Germans First? A Food Bank Bars Migrants, Setting Off a Storm - The New York Times
Bloody racists
ESSEN, Germany — Jörg Sartor does not like to turn newcomers away from his food bank, especially single mothers like the young Syrian woman with her 5-year-old son who had waited outside since before dawn.But rules are rules. And for the moment, it is Germans only.
“Come here,” said Mr. Sartor, waving the boy over. Mr. Sartor disappeared into a storage room and re-emerged with a wooden toy. Then the boy and his mother were shown the door, which for the past two weeks has had five letters scrawled across the outside: “Nazis.”
The decision of one food bank in the western city of Essen to stop signing up more foreigners after migrants gradually became the majority of its users has prompted a storm of reaction in Essen, a former coal town in Germany’s rust belt, and across the country. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel weighed in: “You shouldn’t categorize people like this.”
“Come here,” said Mr. Sartor, waving the boy over. Mr. Sartor disappeared into a storage room and re-emerged with a wooden toy. Then the boy and his mother were shown the door, which for the past two weeks has had five letters scrawled across the outside: “Nazis.”
The decision of one food bank in the western city of Essen to stop signing up more foreigners after migrants gradually became the majority of its users has prompted a storm of reaction in Essen, a former coal town in Germany’s rust belt, and across the country. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel weighed in: “You shouldn’t categorize people like this.”
Apartments have become scarcer. Schools report that nine out of 10 of their students are non-German. Some German residents feel alienated by the number of newcomers.
“There are times when you walk down the street and you are in the minority,” Mr. Endruschat said.
“There are times when you walk down the street and you are in the minority,” Mr. Endruschat said.
Bloody racists
Until three years ago, roughly one in three food bank users were foreigners, he said. By last November, it was three in four.
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