Migrationshintergrund

Today's vocabulary lesson comes from Das Heimchen (The Cricket), who writes:

"Migrationshintergrund" is a new German term which describes the woeful handicap that poor immigrants, particularly those from Muslim nations, have to deal with in Germany. Its literal translation is migration background or immigrant’s background.

In his book "Hurrah, wir kapitulieren" by Henryk Broder, the author describes how his Grandmother had a Migrationsbackground because after WW-2 she was displaced from Silesia. I.e., had to flee the Red Army to find Asylum in what was left of Germany. But, he explains, while she harkened back to the peaceful days of her homeland and she complained about myriad things, she was too polite, she had manners that prevented her to act like today’s "foreigners" when they riot and burn and destroy. Her favorite saying was, "one does not do things like that".

The following is a translation from the German of the author’s book and his views on the kind of license that Migrationshintergrund affords the Muslim population of today’s Europe.

Today, on the other hand, "Migrationshintergrund" means a sort of free pass for any situation. He who has a Migrationshintergrund, only will require an Attorney in the most extreme of cases. For instance after he has slaughtered a film maker in broad daylight on the streets of a big city. Lesser infractions against rights, law and order only require a mention to the media and the public that he has a Migrationshintergrund, which will immediately evoke sympathy for the perpetrator and critical words vis-a vis the behavior of the victim (a provoker, who respected nothing and no-one), and the proven question: "What have we done to them that they hate us so much?"