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Title: The relationship between human rights and Muslim immigration in
Germany
Author: Stella
(Ai Zhong)
Abstract
In 2016, during the 11th year of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, Germany has ushered
a series of changes in migration policy, affecting the daily lives of Muslim immigrants living in the
country. This paper focuses on how these changes in the migration policy, which had the intention to
prevent terrorist threats, provoked a large effect in the protection of human rights from Muslim
immigrants; hence, “butterfly effect”
1
. These policies are widely recognized as a huge benefit and
openness to Muslim immigrants, but this paper will demonstrate that, in practice, there were positive
and negative changes in human rights protection especially for these immigrants. This paper compares
the current policy with the previous one, and challenges the common understanding on these new
policies reveling difficulties such as the integration of cultural identity, diminishing time for the
resident permit and the opposition of the political parties. At last, the paper also shows the trend of
right-wing political parties in Germany, unfolding what the public opinion and other studies debate on
the matter. Led by prominent international relations scholars, it concludes that the new immigration
policy adopted by Merkel's government hinders the integration of Muslim immigrants into local
society. Although the paper does not analyze date on the threat of terrorist incidents, there results of this
new policy for the protection of the human rights of Muslim immigrants will be major and the real
impact of these policies are still to be foreseeing in the years to come.
Introduction
Since 9.11, countries all over the world have paid more attention to prevention terrorism
through the implementation of new policies and the human rights of Muslim immigrants are affected
by these policies. In Germany, since the outbreak of the European refugee crisis in 2015, a wave of
anti-terrorism launched and a series of policies that were carried out to deal with the global terrorism
crisis. International scholars have made a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Germany's anti-
terrorism policy, its influence and reasons. At the same time, the research on the connection between
anti-terrorism policy and human rights and immigration policy is relatively scarce. This article will
argue how Chancellor Merkel's policies and the introduction of new immigration laws affect the
Germany's progress in the fight against terrorism through the individual´s perspective. The current
research paper highlights some of the root causes of terrorism in Germany, which may be related to the
change in migration policies. This paper will explore how there has been a butterfly effect is, that it,
while changes in policy are not so major, these changes produce effects for the Muslim migrants
2
in
1
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/butterfly-effect
2 This paper uses migrants rather than refugees, because it includes a bigger population of foreign individuals. According to
scholars (Mushaben 2017, 529), “ ‘refugees’ consist of groups granted collective protection in the event of violent conflict,
natural disasters or other humanitarian crises certified by the United Nations or falling under the 1951 Geneva Convention”.
1
Germany, which results in the intensification of social contradictions.
Currently, the federal government of Germany deals with terrorism by modifying legislation
and designing a preventive strategy based on dialogue rather than confrontation, which strengthens
international anti-terrorism links and cooperation. At the same time, the introduction of the new
immigration law and Merkel's relevant policies for refugees are affecting Germany's progress in the
fight against terrorism. In the 21st century, the issue of human rights through the individual lenses is
still understudied in the field of international relations. For example, there is still a lack of discussion
on the impact of German anti-terrorism policy on human rights.
This paper argues that the new
immigration policies – especially the 2016 policy - affected Muslim immigrants and refugees because
these policies provided harder conditions for the immigrants to integrate in the German society.
This paper focuses on the research and analysis of Germany's reflection on Muslim human
rights under the influence of anti-terrorism policy. It will refer to relevant policies and data provided by
the European Union official, “National security strategy” demonstrated in the white paper of the
German federal government. This paper aims to study the human rights of the Muslim
immigrants/refugees in Germany. It combines the practical results of the policy with the issue of
Muslim human rights innovatively, and its analysis will interpret the German federal government's anti-
terrorism policy, and conduct in-depth discussion on this issue. Through the analysis and in-depth
exploration of this paper, it will provide a clear and comprehensive understanding and reference for
Germany's anti-terrorism and even Europe's anti-terrorism.
The first part of the paper introduce the context of antiterrorism in Germany and how this
affected new immigration policies. The second part analysis previous scholars´ studies on cultural
integration and Huntington´s theory, linking together their ideas to the argument stated in this paper.
Part III provides an analysis of the policy offering three perspectives, which affect the individual
human rights of Muslim immigrants. It concludes that the integration of Muslim groups to German
society and the reconciliation of this integration with the new policies are still insufficient.
Part I Context on antiterrorism in Germany
Since 2015, Europe has become a country with a huge influx of Muslim migration and this has
had much impact on how this country deals with both migration policies and anti-terrorism policies.
Through the number and distribution of terrorism cases in recent years, it can be concluded that the
threat of terrorism in Britain ranks first, followed by France, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.
Although it seems that Germany is not the only country facing this problem (
Haubrich
2003
, 20), its
international status and role after World War II determine its particularity. The traditional pacifism
advocated by Germany and its role as a "middle" faction led to no active action against the Islamic
state. Obviously, the old capitalist countries such as Britain, France and even Denmark are more active
On the definition of migrants, “the UN Migration Agency (IOM) defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has
moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of (1) the
person’s legal status; (2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; (3) what the causes for the movement are; or
(4) what the length of the stay is.”
2
in cooperating with the United States in combating the Islamic Resurgences (Huntington 1997, 109).
However, after 2015, a series of terrorist events forced Germany to pay more attention to the
issue of anti-terrorism. The main reason is the governance dilemma of Muslim immigrants. As one of
the countries concerned with the immigration problem, Germany has been looking for a reasonable
way to solve it. Throughout the European continent, German Chancellor Angela Merkel implemented
the most open policy on immigration in 2016, and Germany is still one of the most welcome European
countries for refugees (Mushaben 2017),
which also means that Germany faces great challenges.
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees Migration and Integration Research
Department (Federal Office for Migration 2016) the surge in refugee capacity and crime rates is also
showing signs of a change in public sentiment. This can be compared with Britain, France and
Denmark´s policies while these countries are generally tightening their immigration policies. Britain
emphasizes multiculturalism, while France tends to assimilate.
Scholars (David Perl 2009; Anouar Boukhars 2009; Peter J Katzenstein 2002) have said that the
terrorist threat in Germany comes from Islamic radicals, who are regarded as the country's main
national security issue. What can be affirmed is that Germany has taken more effective anti-terrorism
measures. Germany has taken meticulous measures to prevent radicalism and extremism by setting up a
variety of institutions to coordinate and help activists or their families to seek advice, and paying
attention to the prevention and tracking measures for radicals. At the same time, the country actively
participated in the anti-terrorism alliance and the post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan after 9/11. The
main objective of Germany's anti-terrorism policy is mainly to solve problems in a peaceful and
civilized way. Building a set of comprehensive crisis prevention and handling mechanisms will be the
main goal of Germany in the future.
For a long time, the unequal treatment of Muslim groups in the country is the root cause of the
harm to the self-esteem of Muslim groups. Germany's anti-terrorism strategy embodies a
comprehensive governance scheme. For example, the cooperation between social institutions and the
government mentioned above lies in the process of de radicalization, that is, transforming the identity
of terrorists or potential terrorists into a group identity transformation. The purpose of this anti-
terrorism policy is not only limited to the elimination of specific terrorist events, but also to eliminate
the social roots of terrorism. At present, it is impossible to accurately judge whether it has a definite
radical effect on suppressing riots and promoting Muslim integration into society, but based on the data
report, it has not played a positive role, so this is the relevant issues that this paper needs to discourse
and study.
Part II Cultural integration and Huntington´s theory
Europe has received large numbers of labor immigrants, asylum immigrants and family
immigrants (family reunification with immigrants, or new family formation) before 2016. In fact, when
we go back to the history of Germany before 2016 and its attitude towards refugees - after the Second
World War, the United States launched the "European recovery plan" for Western Europe, and the
Federal Republic of Germany (hereinafter referred to as Germany) However, due to the casualties of
young people during the war and the decline of birth rate before and after the war, the German
3
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domestic labor force could not meet the needs of economic development. Therefore, from the
beginning of the first World War to the Second World War, the number of millions of immigrants in
Germany has been expanding, until Germany was unified in the 1990s, the German government
introduced the national policy of labor recruitment from the international market
(
Nordbruch 2013).
In this context, from the perspective of Muslim immigrants, they came to Germany to become
workers mainly because of the pressure of domestic employment and the desire for better job
opportunities. However, due to their low education level and language knowledge, the lack of
communication and other reasons, the foreign Muslim workers can only work at the lower income jobs
and live in the poor areas, which makes their contact with the mainstream society of Germany very
limited. This indicates that the early Muslim workers did not realize the real social integration in
Germany, but worked and lived in Germany as a "guest" (Tize 2020), not as a citizen of German of
society but rather as a foreigner.
Huntington´s concern with immigration is also characterizes by demographic concerns. This is
particularly evident in the following passage:“By the early 1990s two-thirds of the migrants in Europe
were Muslim, and European concern with immigration is above all concern with Muslim immigration.
The challenge is demographic – migrants account for 10 percent of the births in Western Europe….”
(Huntington 1997,
1774).Samuel Huntington, a well-known scholar of international relations, put
forward a worthy point of view for cultural conflict, immigration and counter-terrorism, as per below.
The larger wave of migration at the end of the 20th century (after the end of the Cold War) became a
self-reinforcing process for non-Western countries and self-promoting, a "global migration crisis".
Two-thirds of migrants in Europe are Muslim. The Muslim community, whether Turkish in Germany or
Algerian in France, is not integrated into the culture of the country. In his essay, Huntington elaborates
on Germany's problems: public opposition to immigration and hostility to immigrants manifests it in
extreme violence against immigrant communities and individuals - an argument that will be mentioned
in the counter-terrorism section. More importantly, the votes of right-wing, nationalist and anti-
immigrant parties are growing - a phenomenon that will been analyzed in the later part of integration of
immigrants.
Huntington also cites Stanley Hoffman's argument that "the growing fear in the West is based
on real cultural conflict and concern about the loss of national identity".
Huntington's focus on
immigration is also reflected in his concern for the population: “By the early 1990s, two-thirds of
European immigrants were Muslim, and Europe's focus on immigrants was first and foremost on
Muslim immigrants. The challenge is demographics - immigrants make up 10 per cent of the Western
European-born population..." But at the same time Huntington offers another view. The problem of
Muslim invasion may ease, and population growth will peak and begin to decline. By 2025, Muslim
immigration is likely to be significantly reduced, so the threat of "Islamization" in Europe will be
replaced by the threat of "Africanization". Indeed, this tells another story which the paper will not
involve this aspect of the analysis.
In summary, Huntington argues that European society is not willing to assimilate migrants, and
that the consequences of further deterioration can be avoided if European societies are willing to bear
the cost of limiting migration. If the West is to reduce its losses, it must subtly apply its economic
resources as carrots and sticks when dealing with other societies. The challenges and changes ahead are
still unpredictable and incalculable, however, and according to Huntington's expectations above, the
number of Muslims will be reduced, but until then, European countries, especially Germany, will have
4
to balance immigration with human rights.
When the focus turns to France to deal with immigration, the angle will be very different.
France has long adopted a policy of separation of church and state for immigrants from the Muslim
population, emphasizing that the national identity of education promotes the integration of immigrants.
With a series of terrorist incidents in the 1990s, France faced an even greater crisis in dealing with
integration, and because of the constraints, the government was unable to support Muslim education on
the ground. And what France and Germany have in common, and similarities in Europe, have proved to
exist, with the right winning more support as the crisis continues to rise. Just as Huntington says, these
"opposition parties" are exploiting economic woes, especially unemployment, denouncing corruption in
institutions and governments, and attacking foreigners for their social influence. The intention is to set
off volatility, and that's why their motives remain unclear. In the face of the new challenges posed by
counter-terrorism in recent decades, how can the ideas put forward in Clash of Civilizations be
combined with Merkel's new immigration policy?
Nowadays, the identity of Muslim immigrants is not easily recognized as part of the "German
citizenship". Due to the differences in national beliefs, the increase in the number of terrorist crimes,
the differences in living habits and the worries of local residents about the Muslim community
occupying a large number of resources in Germany. One of the issues of citizenship recognition is
related to the intersection between their citizenship and their religious identity.
5
Bibliography
Books and articles:
Boukhars, Anouar. "Islam, jihadism, and depoliticization in France and Germany." International
Political Science Review 30, no. 3 (2009): 297-317.
Haubrich, Dirk. "September 11, Anti‐Terror Laws and Civil Liberties: Britain, France and Germany
Compared 1." Government and Opposition 38, no. 1 (2003): 3-28.
Huntington, Samuel P. "The clash of civilizations?." In Culture and politics, pp. 99-118. Palgrave
Macmillan, New York, 2000.
Katzenstein, Peter J. "Same war, different views: Germany, Japan, and the war on terrorism." Current
History New York
then Philadelphia101 (2002): 427-435.
Mushaben, Joyce Marie. "Wir schaffen das! Angela Merkel and the European refugee crisis." German
Politics 26, no. 4 (2017): 516-533.
Nordbruch, Götz. "Germany: Migration, Islam and the Question of National identity”. Nation State and
Ethnic Diversity: 149.
Said, Behnam T., and Hazim Fouad. Countering Islamist Radicalisation in Germany: A Guide to
Germany's Growing Prevention Infrastructure. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism., 2018.
Tize, Carola. "Living in permanent temporariness: The multigenerational ordeal of living under
Germany’s toleration status." Journal of Refugee Studies (2020).
Websites:
International Organization for Migration, Glossary on migration, IML Series No. 34, 2019
(https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf).
6
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