We know a married couple who came to Germany from what was the Soviet Union as it was breaking up. They were Russians of German ancestry living in Kazakhstan. They came to Germany hoping for "the good life." They worked hard, saved some money, and promptly lost most of it to a phony house builder (a German), who took just about all of their savings, and declared bankruptcy to avoid paying any of it back. Still, they started again, hoping to some day have their own house. They came here not to game the system, but because life in Kazakhstan was no longer tolerable for them. They were not Muslim and spoke no Kazakh. That was OK as long as the political masters were sent from Moscow. When the Soviet Union broke up, the nameless Russians pulling the strings went home, and the Kazakh leaders took over for real.
Now in Germany, with German passports, they vote AfD, the neo-Nazi party, because they are against "immigrants." They don't want Germany to let in people who are dark-skinned and speak German with foreign accents. They are dark(er) skinned, and speak with foreign accents. "Oh, we don't mean people like us. We mean people like them." They mean Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia, Gypsies from Eastern Europe, Africans from the sub-Saharan countries, Southeast Asians (Vietnamese, etc.). In other words, they think people like themselves are OK because they are "European" and "Christian," although Russian Orthodox is no more native to Germany than Hinduism. Their culture is different, no question about that. But German law forbids a man from beating his wife or daughter half to death whether it's because he was drunk or because he thought he thought she was going out in public improperly dressed. The one is NOT more "acceptable" than the other.
This "right" immigrants vs. "wrong" immigrants stance is small-minded and a disgrace. Hell, for that matter, I am an immigrant. I wasn't born here. I am not a product of German culture, and some people can still detect an accent when I speak German. I DO take it as my duty and obligation to blend in the the extent I can. I speak the language, do not try to impose my culture on theirs, and respect those aspects of life here that I can comfortably conform with. I still refuse to drink beer, as I can't stand the taste of it, and I will not eat those fat-filled sausages, because I have heart disease, and they are not good for me. But so far, I have not been asked to leave because of it. Local friends include many people born elsewhere--Austrians, Koreans, Turks, Kurds, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, lots of etc.
So far, the anti-immigrant AfD, though gaining in the polls, has not been able to gain anything like enough national support to be a serious contender to take over the federal government. I usually use a simple litmus test on "immigrant haters." I ask: "And where were YOUR ancestors living 200 years ago?" European-Americans often, if not usually, have to say somewhere other than North America. Germans, even if they say, "right here!" can't say "Germany," because before 1871, there was no such country.
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