“The major European states are now as multiethnic as the United States,” writes Niall Ferguson in his latest analysis of student demonstrations in Europe. “The foreign-born share of the American population is 16 percent, an all-time high. However, the figures for the UK, Spain, and Germany are even higher.”
In Berlin, around one million people cannot vote in the city’s state elections. More than 600,000 non-German residents have lived in Berlin for at least five years.
Berlin’s prospective red-green-red coalition wants to extend voting rights at the state and local level to people who have lived in Germany for at least five years, regardless of their nationality.
We welcome the opportunity to debate this fundamental question: Who belongs to our democratic community?
In our current model of democracy, voting means choosing representatives to speak for our values, needs, and interests. The right to vote is also a form of recognition: it acknowledges that you belong to the community and have a say in its future.
Some countries welcome migrant workers for a limited time, without necessarily seeing them as future members of society.
Even the German term Gastarbeiter (guest worker) reveals a similar distinction. You cannot be both a host and a guest at the same time.
Much has changed in German society since the era of the Gastarbeiter. Yet many people still believe that to truly belong to a community, you need an official status: citizenship. A passport supposedly confirms your lifelong commitment to the country.
But isn’t that an illusion? Anyone who acquires German citizenship can leave the next day. So can anyone born here.
What if, instead of asking people to prove that they belong, we started seeing their presence as an opportunity?
An opportunity to draw on their full potential, knowledge, and experience. An opportunity to build a society that is more open, dynamic, and capable of facing the future.
Trusting one another is not a risk to our society. It is how we move it forward.
Want to learn more about voting rights and political participation in Berlin? Explore our StimmlosTrend section for articles, insights, and survey results!
(Header image: © Mario Tuzon | Unsplash)
