JLH has translated an interview with Thilo Sarrazin that was published in Germany last month. The translator includes this introductory note:

He may be less than well informed about the US-Mexican border, but he is admirably steadfast in concentrating on the good of his own people, and not being distracted by the bleeding heart-arguments from the reporters.

Thilo Sarrazin (SPD) is a former member of the executive board of the Bundesbank, previously senator of finance for Berlin, and was removed from all these affiliations after publication of his book Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany Is Abolishing Itself), which was followed by Europa braucht den Euro nicht (Europe Does Not Need The Euro).

The translated interview from Die Zeit:

Thilo Sarrazin: “You Are Welcome to Ask Me What I Would Do if I Were Head of Frontex”[1]

Interview with Thilo Sarrazin by Tina Hildebrandt and Heinrich Wefing

September 13, 2015

Die Zeit: Mr. Sarrazin, what thoughts go through your mind when you see pictures of refugees in Europe?

Thilo Sarrazin: I do not see these pictures because I watch absolutely no news. The image of a person in dire straits is always bad — whether in Cambodia or on a Sooth Sea Island. But I try not to be influenced by coincidental media images.

Die Zeit: The difference between a person in need in Cambodia and a person in Budapest, Vienna or Munich is that he is closer to us and we can do something for him. Does that imply responsibility?

Thilo Sarrazin: People arriving in Vienna now are not in need, but in security. Life and limb are not threatened. They are fed and treated medically.

Die Zeit: They come to Germany to be safe, because before they were in distress.

Thilo Sarrazin: If they came by way of the Balkans, they started out in secure northern Iraq or in secure Turkey. They are already out of the dangers of war. If they decide to go to Germany, there are other reasons. It is just more pleasant to be a refugee in Hannover than in Erbil.

Die Zeit: Do you fear the immigration of these people?

Thilo Sarrazin: Everything I wrote in Germany Abolishes Itself has not only been confirmed, but is far worse.

Die Zeit: For example?

Thilo Sarrazin: The [indigenous] birth rate continues to fall.[2]

Die Zeit: The most recent figures contradict that.

Thilo Sarrazin: Those are small fluctuations in the trend — insignificant. The radicalization of Islam proceeds, the widening gap in educational achievement, the transformation of city districts — all continue unabated. All of that will be amplified by immigration. So I am naturally concerned.

Die Zeit: If the experience with integration in Germany is as disastrous as you say, how do you explain the population’s overwhelming readiness to help?

Thilo Sarrazin: First of all, it is good that people help other people. But the question of readiness to help must be separated from the question of what is right for our state and our society in the long run.

Die Zeit: What would be right in the long run?