The German Review is funded entirely by its brilliant paying members. If you would like to support this project’s future - and receive an additional newsletter every week - sign up by clicking/tapping the button below! Dear Reader, A friend of mine works as a primary school teacher in the Berlin district of Neukölln, an area synonymous countrywide with failed integration policies.
I was one of five children with a European background in a Vancouver school and yes, we were vastly outperformed by the children of (more recent) immigrants. We were pushed to excel. I have a lot of fond memories of that time and of the cultural exchange with my friend's families.
I've not seen the detailed PISA figures but I've read that in the UK the kids of immigrants broadly perform as well and sometimes better than the kids of white native Brits. The differences are mainly geographic and a function of socio-economics rather than ethnic origin. The UK started taking large numbers of immigrants after WW2 and this influx continued until the Commonwealth Immigration Act of the 1960s, but this did not totally stem the flow of immigrants. And of course after the accession of the former Communist states of Eastern Europe the UK immediately accepted freedom of movement well before another large EU countries. Obviously in recent years some of the EU immigrants have had university degrees but these are a small minority. Immigration clearly had an impact on the Brexit vote, but I think that was merely the outward expression of a despair for the way the fabric of the country, both socially and physically, had declined since the GFC of 2007/08 and the years of austerity since 2010. The fact that English is now the lingua franca is therefore much more important than selective immigration policies which favour those with university degrees. Young people want to learn English because it allows them to access the world in a way that no other European language does.
There already is a network of German schools across the globe, Deutsche Auslandsschulen, and there is the group TU9, 9 Technical universities in Germany, which makes big efforts to get them to study in Germany. And DAAD offers scholarships to the best applicants. But for children to study at the schools in the first place, families must have the income to pay the fees, just as for other internationals schools. The money from the Fedral government for these schools has been reduced over the years, and with current budget constraints l doubt that more will be made available.
Another thing is that one quarter of the population of Germany has a "migrant background", simply meaning that someone has at least one parent born without German citizenship. Some of them will be native speakers of German (and quite possibly bi- or multilingual). It isn't just recent arrivals from "third world countries", although that is the way the media presents it. That Spanish family you mentioned is among them, as are my son, daughter-in-law and her whole family, and their daughter.
You didn't mention Spain when comparing PISA results but there also the results are poor, and the high number of immigrant children in schools is given as one reason for the poor performance.
Dec 13, 2023·edited Dec 13, 2023Liked by Jörg Luyken
A friend of mine teaches in Gesundbrunnen, a neighbourhood similar to Neukölln, I think, in its demographic and socioeconomic profile. He tells a similar story and has no children who are German native speakers in his primary school class.
Well noted, the children from foreign countries are not responsible for the problems from their countries of origin, mostly the older young people and many parents who have already been socialized in their countries of origin have an aggressive attitude towards German culture. It is a flood that can no longer be controlled.
I was one of five children with a European background in a Vancouver school and yes, we were vastly outperformed by the children of (more recent) immigrants. We were pushed to excel. I have a lot of fond memories of that time and of the cultural exchange with my friend's families.
But the problems actually start much earlier. Studies suggest that 16% of children entering the first grade in Germany can’t speak the language yet.
Problem starts even earlier than that. Starts with the parents being analphabetic or simply refusing to learn the language. Speak from experience
I've not seen the detailed PISA figures but I've read that in the UK the kids of immigrants broadly perform as well and sometimes better than the kids of white native Brits. The differences are mainly geographic and a function of socio-economics rather than ethnic origin. The UK started taking large numbers of immigrants after WW2 and this influx continued until the Commonwealth Immigration Act of the 1960s, but this did not totally stem the flow of immigrants. And of course after the accession of the former Communist states of Eastern Europe the UK immediately accepted freedom of movement well before another large EU countries. Obviously in recent years some of the EU immigrants have had university degrees but these are a small minority. Immigration clearly had an impact on the Brexit vote, but I think that was merely the outward expression of a despair for the way the fabric of the country, both socially and physically, had declined since the GFC of 2007/08 and the years of austerity since 2010. The fact that English is now the lingua franca is therefore much more important than selective immigration policies which favour those with university degrees. Young people want to learn English because it allows them to access the world in a way that no other European language does.
There already is a network of German schools across the globe, Deutsche Auslandsschulen, and there is the group TU9, 9 Technical universities in Germany, which makes big efforts to get them to study in Germany. And DAAD offers scholarships to the best applicants. But for children to study at the schools in the first place, families must have the income to pay the fees, just as for other internationals schools. The money from the Fedral government for these schools has been reduced over the years, and with current budget constraints l doubt that more will be made available.
Another thing is that one quarter of the population of Germany has a "migrant background", simply meaning that someone has at least one parent born without German citizenship. Some of them will be native speakers of German (and quite possibly bi- or multilingual). It isn't just recent arrivals from "third world countries", although that is the way the media presents it. That Spanish family you mentioned is among them, as are my son, daughter-in-law and her whole family, and their daughter.
You didn't mention Spain when comparing PISA results but there also the results are poor, and the high number of immigrant children in schools is given as one reason for the poor performance.
A friend of mine teaches in Gesundbrunnen, a neighbourhood similar to Neukölln, I think, in its demographic and socioeconomic profile. He tells a similar story and has no children who are German native speakers in his primary school class.
Well noted, the children from foreign countries are not responsible for the problems from their countries of origin, mostly the older young people and many parents who have already been socialized in their countries of origin have an aggressive attitude towards German culture. It is a flood that can no longer be controlled.