The Plight Of Kosovar Muslims In Germany (1999)

Muslim No-Man's Land (1999): We uncover Germany's Muslim underclass, in a town which is 80% immigrants. Many foreigners to Europe encounter social friction and economic hardship. At a time when Chancellor Merkel's immigration policies continue to be challenged, and with Europe still facing an enormous refugee crisis, this film is incredibly relevant.

For similar stories, see:
The Night That Changed Germany's Attitude To Refugees (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm5SYxRXHsI
Germany Fears Rise Of Far-Right Over Refugee Crisis (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQrGAOylHr0
EU Immigration's Shocking New Trend (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcrV4e6cT0

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Europe will house tens of 1,000s of Kosovar Muslims. What kind of life awaits them if they stay?

Most Germans have abandoned the depressed town of Bruckhausen in Germany’s industrial heartland, because of choking pollution. Overshadowed by the hulking chimneys of Europe's biggest steelworks, this is Germany's most polluted town. Breathing the air here is like smoking 10 cigarettes a day. Doctors report a catalogue of health woes: colds, skin diseases, allergies, eye infections, cancers... People are seriously ill. Those who can afford to have left. Just a few native Germans remain, living uncomfortably alongside an underclass of Turkish immigrants. Marginalised from German society, the Turks are turning back to Islam and transforming Bruckhausen into an Islamic enclave.

The statistics contradict Chancellor Kohl's repeated assertions over the years that Germany is not an immigration nation. Only 20% of the people in Bruckhausen are native Germans. The Muslims here are 'gastarbeiter' or 'guest workers' drafted here to reconstruct post-war Germany. They were expected to leave when their labours were done, but they didn't. The German minority are resentful of their Muslim neighbours, and more refugees will surely only make the problem worse. ‘First of all the Turks came, then the Germans moved out, the flats were empty, no more Germans came to fill them. Then they put the social services cases in them, and even more Germans moved out. It's a Turkish area. It's Turkhausen’.

The huge influx of other races is constantly blamed for the town's social ills including poverty, crime and racial violence. In one of the few bars where Germans still go, resentment is running high. ‘Once we had a nice German market, but none of our folk can go shopping here, you can only buy from foreigners. You can see that there are problems’. Germany is one of the few countries where citizenship laws are based on the idea of blood rather than birthplace. Today even Turks whose parents were both born in Germany are still classed as foreigners. Reportedly over half of Germans still support the notion that “Germany should be for the Germans”. Such attitudes are all the more prevalent in Bruckhausen.

Bruckhausen’'s Turkish families are struggling to find an identity. Young Turks are often restricted to the worst jobs through racism and bureaucracy, frustrations which lead to more muggings, rape and graffiti. 'Turkish traditions and family traditions are different from German culture and traditions. The child can't decide what's right. They can't identify with their own culture or with German culture. They’re rootless'. To counteract this problem Turkey is funding mosques and Muslim groups here, but this only increases the town's social instability. A Turkish party dominates the political and cultural life of the city. The party is linked to the Refah Party, now banned in Turkey, and is fundamentalist and extreme. It wants Bruckhausen to become the first Islamic fundamentalist city in Western Europe.

Germany has pledged to take 40,000 refugees from Kosovo, with Britain, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Portugal and others committing to thousands more. Many will face racism and resentment. With so many question marks over the future of the Kosovar refugees, this documentary explores an issue which resonates throughout Europe.

Journeyman Pictures – Ref. 504

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