CVK
(Thanks to Anthony Yuen for this tip!) This is a heartening story. As evidenced by the recent riots in Paris, many European countries are struggling to adapt to the ever-increasing immigrant populations. Of course, the changing demographics bring up many questions of identity, authenticity and legitimacy, i.e. what makes you German? Just your citizenship? Or your place of birth? The languages you speak? Or is it your race?

A new soap opera in Germany is trying to make it a little less scary to talk about these issues. The show features a blended family: part German, part Turkish. Hilarity of course, ensues:

Doris Schneider, an anti-disciplinarian German therapist and mother of two, falls in love with Turkish policeman Metin Öztürk, a father of two as well. To the absolute horror of the children from both sides of the cultural divide, Doris (played by Anna Stieblich) and Metin (Adnan Maral) decide to move in with each other and conduct a risky, cross-cultural family merger.

As you know, at MMW we’re big believers in the power of media. Sad as it may be, many people take their cues from the media as to what’s acceptable and what’s not. For German TV to be showing an interracial and intercultural family on TV is definitely a sign of progress:

German TV channels are not particularly interested in targeting their programs for the Turkish audience since Turks in Germany spend half of their television time watching Turkish channels via satellite dishes… ”That is probably because they do not feel they are being addressed by German television,” Mangold said. “Turkish for Beginners,” however, offers a humorous and a long overdue peek into multicultural Germany without trying to be too controversial.