February 20, 2006--Der Test

I am having further thoughts about the struggle currently raging within Germany about how to test immigrants seeking citizenship. Until recent years the exclusive focus of that test had been on historical and constitutional issues. Questions were only about the nature and structure of the German government and Germany’s place in European history. If there was criticism it had more to do with what was underrepresented in that history (take a guess) than how it was understood or interpreted. In other words, like many other Western countries, Germany’s test for citizenship was fairly straightforward and not very controversial. It might even have been viewed, in its benignness, as welcoming to potential new citizens.

But things began to change in 2000, and more recently what is being tested for has become contested and even inflamed.

As reported in the International Herald Tribune (see link below—I am still traveling), testing guidelines have now come to include questions about values and attitudes in addition to the traditional kinds. Some have been claiming that these changes were instituted to limit the number of Muslims who would become Germans because the new questions about attitudes seem designed specifically to confront traditional Islamic values and thus screen out Muslims. For example, questions that ask about applicant’s views toward women (“Do you think it is acceptable for a man to consider his wife his possession?”), sexuality (“What would you do if your son told you he was a homosexual and wanted to live with his lover?”), terrorism (“Would you tell the police if you knew of a suspected terrorist?”),and anti-Semitism (“Some people are accusing the Jews of being responsible for all that’s bad in the world. What do you think about such accusations?”).

For some political leaders in Germany, Heribert Rech is one (he is the interior minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, a southern state where there is a disproportionate number of Islamic residents), he wants to have his state add additional questions of this type to the test for citizenship, claiming that B-W and other states have the right to supplement the national exam.

Since B-W is also home to a disproportionate number of neo-Nazis I began to wonder how they would fare if they were required to take this new test to retain their German citizenship. I suspect we know what they would say about Jews being responsible for all the “bad in the world,” or how they regard women, and for sure we know what they think about homosexuals—beat them up along with the Jews.

But as I was having these thoughts I caught myself—aren’t I again just taking a cheap shot at the poor Germans who are struggling with all these complicated political and cultural problems?

From six time zones away, how in fact would my own countrymen, Americans do if we applied the same set of questions to them? I know this is just a fantasy, once a US citizen always a citizen (actually all you need to do is be born in the USA to become a citizen, even if your parents are here illegally); but what if we could retrospectively require citizens to be tested say every ten years? After all to renew drivers licenses we retest every five to ten years. Isn’t being a good citizen more important than being a safe driver?

I suspect that if we in the US asked about attitudes toward the religion of others, women’s rights, and homosexuality we would wind up withdrawing US citizenship from millions.

Come to think about it, maybe this is not just a fantasy. Perhaps it’s a good idea and we should get started with this as soon as possible.