Paraguay is seeing a surge in German migrants, fleeing Islamic migrants in their own country and onerous coronavirus restrictions.
“We have a problem in Germany with Muslims,” said one of the exiles, adding: “Islam and vaccinations are big, big problems in this world.”
The German, named as Michael Schwartz and said to have arrived in Paraguay in November 2021, told the BBC that he had avoided taking coronavirus vaccinations — which the German health minister wants to make compulsory, although there is resistance to the policy in the federal legislature — because there are “many questions” around them, suggesting that “many Paraguayans” share his stance.
Stephan Hausen, another German emigrée who arrived in Paraguay with his family in the same month as Schwartz, raised similar concerns, in particular about “continuous” lockdowns which had left him “dumbfounded”.
“That was the final straw,” he said — although like Schwartz he also expressed concerns about Islamic migration to Germany.
“I think we should have more regulated migration [to Germany],” said Hausen’s wife, Theresa, suggesting that Berlin should cap the number of migrants allowed into the country and plan accordingly.
“We need to have a say in this!” she continued, perhaps alluding to the fact that notionally conservative former chancellor Angela Merkel, who opened the proverbial floodgates in 2015, did not campaign on a platform of mass migration — indeed, she declared that multiculturalism had “utterly failed” in 2010.
“Paraguay, in our experience, is a very Christian country, and we come from a Christian culture,” added her husband.
“We’ve got to know a great many people here and we’re on the same wavelength. In Germany it can’t happen like this, because in general the Muslims act so provocatively,” he said.
A pensive-looking Theresa appeared to try and dissuade him from continuing in this vein with a nervous “my dear”, prompting Stephan to tell his BBC interviewer: “Maybe this shouldn’t be filmed. It sounds a bit too harsh. We don’t want that.”
The publicly-funded British broadcaster aired the comments regardless.
A woman given the pseudonym “Hana” who helps Germans settle in Paraguay was also hesitant to express herself openly, speaking to the BBC only on the condition that they did not show her face or use her real name.
She claimed that the emigrants “want to protect their children”, saying that, in Germany, girls now “get raped, openly harassed in public spaces, because they are not wearing the [Islamic] veil.”
“A German woman is worth nothing to them,” she alleged, prompting her BBC interviewer to ask if she had “any evidence” to back up her claims.
“No, these are just my people who tell me that,” Hana responded, denying that she was racist and saying the only thing that mattered to her was having respect for the mainstream culture.