Catherwood LibraryILR School

Although relations between native Germans and the country's 2.4 million Turkish guest workers have been anything but smooth in the decade following Germany's reunification, Turkish business leaders in Germany voiced their concerns yesterday that last month's terrorist attacks in the U.S. have caused increased xenophobia. Largely concentrated in ethnic neighborhoods, Turks have been easy targets for many East German youths who turned to growing right-wing, racist, and neo-Nazi groups as the guaranteed financial security of the former-DDR was dismantled and the promises of jobs created by a new capitalist economy never materialized. Since the September 11 high-jackings in the U.S., Turkish retailers have experienced a dramatic decline in sales that some feel cannot be attributed solely to the overall slowdown the German economy is experiencing.