W3MIV
02-18-2008, 02:41 PM
Do we see in the German experience with "Gasties," the future of our own immigrant problems?
http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSL0521752720080218?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNews
Will we, in the United States, develop a system to accommodate retirees whom we now deprecate harshly?
"For a long time Germany didn't envision itself as a country of immigration," said Ulrika Zabel, an intercultural officer with charity Caritas, which together with private care home operator Vitanas will open Germany's fourth multi-cultural housing centre for elderly people next year in Berlin.
"That caused our problem with seniors -- we didn't expect they would stay."
It is now more than forty years since I lived in Germany and saw at first hand how the "Gasties" were treated. Little did I know, then, that I was being privileged to see the future of how we in the US would regard the many foreigners who continue to come here in search of a better income and better life than "home." Of course, most of the Gasties were legally admitted to Germany to fill the overwhelming numbers of jobs the ordinary Germans did not wish to do -- just as the flood of both legal and illegal immigrants to the US do those jobs most Americans consider to be beneath their dignity.
About 18 percent of Germany's immigrants are over 55, according to Federal Statistical Office data from 2006. More than 700,000 of these older immigrants are in the final decade of work before they are eligible to become pensioners.
Close your eyes and imagine the future. Do we see a similar tomorrow? How will we deal with it?
:confused:
http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSL0521752720080218?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNews
Will we, in the United States, develop a system to accommodate retirees whom we now deprecate harshly?
"For a long time Germany didn't envision itself as a country of immigration," said Ulrika Zabel, an intercultural officer with charity Caritas, which together with private care home operator Vitanas will open Germany's fourth multi-cultural housing centre for elderly people next year in Berlin.
"That caused our problem with seniors -- we didn't expect they would stay."
It is now more than forty years since I lived in Germany and saw at first hand how the "Gasties" were treated. Little did I know, then, that I was being privileged to see the future of how we in the US would regard the many foreigners who continue to come here in search of a better income and better life than "home." Of course, most of the Gasties were legally admitted to Germany to fill the overwhelming numbers of jobs the ordinary Germans did not wish to do -- just as the flood of both legal and illegal immigrants to the US do those jobs most Americans consider to be beneath their dignity.
About 18 percent of Germany's immigrants are over 55, according to Federal Statistical Office data from 2006. More than 700,000 of these older immigrants are in the final decade of work before they are eligible to become pensioners.
Close your eyes and imagine the future. Do we see a similar tomorrow? How will we deal with it?
:confused: