Originally Posted by
keldsyke
Well, I can tell you regarding Frankfurt / Essen / Bavaria, one of the Platforms at Frankfurt train station was turned into a refugee reception centre for when refugees arrived, they were then shipped to at least one ex US army base in Hanau that was in mothballs and was re opened to house the ' refugees '. Interestingly Hanau already has a large Turkish population. (At Hanau train station there's a board with photos and stories of how the Jews were shipped from there to concentration camps, really sobering when you're standing there and knowing what went off where you were standing) The Germans I know in some way feel the same way some of us do here, that we are losing our identity and the values / traditions that we and they have grown up with. Intergration is difficult for both sides and surprisingly it seemed more for some reason for the Turks there.
I go to the US a fair bit with work and for all their faults there's one thing I really like, and that's they have pride in their country and who they are, US flags in people's gardens, businesses etc, NASCAR races the national anthem plays and everyone stops hand on hearts while it plays. Airport boarding, serviceman and veterans first etc, for all their faults they know who they are and what they are, their past and values and that's I think the problem is in europe. I think people think their identities are being diluted and voting AfD etc is their way of trying to protect those values.
Personally, after working and living in europe and being an 'Auslander' I can see both sides. Security, identity and immigration are big issues on the continent, the EU situation could be eased if physical borders were re-introduced to ease people's fears.
Not a lot as been said about the Italians but the ones I know are even more pissed off than the Germans, they have no work, the country is a gateway for immigrants (in their eyes)
Interesting times for the future in europe.
PS As for Sid's thing with the Poles, again working with Germans, Czechs etc as a rule of thumb the further east you go the worse the racism / intolerance is. From what I've seen we are very tolerant as a nationality. People use the N word as a matter of course over there, I've been genuinely shocked to how racism is so open and accepted over to the east.