Violence in outdoor pools – especially in Berlin – has been an integral part of summer days for more than 10 years. These are not isolated cases. The violence is an expression of failed integration.

Take concepts of masculinity, aggressiveness, testosterone-driven masculinity and patriarchal structures and mix them with inferiority complexes through cultural upbringing methods that suppress weakness, prevent individuality and force children to defend their injured honor – using violence if necessary. The result is an explosive mixture that we regularly get a taste of in Berlin’s swimming pools. In the future we will feel these even more.

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Successful integration cannot only be measured using the formula “language plus work minus crime”. There is more to integration. It is primarily an obligation on the part of the immigrants. If you want to live here, if you want to find a home here, you have to internalize the values ​​of the Basic Law and see them as an opportunity for yourself and your family. This includes reflecting on your own values, questioning them and being open to accepting the new society and its basic values ​​as an opportunity. First and foremost, this requires time, openness and healthy curiosity. Time is the basic requirement for encounters, for exploration, for an emotional understanding of this new society into which one would like to integrate. In return, the majority of society is required to give these people emotional access and to make concrete offers.

However, there are people among migrants and refugees who do not want this integration at all. These people reject the values ​​of this society as immoral. You have an entitlement mentality. Not only do they think they can be firmly convinced that the religious and cultural values ​​they have brought with them are the only right ones. In particular, they completely reject equality between men and women. They reject the right to sexual self-development, especially for women, but also for homosexuals, as well as freedom of expression when it comes to their religion. Of course, they act out the anti-Semitic images they brought with them, sometimes violently. It is precisely here, in this ballast, that the cornerstone for a subsequent spiral of violence lies.

When I came to Germany back then, I was very overwhelmed with a lot of things here. A lot was new and unknown, sometimes even strange for me. Nevertheless, I had respect for the country that took me in. I wanted to learn the language quickly, was aware of my privilege and was therefore very afraid of losing it with even the smallest misstep. I wouldn’t even have dared to cross the street when it was red, so I wouldn’t have any problems with the immigration authorities. I was and still am very grateful to have been given a new opportunity here. Because integration is lifelong learning and reflection.

Also read: Several incidents across Germany – outdoor pools no longer safe due to violence? Operators fight back and rely on control

Incidentally, this does not mean that you have to fulfill certain German clichés. I don’t necessarily have to go for a walk at the weekend and regard my after-work beer as sacred, it’s not at all about giving up one’s own culture, tradition or religion for another. It is simply a matter of adhering to the basic rules of an open and democratic society. This requires openness to encounter this society.

And foresight to see that those who ignore these rules are doing their part to destroy the peace (which may have been the catalyst for immigration). Why should you turn a place you actually want to live in into an unsafe, ugly, intolerant or even violent non-place? From a comparatively small group of refugees, these thoughts only seem to elicit a shrug. They lack exactly the respect that is needed for good social cohesion. Why?

The way in which some men who have only been in Germany for a short time behave towards the police never ceases to amaze me. The behavior is symptomatic of the fact that officials, the justice system and society as a whole are perceived as weak, despicable, but also inconsistent. Because as a democracy we are designed to treat all people fairly and equally, the absence of an authoritarian demeanor can lead to conflict. Logically, because: in patriarchal structures, the more powerful wins, not the more just.

Also read: “I’m angry and upset” – Family threatens deportation to brutal father: How I want to save my student Marie

So what happens to people who come from states where the police, father, religion and even teachers are authoritarian and violence is used to frighten citizens, children or students? States where the police can arrest anyone without reason, teachers and fathers expect blind obedience, and any deviation is punished with physical violence? How do these people react when they suddenly come to a country like Germany, which functions democratically, where people also get a second and third chance – which is actually a good thing? Again and again these positive qualities are perceived as weaknesses. And weakness can easily be exploited, according to the motto: the police can’t do anything to me, society can’t do anything to me. Even if I get caught doing something, hardly anything happens to me – if at all.

The current figures quoted by WELT from the current situation report by the Federal Criminal Police Office on “Crime in the context of immigration” support this impression: in most cases of violent acts between Germans and immigrants, the latter are the perpetrators. Compared to more than 40,000 German victims for whom an immigrant was identified as a suspect, the situation is reversed in only a quarter of the cases. The number of (attempted) cases of murder and manslaughter is also reflected: More than three times as often, Germans are the victims and immigrants the perpetrators. And precisely this tendency to want to “solve” conflicts with violence has its roots in parenting at home.

Many of these people confuse respect with obedience. This is how officialdom, the police, politics and families are structured in patriarchal societies. However, when families arrive in societies in which a completely different concept is pursued that demands much more personal responsibility, then the enforcement of obedience – mostly in the form of punishment – can only take place in the private sphere and the last possible authority of the parents and especially the fathers. Where else could this authority be lived out?

Here we come to another important aspect that needs to be considered. In my work with young people, violence in their upbringing plays a huge role. Unfortunately, psychological violence is not uncommon in families where obedience is seen as the most important educational goal. This often prevents individual development, because the children only have to define themselves through the collective and subordinate themselves accordingly. They quickly learn that in this structure they must show obedience to those above them in the family and social pyramid. According to the motto “Bend up, kick down”. Being systematically suppressed creates inferiority complexes, which in turn have to be compensated for by violent outbursts and toxic masculinity.

And where is this happening? On the street, at school, when encountering the police or at outdoor pools. The very same boys who aren’t even allowed to look their father in the eye while he puts them down at home then act out ruthless and powerful outside to hide their own vulnerabilities from their peers. It is a sad spiral of violence that can only be broken through successful integration and the teaching of new values, educational methods and the development of a self-determined, reflected identity.

Anyone who sees the opportunities they are given in this country not as a chance to change, but as a license to carry on as before, and who despises this country, finds it weak or thinks it is morally inferior, will not be able to to integrate into the local democracy.

The solution to this problem is certainly not to send police officers into the streets with batons to take back their authority. This society has fought for too long to abolish precisely such conditions. But at the same time, police officers, teachers and authorities in outdoor pools also need more support – from politics, society and above all from the judiciary. It must be possible within the democratic space to prosecute such people and punish them accordingly. But what do we do? Instead, we hire problematic imams to ensure calm. We try to outsource the problem, according to the motto: the main thing is not to deal with it, just suppress it, ignore it and hope that it might not be an issue next year. No plan, no strategy, no concept.

If all this knowledge is dismissed as racist, if one follows ideologies that dismiss all the phenomena just described as a pure reaction to discrimination, or only look for the reasons for violence in socio-economic conditions. Or if you try to scientifically justify that an increasing number of conflicts are also an all the more indication of a functioning integration.

If we don’t even trust these people to be responsible for their own actions, then we incapacitate them and prevent real and honest debates about the cultural causes. If we had invested only half as much energy looking for solutions instead of obscuring the problem, we would be much further today.…