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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Fri Jan 10, 2014, 11:16 AM Jan 2014

'Disastrous Impression': Cities Say Immigration Debate Overheated

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/cities-say-southeastern-european-immigrants-not-a-massive-problem-a-942663.html



The Association of German cities this week played down depictions that an influx of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria is causing major problems for the country. The group's president says troubles are concentrated in a handfull of cities.

'Disastrous Impression': Cities Say Immigration Debate Overheated
January 09, 2014 – 03:43 PM

Derided as "poverty immigrants" in Germany and "benefit tourists" in Britain, largely Roma immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria are the subject of growing political attacks in Europe this year.

The German Association of Cities is warning that the debate -- fueled by politicians from Germany's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- threatens to spiral out of control.

"We're not dealing with a national challenge," Ulrich Maly, the association president and mayor of Nuremberg said. "The problems are concentrated in around 12 major cities." There, he added, "the social problems are concentrated in a few parts of the cities."

Maly also warned that the current debate is creating the "disastrous impression that all Bulgarians and Romanians who come to us are poverty immigrants and that many of them are here to cheat the social system." He admonished his fellow Germans not to overdramatize problems with immigrants as some sort of mass phenomenon.
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