German unemployment highest since 1930's

[minionofmidas]

Being unemployed in Germany is better than being employed in a larger percentage of the jobs in America.

Obviously I'd rather live in a land of free health care

Don't go to Germany then. We have compulsory healthcare, but not free healthcare.

So, are you saying that people without money, such as the unemployed, are allowed to die in the street? 

Nope. HEalth insurance for the unemployed is covered by unemployment benefits.
People like you, though, would have to pay almost as much as in America for their healthcare.

[Middle-aged Europe]

He will most likely lose to the CDU/CSU in this Fall's election.

And when exactly this fall will be a election held in Germany??? Did I miss something?

[minionofmidas]

I already told him that that's next year...I don't think he's a listener by temperament.

[ATFFL]

Being unemployed in Germany is better than being employed in a larger percentage of the jobs in America.

Obviously I'd rather live in a land of free health care and generous unemployment benefits than in the land of scraping by with 3 WalMart/McDonalds style jobs.

Give up your citizenship then.  Please, you are a disgrace to this country.

Believe me, if I could swap American citizenship for citizenship in almost any Western European country, I would do so eagerly!

Actually, it is insanely easy to do.  Just go to any US consulate and formally renounce your US citizenship. 

You can learn how to become a British citizen here

It is not hard to learn how to gain citizenship in another nation.  If there is another nation you would like to learn about I will gladly help.

What happens when you renounce your citizenship? Does the U.S. kick you out of the country? Where do you go?

You have to give up your US passport and lose any and all other rights and privileges of US citizenship.

You can also never again be a US citizen and would have to apply for a visa to live in the US.  The visa request will very likely be refused.

Opebo:  Looking up the countries you listed.

[Tory]

Don't look those things up. I don't want him in Europe.

[ATFFL]

I suspect it is probably quite difficult to become a citizen of most nations, particularly the good ones like say the Netherlands, Belgium, or the Scandinavian countries.  Please share any information you have about those.

Norway:
$ 6 The King, or anyone he so empowers, may upon application grant nationality to a foreign national provided the applicant:
(1) is not less then 18 years of age,
(2) has resided in this realm during the last seven years,
(3) has shown good conduct, and
(4) does nog have substantial debt in connection with maintenance payments.
An applicant who has previously been a Norwegian nationality may be granted nationality even though he does not fulfil the above conditions. The same applies to an applicant who is marries to a Norwegian national and lives with the spouse, or if other special circumstances make it appear reasonable to grant nationality. The condition mentioned in the first paragraph under subparagraph (2) may be dispensed in other respects as well, provided the applicant is a national of either Denmark, Finland, Iceland or Sweden.
If the applicant under the law of his home state, us unable to surrender his previous nationality without being granted release from same, he will in general be required to produce evidence of such release within one year.If the applicant has unmarried children under 18 years of age, the authority issuing the certificate of nationality shall decide whether is also includes the children.
Sweden:
Becoming a Swedish citizen by application (naturalisation)
Naturalisation means that a person becomes a Swedish citizen by applying for Swedish nationality. If you wish to become a Swedish citizen by application, you must meet the following requirements:
•   You must be able to prove your identity (proof of identity requirement).
•   You must be at least 18 years of age 18 (age requirement).
•   You must have a permanent residence permit. This does not apply to citizens of the Nordic countries. For citizens of other countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), limited residence permits of at least five years’ duration are equated with a Swedish permanent residence permit.
•   You must been living in Sweden for at least five years, or for at least four years if you are stateless or a refugee. If you are a Danish, Finnish, Icelandic or Norwegian citizen, two years will suffice (duration of stay requirement).
•   You must have a clean record in Sweden (good conduct requirement).
When you apply for Swedish citizenship, the Migration Board collects data about you from the enforcement service (debts), the Social Insurance Office (maintenance/alimony debts), the National Police Board (crimes or suspected offences) and the Swedish Security Service (security checks). The Migration Board is the body that considers applications for Swedish citizenship and takes decisions. Applying for Swedish citizenship costs SEK 1,500.
Finland:

A foreigner may acquire Finnish citizenship upon application if his/her identity has been reliably established and he or she
•   is of age (18 years) or married before the age of 18,
•   has resided in Finland long enough before applying for Finnish citizenship,
•   has not committed a punishable act or been placed under a restraining order,
•   has not failed to pay any maintenance or other fees under public law,
•   can provide reliable evidence of his/her means of support, and
•   has a knowledge of Finnish or Swedish or of Finnish sign language.
The granting of Finnish citizenship by application is discretionary. Citizenship can be granted even if some requirements are not met. On the other hand, citizenship can be denied even if all requirements stipulated by law have been met.
Iceland:



DOCUMENTS NEEDED FOR APPLYING FOR AN ICELANDIC CITIZENSHIP:
• Written recommendations from 2 Icelandic citizens.
• A clean criminal record from the Sakaskrá ríkisins.
• Documentation from social services that states the applicant has not accepted social services anytime during the past 2 years. (Does not include child benefits or rent subsidies.)
• A birth certificate.
• Divorce and/or marriage certificates where applicable.
• A mortgage bond if the applicant owns real estate.

The Netherlands:

Naturalisation is the third way for foreign nationals to acquire Dutch nationality. Some former Dutch citizens can apply abroad to have their nationality restored through naturalisation. And foreign nationals who have been married to or in a registered partnership* with a Dutch citizen for at least three years and who live with this partner at the same address may apply abroad for naturalisation. The foreign national may not live in the country of which he/she is a national and in most cases he/she will have to have passed the ‘naturalisation test’ before submitting an application.
Other conditions may be found in the booklet aimed at people seeking to acquire Dutch citizenship abroad ‘Hoe kunt u Nederlander worden in het buitenland’ (only available in Dutch, PDF)



None of my students could find the Belgian policy.

[Jens]

Danish citizenship (nationality)

Under the Danish Constitution, the power to grant Danish citizenship generally lies with the Parliament. It exercises this power by issuing so-called Citizenship Acts on a regular basis. In order to be eligible for Danish citizenship, you must therefore satisfy certain criteria established by the Danish Parliament.

These criteria include a certain knowledge of the Danish language, documented by a certificate issued by a language training centre or other educational establishment.You must also meet certain requirements concerning the duration of your stay in Denmark. Basically, you must have been a continuous resident in Denmark for at least nine years. For stateless citizens and refugees, the required period of residence is only eight years. An applicant that has committed a criminal offence cannot attain Danish citizenship until after a certain period of time. If the offence is very serious, he or she may never become a Danish citizen. Nor can you become a Danish citizen if you have any outstanding balances with public authorities, e.g. overdue (re)payment of certain public benefits, loans, taxes and duties.

You must be at least 18 years of age before you can apply for Danish citizenship. You should submit your application to the police in the police district in which you reside. The police will also tell you how long it usually takes to process an application.

Some citizens may be granted Danish citizenship by declaration. In addition to Danish-born citizens and citizens of the other Nordic countries, this applies to young foreign nationals with no criminal record who have lived in Denmark for at least 10 years. You may obtain further information and an application form at the state county in which you reside.

When you have been granted Danish nationality, you are entitled to hold a Danish passport and to vote and be nominated at national elections.

[Tory]

I already told him that that's next year...I don't think he's a listener by temperament.

I have a question. It's a bit off topic sorry. Which German constituency went for the CDU/CSU by the largest margin? What about the FDP?

[Middle-aged Europe]

I have a question. It's a bit off topic sorry. Which German constituency went for the CDU/CSU by the largest margin? What about the FDP?

In 2002 or generally?

Best results for 2002:
CDU/CSU - 74.6% in Straubing (Bavaria), the margin between the CSU candidate (1st) and the SPD candidate (2nd) was 55.7%. This was the best result for a CDU/CSU candidate and also the largest margin a constituency was won by the CDU/CSU.
FDP - 14.2% in Bonn (Northrhine-Westphalia).

These are the results of the Erststimmen (for the direct candidate in the constituency) and not the Zweitstimmen (for a party´s state list).

The CDU/CSU´s and FDP´s best results according to the Zweitstimmen:
CDU/CSU - 72.8% in Rottal-Inn (Bavaria).
FDP - 12.4% in Rhein-Sieg-Kreis II (Northrhine-Westphalia).

The FDP hasn´t won a constituency since 1990 and I found the CSU´s largest margin only for the Erstsimmten now.

[Tory]

Thanks, appreciate it.

[minionofmidas]

The FDP hasn´t won a constituency since 1990

...and only one since the mid-1950's.

[Tory]

The FDP hasn´t won a constituency since 1990

...and only one since the mid-1950's.

On electionworld.org it says they hold 47 seats. I assume this means I need some schooling on the German election system.

[minionofmidas]

Yes.

[Tory]

So...........how do you get seats if you don't win them?

[minionofmidas]

Short answer:
The same way the Tories got seats in the Scottish Parliament in 1999 without winning any constituencies.

Long answer:
Every voter has two votes, Erststimme and Zweitstimme. Zweitstimme is much the more important one. Seats in parliament are awarded to parties proportionally based on their share of Zweitstimmen. All parties which poll over 5% get seats.
Erststimmen are usually only important in determining who exactly gets to represent the parties. The country is divided into 299 constituencies (there are supposed to be 598 seats in parliament). Erststimmen are votes for individual candidates, affiliated to the parties, in these constituencies. Except for Halle an der Saale in 1990, the FDP hasn't won any of these since the 1950's. Until 2002, the Greens had never won any of these. That's what OldEurope and me were referring to.
I said "usually" and "supposed to" because a quirk in the election law leads to CDU and/or SPD usually getting a few extra seats that increase the size of parliament.

[Tory]

Thanks, I'm thankful for the Westminster system.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Or for an even longer explanation (in English) ;-):
http://www.wahlrecht.de/english/bundestag.htm

[Tory]

Thanks for that site. I was browsing it and I came upon these opinion polls:

http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/index.htm

It looks to me as if the SPD is in bad shape, not resurgant as I've been told.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Thanks for that site. I was browsing it and I came upon these opinion polls:

http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/index.htm

It looks to me as if the SPD is in bad shape, not resurgant as I've been told.

Eh, yes, but a) the SPD was in even worse shape a few months ago and b) we have coalition governments here, so you have to add the numbers of the SPD and the Greens respectively the CDU/CSU and the FDP.

Take the latest poll results on this site for example (Infratest-dimap):
CDU/CSU (39%) + FDP (7%) = 46%
SPD (32%) + Greens (11%) = 43%

So, the margin between the government and the opposition is only 3%.

[minionofmidas]

You should see polls from last spring, then. These are actually the first polls in ages to show SPD+Greens outpoll CDU+CSU+FDP.
It's highly unusual for a government to be ahead in the polls midterm in Germany. Helmut Kohl was usually trailing during his term in office, too.
Oh, and ignore any Allensbach "poll".

Old Europe was faster than me.

[Tory]

What's wrong with Allensbach?

[Middle-aged Europe]

You should see polls from last spring, then. These are actually the first polls in ages to show SPD+Greens outpoll CDU+CSU+FDP.

Right. And I just noticed that by clicking on the institute´s name you can see the poll history.

According to Infratest-dimap for example, the CDU/CSU was polling at 48% and the SPD at 26% in January 2004. So, in the last 13 months the CDU/CSU dropped by nine points, while the SPD increased their poll numbers by six points.

[minionofmidas]

What's wrong with Allensbach?

They got strong ties to the CDU, but that in itself is not a problem. Forsa's got SPD ties.

They only ever do personal interviews, no phone polls. I'm not sure whether that's a bad thing actually, but it may be if taken together with the fact that everyone knows their political affiliation (people tend to attempt to please their interviewer, in personal interviews more so than in phone interviews. Still, beats any internet poll.)

They've been having...er...problems with their weighting formula over the last few years. Especially, they have tended to grotesquely overrepresent the FDP.

They have at times been doing push polls, to be released at tactically well-suited points in time. This was 10-15 years back, though.

They did get the 1998 Bundestag elections almost exactly spot on, I have to grant them that. Their weighting troubles began after that. They were far off in 2002.

[Tender Branson]

This number is now down to the lowest level in 12 years - reaching 3.7 Mio unemployed in July 2007. The nationally defined unemployment rate was 8.9% in July, the internationally more comparable rate (ILO-Rate) is down to a low of 6.3% (compared with the July rate of 4.6% in the US).

If the positive economic climate continues in Germany over the next 2 years it could eventually go down as low as about 3 Mio. unemployed or about 5% (ILO-Definition), comparable with the US rate. But unemployment in the Eastern German states is still double that of Western German states. While the unemployment rate in West Germany is now comparable with that of the US, that can´t be said about East Germany yet ...



That would basically mean that Germany reduced its unemploment from over 5 Mio. to 3 Mio. in about 4 years, or 40%.

Also, the number of employed people reached a new high in July 2007, about to hit the 40 Mio. barrier for the first time.

Graphic:

Blue line = total persons employed
Red line = total number of registered unemployed persons

[Tender Branson]

This number is now down to the lowest level in 12 years - reaching 3.7 Mio unemployed in July 2007. The nationally defined unemployment rate was 8.9% in July, the internationally more comparable rate (ILO-Rate) is down to a low of 6.3% (compared with the July rate of 4.6% in the US).

Germany's unemployment rate for October dropped below the 3.5 million mark for the first time in more than a decade, the government's labor agency said Tuesday.

Some 3.43 million Germans were without jobs in October, 110,000 fewer than in September, driven by the seasonal autumn upswing in the job market and the nation's overall economic improvement, the Federal Labor Agency said in a statement.

The unadjusted jobless rate was 8.2 percent, the agency said, compared with 8.4 percent in September.

Compared with last October, some 650,000 fewer people were out of work, the agency said.

"The positive development in the unemployment figures is attributed to the pick up in the economy," the agency said in a statement.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8SJFUTO0.htm

Plus:

One tenth of 1 percent may sound like a tiny amount. But the figure, calculated by officials at Germany's Finance Ministry, signifies a big step for their boss, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück, and for the entire country. It means that the federal government, the federal states, municipalities and the social insurance system will achieve a surplus this year amounting to 0.1 percent of Germany's gross domestic product (GDP).

Put simply, in terms of annual economic output, the amount of money the nation takes in this year will exceed the amount of money it spends by 0.1 percent, or about €2.5 billion ($3.6 billion).

This hasn't happened in a long time. Aside from a brief surplus in the former West Germany back in 1989, for the past four decades Germany's federal and state finance ministers have consistently borrowed funds to balance their budgets. The country has built up a mountain of debt that has reached the enormous sum of €1.5 trillion.

That process has now come to a halt. And Steinbrück's experts expect the surplus to continue growing: to 0.2 percent in 2008, 0.5 percent in 2009, 1 percent in 2010 and 1.5 percent in 2011. This, at least, is what emerges from the preliminary work on Germany's annual stability program -- a sort of accountability report for the federal government on the condition of government finances -- which Steinbrück will be required to submit to the European Commission in Brussels in December.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,514366,00.html