Former German President Joachim Gauck has called on migrants living in Germany not to form parallel societies. He also warned against a misuse of the term “Heimat.”
Migrants living in Germany should be ready to accept the country as it is, along with its values, Joachim Gauck, a former president of Germany, said in comments published on Thursday.
“I find it unacceptable that people who have been living in Germany for decades cannot hold a conversation in German, do not attend parent-teacher conferences or keep their children from going to classes or sports,” Gauck told the Bild newspaper.
He said people should not shy away from standing up for German values out of fear of being seen as a racist or xenophobe and that there should be “something like binding rules for living together and not several societies alongside one another.”
Gauck called on politicians to ensure that the country’s prevailing rules were accepted as the standard by all living in Germany.
Discussing ‘Heimat’
The former president also talked about “Heimat,” a German word often translated as “homeland,” which was the subject of the newspaper’s special edition on Thursday.
Gauck said he welcomed the fact that the word, which many Germans feel has been tainted through its frequent use in the Nazi era and former communist East Germany, had made a comeback in public discussion.
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