Germany Confronts Education Gaps Among Muslim Immigrants

c. 2007 Religion News Service BERLIN _ Selda Acan, a 33-year-old mother of four with an eighth-grade education, watched as the three dozen girls hovered over Qurans, reading and reciting verses in Arabic at a mosque in a dense immigrant neighborhood. “Inshallah,” she said, using the Arabic word for “God willing,” “it is my wish […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

BERLIN _ Selda Acan, a 33-year-old mother of four with an eighth-grade education, watched as the three dozen girls hovered over Qurans, reading and reciting verses in Arabic at a mosque in a dense immigrant neighborhood.

“Inshallah,” she said, using the Arabic word for “God willing,” “it is my wish that my daughter go to school. In Islam, we are told to learn, learn more and, then, learn more.”


The reality across town at the Herbert Hoover School, where more than 90 percent of the 370 students come from immigrant backgrounds, however, is far different.

Veteran principal Jutta Steinkamp watches four veiled girls standing outside, talking in Turkish and ignoring a school bell. She considers their futures: Less than a quarter of her students will attend college. Most will quit school, marry, vanish from mainstream society and fortify the wall that separates immigrants and Germans.

“We all know we have to do something right now,” Steinkamp says.

Germany _ home to one of most educated populations in Europe _ has a schooling problem.

Statistics from the Consortium of Training in Germany show that only 12 percent of migrants between 15 and 25 achieve a higher education. Roughly 82 percent of migrants lack training degrees critical for employment.

Those figures illustrate what school administrators and immigration experts have long known: The government must promote education among its immigrants _ mostly Muslims from Turkey, parts of the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia _ or risk alienating them.

Immigrants count for roughly 3 million out of Germany’s total 82 million people. The vast majority are Turks who migrated during the 1960s as “guest workers.” Immigrants mainly live in the Wedding, Kreuzberg and Neukolln quarters of Berlin, where Turkish, not German, is the first language.

To walk in these areas is to enter into another world. Turkish-run kiosks and restaurants blanket the streets. Travel agents promote cheap trips to Istanbul, Izmir and Anatolia. Men congregate around coffee houses. Women are rarely seen, and when they are, they are well-covered in baggy shirts, long skirts and hijabs and walking behind their male relatives.


Honor killings are also a problem. During one particularly gruesome four-month period in 2005, six Muslim women living in Berlin were killed by relatives. The cases roiled German society, especially after some of the killers reportedly said the women’s embrace of Western society offended them. Shortly after the incidents, teachers reported Muslim boys taunting Muslim girls who refused to wear the hijab, or headscarf.

Educators and government officials see education as a way to bridge the divide between immigrants and mainstream society. School administrators report that most parents say they want their children to attend university, but say students often lack proper language skills and support from home. Teachers lament that students with immigrant backgrounds have less exposure to Germans and the German language now than 20 years ago.

“We will have another parallel society,” Steinkamp warns, unless Germany finds a way to bridge the immigrant gap.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Germany’s Muslims became more insular and less trusting of outsiders; some mosques in Germany have been linked to international terrorism networks.

“The feeling to integrate is not there,” said Necla Kelek, a Turkish-born German sociologist. “Immigrants don’t feel that this land is theirs, and there is no communication that says, `Germany is my land, and this is where I live.”’

Statistics show that second- and third-generation immigrants feel alienated from German society. For their part, immigrants like Yusuf Seker say Germans don’t want to accept them.


“We have been here for 40 years, and they still think we are guest workers,” said Seker, a teacher at a Berlin school that primarily serves Turks.

Schools, universities and corporations have begun to address the gap between immigrants and the education system. Schools are instituting informal programs that encourage students to think about college. In April, German schools participated in “Girls Day,” a special event in which universities recruit German and immigrant girls.

Gunaydin Busra, 15, plans to study communications. She came from Turkey and says she’s getting an opportunity many of peers won’t.

“I don’t know why they don’t go to college,” she said. “Girls have a good future.”

The challenge of luring immigrants to college comes as no surprise to Dino Aktash, a Turk who works in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Conservative views hold strong in the Turkish community.

“For the son, it is no problem,” Aktash said. “For the daughter, it is a problem.”


Some parents, for example, object to their daughters participating in swimming classes because it counters their religious views on modesty. Biology and sex education classes are also controversial.

Cordula Heckman, the head teacher at the Heinrich Heine School, alerted the police after a father told school officials that he would kill any teacher who he thought was misbehaving around his daughter.

Some experts say the challenge to integration and education is mainly economic. Karin Schweissgut, an expert on Turks in Berlin, says many families struggle to find work, and as a result, Muslim women tend to marry early and avoid college, she says.

That’s what happened to Fatma Kucuk, 15, a Turk who lives and works in Berlin. She’s married, has an elementary school education and operates a Turkish food stall for 10 hours a day.

When asked about school, she turns away.

“They are not so many families who say, `We have a lot of money. You can do what you want,”’ Schweissgut said.

KRE END LALWANIA photo of immigrant students and Fatma Kucuk are available via https://religionnews.com.

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