R. S. ALPAUTOV

Postgraduate Institute of Oriental studies RAS

One of the main worrying trends in today's Europe, which in the near future may change the face of the Old World, on the one hand, is the problem of population aging, and on the other - the immigration of non-European, mainly Muslim population.

The position of Germany, which occupies one of the leading positions in the political and economic life of the European Union, may be significantly adjusted in the coming decades if the dynamics of the decline in the working-age population remains at the same level.

The low birth rate in Germany and the growing life expectancy affect the age structure of the population. The proportion of people over the age of 60 is expected to grow from 23% today to about 30% in 2030.1. The ratio between those who are actively involved in working life and those who are retired is shifting towards the latter.

Currently, about 7.3 million people live in Germany. immigrants, their share among the population is 8.9%2. In the early 1960s, many foreign migrant workers arrived in Germany. The economy required additional labor. First the Italians arrived in Germany, then the Yugoslavs, Spaniards and Turks. Many of them are still here. In recent years, there has been a large influx of people from Asia and Africa, and most of them are still Turks.3
MUSLIMS IN GERMANY. from where?

Since World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has experienced three major waves of immigration:

- In 1955-1973, 4 million workers arrived in West Germany (the core of immigrants were first Italians, and since 1963-Turks) .4
- 1973-1985 are the most interesting from the point of view of the Islamic factor in Germany: the overwhelming majority of immigrants came from Turkey. Relatives of those who came to Germany in the first period also immigrated to the country. By 1985, the number of foreigners living in the country had reached 4.4 million.5
- In 1989-1993, after the unification of Germany, immigrants from the post - Soviet space joined the immigrants-representatives of Muslim ethnic groups.

There are several categories of immigrants currently living in Germany.

The first and largest group is the so-called economic immigrants, that is, those who came to the country in search of a more decent life. Most of them are Muslims: Turks, Kurds, Moroccans, Algerians, Bosnians, Albanians.

The second group includes repatriates, or ethnic Germans: Germany pursued a purposeful policy of returning Germans who found themselves outside of Germany to their historical homeland.

The third group includes those who immigrated to Germany in accordance with Article 16 of the Constitution on granting political asylum. The fourth group includes the so-called Jewish immigration.

In 1960, foreigners represented only 1.3% of the total German labor force; by 1973, this figure had risen to 11.9% 6. From 1961 to 1970, the percentage of Germans in the working population fell from 47.6% to 43.7% 7. In 1968, Turks accounted for 10.7% of all foreigners in the country, and the number of Foreigners in the working population fell to natives of Yugoslavia - 8.8%8. By 1973, Turks were already 23% of all foreigners in the country, and natives of Yugoslavia-17.7%9.

Until 1973, the first place in terms of the number of immigrants was occupied by Italians. This year was a turning point in the history of post-war immigration to Germany. First, for the first time, ethnic Turks made up the majority of foreign workers (605 thousand), leaving behind Italians, and secondly, due to the oil crisis, which negatively affected the country's economy, the federal government decides to stop recruiting foreign labor.

By this time, the number of guest workers in the country was 2.6 million (according to other sources, about 4 million) .10
In the mid-1970s, the government introduced new rights and obligations for foreign workers in the country: now only those who had lived in the country for at least 5 years could obtain a residence permit, and a foreigner could apply for citizenship only after 8 years of residence in the country.

Initially, the Federal Republic of Germany did not need a comprehensive integration policy, since the so-called "rotation principle" was supposed to apply in the recruitment process, that is, the workers who arrived after a while had to leave the country, and others took their places.

However, in practice, many foreign workers not only did not leave the country, but even began to bring their families to Germany. Moreover, since the 1960s.

page 38
The number of foreign workers who remained in the country on a permanent basis began to increase. This served the interests, first of all, of employers who wanted to keep those workers who, having already worked for them for a long time, had gained experience, and under the "rotation principle", new arrivals would have to be re-trained in everything. Of course, this coincided with the interests of the workers themselves.

Although the measures taken by the authorities helped to reduce the rate of immigration to the country, nevertheless, the number of foreigners, although slowly, grew. In 1989, this figure reached 4.9 million 11, while the total population of the Federal Republic of Germany before the unification of Germany was 63.6 million 12.

NOT UNIFORMITY, BUT DIVERSITY

Quite often, the immigrant Muslim community in Germany, as in all of Western Europe, is perceived as a homogeneous group.

But this common stereotype is not confirmed in practice. Lale Akgun, a member of the German Bundestag, also thinks so:"...One of the most common misconceptions about Muslims in Europe is that Muslims are a homogeneous group that seeks to overthrow Europe's democratic regimes. It is easy to guess that I do not agree with this opinion... " 13.

In Germany, the Turks alone have several organizations.

Main ethnic groups of immigrants living in Germany(%)

Total German population

Approx. 82 million people.

The Turks

3,2%

The Serbs

0,6%

The Italians

0,6%

The Poles

0,5%

Greeks

0,35%

Croats

0,27%

Bosniaks

0,2%

Calculated from: Islam and Identity in Germany, Europe Report No. 181, 14 March 2007 - www.crisis-group.org; Germans and Foreigners with an Immigrant Background by Federal Ministry of the Interior (www.en.bmi.bund.de).

This fact shows, first of all, that Muslims in Germany do not present a united front, as they are too divided and pursue different goals. Each Muslim movement has its own specifics, moreover, in the same religious movement, when it is professed by different ethnic groups, great transformations occur. So, different organizations represent Arab and Turkish Sunnis.

Another important factor that indicates the disunity of Muslims in Germany is the generational conflict. It is no coincidence that youth organizations insist on their independence from other associations. By emphasizing self-reliance, they distance themselves from organizations founded by their parents. The name of the association itself may contain the word Islam (for example, Milli Goryush Islamic Community), but a detailed study of its structure and features reveals that the ethnic factor still outweighs the religious one. An example of such an organization is Diyanet, the largest Muslim (actually Turkish) association in terms of the number of supporters.

According to Professor Ursula Spuhler-Stegemann, the country has about 3 million inhabitants. Muslims are mostly Turks, both with and without citizenship, but only 10 to 15% of them are members of various official Islamic organizations. In particular, these associations do not include from 400 thousand to 600 thousand Turkish Alawites, and 60 thousand Pakistani representatives of the Ahmadiyya sect, who consider themselves" the best Muslims", are also excluded from"official Islam"14.

According to some sources, up to 1 million Europeans have converted to Islam in recent decades: in Germany, 170 thousand Germans 15.

Muslim federations have been established in many federal states on the basis of the Central Council of Muslims of Germany16 and Milli Goryush, one of the largest associations of Turkish immigrants not only in Germany, but throughout Europe, positioning itself as a general Muslim organization.

PHILIA OR PHOBIA?

Having such a large number of immigrants, and not just them-

page 39
people of a different culture and customs cannot but influence the mood in German society, in particular, in relation to Turkey's accession to the European Union.

The spread of negative views about Islam, as well as events in the Middle East, greatly affect the public opinion of ordinary Germans. According to a 2006 survey, about 58% of Germans expect conflict with the Muslim population in the future (this figure has doubled since 2004), 46% are afraid of imminent terrorist attacks, and 42% believe that terrorists are hiding among the Muslims of Germany. While more than two-thirds of Muslims say they generally view Christians positively, only one-third of Germans view Islam positively.17
Chairman of the Islamic Council Ali Kyzylkaya notes with regret that "great distrust of Islam" is growing in German society due to the fear of terrorism. As a result, Muslims are often "unfairly placed under suspicion."

It was largely thanks to promises to tighten the country's immigration laws that German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to power in 2005, as many in Germany see immigrants as a threat to the economic well-being of Germans themselves. In connection with the global financial and economic crisis, such sentiments have increased. In addition, Germany has not yet recovered from the economic consequences of the unification of the two Germanies, and the standard of living in the new lands remains lower than in the western parts of the country.

Under the slogan of the need to integrate immigrants into German society, a number of media outlets present Muslims as enemies of the constitution and democratic values, and argue that Muslim values are incompatible with the values of Western society. There are concerns about the disappearance of the German ethnic group in the future. At the same time, the example of the Neukeln district of Berlin is often cited, where German speech is not heard at all, and people behave in accordance with norms that are unusual for the German mentality. The growth of the Islamic factor in the world is also extremely negative.

This creates negative stereotypes and the resulting rejection of Muslims, which in turn encourages the emergence of a parallel society that unites exclusively Muslims.

As a result, German society is not afraid of immigration as such, but rather extremely wary of the immigration of Muslims, who in Germany are almost always associated with ethnic Turks.

1 Tatsachen uber Deutschland. Auswartiges Amt - www.tatsachen-uber-deutschland.de

2 Ibidem.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Federal Statistical Office of Germany - www.zuwanderung.de

6 Bundesamt fur Migration und Fluchtlinge; The German Contribution to the Pilot Research Study "The Impact of Immigration on Germany's Society" within the Framework of the European Migration Network. Publisher: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 90343 Nurnberg. October 2005 - www.bamf.de

7 Ibidem.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 http//deutschwelt.narod.ru/land/deut-schland/devolk.html

Lale Akguen. 13 Immigration, Integration and Identity: Managing Diverse Societies in Europe and the USA. 15.05.2006, Washington - www.germany.info; www.laleakguen.de/article/52.immigration_integration_and_identity.html

14 Der Burger im Staat, N 4, 2001 - www.buergerimstaat.de/4_01/muslimelorga3.htm

15 Changes in the religious affiliation of the world's population over 100 years. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 23.01.2003 - www.ng.ru/ideas/2001 - 01 - 23/8_religiya.html

16 The Central Council of Muslims of Germany was established in 1994 as the main competitor of Diyanet, claiming to represent all Muslims living in Germany. The council is accused of having financial ties to the Saudi Muslim World League and developing ideological ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. The charges were based on circumstantial evidence, including the role of the former chairman of Elias as a spokesman for an association affiliated with the Brotherhood in southern Germany, and past institutional ties to the King Fahd Academy in Bonn, a Saudi-funded school for the children of diplomats. The Council, headed by a German convert to Islam, Ayub Axel Koehler, has 18 regional branches. In an effort to gain the recognition of the authorities, the Council developed and published a Charter that defines, in particular, the relations of Islam with the state, and includes such points as unconditional recognition of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany and refusal to fight for state Islam.

17 Europe's Muslim more Moderate. Thirteen-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey, 22 June 2006 - www.pewglobal.org

Permanent link to this publication: