DOES THE USA ARMY NOT KNOW THAT THE KOCH DOESN'T REALLY LIKE FOREIGNERSâ??AT ALL? Why is USA army moving from Heidelberg

That status of Hessen's having the most xenophobic political leadership in Germany may come as a surprise to many European experts who have witnessed a more open rise in nationalism and xenophobia in the former East German states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt over the past two decades. However, Koch has worked hard at this reputation and was reelected in 2009 once again without disavowing much� ??if any--of his prior anti-foreigner stance

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119281521/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

In 2008, Charles Hawley had written in Der Spiegel magazine predicted that the next major elections in Hessen state would be different. He had written: � ??The center-right in Germany has often used xenophobic campaigns to propel them to power. Roland Koch's anti-foreigner campaign in Hesse [in recent months] , however, [has] backfired, showing that he has lost touch with his electorate.� ? �

Whereas, that may have been true in 2008, at the same Roland Koch, after a short political hiatus, was reelected to lead the Hessen Landtag again in January 2009. In short, � ??Koch's years of experience as a prominent Christian Democrat (CDU) politician [have continually] told him that a bit of foreigner bashing is a sure way to win votes. It had, after all, worked before -- Koch became governor in 1999 after a populist signature gathering campaign against double citizenship -- one that many observers saw as profoundly xenophobic.� ? �

Last year, the African People's Convention concurred, � ??We have seen this in the past through his [Koch's] propaganda campaign against Dual Citizenship proposal in 1999 that brought him to power. Roland Koch is actually seeking rightist support. Election watchers outside Germany have pointed out that the reason the far right vote collapsed in Germany is the policies of Roland Koch and some of his fellow politicians in the Christian Democrats. They have not become far right Party, but they have started speaking in tongues to the anti-immigrant vote, which may not be a good political strategy. The natural strategy for the right is in fact to start taking the immigration issues, crime, law and other related issues as an important topic to look into. It is however, a topic which plays on certain fears, rational or irrational on the minds of the less educated, the less enlightened and the less secured populace who think immigrants are the cause of all social problems in Germany.� ? �

Koch consistently has declared that far too many crimes in Germany are committed by foreigners while ignoring the actual enforcement rules of police in handling, charging, and prosecuting criminals in the country. In short, foreigner violence is more visible in regions where unemployment is high� ??and due to the poor integration policies and job policies in Germany many more foreigners are out of work while failing to get government assistance in a fair and timely manner.

Moreover, as the APC noted, � ??This hostility towards foreigners [under Koch in Hessen] has manifested in discrimination against foreigners, and in extreme cases, violent attack on an entire community. The reason for the rise of the far right attacks in Germany is the failure to integrate immigrants socially and economically into the German society unlike the United Kingdom and U.S.A, where the melting pot seems to work and has worked for many decades. In Germany, the melting pot has failed tremendously.� ? �


Not only Africans and Americans need to be wary of Koch and his anti-foreigner bias. Koch has also been charged as behaving and speaking anti-Semitic phrases in many speeches, whether in making allusions to Jewish and German history or to Muslims or Arabs.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,226775,00.html

"The Central Council of Jews in Germany is right," said Kenan Kolat, who heads the umbrella group of Germany's Turkish community. "The level of Mr. Koch's campaign is hardly distinguishable from those run by the (neo-Nazi National Democratic Party -- NPD). ... I hope voters give Mr. Koch what he deserves for his xenophobic rhetoric."

� ??'Ali Kizilkaya of the (German) Islam Council called Koch's campaign � ??wind in the sails of right-wing radical parties.' He echoed the sentiment of Thursday's letter by saying that he is concerned that Koch might be sacrificing social cohesion in Germany for short-term political gain.� ? �

ANTI-AMERICAN VISA AND WORK ISSUES ARE MANY.

All of Germany has become a more unfriendly place for Americans to work over the past two to three decades. This has occurred parallel to the growth and power of the European Union as a whole, which has decided to position itself as an alternative to America on the global political economic stage. This has occurred even as more and more Germans have come to confess that historically both Germany and Central Europe have been a multicultural melting pot for the continent for millennia.

Even today, � ??Berlin the German capital and international metropolis in the heart of Europe� ? � is not only a � ??city of culture, sports, politics, and science [but a] population of almost 3.4 million fills an area of 890 km, including people from more than 200 different countries who have chosen the melting pot of Berlin for their new 'heimat'.� ? �

http://www.linguee.de/uebersetzung/deutsch/melting+pot.html

Many other regions of Germany, such as the Industrial Ruhr River region (in North Rhine Westphalia) have� ??with the exception of 12 years of the Nazi era� ??consistently seen itself as a multicultural region in Germany.

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