As a result, this measure was discussed throughout Germany, especially since several cities and municipalities were already planning something similar. Their attempt to defend themselves against the admission of additional refugees was one of the top political issues in 2017 at the latest.
In the nation’s TV studios, local politicians shook hands, the comment columns in the newspapers were overflowing, and – once again – the popular soul boiled over on social media. And as if that wasn’t enough, Sven Krüger (SPD), Mayor of the Saxon city of Freiberg, sent Chancellor Angela Merkel one in April 2017 invoice over 736,200 euros, which he had spent on refugees and now wanted to have settled.
It’s been two and a half years since then. The migration stop in Salzgitter has been effective since October 2017. The state of Lower Saxony had created a precedent with the approval, which has now been joined by numerous cities and municipalities throughout Germany. Freiberg is one of them. The city has stopped accepting refugees since 2018 and has this measure in June 2019 indefinitely extended.
Nevertheless, the subject of immigration is no longer a major issue in Germany – at least in the media. But it has arrived in the United States, where you can watch developments in Europe very closely and adjust your own immigration regulations accordingly. But there should also be changes in refugee policy in the country itself. In any case, the Trump administration has recognized the political potential of immigration stops – only almost nobody in Germany reports about it.
Trump has a corresponding on September 26 Signed decree, which came into force on the same day. It gives governments of states, counties and city administrations the right to independently decide on the admission of new refugees. But there is hardly a word about it in the local media, and the discussions that have flared up in numerous cities and counties in the country since September remain, oddly, unmentioned.
The topic in the US moves people no less than in Germany. It is sufficient to take a look at the discussions that took place this week in Bismarck, the capital of the state of North Dakota, which is also the administrative seat of Burleigh County.
The county commission, which decides on the issue of refugee admission, had moved the session to a school cafeteria to cope with the expected influx. But even the cafeteria was not enough to catch all of the people. Over 500 had cometo attend the decision-making process of the five-member commission or to take part in the discussion.
More than 50 spoke up with speeches. The commissioners listened, put forward arguments and counter-arguments themselves and then returned the word to the auditorium. This went on for four and a half hours.
The opponents of the immigration stop said that the refugees were needed because some businesses were already lacking workers. They also wanted people to come to Burleigh County and invest there because that way everyone would participate in the American Dream. It is also an act of charity to take in refugees.
The supporters of the refugee stop, on the other hand, said that the costs incurred are unmanageable. In addition, there are already enough people in need of help who have to be looked after and whose care is already not guaranteed.
There was applause for speakers on both sides – but only from one side of the room, because supporters and opponents had largely placed themselves separately in the cafeteria. Some on the left, others on the right – and in the middle a corridor that allowed both sides to step forward and speak their minds.
In the end, the County Commission decided with 3 to 2 votes to continue accepting refugees. 25 so far and 25 in the coming year for Burleigh County, which has a population of 80,000.
But strangely, what nobody was talking about was the history of the place where the discussion took place. The city of Bismarck, which is partly located on the former territory of the Mandan Indian tribe, was founded in 1872 by the European settlers under the name Edwinton and was renamed Bismarck just a year later. The aim was to honor the German Chancellor, but above all hoped to attract more German immigrants to the area and to attract a few wealthy “German investors” to build the railway.
But, as so often, it was not politics, but gold that drew people into the country, and after it was found in 1874, they came too. But that’s not the end of Bismark’s “German history”, because during the Second World War there was one just south of the city Internment camp, which mainly housed German emigrants and prisoners of war. And even today there are still echoes of German history everywhere, after all, over 50% of Bismarck’s residents German roots.
That would be enough material for a big report. But nobody writes them. And I don’t have the options. I crouch in my little Saxon village and I can’t get away. I have to help the little daughter prepare for the high school, feed the sheep and steal the eggs from the chickens to bring them to my grandfather, who is sitting by the window with a bottle of champagne and counts the five cars that pass by every hour. I am the furious reporter of my own little world.
Excerpts from a helpless man’s diary.
Straight to a helpless man’s diary.
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