancee Gozde Sibel, back,” he said. Today only about half fuelled Germany’s post-war ‘eco- fewer workers to shoulder a greater “There was a lot of questioning. ‘Are you aged pipelines and oil infrastructure in 24, voiced “sympathy for the Greens”, of foreign-born German residents nomic miracle’-is also the party of welfare burden. “It’s a schizophrenic sure it’s going to work?’ ‘This is crazy!’” he Afghanistan and Iraq immediately after the a left-leaning party that has the have the right to vote. former central banker Thilo Sarrazin, situation,” he said. “On the one hand remembers. Work has sped up since then US-led invasions and has worked in Russia to highest ratio of national lawmakers However, this will change as who argued immigration had failed there is the finger-wagging at immi- and Sloane has said he is confident of suc- build a giant oil pipeline for Kazakh crude. with migrant roots, about nine per- more of their children and grand- in his controversial 2010 book grants and the message ‘if you’re cess, while remaining realistic. The most seri- He has dealt with accidents that caused cent. The problem, Sibel said, is that children come of age, said Orkan “Germany Abolishes Itself”. here, you have to adhere to our laws ous risk is buckling in the hull as the luxury some of the worst oil spills in the world in she can’t vote. Under German law, Kosemen, who heads a project on “The Sarrazin affair was a major and you have to integrate yourself’. liner is dragged upright, which Sloane has recent years. In 2011, he was involved in a she had to choose at age 18 integration at the Bertelsmann blow to the SPD,” said it vice presi- “On the other hand they need immi- compared to a “banana” effect-the extent of risky operation when he helped secure the between a German and a Turkish Foundation think-tank. About a third dent Aydan Ozoguz. “Personally, I gration because, without it, the pop- which will only become clear as the opera- Brillante Virtuoso tanker, which was attacked passport, and opted for the latter. It of children under 10 are of immi- think it would have been better to ulation will fall.”—AFP tion is underway. “There’s a lot of unknown by pirates off Yemen and set on fire.— AFP Africa-born minister says ‘Italy not racist’ CALI: Italy’s first black minister ter said that acts of racism directed to change that culture.” defended her adopted homeland yes- at her and other immigrants stem Kyenge acknowledged, however, terday, insisting it is not racist even from “a lack of memory” in young that being the object of constant though she endured a series of racial- Italians, who have forgotten that threats has come at a personal cost.
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