Posted on 06/05/2004 4:21 pm
Re: Permanent Visa
This is somehow pathetic.
Here we are, a reasonable lot of professionals, looking for small letters in obscure laws to find a loophole through which we could stay here.
It is true, we knew that this was going to last only 5 years. This GC law -well, turns out it is not even a law- was made on the final edge of the .com bubble, and I bet dead sure that on that point Germany knew for sure that they were buying time in order to postpone this decission and play "with all the cards on sight".
Now the cards are indeed visible. Millions of unemployed guys. A few thousand of GCs. No more bubble, and a market that is not quite clear whether is catching up or not. In this moment, Germany cannot plan to expand because of the pressure that means having near 5 million people on the unemployment rows, but again, Germany cannot dismiss yet any professional recruiting effort because the market may well catch up and in a couple of years may well mean Germany again running behind and looking really silly. Add to this the beautiful ability of the German politic system to turn common sense into "konzept" traps, and there we are.
At this point, guys, I am tired. Look, I am on my early 30s, with degrees and background. I can reasonably find my way in german, english, spanish and some other languages. I have a family and a career. I work for an American software company in reasonable expansion. This may sound stupid but... I respect myself. No false pride, just, well, you know, I know what my place is.
I am absolutely fed up with this discussions. I feel outraged. Ignored. Let me put this in perspective: I mean absolutely no disrespect to any ethnic group or religion, no way, but some time ago, reading on Der Spiegel how the AlQaeda cell was composed in Hamburg, there were guys there that lived out of Kindergeld and Sozialhilfe, guys there coming and going freely. Then, you are a professional, you pay taxes, you make your best for integrate yourself into this society, to understand the rules, to learn the language. You even give birth to a child and teach him within the cultural blueprints of this country. You dream, even.
And what do we get? This unbelievable, disrepectful treatment of just "ignoring" the case, let it sunset into despair, nobody cares really, we first have to stand to our political pride, defend our prestige, not let it go. Ah, yes, there are people anxious about what we are discussing... what was it? Ah, the Zuwanderung thing. Jeez, you can get lost in this coalition stuff, can't you? I mean, we are German politicians, we live through the imperative categories of Kant, therefore, we must stick to our "feinkonzept", and typecast the reality to make it fit our own absurdity. Is there any other way of dealing with it?
Is beautiful. Now the Greens are in a bravado posture, tired of the stubborness of CDU/CSU. Now Schilly starts menacing his own coalition partners, and drawing "red lines". Now. Beautiful. A law that was approved by technically half a vote, rejected by Supreme Court, and reentered identically to a reconfigured Parliament, jeeez, is that consumate Realpolitik or what? This would be even funny if it wasn't dramatic. As a template on how things really can get f...ed up here, no better example. It is that difficult to negotiate within Germans? Well, it seems so...
Honestly, you know what? I am sick and tired to be a mendicant for a place. I don't even know if I want to stay here. For sure, if I am sticking around is because here I am more useful to my actual employer, and because my son was born here, and I still have that stupid romanticism that seems long dead in this country. I would like to give some continuity to my son, to let him live with the smells, colors, weather and language under which he was born -a chance that many of us didn't have, by the way. Why, I am silly, right? After all, nobody seems to really care here about "Heimatland" any more, no matter how much we fill our Oktoberfest discurses every year.
Whatever. I am tired of this. I just don't give a damn any more over this political nightmares. The only thing I would appreciate, as a nice detail, is the acknowledgment: you cannot keep us here any more? Fine. Say it. JUST DAMN SAY IT. Take the step. Show to the world that you could not even manage to integrate 13k of willing professionals. Tell that your fair system is so strictly perfect that it becomes absurd.
There is one last barrier for me: I still believe that the system, Germany as a whole, is worth all this struggle. Somehow I still do. I also still believe that "rejection" means unability to deal with the unexpected within the frame of this hyper-structured, over-organized moods of the society. I have not -yet- believed that this is in fact meaning WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE (which will be terrible) but rather, WE JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE IT. Even then, I would expect a sincere "Sorry guys".
Will I break that last line of defense? I don't know. Sometimes I hope not. In any case, if that day comes I'm dead sure out of here.
Exhasperated,
Diego aka Sudaca.
