A UN representative said that ethnic minorities in Germany are underrepresented in the German public sector. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism Githu Muigai has spent 10 days visiting various towns in Germany as part of a fact finding mission on the country’s relationship to immigrants and minority groups. Speaking from his last stop in Berlin, Kenyan-born Muigai welcomed the fact that Germany, as a key European player, had finally resolved its status as an immigration country. Germany has come a long way since former Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s dogged insistence that it was not a country of immigration, Muigai added. Seven years ago the conservative Christian Democratic Union rephrased its former leader’s stance, saying that Germany was not a country of immigration in the sense that it had not been historically formed by immigrants. With Germany home to around 19 percent first and second generation immigrants, the country has acknowledged that it has attracted large numbers of immigrants and will continue to do so. Muigai, who was the first UN racism special rapporteur to visit Germany in the last 12 years, said Germany needed to do more to integrate more ethnic minorities into its political system, the police and its courts. People with a migrant background were, according to Muigai underrepresented in public life.
STATUS OF MINORITY IN GERMANY
A UN representative said that ethnic minorities in Germany are underrepresented in the German public sector. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism Githu Muigai has spent 10 days visiting various towns in Germany as part of a fact finding mission on the country’s relationship to immigrants and minority groups.
