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Originally Posted by chucker
In the end, the Turks complain they are being treated as "outsiders", but that's exactly what they make themselves (again, largely due to their parents)......Some succeed. Some become famous, successful, rich, etc. But the huge majority doesn't even give themselves a chance at getting to that point. They are crippling their own future.
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No doubt the Turkish minority has contributed to
some extent to their own isolation, much as minority immgrant populations sometimes do elsewhere (such as say the Pakistani community in the UK and the Arab community in France) Notwithstanding, Germany is very traditional indeed in these matters and, it seems to me, struggles with the problem of ethnicity. I'm not sure I'd be quite so positive that these issues are being addressed.
I lived in Germany for a number of years and the country seems to have dealt very well with the problems of the post war era but hasn't really begun to confront the problems of population movement - be it the previous generation of Turkish Gastarbeiter or Poles and Estonians etc moving around in the newly enlarged European Union. It is relatively rare to see a Turkish face host a news program or other TV, or to participate meaningly in late night discussions / debate / chat shows. And there's little representation in the Bundestag and local government.
Much as France struggles with its Arab minority (there isn't a single arab representative in the Assemblee Nationale except those representing the overseas territories), it seems to me Germany has a cultural leap before it. It will be interesting to see how public opinion reacts when restrictions drop away and lots of Poles (and in future Ukrainians?) come across the border to settle and work. As was ever the case, the country is a bridge between east and west (and hence faces challenges Britain has never had to deal with) - I'm just not sure I'd be as optimistic as some of the comments above that the future is a rosy one.
On Moogs' original point, it's worth just saying that South Korea and China are both economic and political (and military?) competitors to Japan and it's perhaps worth just viewing comments from these countires in that context. Worth just saying too that Japan has an unusual history - for 2 centuries (mid 17th to mid 19th), the country was completely isolated - returning travellers were executed if caught.