Heinz Buschkowsky

Heinz Buschkowsky is a SPD mayor of Neukölln, one of Berlin's failing districts. Formerly a substandard area filled with German poor workers who escaped out of their misery thanks to the German Wirtschaftswunder, it refilled with Turkish and Muslim immigrants who constitute their socially isolated ghetto of destitution and dependence on public hand-outs. In contrast to the distant observer Thilo Sarrazin, its native son Heinz Buschkowsky is a hands-on fighter in improving the situation step by step, dragging both the city and federal government to reform their approaches. Alas, he still requires the cooperation of the local Turkish and Muslim communities which have become all too comfortable in extracting and exploiting the contributions of the German government. Buschkowsky hopes to follow the example set by his colleagues in Rotterdam who had to "reconquer street by street", setting and adjusting incentives so that only good behavior gets rewarded,

Reverting the mistakes and failed policies of the last thirty years is very costly. Only grindingly are these neo-Germans budged to actually learn a few words of German (without which they are simply unsuitable for any job) and learn or re-learn 21st century manners. This requires close coordination and knowledge sharing between different government agencies as well as local community leaders. Buschkowsky does an admirable job in both highlighting the problems, crying for help and still not despair. While there will probably be a lost generation, improved early support in schools and strict monitoring and case management of social benefit recipients should reverse the dire situation. The most important part, however, is to break up the ghettoisation - integration works best if immigrants come into close and constant contact with the host community. Neukölln still has to restore this connection. Contrary to the title "Neukölln is everywhere", the solution lies in bringing back Germany into Neukölln.… (mer)