Germany: Blurred identities

Germany: Blurred identities

He has been living for six years in Berlin, and is married to a German woman, yet Rabee [who gave only one name] has no German friends.


In politically correct parlance this could be headlined: 'New German marries old German, does not befriend older Germans'.

Via Jordan Times:

The 22-year-old Muslim Lebanese, who emigrated to Germany illegally in search of better work opportunities, is part of an about 120,000-strong Arab community whose members reside in Berlin but have limited interaction with Germans and other Europeans.

Many of them fear integration in German society would mean they would have to abandon their identity, including cultural and religious practices. Some say the German society has failed to accommodate them even after tens of years of living in the country, while others blame the emigrants themselves for not taking enough steps to become part of the society.

“I do not have German friends because they drink a lot and behave inappropriately,” Rabee told The Jordan Times at Um Khalthum café in Neukölln, an area with large immigrant communities, mainly Arabs and Turks.

He gave as examples public drinking and kissing, practices that are considered inappropriate by many Arabs and Muslims.

Rabee, married to a Muslim German of Croatian origin who “only became a practising Muslim” after they got married, arrived in Berlin six years ago, passing through Turkey and France, after paying 8,000 euros to a Lebanese mediator. Since he did not finish high school, opportunities in his hometown, in the south of Lebanon, were limited.

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