Many people will not forget the opposition they met with, and not just in villages and small towns – even though they had borne the greatest of hardships, although they spoke the same language, although they belonged to the same culture, and even the same denomination as their new neighbors.
Integration requires great patience. It needs acceptance on the part of the local population. But even more – and this is especially true today – it needs the willingness and work of the new arrivals – the willingness not just to be there, but the wish to belong.
IV.
Encounters with the unfamiliar, with people and things that are unknown to us, are full of tension. Such encounters arouse mixed emotions: of curiosity and repulsion, welcome and reserve, a lack of understanding and gradual familiarization.
Immigration always has two sides: it is a burden and an enrichment. One cannot talk about one without seeing and naming the other.
There are many advantages that immigration and contact with other cultures have brought which we no longer notice because we now take them for granted.
Without the guest workers as they were then called, the Federal Republic of Germany would not have experienced the economic boom that it did. We sent out a call for the workers we so urgently required, and they came. They made a significant contribution to the productivity of the German economy. And by transferring money to their families back home they also did much to boost the economy of their countries of origin.
We have been enriched culturally: Music from other countries has opened new worlds to many of us. Today we enjoy listening to many types of music that was still foreign to us two or three decades ago. The exhibition "Heimat Kunst" in this building, and the related projects, demonstrate how encounters between different cultures inspire musicians, singers, painters and writers to new forms of artistic expression.
A little aside – we even eat differently now. The immigrants brought their recipes with them, their specialities, their spices and their drinks. Who can imagine our streets now without pizza and doner kebabs? Olive oil and Turkish bread are now consumed daily by many of us.
Germany is now one of the most colorful and open countries in the world. We have become more relaxed, richer in experience and more tolerant.
It is however also true that there are some people who do not see, or who cannot see, these benefits. They tend to experience more directly the problems associated with having such a large number of immigrants.
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