Quote Originally Posted by Rhyfelwyr View Post
Thoughts?
Looking at the statements from Merkel and Seehofer you should keep the current polls in mind.

Our current administration (Conservatives + Liberals - hope that combination does not confuse our US patrons ) is not looking very good in the polls, Socialists and Greens (especially the latter) are gaining ground again - so CDU and FDP are desperate for a topic that ight help them to recover.
Immigration is a welcome and classic topic for the CDU/CSU to turn to when the hits the fan. Not surprising at all that they try to utilize the current rochus after Sarrazin published his book to gain a couple of percentage points.

anger in Germany about high unemployment
That statement strikes me as very odd (and somewhat uninformed) considering the current unemployment statistics and the trend.

NB: I would agree that learning the language is the minimum prerequisite when immigrating to another country - if you are not willing to take that step it tells a lot about the willingness to integrate. Nevertheless, the current discussion in Germany is too much about trying to get some easy points in the polls that about actually doing something constructive and tangible - hopefully this will change again.