Berlin, Sept. 22 (BUS): Anna Maria Tersenia was 13 years old when she immigrated from Romania because her single working mother thought she would have a better future in Germany. Now 27, she is running for a seat in Parliament.
“It was difficult in Germany at first,” Tarsnia said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I was ambitious and realized this was an opportunity for me, so I decided to do everything I could to gain respect and inclusion.”
Tersnia, which is running for the center-left Social Democrats in Sunday’s election, is one of hundreds of candidates with immigrant backgrounds seeking a seat in the lower house of Germany’s parliament, or Bundestag, according to the Associated Press.
While the number in office still does not reflect the overall percentage of the population, the country’s growing ethnic diversity is increasingly evident in politics.
Much has changed in Germany in the past few decades. “The population has become a lot more diverse,” says Julius Lagodny, a Cornell University political scientist who has researched immigration and political representation in Germany. “Young immigrants are not only seeking political positions in almost all parties in Germany, they are also demanding them. There is a whole new sense of holding on now.”
There are about 21.3 million people with immigrant backgrounds in Germany, or about 26% of the population of 83 million.
The current parliament comprises 8.2%, or 58 of the 709 MPs, with immigrant backgrounds. Parliament in 2013-2017 had just 5.9%, or 37 out of 631 lawmakers, according to Mediendienst Integration, an organization that tracks immigrant issues in Germany.
Of the 6,227 candidates running for parliament, 537 are immigrants with immigrant backgrounds, said Julia Schulte-Klaus, a professor of political science from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich who specializes in political behavior and discrimination against minorities in Germany and Europe.
Schulte-Klaus said the proportion of Bundestag candidates with immigrant backgrounds has risen steadily since 2005.
Although the number of people elected to parliament is expected to rise again this time, it will still be less than 26% of Germany’s population with what is officially called an “immigrant background” – defined as someone born abroad or of at least one parent from He was.
In Berlin, where about 35% of the population is of foreign origin, immigrant candidates for membership of the Bundestag can be found in many parties.
Joe Chialu, 51, whose parents are from Tanzania, is vying for a seat for outgoing Christian Democrats Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Spandau district of Berlin. Hakan Demir, 31, whose grandfather emigrated from Turkey 50 years ago, is trying to become the new SPD legislator in Neukölln, one of Germany’s most diverse neighborhoods.
Outside the capital, Izci Gildar, the 35-year-old daughter of Kurdish refugees from Turkey, is involved with the Progressive Left Party in the western city of Essen.
Their motives include concern about global warming, seeking more rights for women and families, raising the minimum wage and improving the status of immigrants.
All four candidates, who are seeking a seat in Parliament for the first time, told the AP that they were sometimes subjected to discrimination and racism, especially when they were children. But they also stressed their gratitude for coming to Germany and said they valued the education they had received, which resulted in opportunities they would not otherwise have.
Shialu, the music industry director chosen by Merkel’s potential successor, Armin Laschet, as one of his advisors, is the son of two Tanzanian diplomats. He was born in Bonn and raised in boarding schools after his parents moved on to other diplomatic assignments abroad.
“Initially, my brother and I were the only two black children in a school of 1,000 students,” said Shialo. “The sentence, ‘Look, there’s a nigger,’ tells you how extraordinary we were and so were many other blacks of my age at that time in Germany.”
Trasnea, who works in Berlin’s education department and works in the city’s Koepenick-Treptow district, doesn’t forget how other high school teenagers threw stones at her and accused her of coming to Germany only for the benefit.
Gildar remembers how he told the children about her and other children that they were speaking Turkish in the schoolyard, which was not allowed. Demir is still embarrassed when he remembers lying to his classmates from academic families that his father was a chemical technician, ashamed of his real job as an unskilled worker in a chemical company.
As an adult living in the ethnically diverse district of Neukölln in Berlin, Demir sees political advantages in his background.
“People from more than 150 countries live in this area – it’s a wonderful, very diverse mix,” said Demir, who previously worked with another immigrant MP, Karamba Diaby. “Of course, when I notice that someone wants to speak Turkish, I do it and that immediately creates a kind of intimacy which is important during the election campaign. It makes people feel involved.”
Over 60 years ago, West Germany employed “guest workers” from Turkey, Italy, Greece and later Morocco to help the country advance economically. They worked in coal mines, steel production, and the automobile industry. Many who initially came as temporary workers decided to stay and bring their families, giving Berlin and other cities in western and southwestern Germany large immigrant communities.
Others followed in later decades: people from Russia or Kazakhstan could claim German ancestry; refugees from the civil war in Lebanon; Jews from the former Soviet Union. and Eastern Europeans who benefited from free movement within the European Union. Between 2005 and 2016, another wave of more than a million people arrived, fleeing the wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
About 7.4 million adult immigrants with German passports are eligible to vote on Sunday, according to 2019 figures from the Federal Statistical Office. However, many do not vote often and are therefore underrepresented in Parliament. Another 8.7 million adults permanently living in Germany cannot vote because they do not hold German citizenship.
Germany does not allow dual citizenship, except for citizens of other EU countries and Switzerland. This is a dilemma for many first-generation immigrants who are still closely related to their countries of origin and do not want to give up their old passport – either for emotional reasons or for fear of losing inheritance or property rights in the countries where they were born. .
Allowing dual citizenship is one of the issues Gildar wants to fight for, if elected.
“I can feel close to Turkey, my grandmother lives there, and I still consider Germany my home,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with dual citizenship – on the contrary.”
However, sometimes the absence of a German passport is not the only obstacle to standing for office or even voting. First generation immigrants, in particular, often focus more on politics in their former countries.
Canan Bayram, 55, is a German-Kurdish lawyer who was elected to the Bundestag in 2017 for the Green Party.
Bayram believes, however, that this will change as more immigrants run for office.
“I think it’s just another small step, and in 10 years we will not even talk about these topics which are no longer intense because now the new generation is clearly looking forward and has found the center of its life in Germany,” she said.