“Most Indians going there are students, IT professionals, nurses and their numbers are growing. So, the rise of the second largest party the AfD should be of interest to us.”
Padma Rao, former South Asia Bureau chief of Der Spiegel, was on The Gist, talking about the election result in Germany that has seen the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) emerge in second place.
Padma Rao believes the AfD is against the manner in which the perfectly legal and noble system of granting refugees asylum, was being penetrated and there were a lot of criminals and economic refugees actually slipping through the net and migrating to Germany.
Germany’s problem has been exacerbated by the fact that Europe’s internal borders are very relaxed and wide open for legal migration.
“Now Germany is not a country of immigration, it never had an immigration policy, it had a refugee policy and an asylum policy,” she said.
“So now it’s trying to introduce an immigration policy but it’s trying to win and woo people from India and other countries to live and work in Germany. The concern for Indians is how will we be perceived by the average Joe in the street who doesn’t know that we are not illegal migrants?”
There is also the “anti-Muslim problem”, she underscored because of the rising crime and the culprits have been refugees from Syria or refugees from North Africa. People see Islam and crime as together.
It’s also important to understand that for Germany, China is crucial, India is not. The latter is at the forefront, “mostly for exotica and for hard luck (meaning Covid) stories.”
India Germany ties do go back and there is a strong grounding in science, technology and engineering. Recall that IIT Madras was set up by the Germans. But India and Germany have not traded in the manner in which China and Germany have traded.
Those bonds will have to be forged as Germany seeks to diversify away from China, seeking new markets, and new relationships.
