Saturday 1 September 2018

Jenny Hill in Chemnitz


From this morning's Today, here's Jenny Hill returning to her recurring theme that "there is a bit of a gap between the reality on the ground when it comes to migration and the political view of migration":


NICK ROBINSON: First let's talk to Jenny Hill. Our correspondent is in the city of Chemnitz. Jenny, let's look at the figures first of all. The AfD are able to point to figures, they say, that show an increase in violent crime and also, they say, an increase in crime carried out by migrants. Is that the whole picture? 
JENNY HILL: No, it's not. In fact Germany is currently the safest it's been in 25 years. Overall crime was down by well over 9% in 2017, and violent crime down by 2.4%. I'm looking at police statistics here. Was she right to say that historically there's been a link between migration and rising crime? Well, yes. If you look at 2015-2016, during the height of the migrant crisis when hundreds of thousands of people came into this country, yes, crime did rise, and so did violent crime. It is worth pointing out that a lot of the rise in overall crime during those years was fuelled by, for example, illegal entry of the country, and people getting on public transport not paying for tickets, using stolen cards and so on. If you want to look specifically at violent crime during those years - and let me again emphasise these are for 2015-2016. It's a very different picture today - one particular study looked at one German state where researchers found that 90% of a rise in violent crime was due to young male migrants. Should the public have been concerned? Well, a third of the victims of those violent crimes were other migrants. In the cases of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter 90% of the victims were other migrants. So the researchers say you've got to look at the societal conditions here. You've got a lot of young men - and regardless of nationality young men are more likely as a group to commit crime - put in an asylum-seeking, asylum seekers' home together where there are a lot of fights, a lot of violence, and that's why you do see a bit of a spike here... 
NICK ROBINSON: The other issue for those protesters is not just the crime rate but the claim that people who could and should be deported are NOT being deported. It was one of the subjects of the row within the coalition, wasn't it, after the election, and this particular case raises it again? 
JENNY HILL: Yeah, and it has been a concern to the authorities and certainly there are concerns around that. The authorities have tried to speed up deportations but the figures aren't particularly high, of course. So, yes, there are concerns around that. I think what's also worth pointing out though is that there is a bit of a gap between the reality on the ground when it comes to migration and the political view of migration. The number of people coming into this country is now far, far smaller than it was back in 2015-2016. There are bits of evidence which suggest that integration is starting to work. It's certainly by no means perfect. One in four migrants, they reckon, now has a job for example. But migration continues to be a highly charged political theme and, of course, the far at the base of all that what's behind a lot of protests here in Chemnitz is the thought that it might all happen again. Angela Merkel has promised there won't be a repeat of 2015 but people don't necessarily believe her. 
NICK ROBINSON: Brief word. On the streets of Chemnitz tonight there won't just see protesters against migrants. We'll also see anti-Nazi protesters as well. 
JENNY HILL: That's right, and police are expecting well over 10,000 protesters. You're quite right. AfD will be on the street, Pegida and far-right groups, but so are counter-demonstrators. Police preparing for the worst. They've got water cannon at the ready, police horses at the ready. Let's wait and see what happens. 
NICK ROBINSON: Jenny Hill in Chemnitz. Thank you for joining us.

2 comments:

  1. Unfortunately I had to listen to that Saturday morning, and it was quite a bilious thing to take in so early in the day...So many lies, but so many clever lies...so you know both Robinson and Hill are putting in a hell of a lot of effort.

    Let's keep it simple:

    "You've got a lot of young men..." says Jenny, like she educating us...

    Oh, right...now you tell us BBC! It was one of the main complaints here and elsewhere back in 2015 that the BBC constantly projected an image of families with young children on the migrant trail to Germany and elsewhere. We could all see with our own eyes, when allowed, that the people on the trail were 80-90% young men, but no BBC reporter to my recollection ever made that clear. Most of the camera work was dedicated to giving an impression of families with young children on the move.

    If the BBC is going to give political labels to segments of demonstrators why don't they do the same on the other side. In this country they never say "A demonstration with a large proportion of SWP members" - even though you can see SWP emblazoned on 90% of the placards! And in terms of Germany they don't say "Counter demonstrators, most of whom are from Far Left groups who want to eliminate all borders".

    BTW Nick Robinson also interviewed a German stooge politician who defended the 2015 Mad Merkel Migrant decision. Robinson was at his most obsequious and took the politician at his word, that "there was no alternative". BS. Of course there was an alternative, as we saw once Turkey had been bribed enough, they switched off the tap.

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  2. Or simply copy Australia and turn fake refugee boats back.

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