Seite - 223 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Round Table Discussion | Worst Case and Best Practice 223 Rainer Geißler I have another approach to your question: I tried to compare the countries presented here. The criteria of comparison are your criteria: How do migrants feel? Do they feel at home in these countries? And a second criterion: How many and intensive ethnic conflicts are in these countries? These two criteria are combined by another. And if I say it very briefly – worst case and best practice – I think, best practice is Canada, worst case is France. I don’t dare to evaluate the USA. Perhaps the Central European countries: there’s not much difference between them, a similar situation in Switzerland and in Austria and in the Netherlands. Perhaps in the Netherlands it has been a little bit more complicated for the last two or three years than in other countries. In this ranking, the media play only a very limited role. I think, they reflect the situation in the country. In Canada, we have a traditional multiculturalism, which is, in my opinion, the best practice to manage this diversity. Once I’ve heard a slogan which is typical of Canada. They say to migrants: “You’re welcome to join us.” In Germany, they don’t say that. They say: “You’re welcome to work here. If we don’t need you, please go home.” That’s the guest-worker-ideology. And I think this guest- worker-ideology is dominant in Germany, and perhaps also in Switzerland and in Austria. Within this ideology the migrants don’t feel at home. And this situation is reflected in the media. I think, in the Canadian media migrants are well-represented and ethnic media are no problem. In our countries they are more misrepresented and ethnic media perhaps are problems. From the audience What do the French say in your opinion? What do the French say to the immigrants? The Canadians say “You’re welcome”. Rainer Geißler I think a big mistake was made in France when the Arab migrants came in the 1950’s and 60’s. They were concentrated in certain areas with socio-economic disadvantages. It’s a socio-ecomomic problem they had, which now provokes these conflicts; conflicts we don’t have in Germany. This concentration policy created ethnic ghettos, Arab ghettos or black ghettos. And if they are concentrated in these ghettos and not included in society, one day they will explode. They exploded two years ago.