with a claim to free health care, food, and housing at the expensernof the German taxpayer. Only America maintains so insanerna system. Since the situation is well known everywherernfrom Sri Lanka to Zaire, hundreds of thousands pour intornGermany from these countries. They are by no means thernpoorest of the poor. On the contrary, only the relatively privilegedrnin their native lands can find the money—usually thousandsrnof dollars—which the trip to Germany requires. But it isrnan investment that is soon reimbursed. A negro from Ghanarnreceives monthly in Germany many times what he would earnrnat home in a year of harsh struggle to survive. About 50,000rnclaimants for asylum arrive every month in Germany. They arerndistributed among the German states, who send them to thernlocal communities, who then have to find housing and otherrnprovisions for them. Because there is no more free housing inrnGermany, many immigrants now live in expensive hotels—allrnat taxpayer expense.rnThis is not the end of the ideologically motivated insanity.rnBefore the right of asylum is granted, of course, a formal requestrnmust be made, which may be rejected in obviously unjustifiedrncases. (Since July 1, 1993, new laws have enabled the governmentrnto reject at the border those seeking asylum for purposesrnother than political persecution in their native countries.)rnThese “unjustified cases” constitute 95 percent of those seekingrnasylum. The asylum-seeker, however, has the right to appealrnthe rejection with the help of an attorney provided by thernstate, and he may appeal all the way to the highest court in thernland. This does not change the outcome of the proceedings.rnEven after the appeals, more than 90 percent of all cases of asylumrnare found to be unjustified. However, during the appealrnprocess, the appellant can live in Germany for years at no costrnto himself. About 90 percent of those whose appeals have beenrnrejected remain in Germany, because the authorities are afraidrnof the uproar that would be caused by expulsion.rnOver 60 percent of the overburdened German criminalrncourts are occupied with senseless asylum trials, the outcomernof which is predictable. According to independent evaluationsrnreported in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung lastrnOctober, the true cost of German asvlum politics, when thernhidden costs for legal services, police, etc., are included,rnamounts to about 35 billion German marks a year. These costsrnare not mentioned in the official government statistics, wherernonly the direct cash and in-kind costs are included, so as to arrivernat a supposed sum of onlv seven to eight billion marks.rnThe real sum of over 30 billion marks represents about half ofrnthe annual new indebtedness of Germany.rnThe abuse of the German right of asylum is not new.rnWhen this debate began at the beginning of the 1980’s,rnhowever, there were four or five thousand asylum-seekers enteringrnGermany every month, not 50,000. More importantly,rnin 1982 and 1983, West Germany had a booming economy,rnwhich offered the population steady increases in real income.rnNobody worried about a few thousand asylum-seekers grabbingrncrumbs from the kitchen table by misrepresenting the reasonsrnfor their arrival.rnThe current situation is fundamentally different. Besides thernworldwide recession, which has affected all industrial societies,rnGermany has two additional problems. The first is Germanrnreunification, which has led to enormous burdens on thernofficial budget because of the net transfer of over 100 billionrnmarks a year from West to East Germany. East Germany’srneconomy, however, has still not been rescued by these expendituresrnbecause of the economically irresponsible decision ofrnthe Kohl administration to exchange the East German mark forrnthe West German mark at the rate of 1:1 or 1:2. The debts ofrncommunist Germany were thereby enormously increased whilernaggravating the ability of East German industries to competernon the world market.rnAll this was bad enough. Then came the crisis in EasternrnEurope, caused by the transition from socialism to a marketrneconomy. Without an appreciable improvement in the socialrnand economic spheres, there are fears of immigration to thernWest of millions of Eastern Europeans fleeing poverty, and ofrngeneral political instability. In the worst case, these problemsrncould lead to a threat of unpredictable dimensions in a (still)rnstable Western Europe. These fears help explain the enormousrnsums Germany gave to aid the former Soviet republics, especiallyrnRussia, amounting to over 80 billion marks, a sum morernthan 20 times all American aid for Eastern Europe.rnHowever well-intentioned the motives for these expenditures,rnthey did not change the fact that Germany had taken onrnmore than she could bear. Germany’s economic crisis can bernseen in her rising unemployment and increasing inflation,rnwhich is barely held in check by the restrictive monetary policiesrnof the Bundesbank. If one includes in the official unemploymentrnstatistics part-time jobs, the many hidden forms ofrnunemployment, and the official definition of jobs as “apparentrnwork positions,” we reach a number of nearly six million unemployedrnin Germany . This is the magic number at whichrnHitler came to power in 1933. The quality of daily life is simplyrnthe worst in 40 years. Naturally this affects lower classes thernmost, while the majority of citizens of the middle and upperrnclasses still do not notice it as much. This could, however, bernthe calm before the storm. Of course, the situation today is differentrnfrom that at the beginning of the I930’s because the socialrnsafety net is basically intact, but the social consequences ofrnunemployment are now relieved only by increasing the indebtednessrnof the state, which must in the end lead to the nation’srncollapse unless emergency measures are enacted soon.rnNow we can see the connection betyveen the politics of asylumrnand the arson at Solingen. Working people are involved inrnan ever harsher competition for the remaining (and increasinglyrnunaffordable) housing and poorly paid jobs. It seems sheerrnmockery to these people that, while they are losing first theirrnjobs and then their homes, aliens from the Congo under thernright of asylum receive tax-financed free housing, which arnGerman citizen does not receive. The situation creates greatrnbitterness among native Germans. To understand it, just talkrnto a barber or taxi driver or any of the other thermometers ofrnpopular opinion. A “hatred of foreigners” you will not encounter,rnbut anger against asylum-seekers, indeed.rnThis feeling becomes dangerous in poor young people whornare deprived of training or a job, who are beginning to drink,rnand who see in the presence of the rapidly increasing numberrnof immigrants the cause of their misery. The young do notrnknow enough to distinguish between the hardworking immigrantrnand the alien who abuses the right of asylum. This is thernatmosphere that drives the poorest and most ignorant, who existrnin every nation, to acts of arson and other attacks on foreigners.rnThese attacks are ongoing in other European countriesrnin at least equal numbers, but when they happen in Englandrnor Erance, the world press does not find them worthy of attention.rn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn