[qwerta]

German road police bullies Czech and Polish drivers a lot. 'Random' road control means that entire content of car ends up on the road. And while German society is relatively open, you need fluent German language with NO ACCENT to be fully accepted, it is very far from US or UK.

[lispm]

> German road police bullies Czech and Polish drivers a lot. 'Random' road control means that entire content of car ends up on the road.

Where I live, I have never seen that at all. Even then, if the police does not find anything, Czech and Polish drivers are perfectly fine to drive on German streets. Since they are in the EU, they can freely live and work in Germany - they just need to follow the usual German and EU laws.

That's also not important in this context. Prostitutes from east european countries can easily move into Germany. It also does not matter if they speak German or not. Most speak enough German to be able to work here in their business.

> And while German society is relatively open, you need fluent German language with NO ACCENT to be fully accepted, it is very far from US or UK.

The is no requirement to have no foreign accent to live in Germany. The city where I live has around 13% population which doesn't have a German passport. That's the official numbers. Then add people who are living illegal and people who have passports from more than one country.

[oakaz]

You must be a joke. Germany is where it's a casual thing to burn minorities alive. I'm not even talking about the holocaust;

2008: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/02/fire-f12.html

1993: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solingen_arson_attack_of_1993

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Germany

And as a minority in Oakland, I feel like home and I know enough horror stories to avoid visiting Germany as long as I don't have a good reason.

[qwerta]

This is just total bullshit. Germany has 80+ millions people and what you referred are very isolated accidents. German Turks are doing MUCH better than any minority in America.

And I am SICK of racist stereotypes about Germans. Yes their police does profiling and people from post-soviet get less promoted, but this also applies to East-Germans!

What I was talking about is not racism, but sort of conservatism.

[gambiting]

Yeah I do not understand what is going on with HN today. Half of the comments here are showing Germans as some racists bastards with tight border controls - when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. And I am not even German.

[oakaz]

are you europen, american or middle eastern?

[gambiting]

Are these the 3 only options? Define "European"? Sweden, Greece, Russia and Turkey are all parts of Europe,but I imagine you would be a lot quicker to call someone from Turkey "middle eastern". Also, with this classification someone from Brazil or Mexico is also American, since they live in one of the Americas, and you seem to prefer continental or regional denominations rather than ones based on state.

But technicalities aside - I am from Poland. Country which has every reason to hate Germans the most. Yet my opinion of Germans is that they are incredibly polite, worried to be perceived as even a little bit racist, and the part about border crossings is completely made up. Even before the Schoengen zone was opened, if you were stopped at the German border, sure, they could disassemble half of your car - but then they would put everything back together exactly as it was, and they would apologise for taking your time. Compared to the Belorussian, Ukrainian or Russian borders, where you have to be careful to not get shot.

[oakaz]

Do you even ask that to the minorities or you just speak for them?

[lispm]

Sure, crime exist in Germany. Even racism. That's not news.

If you believe there is less racism in the US or that minorities are better off in the US, a visit to Germany could open your eyes.

[oakaz]

Talking to the minorities in Germany could open your eyes.

[lispm]

I live in Germany. I have minorities around me all day. The company I work for has people from Russia, Poland, India, Ukraine, Iran, Turkey, UK, France, ...

[oakaz]

Then ask them honestly instead of talking on behalf of them. Have you seen any documentary about them? They are telling "we were thrown bottles on the street and accused of smelling bad" you know that?

[jcbrand]

What does "fully accepted" mean? Where I live, there are a lot of immigrants and I hear non-native accents all the time. At JS meetups, in shops, trains, offices, all over the place. I'm in Germany and don't speak native-level German, and my impression is that the Germans are very open and tolerant to foreigners.

[qwerta]

It is about long-term live. There is sort of glass-ceiling for emigrants in job promotion. And mostly older people are uncomfortable around people from post-soviet countries.

[brodo]

German road police does also bullie young people in crappy cars alot. And long-haired man. And people with tattoos. If you've living in a country where the police does not do 'random' searches based on stereotypes, please tell me and i'll move there. gg The 'you need to speak without accent to be fully accepted' thing is also clearly wrong. I know lot's of examples for well integrated immigrants who don't speak without an accent and I bet every german who did not grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere does know at least one immigrant from turkey.

[lispm]

I read that the Ferguson police was mostly white. Seems that someone was not fully 'accepted'.

Immigration from eastern europe makes a lot of people in the UK unhappy.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-24924219

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/british-welcome-o...

[IsTom]

Never seen that happen and we drive to visit our futher familiy there every other month.