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Germany’s Turkish voters feel neglected in election campaign
In Duisburg in the industrial Ruhr region that is home to Germany's biggest mosque, conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrat (SPD) challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier stir little interest, still less political passion.
“I haven't got a job, nor have my mates. Politicians don't care,” said İsmet Akgül, 19, standing with friends outside an amusement arcade in the Marxloh suburb where about 60 percent of the population has immigrant, in most cases Turkish, roots. “Firms see a foreign name on an application form and chuck it in the bin,” he said.
About one in five Germans has an immigrant background and the biggest single minority is Turkish. Of the roughly 2.8 million people with Turkish roots, only about 600,000 can vote, many failing to register or acquire citizenship. Only five lawmakers out of 614 in the Bundestag lower house of parliament have Turkish origins.
Some politicians argue that Turks, many with origins in the poorer, more religiously conservative areas of eastern Turkey, should make greater efforts to integrate and learn German. But the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD), representing Turkish interests in Germany, has attacked parties for putting the growing number of candidates with Turkish names low on their lists, giving them little hope of winning a seat.
The main parties in Duisburg, which is traditionally an SPD stronghold but has just re-elected its first conservative mayor, are targeting the Turkish community with special campaign events and posters and adverts in Turkish. “We neglected immigrant voters for too long. But we've woken up now and are starting to win them over,” said Thomas Mahlberg, a conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmaker from Duisburg.
In contrast to the situation in Britain or France where underlying racial tensions have occasionally exploded into violence, Germany's Muslims live peacefully alongside mainstream German society but the lack of integration is a problem.
Merkel has hosted “integration summits” to discuss issues like headscarves and Islamophobia but Germany falls down on giving equal educational opportunities to immigrant children, many of whom cannot communicate well in German, says the OECD. This could widen the unskilled labor force and put German economy at a disadvantage in future.
On the streets of Marxloh, most shops have Turkish names, and whole rows of houses are crumbling. At around 16 percent, unemployment here is nearly double the national average. Yet the suburb is hailed as a model of good integration.
A recent poll by DATA 4U showed 55.5 percent of Germans with a Turkish background would vote for the SPD, 23.3 percent for the Greens and only 10.1 percent for the conservatives. “Despite having religious, conservative views, Germans with Turkish roots reward the SPD and Greens at polls due to their integration policies,” said Joachim Schulte, head of DATA 4U. An SPD-Greens government eased German citizenship rules in 2000 and Soeren Link, who represents the SPD in the state assembly of North Rhine-Westphalia, says the SPD's focus on education and health help.
The Greens are set to profit from Cem Özdemir, the son of Turkish immigrants who last year became the first major party leader elected from an ethnic minority, the DATA 4U poll showed.
Merkel's CDU, which opposes Turkey's bid to join the European Union, has the most ground to make up -- despite her government's public push to improve integration. Not only is the “Christian” in their name a barrier for many Muslims, but Merkel also panders to her traditional voters by insisting minarets should be no higher than church steeples. Many Muslims have also been put off by conservative rhetoric, especially last year's campaign by CDU Hesse State Prime Minister Roland Koch, which focused on foreign criminals.
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