The election for Germany (AfD) obviously defines its revisions on immigrants in its program: “AfD considers the ideology of multiculturalism as a serious risk to the social peace and non-stop lifestyles of the country as a ‘cultural entity’. “
And yet multiculturalism doesn’t appear to be a serious threat to the AfD itself: In the past few months, more and more of the far-right’s messaging has been aimed at voters from Germany’s many immigrant communities — with some success.
Born in Turkey, Ismet Var, 55, has lived in Germany since childhood, has been a German citizen since 1994 and a supporter of the Election Party for Germany (AFD) since its inception in 2013.
Var works as a force of delivery in the German capital, and its task directly affected through emerging fuel costs after the large -scale invasion of Russia of Ukraine in 2022. Now you cannot perceive why it “throws both effective “to the economy and the help of the army for Ukraine. His main concerns, he says, are that taxes are being lowered and that thin immigrants are being deported.
The latter is already happening — latest statistics show that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left government increased deportations in the last year. “Now! Now they’re deporting people!” says Var over a coffee in the international Kreuzberg district of Berlin. “But they didn’t used to.” He believes that it took the AfD’s intervention in the German political scene for the government to act.
As an Alevite, He Also Believes Thaty Germany has to tolerant of What he call saying.
Var experienced racism as a new arrival in Germany in the 1970s: he recalls a concierge in his building, telling him that he and his circle of relatives would not be there so Hitler still in power: “But that ‘Did not bother.
Anna Nguyen has also experienced a lot of racism in Germany. A girl near Kassel in 1990 to Vietnamese refugees, she is now AFD’s representative in the Hessia state parliament. But she insists, it is not the Germans who are racist towards her. Most commonly other people who believe they are Arabs.
“During Covid, there were other people with a history of immigrants, possibly Arab, who shouted ‘Corona, Corona’ after me and my Chinese friend,” he said. “It is true that on the web I am flooded with racist comments, but from the left, even if they say they are anti -racists. “
Nguyen insists that his party, meanwhile, separates from the race and does not strategically electorate as her. “It’s not about immigrants,” she says. It is the fact that all other practical people in this country need to save this green ideological madness. It is: can I a smart life? Is it safe? Do we have a safe supply of electricity? “
Immigrant history voters are a demographic truth in Germany: the official statistics of 2023 show that about 12 % of the German electorate have a non-German education: about 7. 1 million the background voted for the social democrats of the center-left (SPD) and 28 % for the Christian Definition Center (CDU) Union. But loyalties seem to have eroded.
According to the German Research and Migration Research Center (Dezim), which published an exam on the vote habit between migrants at the end of January, there is little difference between the vote habit with or without immigration experience. Let’s upload the end of the general elections in 2017, 35% of the German Turks voted for the SPD, while 0% voted for the AFD.
Jannes Jacobsen de Dezim, who co -written the next report, said AFD is more horny for other people from other origins. He also pointed out that these electorates are German citizens, and they themselves. “Therefore, it would not be a great wonder that these other people do not vote in a very alternative way for other people who have no history of immigrants,” he told DW.
In 2023, Robert Lambrou, also an AfD state parliamentarian in Hesse, founded an organization named “With Migration Background for Germany” for immigrant AfD supporters. The organization’s website says it has 137 members from over 30 countries, and that it is open to anyone “who professes their belief in German culture as the dominant culture and work for the continued existence of the nation as a cultural entity.”
“My experience of the AfD is that it makes no difference whether one is of immigrant background or not,” the 55-year-old Lambrou, whose father was Greek, told DW. “I don’t see the party as xenophobic — we want a sensible migration policy.”
But it is difficult to cope with statements such as that of AfD Bundestag member René Springer, who, after the revelations early last year in X: “We will send foreigners back to their home countries. By the million. This is a secret plan. It’s a promise. “
Lambrou agreed that some statements are not useful if they are not well grounded in facts or explicit nuances. “When we become aware of statements from party members that we don’t think are right, we consult to seek internal party dialogue,” he said.
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However, to have more and more Videos of Tiktok Pro-FD made through non-white in recent months.
Özgür Özvatan, CEO of Transformer Political Consulting, and author of an next book on the political impact of immigration history, said that the AFD has actively been the attention of the immigrants electorate for at least last year, particularly to Other people. Russian and Turkish roots, basically because those communities are more likely to have voting rights. According to the official statistics of Germany, there are more than 2. 9 million of other people of Turkish origin in Germany, of which approximately 1. 6 million have German citizenship. The post -Soviet diaspora, on the other hand, also opposes millions and includes several nationalities and ethnic equipment, adding German. They are probably also attracted to AFD’s pro-ruse position in the Ukraine War.
Özvatan argues that all this is a component of the broader strategy of the AFD to expand its voter base. “His possible electorate in the non -immigrant panorama, of course, ends,” he said. “They have a possible vote of around 20 to 25 % there.
“People who emigrated previously are not in favor of immigration,” Özvatan told DW. “They can be immigrants and occupy anti-immigrant positions. “
Nguyen insists that the immigrant electorate is not deterred through racism and contradictions “because they know who is destined through it, they are illegal immigrants, especially those who have been forced to do so since 2015. These are the criminals, and other people on immigration issues suffer just as much as they do. “
Özvatan believes that many immigrant electorates are simply unaware of racist statements, and even when they hear overt racism, they temporarily dismiss it as secondary to their main belief of the AFD: that they don’t mean them. “”It’s friendly to us,” he said, “and the AFD is looking to engender that feeling. “
Edited by Rina Goldenberg
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