Feeling sad about my adopted country

[Ilovegermany]

Yet again, people run down by a car in Germany. He overtook the police car at the back of the demonstration.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cd9x22dj423t

The Germans I know are so sad about this but they are also fed up that it is people that aren’t German that are doing things. It’s like the feeling in the UK before the Brexit vote (something I couldn’t vote on when it impacted me, as I had been out of the country too long), that immigrants are making things bad in the country.
However, I think this is worse than Brexit. There is a general election here in 10 days. This is going to sway the vote so much. I’m scared that this country will vote for the AfD now. I don’t know how this will change things for me - will they change the law that I can no longer have German citizenship, which I have already applied for and am waiting for it to come through.
I cannot vote and I hear friends and acquaintances saying they are fed up with all the foreigners. I point out that I’m a foreigner too, they say I’m not, because I work and contribute to society and that I am European too and Brexit was a big mistake.

Far more likely the Germans will take action against undocumented asylum seekers and/ or a subset of them who commit criminal offences.
I am assuming you have a passport and a proven identity and maybe even comply with the laws of your chosen country? I wouldn’t worry.

I'm feeling sad too. I'm feeling sad about people who pigeonhole asylum seekers and foster xenophobia.

Well it's very sadly unsurprising really considering what keeps happening.

I find the kind of cognitive dissonance exhibited by the OP fascinating. Yes, it's fine for her to immigrate to another country, because she's middle class (and presumably white?). But people who have the temerity to move to another country to escape war and the Taliban: how very dare they?

Similar story in France. Every few months there's some horrible rape/murder that hits the headlines and it's almost always a foreign national who's already been ordered to leave France who has done it.

Is that what OP is saying?

I think the main difference between the OP and this Afghan refugee is that the OP hasn't run over innocent bystanders in her car.

At least so she claims

I mean like, the suspect who you think was "escaping war and taliban" just rammed a car into a crowd. You are not as on a high horse as you think with this post. Also quite pretentious to think only MC move countries.
Plus OP never said what you think she said.

Actually, maybe not, maybe I reacted too fast. I'm glad that you don't want the AfD to win votes, OP.

I'm just fed up of refugees and asylum seekers being collectively labelled as terrorists. Yes, people who have been through horrific trauma sometimes do horrific things. This doesn't mean it's ethically right to single out asylum seekers for blame, when the vast majority of them are good people who need help.

I certainly never said that only middle-class people move countries 🙄

You assumed she is MC in your post out of no information. What else would that be than thinking WC don't emigrate?

I don’t think that even if they changed the law it would affect the citizenship application you have already made, it would probably apply from some time in the future so I wouldn’t worry about that anyway as it nay not even happen.

I find the kind of cognitive dissonance exhibited by the OP fascinating. Yes, it's fine for her to immigrate to another country, because she's middle class (and presumably white?). But people who have the temerity to move to another country to escape war and the Taliban: how very dare they?

🤔

Actually I think I was impulsive and indeed worded that really badly. I suspect the majority of people who have the financial means to move countries are middle-class, but you're right, that isn't always the case. Apologies.

I recently had a chat with a wealthy British acquaintance whose DH lives and works in Dubai and whose mum is retired and lives in France, but she believes that 'immigrants' are ruining Britain. That's the sort of double standard that winds me up. So I was probably channelling ire at the OP when she didn't deserve it.

Yes, people who have been through horrific trauma sometimes do horrific things.

Don't make excuses for them.

What are you referring to here?

The anti-immigrant rhetoric across Europe is getting louder. Every time a crime is committed or there is a high-profile act of violence, I find myself hoping that the perpetrator will be a person born in the country in which it occurred so we don't have to listen to the venom some people out. Perverse, I know.

Our invective should be directed at governments, for their failures in not knowing who is living in their respective countries, not knowing where they are living, not being systematic in sending back to their country of origin people whose asylum applications are unsuccessful, who have committed crimes and whose work permits have expired, not cracking down on the employment of people without the right to work, and not facilitating the training of each country's nationals to reduce reliance on immigrant labour. The alarming rise of the right is a consequence of moderate governments not acting 10+ years ago when it was being forecast that mass migration was going to be one of the defining issues of the near future.

Yes because those are the stories that make headlines. White men are killing and raping women every day but it barely makes a splash.

Yes, people who have been through horrific trauma sometimes do horrific things.

And some people who have been through horrific trauma do not. And some people do horrific things who have not been through horrific trauma.

An issue I have with the left is the way sometimes it’s like nobody except straight, white middle class people are at all morally responsible for their actions. The others are just victims of their circumstances with no autonomy. It actually dehumanises the refugees you are trying to advocate for.

@Sixpence39 I think if a white German national drove a car into a crowd it would make the news

I'm pretty sure women like Philippine de Carlan aren't being abducted, raped and murdered by complete strangers every day without it making the news because those strangers are French nationals.

I don’t thinks it’s that more how dare they drive a car into a crowd?

I was referring to the pp point about raping and killing, which white men do every day. Driving a car yes, when a white man did it in London it did make the news. But nobody made generalisations.

No, not by strangers - by their husbands, dads and acquaintances.