As Cologne reels from the New Year's Eve violence against women, it's not just ethnic Germans who worry -- many Turkish migrants also fear crime and tell their host country: don't blame us. Some worry that Germany's record migrant influx is reigniting troubles that Cologne -- a pioneer city in multicultural life, with large-scale labour migration since the 1960s -- thought it had long left behind.
Mihriban Findik, a 40-year-old Kurdish woman from Turkey who has lived in Germany for 23 years, said the violence –- in which men described as North African- and Arab-looking groped and robbed hundreds of women -- was no surprise to her, as a single mother working in a tobacco shop in the low-income district of Kalk. Findik said she often felt vulnerable: "Some come from countries where women are covered and they see women in skirts and go crazy. It has got worse. I didn't used to be scared, but now I am."
Many long-established migrants from Turkey say they are as much victims of crime as the majority population. A Turkish kiosk owner fumed that "the police see everything and do nothing. They have abandoned us." He said he wasn't worried about the new refugees from Syria and other war zones, but thuggish groups from some North African countries who arrived years ago via EU countries.
North of Cologne lies Chorweiler, a district of 1970s era public housing tower blocks, home to over 100 nationalities, where many balconies have satellite dishes to receive foreign language TV. One resident, Ijaz Khan, 29, born in Germany to Pakistani parents, said he had felt a darkening mood since New Year's Eve, especially as he commutes to his hotel barkeeper job downtown. Having spent a decade of his childhood in Pakistan, he said he wasn't surprised that faraway conflicts would eventually come to haunt Europe.
As global refugee flows have risen sharply, he voiced fears that his German home city now could backslide on past gains in cultural diversity and tolerance. Yet, he said he couldn't blame people for feeling insecure, especially at the central railway station, where there are drug dealers and 'dancers' -- pickpockets who con passers-by with sing-song and jovial hugs and steal their wallets.
